British Blues

Movie director Martin Scorsese reckons that the British Blues heroes of the '60s were paying homage to US blues legends in the same way that French New Wave filmmakers were saluting the kings of Hollywood. Not only did the UK's bluesmen do a superlative job, they also laid solid foundations for all future rock.

Before Fleetwood Mac went pop, they had blues-rock guitar legends Jeremy Spencer and Peter Green — try the languid, horny "Love That Burns" for size. Reclusive guitar god Jeff Beck leaves his indelible mark alongside Rod Stewart's vocals on a couple of Willie Dixon songs: "I Ain't Superstitious" and "You Shook Me".

Taste came storming out of Ireland under the leadership of axe-man Rory Gallagher and nearly settled into Cream's vacant power-trio throne, until internal strife took its toll. Nottingham's Ten Years After played a nine minute version of the hard rockin' "I'm Going Home" at Woodstock and, in that moment, cracked the USA.

In the late Sixties, British Blues was a coveted badge of authenticity, a mark of separation from the hordes of perky, chart-friendly teeny boppers. Bluesdaddy John Mayall groomed a succession of future legends with his outfit, the Bluesbreakers. The roots of Cream, Fleetwood Mac and the Rolling Stones were all fed with Mayall's blues fertiliser: try "All Your Love" as a choice sample of Eric Clapton's work with the Bluesbreakers. Part salute, part reinvention, the British Blues made rock hard.