Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Beano Album - more important than you might think
On another thread I suggested that the July 1966 album Blues Breakers: John Mayall with Eric Clapton (aka The Beano Album) just might be one of the most important British records ever. A bold claim perhaps, but allow me to explain.
To the casual observer it may appear to be just a loose collection of 12 bar blues numbers, but The Beano Album 's massive influence far exceeds the sum of its parts. Firstly, no white guitarist (British or American) had ever played electric blues with the authority and authenticity that Clapton brought to this album (not many black players had, either). By insisting on playing his guitar parts at stage volume in the studio, Eric pushed 60s recording technology to its very limits, sending the VU meters into the red and the white-coated Decca technicians into meltdown. Luckily he had a hip young producer and engineer on hand in the shape of Mike Vernon and Gus Dudgeon who backed him all the way - as, it must said, did his boss John Mayall.
Before long, every group in the land would record like this and Clapton’s sweet, overdriven sound quickly became the holy grail for guitarists the world over. That guitar sound would soon kick-start the entire British blues boom of the late 60s which in turn developed into heavy rock and subsequently heavy metal. No Beano Album, no Led Zeppelin or even no Metallica, perhaps? Should that sound fanciful, let's remember that Edward Van Halen name-drops The Beano Album at every opportunity and actually recorded a tribute to Clapton titled Bluesbreaker on his Star Fleet Project collaboration with Brian May.
The album had some influential fans early on, too. When Chas Chandler was trying to persuade Jimi Hendrix to come to London in late 1966, the deal-breaker was the promise of an introduction to Eric Clapton. The then-unknown Hendrix genuinely wanted to meet the man who had made one of his favourite records, The Beano Album.
Some accuse the 60s white blues bands of exploiting black musicians, but I’d disagree with that. The impact of a bunch of young, good-looking white kids in Carnaby Street clothes playing fierce authentic blues guitar the like of which had never been seen or heard before did more to introduce the music to a mass audience than anything that had gone before. This in turn would benefit an entire generation of black musicians. B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Albert King and a host of others suddenly found themselves escaping the Chitlin' Circuit and playing lucrative gigs in front of wildly appreciative white rock audiences at venues such as the Fillmores (East and West) thanks to this new-found awareness. Black musicians also gained exposure when their songs were covered (and, yes, sometimes stolen) by the new wave of rock bands.
Above all, The Beano Album played a massive part in selling American music back to the Americans, which in turn directly changed the course of rock music in general.
The Beano Album not only had a profound impact on the music itself, but it also prompted major changes to the equipment and technology that made it possible. Along with the Fender Stratocaster, the Gibson Les Paul is without doubt one of the most famous and recognisable guitar models in history. It seems incredible now, but in the late 50s Les Paul sales had slumped and it actually went out of production at the end of the decade. The model was then unavailable for the next eight years. Clapton’s use of a 1960 Les Paul on The Beano Album (and onstage with Mayall and Cream) popularised the instrument again and suddenly every guitarist worthy of the name had to have a Les Paul in order to get that elusive Beano Album sound. Second-hand prices soared and this lead directly to the guitar's reintroduction in 1968.
Similarly, Clapton’s use of Marshall amplifiers, first with Mayall, then Cream, would also have far-reaching implications for the tiny British company about to become a world famous brand name.
The Beano Album - not just a yawn-inducing collection of 12 bar blues after all, then?
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Thanks M*j*
You make a convincing argument for the influence of that album. All those years playing Hideaway in covers bands and I didn't know that about the Les Paul
You've made a good case
for it being a highly influential album.
But is it any good?
I have never heard a note of this album...
... that is all. Never could stand Eric Clapton. The only tune of his I could even tolerate was Badge.
Try it
Well I suggest you give it a go then. His playing changed quite a bit over the years and he's on fire here.
Good post Mojo
It's a classic album and you make a good case for how important it is in the genealogy of that strain of music (which I like a lot, personally). To those who hate Clapton without having heard it I'd say, give it a go. His sound and style changed quite a bit over the years and here he's full of piss and vinegar, with an up front and in your face sound which softened and (some say) weakened in later years. Try this. Listen to Eric's fills, wailing on the brink of feedback behind the vocal before the band changes gear and he show a whole generation of wannabee blues players how it's done. And don't give me BB King blah blah, BB loved Eric and couldn't play like this on on month of Sundays, nor would he want to. Broad tent...
Thanks Twang, most kind
You make some good points.
