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Album Review
The final album of an (unintentional) trilogy, Crusade is most notable for the appearance of a very young, pre- Rolling Stones Mick Taylor on lead guitar. Taylor's performance is indeed the highlight, just as Eric Clapton and Peter Green's playing was on the previous album. The centrepiece of the album is a beautiful instrumental by Taylor titled "Snowy Wood," which, while wholly original, seems to combine both Green and Clapton's influence with great style and sensibility. The rest of the record, while very enjoyable, is standard blues rock fare of the day, but somewhat behind the then-progressive flavour of the period 1967. Mayall, while being one of the great bandleaders of London, simply wasn't really the frontman that the group needed so desperately, especially then. Nevertheless, Crusade is important listening for Mick Taylor aficionados. --Matthew Greenwald, All Music Guide
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
So often overlooked for the Clapton and Green albums, Mick Taylor's first John Mayall effort is certainly up there with his predecessors. He has all the ingredients of the other two... classic blues numbers, searing leads and powerful instrumentals, but i suppose his lower profile compared to the other two guitarists means this great album is so often (unfairly) overlooked. Snowy Wood is probably the best cut on here, but Pretty Woman sets the tone perfectly and Driving Sideways is another powerful effort from Taylor (who i believe was 17/18 at the time). If you like Bluesbreakers and A Hard Road, then you will almost certainly like this.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This was the second Mayall album I picked up. I was a youngster cruising a record store in a small Maine town during 1967 or 1968 and heard this playing over the sound system. I had been into Cream and the Beano album but had not yet gotten into Mick Taylor or Peter Green. This album still gives me a thrill each time I listen to it. Of the early triumvirate of mayall's great guitarists, Mick Taylor is the most overlooked. I still prefer his "Driving Sideways" to Eric's "Hideaway" or Peter's "Stumble". Mick's playing seems smoother than the other two, and, for that reason, seems to suit Mayall's style. I could go on about Mr. Taylor all day. Suffice it to say his playing on "Pretty Woman", "Driving Sideways" and "Snowey Wood" are worth the cost of the album many times over. Mayall's organ shines on this album as well and the horn section is as tight as they were on the beano album. I feel that Crusade is a much more personal statement than the EC or Green offerings. Either it is the choice of material or the chemistry of the group, I don't know. It does have a unique feel, however, and solidifies the "Bluesbreaker" sound. If you are a blues fan, just like the sound of a naturally distorted Gibson through a Marshall or wonder what all this British blues boom was all about, forget Led Zeppelin and check out Crusade!! This is one of a few seminal albums which truly launched a thousand guitars....on both sides of the atlantic!! One question...will this album be eventually be given the "expanded treatment" of the second Mayall album with Peter Green?
17 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This album is very different to the 'Beano' one that precedes it. Clapton's amazing guitar work is gone, and one might think the album would be weak as a result. Not a bit of it. In some ways, it's better than the Clapton album when judged as a *blues* album. It's hard to say exactly why that is, but it seems to be something to do with the material. It's much more of a blues purist's album, more introspective somehow. But there are plenty of fast numbers on the album, and plenty of 'drive', so that can't be the explanation. It's a bit of a mystery...
I saw the band play this set 'live' on two or three ocaasions in the clubs in '67. They were fantastic. The fact that Clapton wasn't there was totally irrelevant, because the main man was Mayall himself, on the organ, harmonica and the 'special' guitar. I never thought he was that much of a vocalist, almost as if he was doing the vocals because the singer hadn't shown up! But maybe that was part of the formula.
This album lives in the shadow of the Clapton one. It always has done. That's a great shame, because it's very good and, as Mayall said, it was a 'crusade' to push the Blues. At the time it was recorded, his band was really not much more than a successful British 'club' band. The Clapton album had sold reasonably well, but not sensationally. So this isn't an album by a major star, but by a band that performed for maybe two hundred pounds a gig at that time.
If you don't know this album, I'd strongly recommend it. In many ways it's a sort of transition, between the Clapton period and the mega US successes that came later. Five stars? Yes, it's worth five.
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