John Mayall - Blues from Laurel Canyon (27/9/19)

It occured to me today that it would be interesting to compare Joni Mitchell's Ladies of the Canyon with John Mayall's Blues from Laurel Canyon. They are both about the same part of LA at pretty much the same time. Mitchell is of course the local, speaking about characters from a folk perspective, while Mayall is the outsider on vacation singing the blues.

Her songs are about relationships, his the real result of a breakup (disbanding the Bluesbreakers). Hers are minimal, voice and self accompaniment, his is a newly formed 4-piece band. Hers is happening in the present, his a recollection.

Both however share a sense of lonliness in a place so full of people. A feeling that something is missing, that people walk in and out of your life because we ARE essentially alone.

My dad loved John Mayall (he told me so, and there's a whole fistful of records here to prove it), and well into Side B i'm starting to get why. There's nothing stale or reworked or trite about the tracks as they unfold; it's all blues, but of infinite variety and nuance. He never recycles or rehashes an idea, he just keeps moving steadily forward and deals with whatever life throws in his path.

Whether i want to or not, i have to listen to Canned Heat next, because the lyric in "The Bear" is too important to ignore:

"All the men of Canned Heat are part of my family. I'm gonna remember the things that they did for me."

Tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nuzE6ZL_qhCNL9FI74ZiwqN6ZsDH4uGGE

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