To those who don't get The Beano Album. It's one of those records that makes no sense at all if you first came to Clapton as the Ferrari-driving, Armani-suited, FM-friendly playboy of the 80s.
Theory
My theory is that people who "hate Clapton" have never heard his early playing, and in fact hate the 80s incarnation. I have some sympathy with them, though I don't hate it - there was something in the water in the 80s and pretty much everything got crap for some reason. Anyway, I digress, I've said before, even if "all" he'd done is the Beano album he'd still be assured a place in the greatest guitarists pantheon.
It's not particularly that.
It's just that, despite being a guitarist and someone who loves guitars and the noise they make, I'm generally not very interested in music that has the guitar as the main focal point. The sound of electric blues, in particular, just doesn't push my happy buttons. I love ancient-black-dude-in-a-suit-with-an-archtop blues, stuff that sounds creaking and full of sin and whiskey. But as soon as you plug it in and drive the amps hard, it loses all its magic, to my ears, and becomes a sound that I'm just not that interested in.
I was too young for the 80s Clapton. My first exposure to him was Unplugged, which I liked at the time. I like Layla, but mostly because it's a great song and a great riff. But electric blues - with a few exceptions - just isn't a sound I like.
That said, I've had a listen to the Beano stuff off the back of this thread, and while I still don't like it particularly, it's a hell of a lot more exciting and dynamic than most of the electric blooooze I've heard. I can appreciate it.
'Blooooze'?
I believe this is the correct technical term:-
The 'Beano' album is ace, though (I got the 2cd 'Deluxe' edition last year). You can certainly tell the likes of Jimmy Page were listening.
Well said
The sort of post that should be an published in the magazine instead of the depths of cyberspace.
Jeez
"No Beano Album, no Led Zeppelin or even no Metallica, perhaps?"
Darn it! I used to love that album and you've only gone and spoiled it for me now...
(Not really). Nice summing up - and it's a decent album too. As well as Clapton at his youngest and fieriest, I've also got a soft spot for Mayall's quavery attempts at blueswailin' on songs like "Have You Heard".
An intro to the blues for me and my big brother - he went on to become a massive blues fan. I, er... got into psychedelia. Ho hum.
True I only became aware of Clapton in the eighties...
... but I couldn't stand Cream either and I did try. Too much to appreciate, not enough to love and I don't have the musical knowledge to admire the technique. I figured if Cream and Derek and the Dominoes didn't appeal, then the Bluesbreakers wouldn't either. Perhaps I'm wrong. I will give it a go later today if its on spotify.
Good for you
FWIW it's my favourite era for Eric. There's something about the atmosphere on that album. Don't get me started on the mono v stereo versions...
Of course it influenced everyone including this young tyro, also from Macclesfield.
All your love by Twangothan
Hey! That's great Twang
Some nice playing there. Is that all you, or is it your band?
Back in the day
It's a band I was in. Me on vocals and lead guitar!
Great stuff
Really enjoyed this track. Some great guitar work.
Fanatastic album..
..Clapton plays with an aggression that he never matched again, even if he still is no match for Greeny..
Well, on foot of that post
I've 'acquired' a copy of that album, and if it's any cop, I will be hotfooting it to my nearest record emporium to pick up a hard copy of it.
Great post, Mojo!
Gulp!
No pressure then!?
If you end up hating it, you do realise my get-out clause will be "you had to be there" don't you?
But, seriously, thanks for your confidence.
No worries, dude...
I've obtained it illegally. There. I've said it. And I'll listen to it - try before you buy, if you will - and if I like it, the record company/engineer/producer/performers will all get their money.
If I think it's utter heft, I'll delete it and there's no harm done, and we'll not speak of it again. :)
(Of course, you should be on a royalty as well, if the anticipated spend is due to your hearty recommendation!)
Agreed - the Beano album is great
But it's only the second best album of the sixties to feature somebody reading a comic on the cover.
The best one is Family's Music In A Doll's House. There's ace drummer Rob Townsend reading the Topper.
EDIT - while I'm here, "Beano" deserves special credit for putting the wonderful DERAM label on the map.
Never heard that before
It was great.I love the violin and sax swirling around the track and the psychedelic tinge throughout.
Thanks for posting.
Further investigation must now occur. Any suggestions where to start?
The second album Family Entertainment
is also ace. There were many line-ups of Family and all were good but this one with Ric Grech (bass/violin) and the splendidly off-rocker Jim King on saxes was the best.
It's not relevant to this thread in the slightest, but this from a later line-up is so good that I have to post it.
