Is there any more exciting concept in rock ‘n’ roll than the supergroup? Put together four or five rock stars at the top of their game and just see what happens. It seems like England invented the idea in the ’60s with groups like Cream and Blind Faith. Eric Clapton just happened to be in both of these groups. But none had the star power of his greatest supergroup, the Dirty Mac, who only played two songs at one high-profile gig—the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus in 1968. The group consisted of John Lennon, Clapton, Keith Richards on bass and Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience on drums. Yoko Ono and violinist Ivry Gitlis also stepped on the stage with the Mac to give an avant-garde edge to their blues jam, “Whole Lotta Yoko.”

Here in 2007, England has once again come through and produced a formidable supergroup calling themselves the Good, the Bad and the Queen. They are: Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz on vocals, keys and songwriting; Simon Tong of the Verve on guitar; the Clash’s bassist Paul Simonon; and Tony Allen of Africa 70 (and co-founder of the Nigerian-based Afrobeat sound) on drums. They’ve produced one of the best releases of the year with their self-titled debut, which contains tracks condemning the general state of the world—war, ignorance, imperialism. All of it was put together by super producer Danger Mouse (Gorillaz, The Grey Album).

Here are the Dirty Mac and the Good, the Bad and the Queen member by member, in a supergroup breakdown.

Bandleader/Chief Songwriter
You can’t really beat John Lennon as your bandleader for star power and swagger. You can’t really even write anything about it. He founded the freakin’ Beatles. What he brought to his supergroup though, mainly, was the cachet to get all these guys together, and then of course, Yoko. He also brought the first song they played: the White Album’s “Yer Blues”, which rocks its ass off in his new group’s hands. Just listen to the Clapton guitar solo and Mitchell’s scattershot drums.

There’s no comparing Damon Albarn to John Lennon, but Albarn also brought his musical pedigree to the table as a way of getting the best of England’s (and one of Nigeria’s) musicians together. Albarn has been everywhere in the past decade: Blur, Gorillaz, guesting on other projects like Deltron 3030 and Lovage, and releasing solo albums.

But his songwriting on this album is what carries it, and it’s brilliant. It’s not Blur, it’s not Gorillaz, or anything else he’s done. It’s very specific to this project, and it seems that the overall sound he’s brought about is pretty far out. He’s singing about the end of time (“And the medicine man is here 24/7, you can get it fast in Armageddon…”). Songs like “History Song”, “80’s Life”, and “Kingdom of Doom” are beautiful for their drearily delivered lyrics condemning the ignorance and idiocy of following governments with nothing but war on their mind.

Guitar
Clapton vs. Simon Tong. Simon, who? Well, guess what folks, from the perfectly-picked first section of “History Song” to the big, electric freak out at the end of the title cut “The Good, the Bad and the Queen”, Tong shows himself to be more than solid, and more than capable of carrying a number of different genres of rock on his supergroup’s palate. They cover everything from doo-wop and bouncy Beatles piano to reggae-tinged or psychedelic numbers, and he handles all of it deftly. His relationship with Albarn has been growing over time—Tong replaced Blur guitarist and founder Graham Coxon on tour, and Tong played on the Gorillaz album, Demon Days. Their familiarity shows as Albarn’s vocals gel easily with Tong’s playing. You can hear him on tracks like “80’s Life” and “Northern Whale” just throwing in little underwater-sounding effects to add flavorful replies to the vocals. It’s brilliant and weird.

As for Clapton, he’s pretty picture perfect with the Mac. It’s clear when you see him on stage with Lennon, who’s playing rhythm, that Clapton is the leader of lead guitarists. His solo on “Yer Blues” is effortless, and he takes the lead in the blues jam “Whole Lotta Yoko”, using a nonchalant strumming style that would later emerge in his work with Derek and the Dominos. He blows away any guitar work the Beatles had ever put out there. Clapton rocks and grooves while maintaining his cool. Coming off his time with Cream, he seems to be at his musical peak in this performance.

