John Mayall - Empty Rooms and USA Union
I've unintentionally been listening to albums about fictional women. I thought it might be a nice change to listen to songs about a very specific woman, Nancy Throckmorton. Not every song is about her, it's more a chronicle of their relationship, and his experience in general, during his Laural Canyon tenure. The point is when he says "her" or "she" he's talking about a real person.
What makes these albums interesting is that he hired friends and acquaintances he'd been making to be "the band," not because he particularly wanted to, but because polydor kept demanding albums.
What i've noticed about John Mayall is that people talk about him like he was some sort of mastermind bandleader. They call musicians who played with him "alumni" the same way they might describe someone's tenure in King Crimson. I can't imagine Mayall being anything like Fripp. I imagine it must have been more like "here's the song i'm playing, just do whatever it is you do on top of it. It'll work fine, just play stuff." Flute, sax, violin, piano, guitar, whatever, it all just seems to work.
But back to the relationship theme i've been talking/ranting about. These albums are completely believable. The sentiments and tropes are somewhat stereotypical for blues in general, but the authenticity is quite believable. Bad Company, Bush, even Toto don't sound convincing. They're all just reformulating the standard love you, miss you, want you cliches of rock in general. Maybe that's just my prejudice for Blues. Maybe it's my exponentially growing appreciation for Mayall. I don't know, but it's true.
No, i'm wrong, it just hit me. He's writing ALL of the songs about how he feels about how he feels about her (that's a sentence and a half). He's not trying to paint her into a corner, he's not pretending she's an object to win or lose. He's writing about his actual situation: he's essentially vacationing as a bum in California (doesn't matter that he's a famous musician), the label keeps calling to say music dude, record more music, and he'll go back to England at some point. It's a relationship happening at a complex time in his life, and he had no idea how it would turn out; all he could do was take it moment by moment and live it. That's where the authenticity comes from. He's writing from that unstable, almost apprehensive view of himself as a passing stranger.
Also, there aren't any drums on USA Union; guitar, harmonica/keyboard, violin, and bass. That's it. It's incredible. I should point out, the sound of Don Harris's violin is grotesquely atrocious and that's why it's ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS. Not joking, he's running that thing through a wah pedal, the brokenest flanger they could find, a harp amp, a busted mic, who knows what, but it sounds amazing in the context of these songs.
If you've never heard the real experimental side of English Blues, go give USA Union a try. If you're not familiar with Mayall at all, just pick anything. He really is great, and he will definitely grow on you the more you hear of him.
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