The cover of the John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers concert album, “In the Shadow of Legends.”
On June 18, 1982, a concert by John Mayall’s Original Bluesbreakers at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic turned into what was probably the most star-studded blues jam the Garden State ever has scene. The core band for this show was Mayall on keyboards, guitar, harmonica and vocals, former Rolling Stone member Mick Taylor on guitar and Fleetwood Mac co-founder John McVie on bass (both had played in early versions of Mayall’s Bluesbreakers band), plus Colin Allen on drums. But a lot of guests showed up at this show (later released as a live album, In the Shadow of Legends), and for the epic encore version of the blues standard “C.C. Rider,” below, the core quartet was joined by Albert King, Etta James, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Sippie Wallace and Hubert Sumlin.
Mayall, now 81, has been called the Godfather of British Blues. In addition to Taylor and McVie, other members of his Bluesbreakers over the years have included Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood.
New Jersey celebrated its 350th birthday last year. And in the 350 Jersey Songs series, we are marking the occasion by posting 350 songs — one a day, for almost a year — that have something to do with the state, its musical history, or both. We started in September 2014, and will keep going until late in the summer.
If you would like to suggest any songs to be included, please let me know in the comments section underneath the video. And if you want to see the entire list, either alphabetically or in the order the songs were selected, click here.
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