Family Entertainment
Side One is just about perfect, I think.
Blimey!
What an amazing vibrato! Wow, that was barely controlled madness but controlled nonetheless. Was that some vibes in there as well?
Fantastic.
Geacher53...
I am the "Official Family Expert" for The Word Blog... I have a BADGE that was sent to me by Messrs E & H which states same.
Now I would recommend the re-jigged compilation "Old Songs, New Songs" as a starter... this contains reworkings of most of their singles from 1968/69, plus choice cuts from their second album, "Family Entertainment". Unfortunately all Ric Grechs toons (Second Generation Woman/ How-Hi-The-Li/ Face In The Cloud) are excluded, as he had been a bad boy and buggered of to join Blind Faith in the interim. What we get is "Observations From A Hill" with the dumped Jim King's vocal erased and Chappo's inserted... plus a rockier version of the ever excellent "Weavers Answer", plus many many more treats... or just jump in at the deep end and buy any of "A Song For Me", "Bandstand","Fearless","Entertainment", "Anyway"... buy them all!
You will not regret it!!!
Trust me, I'm a grocer.
Ps Chappo told me to fuck off once dontchaknow?
Rollin' and tumblin' ain't done me no harm
and I can confirm the assertion that Old Songs, New Songs deserves a place on anyone's CD shelves.
Chappo told everyone in the room to fuck off at several gigs I've attended, by the way.
If this guy
tells you to fuck off,
then you'd better fuck off.
After all if you want to hear him it's not necessary to be in the room. Or the building.
Erratum: Relevance of Family
Bluesbreakers drummer Hughie Flint was the first drummer of The Blues Band. Rob Townsend was (and is) the second.
There is order in the universe. Sigh of relief.
The Manfreds
Manfred Mann are still touring but without their eponymous founder Manfred.
They call themselves The Manfreds these days and use both Paul Jones and Mike D'Abo on vocals.
Last time I saw them they also had Rob Townsend on drums, while original skinsman Mike Hugg played keyboards.
Sorry if it sounds as though I'm weeing on your bonfire, but
it wasn't originally issued on Deram. The original was on the parent Decca label (Decca LK 4804.) The Deram version pictured above is a CD-era reissue.
That's true
Deram was originally Decca's prog/psych/jazz rock offshoot (as Harvest was to EMI, for example) and I've never worked out why it's now become the home for all those back catalogue Decca CDs.
D'oh! I should have known that
1966 is a bit early for Deram isn't it?
I'm only responding to give Deram more publicity.
[Pink Panther theme] De-ram, De-ram, De-ram de-ram de-ram, de-ram de-raaaaam... oh no, it's the intros round thread again...
Sorry to be a pedant
but Deram was launched in 1966 and released 10 singles that year, including the early Cat Stevens' singles.
Although the first Deram albums didn't appear until early 1967.
Fantastic appreciation
mojoworking. I said a few months ago that one of the reasons I love The Word is the way it makes you read about music and artists you wouldn't normally give the time of day to. Your piece does exactly that. I'd forgotten how influential Clapton was.
I remember hearing Hideaway many years ago and in the light of your informative piece it's interesting to compare and contrast what Freddie King does (who wrote it) and what Clapton does:
Freddie King
Eric Clapton
Cheers Bisto
The original version is fine, but Clapton takes it to places Freddie never dreamed of. He turns it inside out and hangs it out to dry. It's a cocky young man's take on a great guitar instrumental.
The King version
sounds quite conservative in comparison. It would be interesting to know what was driving Clapton to be cocky and rebellious. Was it to prove that white men could play the Blues or was it part of the British wave of sticking the finger to The Establishment by not accepting the norms or was he just a cocky sod?
Clapton
He was only 21 when he recorded The Beano Album.
Which more or less explains everything.
Also
...to say his upbringing was strained is an understatement. His mother was 16 and abandoned by his Canadian father, he was brought up by his grand parents believing his mother was his sister. Deal with that as a teenager. He was entitled to feel the blues, and wear Armani later IMHO if he wanted to.
The 'Breakers is best: I love the "The Walk" quotation
and, as I've said on another thread, Hughie Flint is as cool as.
White blues band improves on original version shock.
Kudos to Mayall
who gave so many great young musicians a break.
I also love 'So many Roads' album with the peerless Peter Green. Title track has probably Mayall's greatest vocal as well as some fearsome guitar.
Great post, with excellent insights.
And given what he probably spent his royalties on
he must be the only man who can truthfully say that he converted the "Beano" into porn.
