Guitarist
Peter Green left the Bluesbreakers to form
Fleetwood Mac, and was replaced by
Mick Taylor. Shortly before recording sessions for the album, bassist
Andy Fraser, who would later join
Free, also left the group, while drummer
Keef Hartley was replaced by
Jon Hiseman. Mayall asked if anyone knew someone who could play bass guitar, and Hiseman informed him that his friend
Tony Reeves, who had played
double bass for most of his career, had recently bought a bass guitar. The album included more jazz influences than usual. Reeves recalled of the album's making, "Rehearsals with John Mayall weren't really rehearsals; we didn't play very much, for a lot of the rehearsal time you sat around listening to what he wanted to do. He played records to demonstrate the feel or a style, or a sound that he was looking for. All of the things on the
Bare Wires album were worked out in the studio – we must have done one or two rehearsals actually playing the music, but I can’t remember that. Seems to me, most of the work took place in the recording studio." Following the album, Mayall pared down the group from a seven-piece to a three-piece band and ultimately dropped the Bluesbreakers entirely. Reeves, Hiseman and
Dick Heckstall-Smith went on to form
Colosseum.
Songs The songs "No Reply" and "She's Too Young" were released as a single by Decca. The seven songs on the album's A-side ("Bare Wires", "Where Did I Belong", "I Started Walking", "Open Up a New Door", "Fire", "I Know Now" and "Look in the Mirror") are arranged into a
medley. Some CD issues of
Bare Wires combine these seven songs onto a single track with the title "Bare Wires Suite", seemingly inspired by the headline "Bare Wires: A Suite by John Mayall" which appears on the album's inner gatefold. According to Reeves, the song "Hartley Quits" was titled after a front-page headline in
Melody Maker about Keef Hartley's departure from the Bluesbreakers. == Track listing ==