Chicago Electric Blues to the British Blues Explosion

Every towering guitar riff of late-60s rock owes its existence to 2120 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago. At Chess Records, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and house bassist/songwriter Willie Dixon electrified the Mississippi Delta blues, creating a raw, overdriven sound that traveled to post-war Britain in the duffel bags of American servicemen and merchant sailors.

In London, obsessive young disciples studied those imported Chess 45s like sacred texts. Bandleader John Mayall turned his group, the Bluesbreakers, into the ultimate finishing school for British blues virtuosos. When a young Eric Clapton left The Yardbirds to join Mayall in 1965, he plugged a 1960 Gibson Les Paul straight into a cranked Marshall JTM45 combo, birthing the thick, sustaining overdrive immortalized on the 1966 'Beano' album.

From Mayall's ranks sprang two distinct empires: Clapton teamed with Bluesbreakers bassist Jack Bruce and jazz-trained drummer Ginger Baker to form the world's first psychedelic power trio, Cream (and later Derek and the Dominos with Duane Allman), while Clapton's Bluesbreakers successor Peter Green recruited Mayall's rhythm section—Mick Fleetwood and John McVie—to launch the original blues-era Fleetwood Mac.