The story of how white English boys sold black American blues back to America, creating hard rock and heavy metal in the process, has been told many times.
Mayall – who sang and played harmonica, organ and guitar – was more interested in capturing the purity and authenticity of the music.
This mammoth 35-disc box set packs in every album from his formative years, starting with 1965 s live album John Mayall Plays John Mayall, which includes Crawling Up A Hill, later covered by Katie Melua.
The gold standard was 1966 s follow-up Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton (known as the Beano album because old Slowhand is nonchalantly reading the comic on the cover).