John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - Steppin' Out / 1966

John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - Steppin' Out(1966)

This is my second video of Eric Clapton playing with John Mayall's Blues Breakers (see also 'Hideaway' on my channel page). Like that one, this is also an instrumental, and was written by James Bracken. Steppin' Out was from the 1966 album by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers featuring Eric Clapton as lead guitarist.

It is often referred to as The Beano album because the photograph on the album cover shows Clapton reading The Beano, a well-known British children's comic.

Apart from being one of the most overall influential albums in blues-rock history, it was likely the first time anyone had heard a Gibson Les Paul guitar through an overdriven Marshall amplifier; this unique sound would become particularly influential.

For more info on the equipment Eric used on this album, here is a link on the Gibson site. It is interesting that as well as the LP and Marshall, he used a Dallas Rangemaster treble booster, although some claim it was not used on the Beano album

The Bluesbreakers included John Mayall on harmonica, keyboards and a majority of the vocals, John McVie on bass, Hughie Flint on drums. On some songs, including this one, a horn section was featured, including John Almond, Alan Skidmore and Derek Healey, (misspelt on the sleeve as Dennis Healey). In 2003, the album was ranked number 195 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. (Much of the above info was adapted from Wikipedia).