It's great reading posts from fellow Bloomfield fans. He was the first guitar god for me, predating Hendrix by a couple of years. One thing about his playing is that I can tell it's him after about 4 or 5 notes. His tone and phrasing were totally distinctive, and we all know that it's hard to do that in the blues! Maybe Albert King is the second most like that I know, followed by Albert Collins, then BB King. In my book and heart, Bloomfield's was the best blues guitarist who has ever played, espcially because of the way he stretched the genre, starting with East-West.

I have a photcopy of the rare book that a blues nut made for me about 15 years ago. It's a great read. I think the best all-Bloomfield album, if you want to capture is essence is "Don't Say That I Ain't Your Man! : Essential Blues, 1964-1969" It has stuff from the Butterfield band, Electric Flag, Super Session, his collaboration with Gravenites. It's a great, great compilation. But, East-West, in my book, is still the best album he was on, followed by the Flag's first album with the outstanding version of "Killing Floor" opening it up.

I only saw him twice. First was the Electric Flag Dec 1967 at Winterland, the second is when he came onstage to jam with Johnny Winter at Fillmore West, I think in 1970. After that, I heard he had kind of lost it and I had branched out into all kinds of other music.

Long live the memory of Mike and may he RIP.

Billiam:

. I only saw him twice. First was the Electric Flag Dec 1967 at Winterland, the second is when he came onstage to jam with Johnny Winter at Fillmore West, I think in 1970. After that, I heard he had kind of lost it and I had branched out into all kinds of other music. Long live the memory of Mike and may he RIP.

He DIDN'T lose it after 1970.  He just chose not to play the big game of commercialism and I love him for it!!   Check out some of his later stuff on those independent labels.  It's all great, in my opinion. 

Yeah, I agree - there's some good stuff out there post 1970.  Personally, I really enjoy the 1974 stuff with Jellyroll Troy; its pretty wild.  I'm assuming, though, that rumor began to spread that Bloomfield's touch was fading, not sure.  I heard his later years he became very unreliable, therefore, pushing away a lotta people.  I must admit - I find it hard to listen to some of the stuff from 1980 where he's obvious drunk, great piano player & still has "it," but it's sad for me to listen to it now... losing one of our greats.  Kinda like me listening to Jerry Garcia right before his death - the whole 1995 Grateful Dead was a real mess, Jerry sounded awful, and it was sad to hear.

 

Instead, I love listening to Bloomfield '74 stuff and '65 through '69 stuff, especially.  The Essential Blues Dont Say I Aint Your Man (or whatever the title is... lol) I play A LOT, especially track 12 (Lord have MERCY!!).  Red Hot & Blue gets played a lot as well as Wintery Countryside off of Gravenites' My Labors (beautiful slow blues) and, of course, his stuff w/ Al Kooper.

 

Peggy - did you get that book from Amazon yet?  How is it?  I noticed on Ebay a few weeks ago someone was selling that rare OOP book (American Guitar Hero, or whatever the title is).... went for about $178, with the majority of the bidding happening in the last 20 seconds.  Damn!!  The bid had been at $30 for awhile & I was hoping to steal it for that... LOL.

 

Anyways, Peggy - do you have a particularly favorite show (official or boot) that you listen to a lot?  What do you think of the '71 shows circulating boots from Swing Auditorium? 

 

Hi Mia!
As always, I enjoy your posts.  You remind me of myself.  I thought I was the only chick who 'gets' Mike Bloomfield! 

My favorite bootlegs: all the shows at the Fillmore West 1969, both shows at The Bottom Line 1975, all the Butterfield stuff,  10-20-78 (I put that one in circulation), 12-12-80 (I put this one in circulation as well),  2-20-79 (Michael is totally trashed but the passion in his playing just blows me away), 3-10-76, 4-20-77 and all the Electric Flag shows.

My favorite albums: Live at the Fillmore West, both Butterfield albums, Live at the Old Waldorf, all the stuff he did with Al Kooper, Essential Blues, Knockin' Myself Out and Nick's My Labors.  I really love 'em all, though. 

The book hasn't arrived yet.  In fact, they pushed the date out another month!  It's a POD (print on demand) book.  The wait is excrutiating!  LOL  I just read some good news that Buddy Miles is also writing a book. 

Send me a private message with your e-mail address.  I just might have something for you!

