Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you've never heard this album then this remaster is the best way to hear it. It's clean, has good separation and features two bonus tracks recorded by John and Eric. Now for the anorak, trainspotting details of WHY this album is important. Quite simply, as far as tone, technique and temperament, Eric Clapton at this time was revolutionary. In the guitar world there are two periods; BB (Before "Bluesbreakers") and AB (After "Bluesbreakers"). First, tone. NO ONE had this kind of overdriven, aggressive and harmonically rich sound before 1966. Literally, what we associate with rock/blues guitar sound for the last 35 years can be traced back to the tones Clapton was getting in '66. Second, technique. Imagine yourself as young person in England at this time and you've discovered the great American blues guitarists like B.B. and Freddie King but figure you will never see them unless you go to America. Then you hear about AN ENGLISHMAN your age who can play that way, plus add something of his own. Third, temperament. Eric Clapton was able at young age to both tap into a vastly different world (that of the African-American middle aged bluesman)and supply his own revolutionary ideas about how the elecrtic guitar could be played. Revolutionary is right. People forget about that all the time but in 1966 Clapton changed everything. It is a tribute to his basic sanity after all these years and personal problems that he DIDN'T try and continually live up to that standard. He did other things. Most musicians never have the opportunity to revo- lutionize anything and very very few can do it more than once. Whenever anyone looks disparagingly on Eric Clapton's career, and he had some low points it's true, all I have to say is "Bluesbreakers".