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Listen for the "chicka-chickas."It's John Mayall without the Blues Breakers, live at somewhere. The quartet consisted of himself, Jon Mark (guitar), Johnny Almond (reeds), and Steve Thompson (bass). This tune exemplifies what was unique about this lineup: a highly percussive sound without the use of any percussion instruments except Mayall's tambourine here and there. (Personally, I think he should have left the tambourine at home for purity's sake.) To my ear it's remarkable how percussive Mayall makes the "harp," and most of the other percussion sounds come from "chicka-chickas," blowing on the mike, tapping hollow-body guitars, and so forth. Mayall, incidentally, comes from what I call The Dudley Do-Right School of Voice." This is a peculiarity of several British blues and rock performers of the era, and I'll dig a few more up in the future.
Mayall was a giant in British blues and rock in the '60s, but most Americans probably know him more by his proteges than his own self. I'm not well versed in this aspect of pop music history, though, so I won't bother with a bunch of Wikipedia cites for something I know little about. However, I'll bet the 59er may know a thing or two about Mayall and his British associates of the period. (If you do, S, send me a note and I'll append this post for the information of myself and the Fifty50 community.)
Room To Move, John Mayall (1969, from "The Turning Point," Polydor), via YouTube, embedded for noncommercial critical discussion and educational purposes.
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