bought this in probably 1970... just for this track. Your right BLOOMFIELD was up there with anybody in the last 60 yrs. taken from us far to young by HEROIN ADDICTION ..stay well
I am indeed blessed. I'm a Brit Blues man transplanted in Sacramento CA for the past 7 years or so. Capitol Radio is the local NPR radio station and Saturday afternoon belongs to Mick Martins Blues Party which has been going strong for over 25 years. 4 hours of top quality blues, accompanying stories and a show dedicated to keeping the Blues alive in it's myriad forms. Mike Bloomfield In his various incarnations ia frequent feature. Can't recommend the show highly enough for any Blues afficianado. I've lived here for 35 years and it's the best blues show I've ever heard.
Michael Bloomfield's musical phrasing was really special ... a tribute to T-Bone Walker & BB King ... but Mike had his signature style. He made the guitar speak.
Mike Bloomfield continues to entrance me every time I hear him play. I never saw him in person. I'm an amateur drummer , not a guitar player. I was lucky to live in SF from 05 to 10, and I played with a bassist who once hung with Bloomfield. I can't talk about tone or phrasing like a guitarist can. Bloomfield was a seeker, a lover of the music, and he cut his teeth on the South Side with Muddy, the Wolf and Spann. He will never be forgotten. He moves me todo los dias.
Just gotta wonder - right now as I write 11 people gave this track a "thumbs down". WTF why? This is what a slow blues is. This song, the playing, the lyrics, the singing, defines what a slow blues is. I guess some people will never have soul.
I still need to thank my pops for gifting me this record when I was 7 years old on Valentines Day coming back from a business trip. I graduated from kiddie music (which I'd already started to do) but went full on into the guitar world and never looked back.
He was a superb player with an amazing tone and great licks. More than others, he showed us how a Les Paul should sound. I've got nothing but the greatest respect for him. He's in my personal pantheon of guitar gods, along with Hendrix. Clapton, Duane Allman, Peter Green and a few others.
I picked up this album second-hand in '72, and this track in particular blew me away completely. Mike's blues tone was, and still is, unsurpassed by any of the greats .. and that's saying something. But what makes this track such a gem is the way it builds at the beginning and grabs you by the throat until it finally lets go at 8.45. Then Mike smooths everything out with some of the sweetest, most sensitive and tasty choruses humanly possible, before finally handing back to NG for the vocal finale. I've heard lots of Mike's stuff, and this is without a doubt the very best. Absolutely sublime throughout. So sad he had to leave us when he did.
He was his own worst enemy. Paul Butterfiled and Bloomfield had the greatest combi- nation of vocal / harp / and guitar playing ever, in my opinion. And they're both gone, due to their own demons. Such a shame.
What did you expect them to die from? Hoping and feeling too much? They internalized the pain of the "underclass" beginning with field hollers of masters and slaves. Jews wear their pain on the inside while Aframs wear it on the outside. Guilt??? White Man's burden? "You are a better man than I, Gunga Din". Let's get real!!
Blues on the Westside was written as they lived it. Epic. Love it. Best friend went down when I was 17. Stole a couple watermelons, chased by Deputy, car rolled, ejected, the end. RIP Butch. 🕊️
Couldn't agree more. Mike had min/maxxed his tone by the time he went from the Tele for the Burst. There is a reason he was recognized by all the legends. Sublime. Transcendent. Eternal. Simple. Complex. Human. Major, Minor. The Blues.
Bob Dylan said he's the best guitar player he ever heard. "Only the good die young" dates back to Greece, circa 445 BC, and was a hit song for Billy Joel but rings so true when looking at guitar players. Bloomfield, Hendrix, Duane Allman, Randy Rhoades, Hillel Slovak, Jeff Buckley, Brian Jones, Buddy Holly, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Danny Gatton all left us too soon. But Jimi is jamming with some serious talent in the next life.
Saw him live at the Fillmore West back in the day might have even been to this show not sure saw him more than once. He just touched my soul he had the "magic". Miss him lived in San Francisco when the news came of his passing sad day.
Currently have my epiphone Sheraton II out. Trying to mimic some of these licks. This guy cannot be replicated. This is from the soul. I feel bad for even trying to do this but it’s a start. No one could ever compare!! Bloomfield for life!!
Michael used 13 gauge strings. That and Twin Reverb with JBL speakers. Its not possible to get that sound from any modern Gibson Les Pauls, because they are nothing like the original Les Pauls. His riffs are very simple and can be learned with practice. In fact, he is a good artist to learn from because his note choices are simple and predictable. He learned from the black blues Masters, all the really good white blues players did the same thing.
Listening to MB on a Sunday morning. We have an economic disaster, a pandemic, civil unrest, and a tropical storm coming. I'm sitting on my porch, drinking beer at 9:00 a.m. listening to Mike, and the approaching storm. Why the hell not? Can't go nowhere 'cause my truck died yesterday. Thanks, Mike. It's all good.
