Music Review: Sonny Boy Williamson, Eric Clapton, Eric Burdon, and Jimmy Page - Bye Bye Sonny - Page 2

But it was during those two trips to England that the recordings for Bye Bye Sonny were made. They've been gathered together and digitally re-mastered into one two-disc collection for the first time by the Music Avenue label. Disc one features the recordings done with the Yardbirds and the Animals, while Disc two is the session with Jimmy Page and Brian Auger.

What's truly remarkable about Disc one is they were live recordings made in the days when live recordings were massive undertakings and results were horribly unpredictable. So even though the quality of the set with the Animals is not up to the standards we might be used to, you tend to be forgiving when you realize it was done on a single portable Ampex machine. The tapes were originally only meant to be souvenirs of the occasion but because they started wandering around, and being heard all over the place, they were eventually pressed and released.

Despite the quality, or maybe even because of it, it's absolutely amazing to hear. The Animals were just starting to peak as a band with both Alan Price and Eric Burdon really starting to hit their strides as performers. You can hear everybody is having a great time and the music is raw and rough just like good rocking Blues music should be.

The first eleven tracks on Disc one are Sonny Boy with the original Yardbirds including an eighteen-year-old Eric Clapton on lead guitar. He's just starting to find his "voice" and on occasion you'll hear what will later become his trademark sound poking out on a couple of leads. But they are really the backing band for Sonny Boy and he sounds amazing.

His harmonica playing is top notch and his singing is great. On both gigs he is clearly showing the young white boys how it should be done, and they're just happy to be there playing, listening, and trying to keep up with Sonny Boy as he gets deeper into the Scotch as the evening progresses.

The second disc was recorded live in a studio. There were no retakes and the eleven tracks were recorded in two and a half hours as Sonny Boy had to catch his plane back to the States later that day. While there are some pretty obvious mistakes made by Sonny in a couple of the songs, changing the breaks and messing up the rhythms on occasion, the band is good enough and tight enough to keep up.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the forthcoming book What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

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