Bare_Wires
Bare Wires
1968 album by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
Bare Wires is a studio album by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, featuring Mick Taylor on guitar, Chris Mercer and Dick Heckstall-Smith on saxophones, Jon Hiseman on drums, Henry Lowther on cornet and violin, and Tony Reeves on bass. It was released in 1968 on Decca Records.[6] The album was the last John Mayall studio album to feature the name "Bluesbreakers".[1] The album was also Mayall's first successful U.S. album reaching #59 on the Billboard 200.[7]
| Bare Wires | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 21 June 1968[1] | |||
| Recorded | 3, 9, 24 and 30 April 1968 | |||
| Studio | Decca Studios, West Hampstead, London, England[2] | |||
| Genre | Blues, blues-rock, jazz rock | |||
| Length | 45:20 | |||
| Label | Decca | |||
| Producer | Mike Vernon, John Mayall | |||
| John Mayall's Bluesbreakers chronology | ||||
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| John Mayall chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| Rolling Stone | (negative)[3] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [4] |
| The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings | [5] |
It was voted number 566 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).[8]
Guitarist Peter Green left the Bluesbreakers to form Fleetwood Mac, and was replaced by Mick Taylor. Shortly before recording sessions for the album, bassist Andy Fraser, who would later join Free, also left the group, while drummer Keef Hartley was replaced by Jon Hiseman. Mayall asked if anyone knew someone who could play bass guitar, and Hiseman informed him that his friend Tony Reeves, who had played double bass for most of his career, had recently bought a bass guitar.[9] The album included more jazz influences than usual.
Reeves recalled of the album's making, "Rehearsals with John Mayall weren't really rehearsals; we didn't play very much, for a lot of the rehearsal time you sat around listening to what he wanted to do. He played records to demonstrate the feel or a style, or a sound that he was looking for. All of the things on the Bare Wires album were worked out in the studio – we must have done one or two rehearsals actually playing the music, but I can’t remember that. Seems to me, most of the work took place in the recording studio."[9]
Following the album, Mayall pared down the group from a seven-piece to a three-piece band and ultimately dropped the Bluesbreakers entirely.[9] Reeves, Hiseman and Dick Heckstall-Smith went on to form Colosseum.
Songs
The songs "No Reply" and "She's Too Young" were released as a single by Decca. The seven songs on the album's A-side ("Bare Wires", "Where Did I Belong", "I Started Walking", "Open Up a New Door", "Fire", "I Know Now" and "Look in the Mirror") are arranged into a medley. Some CD issues of Bare Wires combine these seven songs onto a single track with the title "Bare Wires Suite", seemingly inspired by the headline "Bare Wires: A Suite by John Mayall" which appears on the album's inner gatefold.
According to Reeves, the song "Hartley Quits" was titled after a front-page headline in Melody Maker about Keef Hartley's departure from the Bluesbreakers.[9]
The individual track times are those printed on the original vinyl releases. Some CD issues of the album combine tracks 1-7 onto a single track under the title "Bare Wires Suite".
Original album
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Bare Wires" | 1:25 |
| 2. | "Where Did I Belong" | 3:05 |
| 3. | "I Started Walking" | 2:20 |
| 4. | "Open Up a New Door" | 3:00 |
| 5. | "Fire" | 3:45 |
| 6. | "I Know Now" | 5:35 |
| 7. | "Look in the Mirror" | 2:51 |
All tracks are written by John Mayall, except where noted.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 8. | "I'm a Stranger" | 5:14 |
| 9. | "No Reply" (Mayall, Mick Taylor) | 3:09 |
| 10. | "Hartley Quits" (Taylor) | 2:55 |
| 11. | "Killing Time" | 4:48 |
| 12. | "She's Too Young" | 2:22 |
| 13. | "Sandy" | 3:50 |
| No. | Title | Original release | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14. | "Picture on the Wall" | B-side of Decca Single F12732[10] | 3:03 |
| 15. | "Jenny" | A-side of Decca Single F12732 | 4:40 |
| 16. | "Knocker's Step Forward" | Thru the Years | 3:14 |
| 17. | "Hide and Seek" | Thru the Years | 2:25 |
| 18. | "Intro-Look at the Girl" | Primal Solos | 6:47 |
| 19. | "Start Walkin'" | Primal Solos | 8:23 |
- John Mayall's Bluesbreakers
on tracks 1 - 13 and 16 - 19:
- Mick Taylor – lead guitar, Hawaiian guitar
- Chris Mercer – tenor, baritone saxophone
- Dick Heckstall-Smith – tenor, soprano saxophone
- Jon Hiseman – drums, percussion
- Henry Lowther – cornet, violin
- Tony Reeves – string bass, bass guitar
on tracks 14 and 15:
- Peter Green – guitar
- Keef Hartley – drums
- Production[2]
- Mike Vernon, John Mayall – producers
- Derek Varnals – engineer
- Pete Smith, Jan Persson – photography
- William Ruhlmann (2010). "Bare Wires - John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 October 2010.
- "John Mayall's Bluesbreakers* - Bare Wires (Vinyl, LP, Album) at Discogs". Discogs. 2 March 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
- Nooger, Danny (12 October 1968). "Records". Rolling Stone.
- Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0857125958.
- Russell, Tony; Smith, Chris (2006). The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings. Penguin. p. 428. ISBN 978-0-140-51384-4.
- "Discography". John Mayall. Archived from the original on 21 January 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
- "John Mayall > Billboard Albums". AllMusic. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
- Colin Larkin, ed. (2006). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd ed.). Virgin Books. p. 192. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6.
- "Interview with Tony Reeves". Let it Rock. July 2003. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
- "Artists: J". 45-rpm.org.uk. 10 February 1910. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
- "John Mayall - Bare Wires". Official Charts Company. 20 July 1968. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
- Steffen Hung (21 June 1968). "John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers - Bare Wires". norwegiancharts.com. Archived from the original on 26 March 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
- "InfoDisc : Tout les Titres par Artiste". Infodisc.fr. Archived from the original on 15 July 2015. Retrieved 15 January 2012.