I was responding to a post in the forum on this site in which someone asked what they should be focusing on in regards to learning to play the guitar and the first thing that immediately popped into my head was the John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers album featuring Eric Clapton. That album was the one that did it for me with the guitar - the Crown Jewel of guitar albums. If you're interested in the lessons I've been putting up recently on electric blues lead guitar, then you really HAVE to add this album to your collection. I love the fact that these tracks were recorded live in the studio and that Clapton was only 20 years old - there aren't many seasoned guitar players that can play with that intricate level of tone / vibrato / phrasing... it's simply amazing that he was sounding that good at that young of an age. I think the guitar tone he has for this album is incredible... the perfect amount of overdrive (all played on a Les Paul too I believe).

Anyway, if the Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton album is the THE album for guitar players to own and study, the song "Hideaway" is THE song off that album to learn. It tooks me years to be able to stumble through it and to this day it still doesn't sound good enough. If you look around on YouTube you'll see a lot of shoddy versions of people trying to play it, some of them can hit all of the notes.. but to me playing a song like Hideaway is so much more than just hitting the notes, it's making them sound right as well. So to sum up, if you aren't familiar with this album - get familiar with it!

As a reference, here's the version of Hideaway from the John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers album featuring Eric Clapton.