Bass
It’s tough to say who’s better, so let’s not. While Keith Richards played bass on a number of Stones tracks, he’s not known as a bass player. But it’s safe to say he does a more than serviceable job with the Dirty Mac. If you watch the televised performance, he seems more interested in the gig than anyone else in the group not named Mitch. Richards shakes his head like a wild man and maintains a face of strict concentration. His playing is plucky and solidly holds up the bottom end, along with Mitchell. It’s a stark contrast to Clapton’s cool, gum-chewing, assassin-like performance, and Lennon’s meditative paleness in between bursts of shouted vocals.

As for Simonon, he might be the best thing about the Good, the Bad and the Queen, and that’s saying a lot. His bass playing is not a particularly hard or driving force. But it seems to come at opportune times with some very funky lines, and it bounces all over the place. Remember how the Clash dabbled in reggae and dub? You can see how seamless it must’ve been for them with Simonon playing bass. He’s totally mellow, but also precise and on the beat. His notes extend into each other, creating a big sound without having to hit particularly hard and without getting too fuzzy.

Drums
The drummers with these two groups are two very different animals, it seems. But both Mitch Mitchell and Tony Allen are jazz guys. This comes out in both their abilities to throw in syncopated, hyper hits when they need to. Allen’s drumming through most of the album, save the last track, is much more subtle than Mitchell’s. With the Dirty Mac, Mitchell is all-out, hitting hard, and hitting all over the place. He and Keith Richards seem to have developed a good understanding through this performance. Richards is often looking back at him, almost in amazement, but probably just to make sure he’s keeping up all right with the flailing Mitchell.

Albarn had previously gone to Nigeria to record with Allen, who co-founded the Afrobeat sound with Fela Kuti in the early ’70s. Afrobeat is a fusion of jazz, Nigerian and Ghanaian highlife (jazzy horns and guitars), native Yoruban music and American soul and funk. Allen’s drumming skates across the back of a lot of Albarn’s songs, and it works perfectly, inflecting tracks like “The Bunting Song” and “Nature Springs” with depth, and “History Song” with a beautiful, slow build along with Simonon’s bass underlying Albarn’s keys. His beats work very well rhythmically with Simonon, providing a solid anchor, but also a very lively one.

Flavor
The Dirty Mac were introduced by Mick Jagger who put the whole circus together, and they had Yoko Ono and Ivry Gitlis come on stage with them for their second cut, “Whole Lotta Yoko”, resulting in a bit of screaming and high-pitched violin-playing. But at the root of it all was the electric blues, jazzed up by four British lads with a great love for it
. Even Yoko’s avant-garde vocal stylings couldn’t hide that this was really a blues jam, and that this is what these dudes were all about. “Yer Blues” sounds like it was rehearsed a lot more than Yoko’s number (if rehearsed at all), and much more than the “Whole Lotta Yoko” jam, it belts out the electric blues in pure form.

Behind the inner workings of the Good, the Bad and the Queen, there’s Danger Mouse, who’s worked with Albarn and Tong before on the most recent Gorillaz album. DM’s also become one of the most sought-after producers in hip-hop and indie rock. Though it’s Albarn who’s the driving force behind this whole thing with his lyrics, he’s mentioned that the album was recorded throughout with his harmony-less, singular voice at DM’s strong urging. One thing you can hear: Danger Mouse has given the overall feel of the album a far-off sound, as if to add to its apocalyptic, end-of-world, war-all-the-time themes. The echoey recording of Tong’s crunching, grating guitar effects lends itself well to the shattered world Albarn’s lyrics create. Adding a dramatic live string section to half the tracks also helps along the cause by providing more of the end-of-the-world atmosphere.

Watch: The Good, the Bad and the Queen “Kingdom Of Doom” [at myspace.com]

Watch: The Dirty Mac “Yer Blues” [at myspace.com]

» Previously: Cat Stevens and Sufjan Stevens: What In the Name of God?