Tone?! This is what most people mean when they talk BLOOMFILD.HE IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING HIS TOGGLE SWITCH.THE SUPER SESSIONS ALBUM HE REALLY MADE HIS ICONIC BLOOMFIELD SOUND.INSTANTLY RECOGNIZABLE.SWEET,CUTTING,CLEAR TONE.AS A FORMER RETIRED GUITARIST, I UNDERSTAND HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO IMPROVISE WITH SLOW BLUES. THERE IS NO PLACE TO HIDE..BLOOMFIELD IS THE MASTER OF PLAYING THE BLUES.CLAPTON CALLED HIM A SOUL BROTHER,DYLAN SAID BEST HE EVER PLAYED WITH. I OFTEN WONDER HOW VAN HALEN WOULD HAVE PLAYED BLUES,WITHOUT TAP TRICKS A WALL OF AMPS,PEDALS ETC.THE ONLY THING A MODERN GUITAR Player does is imitate old links then get bored,because they know it's not authentic.then slow blues is something that they are not into.bloomfield forgot more links than most players learn.He died at 37!!!
@@VBForbes More likely they schooled each other in equal measure. Introducing Johnny at the Fillmore East, Bloomfield said that Winter was "..the BADDEST motherfucker...this cat can PLAY..." It's all right here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HVM3ZbW2E-8.html
what a night - Bloomfield was out there - eyes closed - every once in a while he would open his eyes and check things out then close them again and just kill it sooooo sweet the sound - god i miss him !
I bought this album, when it first came out at a Tower record store in San Francisco. When I got home, and played it, there was no doubt that this was Bloomfield at his finest.. I love that they kept in the fall start on It Takes Time. The band missed the downbeat. Many of the cuts can also be found on Nick Gravenites album, My Labors.
Plus, this reissue was good but the Japanese mini LP sleeve versions has the full versions of all of this (with the false start on "It Takes Time") as well as more of the banter between tunes from the musicians. And extra tracks. Same goes for the Nick Gravenites "My Labors" - extra tracks, mini LP sleeve. It's weird, I must have bought this record half a dozen times now but I keep looking for more material from that magic night - they were ALL firing on all cylinders that evening.
It's like having a curl-up-on-the-couch cry. If you felt down and needed to let out all the "she-done-me-really-bad-and-I can't-pull-out" gut wrench, well then - if you had a guitar, this is what you'd be trying to play. Just beautiful.....
Bloomers was the best. Listen to allof his stuff and he could do what anyone else could but he was a gentleman and never sought to upstage or get the better of anyone else. an all found good person
That face says it all. My god Bloomfield, you will never be forgotten. His power through music will always thrive on and influence others. From his head, to his heart, to his hands.
metalmike66 Today's players are generally frightened of that upper mid lower treble howl that Bloomfield and a few others used to devastating effect. I love it myself.
I saw him play several times at Fillmore West with Paul Butterfield in the late 60's. To get another fix on Mike, you could try listening to his soundtrack of The Trip which he played with his band The Electric Flag. It's outstanding and gives you an idea of a much larger range of guitar playing and style than you typically hear from him.
Bloomfield has forgot more than most players will ever learn.damn he is good and you just can't getting any cleaner. No pedals,no nothing! He just plugged in the Amp straight like 1949.listen to the endless stream of notes,effortlessly being fired at you, or the breath taking beautifull slow blues that showed the world this is how its done.RIP mike,and thanks!
he didnt not need any pedals just the am pand pure talent what we have lost can not evenbe describe i hope the new the guitar players will realise its you and the guitar and nothing else
I sure wish I'd attended this show. I was living in a commune in Berkeley in 1969 and we went to many shows at Fillmore West. But not this one. Damn! 50 years ago!
Bloomfield hit his peak in '69 recording and touring with Gravenites. The stuff those two guys did together outside Electric Flag is waaaay better than the stuff they did in that band.
I hope the day comes when someone decides to pair this with remasterings of several other key performances from those concerts (February 1969, two weekends) and issues as complete a "Live at Bill Graham's Fillmore West 1969" as can be issued . . .
Yep, absolutely.. Between this album, Nick Gravenites’ My Labors and the known bootlegs of outtakes and alternate versions, many of which are here on RU-vid, it could be a marvelous 3-4 disc length set. Some of the non- commercially released songs, including another version of Blues On A Westside, are clearly not of this quality but would still be of interest.
@@teamlotus13 would you be referring to this track ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BqzD-9WSQns.html ? Cos I've been sitting here for the past hour going back and forth, playing one, then the other, and back again. And I'm damned if I can decide which I like better. They're so different, yet the same. And that was one of the things about Michael. Even on a rough night (and he had 'em, god nose-a lot of us did back then) he always brought something interesting. You forget until something sparks you to go back for a listen, just how damned good he was. Cos he was a human. Getting stuff right, and getting stuff wrong. And a true pain in the ass sometimes. But goddamn the boy played like nobody else. Nobody.
Yes sir, that’s the one! I enjoyed all you said. The record company clearly picked the overall better take, but both are well worth hearing. I had a friend years ago who did some mixing on the outakes so they sound quite good. He also eliminated that squeeling sound that can be heard in original vinyl pressings of this lp ( and an Apples Music version!) I’m not holding my breath for a complete box set, cuz we’re lucky to have most, tho not all of it on RU-vid! Would sure be nice tho. I was lucky to be there one of these February nights, and all these years later can relive it and more