And then his house
in the Hollywood Hills burned down and all his porn went up in smoke.
Later that same year...
....here's the earliest Cream footage (which I'd never seen before today), miming on Freench TV in December 1966: Wrapping Paper and then something from 'Fresh Cream' the title of which escapes me. Eric gets into his Les Paul-verizing at 4:50. Gingers drum miming in the second song is pretty amusing too.
As said above, I'd no iea that Les Pauls weren't produced for most of the 60s. Hats off, as usual, to Moje for his arcane wisdom!
Great stuff Colin
That Les Paul was stolen in the early days of Cream and Clapton moved onto the hand-painted Gibson SG we know and love.
Oh and the second song there was Sweet Wine
Edit:
I've seen Gibson's factory production figures for the period and they were turning out only around 400 Les Paul Standards (of the type used by Clapton) per year between 1957 - 60 when production ended.
So that's around 1200 - 1600 original sunburst Les Pauls in total.
No wonder they sell for around the same price as a house these days!
Nice to see...
...Jack Bruce playing a Fender Bass VI there, too, if I'm not mistaken.
Exactly
It's the same model used by George in the Hey Jude video clip. John and George also take turns using it in the Let It Be movie.
They're such cool instruments.
Nothing sounds quite like a Bass VI.
No wonder, indeed, Moje...
...I understand that Belfast guitar hero Jim Armstrong (from the Mk2 and Mk3 line-ups of Them c.1966-68, the end of the Van Morrison version and the subsequent Kenny McDowell version which toured a lot in the US) sold his late 50s sunburst to someone in Pearl Jam for £35,000 if I remember correctly - certainly, it was a huge sum of money.
Here's Jim doing his thing in 1967:
Brace yourself Colin
A nice 'burst late '50s Les Paul Standard is now well into six figures and the guitar mags are predicting it won't be long before one with a decent provenance breaks the one million US dollar barrier. Many of them were snapped up by Japanese investors in recent years, so the number on the market dwindles all the time.
Remember when Peter Green gave his Fleetwood Mac ‘59 Les Paul Standard to Gary Moore for a Les Paul Junior and a hundred quid? Still, at least it went to a good home.
Is this the point where we ask...
...if any of the Massive have one? I'm fully expecting you (Mojemeister) to say, 'Well, actually I've got three under the bed, formerly owned by... [insert list of guitar legends here]'.
And I'm sure Twang has one...
Not me Colin
Best I can offer is a 1970 Les Paul Deluxe (the gold top one with the small Humbuckers, like Pete Townshend used to play) and a mid-70s Les Paul Custom, both of which were sold long ago.
Me neither
I've tried a few standards and customs over the years but they just don't suit me. Too heavy, can't get on with 'em. Until a few weeks ago I had a Les Paul Special with P90 pickups which sounded great, but again something about the shape...it had to go. Also I don't like the 4 knobs (missus). Emotionally I'd love one, but practically I have never gone the whole hog. The closest I got was a '58 reissue Standard, which I was going to buy myself as a 50th birthday pressie (we'd have been the same age), but again, somehow we just didn't click.
PS the guitar I played on the clip I posted was the bass player's Les Paul Gold top - my Strat wasn't cutting it!
It's certainly a fabulous sound you got on that recording, Twang
...funny, I like the 'idea' of a Les Paul too, but I've somehow never been able to play them. I love the sound they get, but it just 'feels' wrong to me. I'm not much of an electric player but such as I am Telecasters or Tele copies (I have a Fenix) seem to sit best with me.
Anyway, this reminds me: it's time I started a thread about double-necks. I have this theory and I'd like to see if anyone agrees...
Have this band ever got back together?
Will they? Could they? I think HF has retired, but still..
John McVie
Hasn't he all but retired from Fleetwood Mac now?
The biggest obstacle
to any reunion would surely be Mayall finding himself playing second fiddle (as it were) to Clapton.
He's always been the leader with the power to hire and fire and I'm not sure he could ever subjugate himself to the role of a sideman and not dictate the repertoire, the length of set, the length of songs being outside his control and worst of all he wouldn't be getting the lion's share of the door money.
Clapton & Mayall
They did get back together a few years back and there is a DVD of the concert, but it is a bit flat to me. Eric seems to have made a point of getting back together with previous cohorts - Cream, Steve Winwood have been really good, but maybe there is just too much water under the bridge since the Bluesbreakers days...I got the impression there was tension between them.
