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Hooking up with Humble Pie guitarist Clem Clempson, jazz-funk drummer Billy Cobham and Springsteen keyboardist David Sancious in 1980, the great bassist Jack Bruce proved that no matter how massive the talents are while jamming on the floor, the most comfortable result of any collaboration is blues.

Out To Lunch and Livin’ Without Ja are the most relaxed examples of this direction, but the musos are just too ambitious to stick with the old 12-bar format, and step into prog and rock territory along the way.

Bird Alone is a decidedly curious finger workout, while Mickey The Fiddler is a slushy, cod-reggae croon. Meanwhile, Face Lift 318 is a pop ballad not too far removed from the music which Bruce’s sometime colleague Eric Clapton was making at the time.

It’s too eclectic to be coherent, but boy could these guys play…/o:p

Joel McIver is a British author. The best-known of his 25 books to date is the bestselling Justice For All: The Truth About Metallica, first published in 2004 and appearing in nine languages since then. McIver's other works include biographies of Black Sabbath, Slayer, Ice Cube and Queens Of The Stone Age. His writing also appears in newspapers and magazines such as The Guardian, Metal Hammer, Classic Rock and Rolling Stone, and he is a regular guest on music-related BBC and commercial radio.