EDDIE BOYD AND HIS BLUES BAND Ft. PETER GREEN

	£		53
	$		70

EDDIE BOYD AND HIS BLUES BAND ft. PETER GREEN –

RARE, UK LP FIRST ORIGINAL PRESSING  E/X  E/X!!

“I have decided to sell my record collection which has been accumulated over many years”

I am not a trader or record shop. I am music fan who has collected vinyl records over many years and over the coming days/weeks I will be offering rare, and much sought after vinyl records including Prog Rock, Blues, Folk, etc from collectible labels such as Pink Island, Blue Horizon, Deram/Decca, Atlantic plum, Vertigo swirl etc etc..

Title:  Eddie Boyd and His Blues Band ft. Peter Green

Catalogue No:  Decca SKL 4872

Release Year:  1967

Country of origin:  UK  (original first pressing!)

This is a very rare (see Record Collector) UK Blues LP especially in this condition by Eddie Boyd and His Blues Band which features Peter Green, John McVie, John Mayall, Aynsley Dunbar and T.S. McPhee. This stereo pressing which is very rare given the age of the LP (43yrs!) is a much sought after UK LP original first pressing! Whether this LP is recorded in mono or stereo it does not sway the rarity, or indeed the value of the LP. If you already own this in stereo or mono pressing you have a HIGHLY COLLECTABLE and very rare UK Blues gem! I am sure Fleetwood Mac and Bluesbreakers enthusiasts and Blues aficionados would wholly agree!

Record Grading

Before I offer for sale I play to check my LP’s and I have just played both sides on an upmarket deck.

This LP is in truly EXCEPTIONAL CONDITION!! and is genuinely a reluctant sale.

There are absolutely no obvious visible hairlines, no scuffs, pops, cracks, jumps, sticking, an absolutely no breakfast frying in between tracks. Both sides of this immaculate LP are absolutely clean and I’d say as near spotless as the day it was released way back in 1967!

Even the run-in and run-out grooves on both sides of the LP are virtually ‘pop’ and click free! Absolutely stunning and you will be hard pressed to find another original pressing like this one! – Impossible!

Every single track plays superbly and the sound quality is truly exceptional! You’ll only have to see it and play it once, and you’ll understand how brilliant the condition of the LP really is!

Inner Sleeve:   printed poly-lined original Decca inner (care of record instructions)

Completely faultless! - There are no rips, tears, unwanted ink.. etc

LP Cover

As above – the laminated front cover has no rips and there is not a speck of flaking on the laminate, no tears, no unwanted ink marks..etc. The LP cover is in absolutely E/X condition! – You will think it is new, that’s how good it is! Brilliant!

Labels

Both labels are untouched/unmarked – both are virtually immaculate!

The LP and cover and inner sleeve really are top quality, and in truly stunning condition. In such a brilliant condition as this, it really is a much sought after UK Blues LP! – You will not be disappointed!!

(Please excuse the couple of images that display unwanted shadows)

Please take into consideration that I am not a photographer, but I will do my best with any further images you require and, if you have any questions about the LP please email me.

Contact is to be made within 3 days of winning bid and payment to be made within one week of winning bid.

Postage and packing within the UK = £3.50

International worldwide postage = £7.00

(If the winning bidder requires further postage security on the LP please email for price)

Thanks and Good Luck!

LP liner notes on reverse of cover as follows;

“EDDIE BOYD must be one of the few in this world who claim to have two birthdays. His passport states that he was born on November 13th 1914. But Edward Riley, as he was christened, claims that he was actually born on November 25th 1914. His birthplace, a plantation some distance from Clarksdale, Mississippi, was owned by one Frank Moore. William oyd, Eddie's father, saw little of his son; as an entertainer he was usually touring the juke joints of the southern States. "It was my grandfather who really looked after me, until i was fourteen years old, when I decided to leave and go to Arkansas." In fact, Eddie didn't actually decide to leave - he had to. George Crumble was the plantation boss, a very severe man. One day, Eddie had a fight with Crumble and stabbed him in the back with a hay-fork. As Eddie says: "Man, there was eight thousand men came looking for me. Cars, horses - and I were only a little boy. So that's how I left my home town." Before this, Eddie had only been as far as the neighbouring township of Clarksdale.

Eddie tried to play a little guitar, but didn't make much progress. He married and moved on to Memphis, where he met a trumpet player, Eddie Childs, who helped him to learn the rudiments of music. Meeting a drummer, Robert Garner, was another stroke of luck: the two formed a 'band' to play parties and local barrel houses. Eddie played an old beaten-up trumpet, which he had had to straighten out; and in the bell he put a kazoo! Playing guitar and singing too, they earned enough to keep alive. But working in only one key - that of B flat - was a little tiring. Just as soon as Eddie was able to play in two different keys, he moved away from Millington and Woodstock, Memphis suburbs, into Beale Street, in the heart of the city. Working for seven dollars a week, seven nights a week, and twelve hours a night was quite something! It was on Beale Street that Eddie formed his first real band. "I met Willie Herd - drummer. And we created a band called the Dixie Rhythm Boys. There was Eddie Childs playing trumpet, Alex Atkins playing clarinet, and I was on piano. We was playing barrelhouse blues and a few pop tunes." Eddie worked on Beale Street for some two to three years, along with other great pianists of that era, Roosevelt Sykes, Memphis Slim, and the man with only seven fingers, Jack Slack. Also two others who helped Eddie to formulate his own particular style - Edward Hatchett and Booker T. Jones. Things were beginning to look good, until Eddie got 'ramblin' on his mind and moved to Chicago. He quickly made friends with Memphis Slim, and the two of them started working together on the South Side. By 1941 Eddie was playing along with Slim, Bill Broonzy and Sonny Boy Williamson, at the Triangle Inn on 14th Street and Blues Island. As Eddie states: "I didn't really learn about music until 1946." It was working with Sonny Boy that helped him.