Agree about the Beano album by the way - rock music would simply not be what it is without it. I was 17 at the time, so it is my DNA, along with the Fleetwood Mac dusbin album et al....
Clapton & Mayall
They got together for Mayall's 70th birthday concert in Liverpool 2003 (it's on DVD and CD).
Trouble was, it simply featured Mayall's current band and Clapton guested on half a dozen songs, some of them with Chris Barber on trombone(!)
It was OK, and Clapton played a blinder as usual, but he made little concession toward the past and any hint of nostalgia went out the window when Clapton turned up with, not a Les Paul, but one of his signature Fender Strats in the most god-awful eye-watering modern art style paintjob.
A more intimate gig at a smaller venue such as, say, Ronnie Scott's with as many original Bluesbreakers as possible would have been a better idea IMHO.
Here they are playing Hideaway from The Beano Album
Mick Taylor is on the DVD, too.
Mayall
was a giant when I was but a lad in the mid 60's.
Part of the fun when buying his albums was noting the various musicians who played on whatever album, who were largely unknown -to me at any rate- and checking out where and when they appeared next... Keef Hartley anyone... or Mick Taylor... or Dick Heckstall Smith... and generally buying the next album that any of his offspring performed on.
Oddly, my favourite JM album is USA Union, which featured Harvey Mandell and Larry Taylor (both ex Canned Heat) and Don "Sugercane" Harris, all established musos.
If anyone can post the song "Crying" from that album, you will make Geacher very happy,... and a few other peeps I should think.
Here y'go...
Paolo
Cheers for that.... listen please everybody to at least the first 3:50 of this song. Don "Sugarcane" Harris' other nickname was "Sweetness". Listen and discover why.
My pleasure.
I hadn't heard it until your request prompted me to search for it and it's great.
I have this playing on Spotify even as I type.
On a first listen it's a good example of a type of music which I don't usually like. I may never play it ever again, but it's not actually shite as such.
Cheers OP
Had never heard either record or band previously and have always been a Clapton-sceptic without really knowing why. I have a suspicion that he may have been presented to me in youth as an either/or with Hendrix, which, in retrospect, is palpable nonsense but would account for the antipathy (tough competition).
Anyway, I spent most of today Spotifying this record and absolutely loved it.
One of the great pleasures of this here site, allowing the knowledgeable and erudite to steer you down a route you just might enjoy and thereby discovering a gem you'd otherwise have left undetected.
A hearty cheers to you for the fine tip and even finer words.
Homage
The Beano Album has been referenced many times over the years. Gary Moore's Still Got The Blues album, for example, features the Beano cover twice - it shows the LP sleeve on the front and the CD on the back.
It's hard to see at this resolution, but the LP is sitting on the bed behind the kid practicing on his Les Paul
To eminentdan, I'm touched and flattered that you took the time to check the album out. Even better is that you enjoyed it. Thanks for your kind words, too.
I'm presently beating seven bells of shit
out of baddies on Batman Arkham City to the soundtrack of The Beano Album. Thanks Mojo. I'll be buying this!
I liked the way the back cover referenced the front
It shows Gary Moore in an anonymous hotel, sitting on the bed playing his Les Paul with the same records scattered around - this time in CD form.
On the mobile so can't post a picture.
Allow me
It's hard to see, so I've added a detail of Gary looking wistfully at the CD.
That's Peter Green's Gibson Les Paul Moore is holding and in the foreground at the bottom left is a Marshall 1962 Bluesbreaker 50w combo amp as used by Clapton on The Beano Album. Confusingly 1962 is the model number, not the year of manufacture.
Five Interesting Facts about The Beano Album
1) Although the original mono LP was released in July, 1966, the stereo version didn’t appear until 3 years later in 1969
2) During the last track on side one (track 6 on the CD), a cover of the Ray Charles song What’d I Say, Clapton launches into the riff from Day Tripper. That's even more significant when you realise that The Beatles' single was only six months old when The Beano Album was recorded.
3) There was originally some chalk graffiti on the wall behind the band reading "Wilson is a nit". Harold Wilson was PM at the time (1966) and while hardly the most Wildean of jibes, it was felt the line may cause offence, so it was scrubbed off during the photo session. It's still possible to see "a nit" over on the right.
4) The Gibson Les Paul Clapton plays on the LP (he's pictured with it on the back cover) was bought second hand for £80 from a guitar shop on London's Charing Cross Road in 1965. The story goes that Andy Summers, future guitarist with The Police, then playing with Zoot Money's Big Roll Band (he's older than you think, folks) knew Eric was looking for a Les Paul and found two in the shop. He bought one himself and tipped Clapton off about the other.
