I Hope You've Got No Technical Problems, 'Cos I Only want To Do This Once

The last of the trilogy of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers albums introducing guitar heroes to the world, Crusade might well be the best, the Beano album notwithstanding. This is certainly the most complete band album and it probably features the best performance by Mayall himself vocally and on harp. The guitarist introduced was the teenage Mick Taylor, a shy withdrawn figure on stage but playing with wonderful maturity and fire. The addition of horns filled out the band sound very well too, even if they were used very sparingly in any solo context. The concept of the album was to showcase songs by various blues originals that Mayall felt hadn't had their fair share of attention. Without being unkind to Mayall, the fact that most of the songs were covers and not originals strenghtens the material when compared to the previous Hard Road album. For those who see music in colours, Crusade is an altogether sunnier record despite the obvious melancholy behind songs like the Death of J B Lenoir. Like his two predecessors, Mick Taylor soon left the band to be the criminally underused replacement for Brian Jones in the Rolling Stones ( surely nothing to do with keith Richards being jealous of a much more technically gifted player ? )If you are wondering about the title of this post, Mayall utters that phrase to the recording engineers at the beginning of the album's final track, a harmonica heavy Checkin' Up On My Baby.