The 500 - #195 - Blues Breakers - John Mayall with Eric Clapton

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

---

Album: #195
Album Title: Blues Breakers 

Artist: John Mayall with Eric Clapton

Genre: Blues, Blues Rock
Recorded: Decca Studios, London
Released: July, 1966
My age at release: 1
How familiar was I with it before this week: Quite
Is it on the 2020 list? No
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Double Crossing Time

Once again, as has been documented in this blog series, there is a record on The 500 list that I discovered through the Eric Clapton box set Crossroads. In 1988, I wanted to learn more about the Blues genre in music and felt that a deeper dive into the music of Clapton would be a good crash course.

It turns out that, in a time before streaming services and easy Google searches, Crossroads was a wise and fortuitous purchase. The four-CD (72-song) compilation contained music from albums that now occupy nine spots on The 500 list.

• Eric Clapton has two records on the list as a solo artist. (461 Ocean Boulevard at #411 and Slowhand at #325).

• Cream (featuring Eric Clapton on guitar) have three entries. (Wheels of Fire at #205, Disraeli Gears at #144 and Fresh Cream #102).

• The Yardbirds have two records (one with Clapton). (Having A Rave Up at #355 and Roger The Engineer #350)

• Derek and the Dominos (again, with Clapton) have one. (Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs at #117)

Finally, this debut record, Blues Breakers, from English blues-rock band John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers appears at position #195. Colloquially, this is often dubbed The Beano Album, because Clapton can be seen reading a 1966 issue of Beano comics magazine on the cover of the Blues Breaker album.

Issue #1242 of Beano, published May 7, 1966 -
being "read" by Clapton on the Blues Breaker album cover

Beano, originally The Beano Comic, was a weekly newsprint publication by the Scottish company DC Thomson. Debuting in July, 1938, it is the best-selling comic publication outside of Japan, with more than two billion issues sold. It is available today, through subscription or in convenience stores and supermarkets throughout the U.K. There are also hardcover "annuals" traditionally published in August (in plenty of time for the Christmas season).

The cover for the 2024 edition of the Beano Annual,
celebrating 85 years of publication.

My first memories of Beano comics were from the early ‘70s when my family had temporarily relocated from Canada to the Greater Manchester (Rochdale, Littleborough) area. Sometimes, on walks with my elders, we would step into a Newsagents (a U.K. equivalent to a convenience store) and I would flip through the comic book selection while my pop, grandad or uncle chatted with the shopkeeper. If it was a good day, I might get a copy of Beano (or its sister magazine, Dandy) and perhaps even a sugary treat to go with it. I was a big fan of Curly Wurlys, Mars Bars, Flakies and Fruit Pastilles.

Modern packaging for a classic British treat - mine came in a 
tightly wrapped tube.

I remained an avid reader of Beano and collected issues every time I returned to England for visits. My mom, attuned to my interest, purchased Beano & Dandy Annuals for me regularly, continuing the tradition well into my thirties. I made them available to my students as part of my classroom library. Sadly, the few that remain are quite battered. I've moved them to a cupboard. I am concerned that some of the "gags" and "jokes" within the covers might not have aged well.

My grade 4 students learning how to pickle in 2012. A copy
of the Dandy Annual can be seen on my cluttered shelves at 
the back - circled in red.

My favourite bit of trivia about Beano magazine involves one of their longest running strips and a character named Dennis The Menace who has a wire-haired hound named Gnasher. The character is a badly-behaved schoolboy who pulls pranks and terrorizes a group of well-behaved classmates he dubs "The Softies". The main target of Dennis' scorn is a well-groomed, and effeminate boy named Walter the Softy. (See what I mean about the jokes not aging well?) That said, Walter often gets the last laugh on Dennis in many of the weekly strips.

Dennis the Menace and Gnasher.

North American audiences are likely familiar with a different version of Dennis the Menace. Created by American cartoonist Hank Ketchum, this daily newspaper comic strip centres on a blond, freckle-faced, five-year-old boy growing up in a middle class Kansas neighbourhood.

Unlike his dark-haired British counterpart, this Dennis is kind-hearted and his antics occur when he makes a genuine effort to help others. It is his enthusiastic naivety, coupled with his ebullient energy, that leads to comedic misadventures -- often at the expense of his beleaguered neighbour, Mr. Wilson.

Fascinatingly, the two characters debuted on the same day, March 12, 1951, without any of the creators or production team being aware of the other's project. Consequently, both were able to retain the rights to the character’s names.

As a kid who regularly traversed the Atlantic, spending time in Canada and England, I was, initially, a fan of both versions. However, I quickly grew bored of the U.S. version of Dennis. It was sappy and often over-sentimental. Blond Dennis was a playful, well-meaning scamp, with many jokes of the “kids say the darndest things" variety. Even as an eight-year-old, it felt like the U.S. comic was either trying to teach me a life lesson or working way too hard to get me to laugh at Dennis' malapropism and idiom gaffes.

The British Dennis with his peashooters, water pistols and slingshot seemed dangerous. His antics were ferocious and unpredictable and when they inevitably failed, he faced brutal repercussions -- often in some form of corporal punishment from his teachers and parents. In some strips, Dennis even ends up hospitalized.

The stark difference between the "antics" of the two Dennis characters.

Just the act of reading those strips felt rebellious. Even his dog Gnasher, with its spiky black hair, ferocious teeth and sinister demeanor was terrifying -- and I couldn't get enough.

While preparing this post, my rabbit-hole research led me to a 2016 article from James Parker, originally published in Smithsonian Magazine. Parker goes even further to connect these two Dennis variations to their respective homelands with the following quote:

"American Dennis radiated the irrepressible energy of a young republic. In contrast, British Dennis represented a form of transgression that didn’t even exist in the United States. He emerged during a time of class struggle and waning empire, when the U.K. establishment feared the oik, the yob, the ungovernable prole. In short, British Dennis was a proto-punk-rock-hooligan."

It would be a stretch to suggest that Clapton's "reading" of Beano on the cover of Blues Breaker held any significance. It seems more likely that the notoriously prickly guitarist was either bored with the photo shoot or amplifying his general disinterest with the entire experience. Sure, Clapton, Mayall and the other members of the band (John McVie and Hughie Flint) were from working class backgrounds. However, connecting the dots between the economic struggles of these musicians and a transgressive comic strip would require the musical history equivalent to a yoga master.

Blues Breakers (l-r) Mayall, Clapton, McVie, Flint

Clapton, despite his well documented reputation as a jerk, is the only individual to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times -- as a solo artist and a member of Cream and The Yardbirds. Mayall, who passed away this year - July, 2024 - will be inducted this October. Although it will be a posthumous induction, Mayall did learn about the honour in April, a few months before he died at 90.

I'm glad I discovered Mayall's distinctive and powerful voice when I wisely purchased that Crossroads record...26 years ago.