5) Connoisseurs of insane detail will be thrilled to know that the edition of The Beano Clapton is reading on the cover is issue #1242, cover date May 7, 1966. What's that? We'd love to see it close-up, you say? Oh, go on then, if you insist. Here's one I just happen to have to hand
Thank you
for an excellent OP, and for the effort you put into it. It reads like a piece from Word itself. I have to admit to not being familiar with the album, something I am now about to rectify. (Thanks too for the Beano cover. I was 10 years old at the time, so probably read and enjoyed it. It would be a little while before my musical tastes would stretch to the blues, though.)
Bed of Nails
Shouldn't that be Bag O'Nails?
Biffo: "It's nice to have tea in the garden Buster"
Buster: "Yes [points] Oh look, here comes the sun!"
Abdul
looks like a right miserable fakir, too.
You couldn't get away with that in a kids' comic today.
Fakir!
Off!
Bonus interesting fact
6) To give some idea of how fast things were moving in the mid 60s, by the time The Beano Album was released in July 1966, Clapton had already left the Bluesbreakers to form Cream with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.
Great post
and a terrific album. John Mayall deserves an awful lot of credit for his contribution to the Blues in this country and by association rock music too. It's difficult to think of anyone who has introduced so many famous musicians to the wider public. Here is my favourite song of his:
http://youtu.be/H6pSWlcjOkk
Excellent work, sir
Thanks for sharing the love, and the trivia too.
"Beano", "A Hard Road" and FM's "Dog 'n' Dustbin" albums are the holy trinity of British blues as far as I'm concerned. Those three records launched me on a tremendously entertaining search for the artists who inspired Clapton, Mayall and Green, so I owe them so much.
As a teen in the '80s, these 'white boy blues' albums were my first exposure to that kind of music, and it was precisely because I saw Clapton and Fleetwood Mac as being accessible that I bothered listening to them in the first place when I happened upon them in friends' collections.
Fierce playing from Clapton throughout "Beano". The recently reissued version has got a load of execllent bonus material on it too; for under a tenner, you can't go wrong.
Thanks rob
very kind.
I totally agree with your 'holy trinity' of British blues LPs. Although I'm older than you, those albums also prompted me to work backwards and seek out the music that inspired them - Otis Rush, Freddie King, Elmore James and the rest.
The Thin Lizzy connection
The Beano Album directly inspired the name of the band Thin Lizzy:
From Wikipedia:
The band's original guitarist Eric Bell, who was a fan of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, bought a copy of The Dandy comic after seeing Eric Clapton depicted reading a copy of its sister publication The Beano on the cover of the 1966 album Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton.
He suggested Tin Lizzie, the name of a robot character from the comic, itself named for the common nickname for the iconic Ford Model T car. Bell also suggested they change 'Tin' to 'Thin' to play on the Irish accent's propensity to drop the 'h'.
After a while, Lynott and Downey agreed to the idea and the name stuck, as they thought the confusion was amusing and would create a talking point. For some of their early gigs, the band were mistakenly promoted as "Tin Lizzy" or "Tin Lizzie".
And here's the original strip from The Dandy:
Given Eric is reading an inner page of the Beano
there's a chance he was reading that exact strip when the shutter clicked...
It would be nice to think so Stimpy
except Tin Lizzie was in The Beano's sister comic The Dandy.
Boom Tish!
Hmm......I avoided reading this 'beano' post until tonight as I assumed it was all about, um, the Beano! Ah well I can see my error now!
Yes - a great album - seem to remember that at my grammar school in 1966/67 this was one that it was regarded 'cool' to walk around with under your arm. I didn't own it at the time though. I probably had Pet Sounds under my arm!
For those of you yet to listen to it - BE WARNED - it does contain a drum solo!
Mercifully brief daff
It's on the aforementioned What'd I Say.
Come to think of it, this may be one of the first* drum solos in rock. It's certainly the first one I can remember.
*If we discount all that Sandy Nelson Let There Be Drums carry-on from the early 60s.
A Gem?
Well.......how about Diamonds by Jet Harris and Tony Meehan? That had a small drum solo in it.
That's true
Those Jet and Tony records were great.
And even earlier than that Tony Meehan had a solo on the first Shadows' LP titled See You in My Drums.
They never outstayed their welcome though. They got straight to the point and were invariably of the Sandy Nelson school.