Perhaps 1946 could be said to be the turning point in Eddie's career. Sonny Boy Williamson (John Lee), was killed and Eddie immediately left the band to form his own group, along with Lonnie Graham (guitar), Alfred Elkins (bass) and Booker T. Washington (drums). He made his first recording that year also, for R.C.A. Victor. Several sessions followed, through 1947 into 1948. The work was good but the breaks were just not there. Eddie married again in 1948 and to earn more money began working in a steel mill for eighty cents an hour. He had the idea to save enough so that he could hire a studio to cut his own session. He would pay the musicians himself, and then the master recording would belong to him. Gathering together his hand-picked group of musicians, Ernest Cotton (tenor saxophone), L.C. McKinley (guitar), Alfred Elkins (bass) and Percy walker (drums), Eddie recorded a song entitled 'Five Long Years'. The record was later released on the J.O.B. label, owned by Joe Brown, and became a National hit. In fact it reached number one in the R & B charts! From that moment on, all the major companies in Chicago wanted Eddie under contract. It made sense that the largest should eventually win over the others. Eddie signed a contract with Al Benson, who then sold the contract to Leonard Chess, head of the Chess and Checker group. 'Twenty-Four Hours' was his second Chess release and became an immediate hit. Others were to follow, but none was to exceed the success of that first big seller, 'Five Long Years'.

"Everything was good with me whilst I was with Chess, until 1957. That's when St. Louis Jimmy wrecked my car. A total loss, I didn't have any insurance on it myself. It happened at Walkeagan, Illinois, on the way to Milwaukee. I had played a date in Harvey and had dropped the band off in Chicago. I let Jimmy help me drive. Well, I was really sleepy and before that car changed to high gear I was asleep and the next thing I could remember, it seemed like there was bombs dropping, and thunder, 'cause he was hitting the concrete posts on the side of the road. He turned and went back into the highway in the southbound traffic, but he was still heading north! So I looked up and there was this big truck coming at us, pulling two of those big tanks - I guess they was diesel. I just hit this cat with all my might and he fell over to the left and the car went that way - it was straightening up. After a while he picked up speed and he went straight into a huge elm tree. And that's where I got this scar on my face, and some teeth got knocked out. For ninety-five days I was in a cast to keep me walking today, and this all cost me 45 hundred dollars!"

Eddie made some more records after leaving Chess brothers, but for much smaller concerns: Narvell Eatmon's Bea & Baby label, and Joe Brown's small Oriole company. His present life is a quiet one. He has a small farm some sixty miles out of Chicago, at Moments. He keeps chickens as well as growing different vegetables. In the winter Eddie returns to Chicago where he works in some of the clubs.

In 1965 Eddie Boyd visited these shores for the first time as a member of the '65 Folk/Blues Festival Package. He made many friends whilst he was here, John Mayall included. The rest of the Package tour left for the States, but Eddie stayed on, making his temporary home in Antwerp, Belgium. Working all over Europe for some sixteen months, Eddie decided it was time to get back to the farm. But he dearly wanted to record an album with John Mayall and his band. It fell to me to arrange this.

For someone who had been 'off' the American blues scene for so long, Eddie showed a great deal of concern for using the current beat, even on many of the slower numbers. Having Aynsley Dunbar and John McVie as the rhythm section made the task in hand a little simpler. Usually the biggest headache of all is to find a guitarist with the blues 'feel'. It's almost as if Peter Green was specially designed to fit the bill. To ring the changes, John Mayall himself was featured on a few numbers playing acoustic and amplified harmonica. And so the scene was set.

The choice of material was almost entirely left up to Eddie, although I had requested that he should re-record some items that were done in the years past. He obliged by giving superb renditions of 'Unfair Lovers', 'Blue Coat Man', 'Save Her, Doctor' and 'Vacation From The Blues'. Eddie's version of the late Elmore James' epic 'Dust My Broom' features the fine bottleneck guitar-work of Tony McPhee. Further detailed explanations of the songs are not really necessary from me at this point, but I should like to make two points known. Firstly, we have included two parts of 'Too Bad'. There is a good reason for this. In the past, all too often, an artist records one number on one day, is not too happy with the result and so re-records it a following day. The second version of 'Too Bad'seemed to be to all of us superior to that version done three days earlier. Eddie remarked on hearing the playback: "Now, you put some reeds and brass on that and you'll have something really strong man!" It seemed like a good idea, and so we booked some musicians to overdub the following week. The result is just what we had hoped for.

This album then, represents the blues of Eddie Boyd. Not a young man anymore, but still a pianist and singer of great standing. He is moving forward, unlike so many others of the same generation, who have grown firm roots in one particular style. Certainly, Eddie has his own style, but by adding the right ingredients to the right material, we have produced something unexpected and something exciting. Eddie Boyd has a long way to go before he becomes another 'forgotten bluesman'.

MIKE VERNON - Producer
© 1967, The Decca Record Company Limited, London