John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1965-1966

First off, note that this album is VERY similar to one I've already posted at this blog. I must admit I'm not a fan of John Mayall's vocals. However, his 1960s Bluesbreakers backing bands included a series of great lead guitarists, including Eric Clapton. I previously posted a few albums of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers when Clapton was the guitarist, including a BBC album. This is basically the exact same thing, except it has five songs in the middle from a time when Clapton wasn't in the band. It's also the first of three albums focusing on Mayall and the Bluesbreakers performing for the BBC in 1960s.

So why are there some songs in the middle here without Clapton? Clapton was a member of the band for their first BBC session, which consists of the first four songs here. But then Clapton semi-quit the Bluesbreakers for the month of October 1965, and that happened to be when another BBC session took place. A guitarist by the name of Jeff Kribit from the little-known Dr. K's Blues Band took Clapton's place for the session. That session makes up tracks five through nine. Then Clapton rejoined the band, so the rest of the songs here feature him. 

This album ends when Clapton left the band for good in 1966. The next volume in this BBC series starts in 1967, with future Fleetwood Mac star Peter Green as the lead guitarist.

In 2021, a John Mayall box set called "First Generation" was released. All of the songs here come from that. The sound quality of the songs are generally excellent. However, I noticed a problem. As I said, I'm not a fan of Mayall's singing. Many of the songs had his vocals rather low in the mix. Even though I don't like his singing much, it should at least be mixed correctly, so I boosted his vocals relative to the instruments for all the songs with "[Edit]" in their titles. Additionally, a couple of those songs may have had the additional problem of BBC DJs talking over some of the music. But if so, I don't remember which ones. However, if that was the case, I removed the talking using the X-Minus audio editing program.

01 Crawling Up a Hill [Edit] (Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton)
02 Heartache [Edit] (Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton)
03 Crocodile Walk [Edit] (Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton)
04 Bye Bye Bird [Edit] (Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton)
05 I'm Your Witchdoctor (John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers with Jeff Kribit)
06 Cheatin' Woman (John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers with Jeff Kribit)
07 Big Time Playboy (John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers with Jeff Kribit)
08 Parchman Farm [Edit] (John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers with Jeff Kribit)
09 Nowhere to Run (John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers with Jeff Kribit)
10 Little Girl [Edit] (Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton)
11 Hideaway [Instrumental] (Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton)
12 Tears in My Eyes [Edit] (Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton)
13 Parchman Farm [Edit] (Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton)
14 Burning My Fingers [Burned My Fingers] [Edit] (Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton)
15 All Your Love [Edit] (Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton)
16 Steppin' Out [Instrumental] (Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton)
17 On Top of the World [Edit] (Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton)
18 Key to Love [Edit] (Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693361/JOHNMYLL1965-1966_BBSssonsVlum1_atse.zip.html

There aren't many color photos of Clapton as a part of the Bluesbreakers. However, a photo session was done for the cover of their only studio album, often known as the "Beano" album for the comic that Clapton was reading for the cover photo. This photo is an outtake from that same photo session.