I couldn’t have a conversation with Seymour Stein without him mentioning Mike Vernon.

Oh, that’s a little extreme, but Seymour mentioned Mike all the time, just like he mentioned Syd Nathan and King Records…that’s where he got his start. And once he started he made a deal with Mike Vernon to put out his Blue Horizon records in America.

But now Seymour is dead and there’s no one left to testify.

I’d never heard of Mike Vernon, but it turns out I know his music. I learned that from the few obits I found. Turns out Mike Vernon produced the legendary John Mayall album “Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton.”

Do young people know this record?

Keith Relf was the frontman of the Yardbirds, and their catchy hit tunes were written by Graham Gouldman. Sure, “Over Under Sideways Down” featured the fretwork of Jimmy Page, but unless you’d seen “Blow Up,” chances are you didn’t know Jeff Beck was in the group, or Eric Clapton before him.

Most people didn’t know who Clapton was until “Disraeli Gears,” the 1967 album that featured his guitar work on “Sunshine of Your Love.” People bought that, some went back to buy “Fresh Cream,” “Wheels of Fire” was gigantic and then it was “Goodbye.”

And back then, when you discovered an act, you investigated their roots, you wanted more. There were people who already owned the “Blues Breakers” album, but what truly blew it up was Eric’s success in Cream.

And it wasn’t only Eric who got a boost in status, it was Mayall himself too, he was now seen as a fountain of great guitar players, a veritable farm team. Mick Taylor played with Mayall before he was snatched by the Stones. And before all that, you had Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, who ultimately formed Fleetwood Mac, whose first two albums were produced by Vernon and came out on his label to boot! It was Vernon who produced the single “Albatross”… Never a hit, it has sustained longer than the hits of its era.

Turns out Mike and his brother Richard owned Chipping Norton Recording, which I only knew because there’s a famous photo of Gerry Rafferty wearing a sweater with the studio’s name embroidered on it. “Baker Street” was cut there.

Mike Vernon produced David Bowie, Ten Years After, Savoy Brown…even the legendary “Christine Perfect” album which was released to crickets, but when Fleetwood Mac blew up with her now in it, the album was stocked in every record store…once again, people wanted, NEEDED, more.

Vernon was even a performer. He was in Rocky Sharpe and the Replays…I never knew that.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Mike produced “Hocus Pocus” by Focus!

But not a single person e-mailed me about his passing. Whereas if Seymour was still alive, he would have waxed rhapsodic, sent a lengthy e-mail I could have shared with my readers.

Now in one of the obits Vernon said that it was a time and place, the blues revival…but we’re only a motion away from another wave, this music has feeling, it’s forever.

And there were obits in the English papers, and I was stunned to find one in the “New York Times”:

“Mike Vernon, Who Helped Spark the British Blues Boom, Dies at 81 – He produced albums — by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, with Eric Clapton, and the early Fleetwood Mac — that defined 1960s blues rock. He also shepherded David Bowie’s debut album.

Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/arts/music/mike-vernon-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WFA.EUPE.5T6FFTGj-fyy&smid=url-share

But there were no hosannas, never mind a victory lap while he was still alive. Even worse, he died on March 2nd, weeks ago, we’re only finding out now!

I don’t know if Mike Vernon belongs in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but one thing is for sure, he belongs there a lot more than Whitney Houston and the popsters now being inducted. Vernon’s work was bedrock.

But no one seems to care.

We used to. That was our passion, our lives…we needed to know all the players. And I knew the songs, but didn’t happen to buy the albums Mike produced, so I didn’t know…whereas today all this information is at our fingertips and people know nothing.

Then again, are the people worth knowing about? Are the acts worth knowing about? They might have hits, but they’re usually not the single vision of yore, written by the act itself. And money and fame lead, whereas before they were after-effects.

But what really weirds me out is everybody who knew Vernon, and it’s not only Vernon, is passing and not only are these people forgotten, but the stories too.

It’s extremely weird.

But the music remains.

How much of today’s music will remain?

“Albatross” is forever… The Spotify Top 50?