JOHN MAYALL/ERIC CLAPTON/PAGE--RARE ACETATE LISTEN

$

500

lasimifare Store



on auction  is a genuine acetate/testpressing/advance copy dated 1965 from Pye's cutting room of 
                                             

                                     ***I'm your Witchdoctor / Telephone Blues***
                
               by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers featuring Eric Clapton
                                                    
                            produced by Jimmy Page

                     Advance Pressing Pye Group Records       
                                 date 1965


                                                         as released on Immediate IM 12

It's the first time ever this ultrarare acetate appears on auction and probably the ONLY time.
This gem is a timeless addition for any serious collector of John Mayall / Eric Clapton & Jimmy Page's work.

This auction is for a 45rpm single acetate by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers from 1969 titled "I'm your Witchdoctor" & "Telephone Blues.   This is an acetate so it doesn't have a regular label or number   Since acetates are made primarily for the artist to determine the quality of the recording/pressing and are never for distribution making this a rare record in the extreme!  An acetate is a self destructing medium in that they deteriorate when played more than a few times. So it's better to play this once and to record it to another medium, and frame the acetate and only play it on special occasions. Making it a looker and on a rare occasion a player. 

EXTREMELY rare artifact,  ONE-OF-A-KIND.
It is highly unlikely you will EVER see another one for sale ANYWHERE


The story behind this acetate ... in 1965 a friend on his visit to London went to the Dobell's Folk and Blues recordshop to buy some blues records. It was there he met John Mayall and being a vivid collector of rare blues himself a friendly conversation was easily started and in the end John Mayall gave him this acetate which he cherished up till now and now he felt it was time to pass it on...
please note that acetates are made to be played only a few times-the artist, producer and engineer use these before final cutting of the master this is a chance to own an incredibly rare piece of memorabilia and an unique artifact from the '60's.

Although the acetate is 45 years old and it still plays great, the Witchdoctor track is pure genius  ... an absolute killer .... bursting with timeless energy ...hear for yourself the actual recording of this acetate (below)...

Grading as precise as possible
A side I'm your Witchdoctor ...plays great.... no skips ... just some background hiss... nothing to distract the greatness of this cut.
B side Telephone Blues...this track has two minor skips at 1.17 and at 1.39 ...and has more background hiss than the A side ...and an occasional click..
Condition acetate visual grade = Fair the record is chipped very slightly around the outer edge not affecting playing . some scuffs  it also didn't start out shiny because of the material it's made of. with some crackles (common for very old acetates) Sound is very good as acetates often are
Handwritten labels has  I'm your Witchdoctor & Telephone Blues John Mayall's Blues Breakers (see scans)
This acetate hasn't been cleaned i'll leave that precious work to the possible winner of this auction. I don't know whether the skips on Telephone blues can be fixed.
 
All of the above mentioned details can be heard right here


this is an ACTUAL recording of the acetate ... a small part of the ending of Telephone Blues is missing but surely it's there and it has no further flaws........no filters or equalizing was used to clean up the sound...what you hear is what you get....this acetate breathes a surreal atmosphere as this actual acetate has been checked upon way back by John Mayall and the involved musicians to grant its release.

The track Witchdoctor is easily one of the best ever recordings by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers partly due to the fact that Jimmy Page produced it and Eric's playing is BEYOND ....some incredible controlled chillin' feedback which he would later further exploit with the Cream. (see Julian Cope's great review below...it says it all))
the track Telephone Blues is a great blues tune more in the tradition of his later playing in 1966 on the John Mayall's Beano album.(see Julian Cope's  review below)

wikipedia
The Bluesbreakers were formed in January 1963 and became an ever-evolving lineup of more than 100 different combinations of musicians performing under that name. Eric Clapton joined in 1965 just a few months after the release of their first album. Clapton brought the blues influences to the forefront of the group, as he had left The Yardbirds in order to play the blues.
The group lost their record contract with Decca that year, which also saw the release of a single called "I'm Your Witchdoctor" (produced by Jimmy Page), followed by a return to Decca in 1966. The album Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (also known as The Beano Album because Clapton is shown on the cover photo reading a copy of the comic) was released later that year; it reached the Top Ten in the UK.
I'm your Witchdoctor has been covered by Motörhead and Chants R&B.

http://www.headheritage.com/unsung/thebookofseth/275
(For the next few minutes, pretend that Eric Clapton’s career ended with “Disraeli Gears.”)

