Supergroup

There are some pairings of musicians that would make music fans salivate. How about seeing Jerry Garcia trade licks with John Coltrane. Or maybe seeing Stevie Wonder harmonizing alongside Ray Charles. Well, tonight I learned of a one-time grouping of musicians that occurred back in 1968 that somehow never hit my radar. Now, I consider myself a fan of music. In fact, I'd say I would pride myself on being ahead of most. But sometimes I am so humbled by my lack of rock history that I sometimes want to hang up my hat.

How could a pairing of members of THE BEATLES (John Lennon), ROLLING STONES (Keith Richards), CREAM (Eric Clapton) AND THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE (Mitch Mitchell) never make it to my consciousness?!? Well, perhaps it is because the audience appears to be so lost in a purple haze that they even forgot it ever happened. Or perhaps it is because the clip was never released until twelve years ago. The story goes like this:

Just after the White Album came out, John Lennon performed "Yer Blues" at The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus with a supergroup dubbed The Dirty Mac, consisting of himself, Eric Clapton on lead guitar, Keith Richards on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums from The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The recording was never broadcast, and for decades the performance was only available on bootleg, but it finally came out officially on both CD and video in 1995.

FYI: This is John Lennon's first concert before an audience outside of performing with The Beatles. Wow.