Your Five Favorite British Blues Albums

I've never seen a blues thread with so many albums listed that are nowhere
near the realm of actual blues music.
Blues influenced rock maybe, but then again, an awful lot of rock music is just that.

 

.. and that is British Blues !

 

Cream -- Wheels of Fire
Rory Gallagher -- Irish Tour '74

and I think "Greatest Hits" albums are a cheat, but here I am a-cheatin'

Animals - Best of the
Yardbirds - Having a Rave Up with (U.S. comp)

my Fave of 'em all!

Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green era) --“Greatest Hits” (UK red cover, CBS)

.

 

The British Blues Boom. According to The Blues magazine, issue #1, 2012, the Top 20 British Blues albums between 1960-1966 were by Chris Barber, Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, The Downliners Sect, Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, The Animals, Long John Baldry & The Hoochie Coochie Men, The Graham Bond Organisation, The Spencer Davis Group, The Pretty Things, Them, Sonny Boy Williamson & The Yardbirds, John Mayall Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, Cream, The Artwoods, and a couple of compilation LPs.

Personally, I'd have thought that Georgie Fame was more R&B than blues, and Cream, Pretty Things, Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, were more "Blues influenced rock," but if a blues magazine calls them 'blues,' I can't argue with that.

 

I almost listed Graham Bond Organisation's "Sound of '65" l.p. ,
but then I'd have had to have listed Fleetwood Mac, making a choice of only five l.p.s frustratingly impossible !

 

I win!

Four of the five on my list were not listed a/o your post!


Rory Gallagher -- Irish Tour '74

Animals - Best of the
Yardbirds - Having a Rave Up with (U.S. comp)
Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green era) --“Greatest Hits” (UK red cover, CBS)

Though admittedly the last three of them are comps, which is a bit o' a cheat.

.

 

I saw Duster Bennett (R.I.P.) at Filmore West in around 1971 or so. What a set- fantastic!

 

I had hoped (but it looks like failed) to indicate that by British Blues I meant something that evolved from that great form of American music, created by blacks in America... the real deal Blues! Sorry I didn't make that more clear.

 

Mac
Cream
Mayall
Ten Years After
Rory Gallagher

Pick albums to taste.

 

John Mayall: Turning point
John Mayall: A hard road
Fleetwood mac: first LP
Jeff Beck: Truth
Cream : Fresh cream

 

I have an outtakes album by Fleetwood mac titled "The original Fleetwood mac" which is dour, dull, formulaic, derivative, depressing and boring.
Stay away from it

 

On the top of my head, my five favorite british blues influenced rock lps from the golden age are :

Savoy Brown - Raw sienna
Fleetwood Mac - Then play on
Taste - On the boards
Steamhammer - Mountains
Ten years after - ssssh

And my top five british heavy blues influenced rock lps are :

Cream - disraeli gears
Led zeppelin - 1
Free - tons of sobs
Chicken shack - Imagination lady
Groundhogs - split

 

John Mayall and Eric Clapton/Beano
Fleetwood Mac/Mr Wonderful
Chicken Shack/OK Ken
Savoy Brown/Blue Matter
and something a little more up to date
Matt Schofield/Live at The Jazz Cafe

 

Oh, alright. These are what I have that would fit your more exacting criteria...…..

Long John Baldry & The Hoochie Coochie Men
Prager, Rye & Hall - All-Star Medicine Show
Super-Duper Blues (Blue Horizon label collection)
The World of Blues Power
The World Of Blues Power Volume 2 (Decca compilations, mostly British artists)

 

It's really just a matter of how one recognises the nomenclature

'Blues' from Britain,
or '
'British Blues'

And it is not just me who differentiates between the two ~ there are numerous references throughout the parlance of ethnomusicology .

 

Closest stuff I really love and am super familiar with...
Derek and the Dominos - Layla
Fleetwood Mac - Then Play On
Zeppelin 1
Sabbath debut
Trower - Twice Removed From Yesterday

 

Under the T&C some people apply to the term British Blues AC/DC would qualify except for that they are an Australian band.
It was also appears the T&C restrict the description to the pre punk rock eras.

 

Awwwright! Thank you for playing. AlmostHeavenVW!

(Cool user name by the way.)

 

Good points both, but remember guys, this is not a university music history course. Just play along and enjoy!

 

Groundhogs - Blues Obituary
V/A - I Asked for Water... She Gave Me Gasoline
Mayall & Clapton - Bluesbreakers
V/A - What’s Shakin’
Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac

I might possibly eject the slightly overrated PGFM for the underrated Taste S/T...

 

Rolling Stones , Now! is the consummate blues album from the Stones

Another vote Blues Breakers(w/Clapton) is the reason for Clapton Is God written on British walls in the mid 60s & Fresh Cream is sound of country blues juiced with Claptons electricity & Jack Bruce and Ginger Bakers unqualified talents...

An awesome sound!

Fleetwood Mac (1968)
Fleetwood Mac Mr. Wonderful (1968)
Although Jeremy Spencer is no where the talent of Peter Green these records are a gas & the band sets a groove unbeatable except by the Rolling Stones

Savoy Brown Lions Share was lead vocalist Dave Walkers swan song with SB but it still has some covers of Howlin Wolf etc...my favorite of the Walker era SB

Ten Years After Recorded Live from 1973.The original 2 LP set remains a favorite of mine from the British Blues era.It is a fine overview of their 67-72 years

 

Is there a sub genre yet for white boy American guitarists/bands that bastardize their own countries heritage?

 

It pains me to question one of the above mentions. Any connection of Rory Gallagher

I've recommend Little George a number of times... I've said it before and I'll say it again; and the premise is proven true according to this record... any cat who can wear a lid like that and own that look of self assuredness has got to have the goods.

 

I'm throwing into the mix in addition to many of the usual suspects listed:

2 top draw blues albums of the British persuasion featuring the guitar of Mick Abrahams...

Blodwyn Pig's - Ahead Rings Out and Jethro Tull's -This Was... and yes I consider This Was to be primarily an album of the British Blues genre.

Another title of Savoy Brown's I would put at the top of their output would be Street Corner Talking.

Another album I would include as one of the best of it's kind that has not been mentioned; although a comp. Duster Burnett's - Bright Lights Big City.

I understand my next mention will be questioned as being solidly in the British Blues genre by any standards and in all honesty an argument contrary to that position would be hard to make. That said; regardless I am adding Them Featuring Van Morrison.

And finally By Long John Baldry - It Ain't Easy. A rarely mentioned classic.

 

I mentioned Rory without putting him in my top 5.
He IS a Blues guitarist but he does not have either an album with enough blues or one where if there is deemed to be enough it would fit into the top 5. Simple!