Jimmy Page looked back on working with John Mayall on the blues rock icon’s “I’m Your Witch Doctor/Telephone Blues” single, noting how Eric Clapton was at one point called “impossible to record”.
The story took place well before Led Zeppelin, or even Page’s Yardbird days, when the legendary guitarist was honing his chops as a session player but also worked as a producer for various artists. Looking back on the event in a recent Instagram post, Page noted how John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, which also featured Eric Clapton, came to record the single at Pye Studios, and Immediate Records hired him to produce the effort. The guitarist wrote:
“It was recorded at Pye Studios with jazzer Hughie Flint on drums, John McVie on bass, John Mayall on keyboards and vocals, and Eric Clapton on guitar. It was recorded in June of 1965. When ‘Witch Doctor’ came to be overdubbed, Eric had this idea to put this feedback wail over the top. I was with him in the studio as he set this up, then I got back into the control room and told the engineer to record the overdub.”
As he went on, Page recalled how the engineer, frustrated with the work, called Clapton “impossible to record” at one point:
“About two-thirds of the way through, he pulled the faders down and said: ‘This guitarist is impossible to record.’ I guess his technical ethics were compromised by the signal that was putting the meters into the red. I suggested that he got on with his job and leave that decision to me!”
Praising Clapton’s work on the B-side of the single in particular, Page went on:
“Eric’s solo on ‘Telephone Blues’ was just superb. I would like to have seen Ainsley Dunbar on drums in the studio for ‘Witch Doctor.’ I also produced ‘Sitting On Top of the World,’ showing John Mayall’s blues to Top 20 ambitions, and ‘Double Crossing Time,’ an ironic title as the next time I heard of them, they were in the very capable hands of Mike Vernon – famed blues producer. It was a good move: Eric left The Yardbirds because they had Top 20 aspirations!”
You can check out Jimmy Page’s original Instagram post below.