I often do, as it’s just about the way only way I can come to terms with the utter tragedy of a talent wasted so shamelessly through heroin, sanitised reggae usage and being an all-round Stratocaster-wielding bore, as well as a bearded clotheshorse. I don’t care if he’s still considered ‘God,’ because even if ‘God Himself’ phoned in dull records for THREE DECADES (to ceaseless and typical critical acclaim, no less) you couldn’t hope for more non-believers. If this seems unwholesomely vitriolic (and it is, I know) believe me, it’s for good reason because older fans idolise him for all the wrong reasons (from Derek & the Dominos to the present day) and younger music fans dismiss him outright for all the right reasons (from Derek & the Dominos to the present day) while everybody else seems to have forgotten one small yet important fact (Remember quickly, before this verges on outright character assassination): Eric Clapton revolutionised the way people played electric guitar forever, like it or not. And his fuse was first really lit not in The Yardbirds, but within the blowtorch confines of his first record with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers: the single “I’m Your Witchdoctor.” A limited edition single and the trendsetting sole LP followed shortly thereafter.

“I’m Your Witchdoctor” is the first place where E.C.’s fire truly raged. Insofar as raw, rough and jumpy blues are concerned, “I’m Your Witchdoctor” is a track that surpasses all the other residents of those ropey Immediate “History of The Blues” compilations and renders asunder the yawn-o-rama and drum-less “Guitar Boogie” collection (itself an Andrew Loog Oldham rip-off of Jimmy Page’s recordings of loose blues jams with Clapton.) And “Little” Jimmy Page was the producer here as well, expertly feeling out Clapton’s solos and adding TONS of reverb to the them to make them even more soaring and fiery than they already were. Although mere months away from the formation of The Cream, the blistering displays of feel from Clapton on this track, aided and abetted by Mayall’s creaky organ and too-young-to-sound-so worldly vocals, John McVie’s bass and Hughie Flint’s expert understatement of drums, must have sounded about as raucous and otherworldly as anything the keen-eared British music fan had heard since The Pretty Things or The Stones. And right after Mayall’s “Got my eye on you...” Clapton lets loose with a ferocious solo with constantly repeated finger vibrato that harkens to the track one could (arguably, that is) hold responsible for heavy metal: The Cream’s “Cat’s Squirrel.” In furtherance of this link (and to follow an epiphany I once had about Black Sabbath -- one of several) consider this brief outline:


a.) “Cat’s Squirrel” was covered by Jethro Tull on their first album, “This Was” in 1968.

b.) Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi was in Jethro Tull for a brief period that same year, appearing with them in the film “The Rolling Stones’ Rock And Roll Circus.”

c.) The first Black Sabbath album (1970) bears many examples of extremely over-amplified blues structures rendered through SG guitar, and sounds a hell of a lot like the better parts of “This Was” (especially “Cat’s Squirrel.”)

d.) Then again, so does “This Was”: courtesy of Mick Abrahams (in terms of bearing many examples of extremely over-amplified blues, etc, etc.)


That’s not to say “I’m Your Witchdoctor” is a premier heavy metal track and not as major a tributary to that genre as “Cat’s Squirrel” but it’s certainly a SIGNPOST and a major one at that. Because when a blues purist such as Mayall sings for all his beatnik’s beard’s worth “Gonna feel you burning/Like a passion flower” and later steps asides aside for Clapton’s blistering solo that utilises kazoo-esque ‘woman tone’ to killer effect, it’s totally ROCK. Not to mention about as loaded a sexual image as you could get back in 1965 outside of The Stones or Troggs. Plus, it’s the best cut they ever recorded: way more passionate and crazy than their only album, which unleashed several British blues booms in its wake.

I haven’t even mentioned “Telephone Blues” because in the wake of listening to “I’m Your Witchdoctor” several times in succession, I don’t wanna. You probably won’t, either. Aahh, it’s live in the studio and “blues” because it says so and after all, they were professionals. But so what? “I’m Your Witchdoctor” is just about the only thing I’d stand up for Eric Clapton about in conversation.

Oh, and “Cat’s Squirrel.” But those few minutes are up by now, unfortunately.
 

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