Peggy

just discovered bloomfield...kinda late into the game, but better late than never right...anyways, yeah, Mia puts it down correct about bloomy's music in one of the earlier posts. He uses string bending to great effect at the right time with such soul and passion. blues is sad music with much heart in it. one has to  feel the suffering to get it out of the instrument...well, this is true for music in general, but almost exclusive for the blues...well, all of u know this and i'm not trying to be the preacher or stuff...what i'm driving at is the quote by bloomy where he says something like, 'i'm a jew and we have gone thro similar suffering that the african americans have, so i relate to blues pretty well...' and this must be one of the reasons that he can generate those licks...well, he is also exceptionally talented...but talent aint everything right...a good example of this is bloomy's licks on "between the hard place and the ground". he is like literally plucking the strings of my heart here...there are a lots more that i found...the one with woody herman (?) on the instrumental "hitch hike on the possum trot line" is also spellbinding...

btw, which of the 3 concerts provided on this website do u like the most? My fav of the 3 is the one with the lowest rating....the 2/8 one...this is one keeper...

wolfgang vault, please provide this for download!

For an update on downloads, please check out

"What Performers Are Paid" in the Ladies and Gentlemen forum.

hi peggy

i just found this forum...excellent place! i thought i'd share my bloomfield experiences as i grew up in nyc and saw him quite a few times jumping on stage at the old cafe au go go and playing with everyone when he was around in the mid-60's. i saved an old picture from a magazine i had of him on stage with buzzy lindhart in 1966 at that same venue.



the last time i saw him was in golden gate park in august of 1974 the sunday after nixon resigned. i went to that free concert he gave with jim marshall the photographer who was a good friend of his and had the thrill of being introduced to him at that time. he shook my hand and passed me his joint. needless to say it was something i'll never forget.... a huge talent that we lost way too soon,

Hi Deezee!

I've seen those photos.  In fact, I have tons of old magazines with pictures of Mike.  If I knew how to insert a picture, I'd post a few.  By the way, that is John Hammond, Jr. with Michael in those pictures.  Buzzy Linhart was also featured in the same article. 

Thanks for sharing your memories!! 

Peggy

I first saw michael at the old filmore when he was with butterfield, at the end of the show michael was on stage by himself, no shoes or shirts just jammin. About 1:30 in the a.m. bill graham came out unplugged michael and said its time to go. Michael just kept playing as bill helped him off the stage. What i saw changed me forever. I saw michael every chance I got, maybe a 100 times. My favorite was at Santa Clara universtiy in the 70's. It was michael, naflin and nick, don't remember drummer. Michael played for about 2 hours to about 40 people. I still have Michael lps, i would have to guess 7 or 8 of them. I was a very special player. Nice to know he's remember.

What a beautiful memory!!  THANK YOU for sharing! 

Peggy

Hi, OP --

I manage a website dedicated to Michael Bloomfield. Among other things, it has a page of Bloomfield recollections. I'd love to include your memories of seeing Mike on that page. The site is located at http://www.bloomsdisco.com Just click on the "Recollections" link to check it out. You can reach me at bloomsdisco@yahoo.com.

Cheers,

David Dann

I've been looking for information about a concert I went to at Winterland when I was a teenager.  It was the Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield and Elvin Bishop.  I remember leaving the first night and thinking that I had just seen the best show.  I went back the next night an was blown away again.  Using your site I was able to find the dates which was February 23 & 24 1973.  I found the record of Paul Butterfield's set, but if anyone know where to find recording of Mike Bloomfield's set I would love to know.  Maybe the vault will release it!!

Yes, his phrasing was unique to say the least.   He played against the rhythm and messed around with his own counter-rhythms.  Nobody else did that, least of all Clapton, who "played the on-beats like a typewriter," according to Mr Naftalin.  As Al Kooper keeps pointing out, so many gigs were never recorded with the 1970's "Friends" groups, nor the early (67) Flag stuff when they were really going for it.  I saw the Hendrix/Blue Cheer/Soft Machine Pinnacle concert at Shrine Auditorium.  There, they had the wind machine flag with the spolight, and Buddy had that American Flag shirt.  It was tightly organized and they made everyone else seem relatively sloppy.

--including Jimi Hendrix.  Mitch Mitchell was so good, though, holding things together.  Allen Holdsworth was there with Soft Machine, but not yet playing that incredible stuff he started doing in the mid 80's.  He was gaping at Bloomfield like everyone else.  No one had heard stuff like that, with the amp so loud the tone got fat.  Clapton said he beat him to "the woman tone."

As it became clear the labels weren't going to stoke the fires, and as the drugs soaked in. . .it got erratic.  But back to phrasing.  He could play an improvised song in a way that sounded like a well-thought-out Bach fugue or something from start to finish, and never repeat himself.  A surviving example of this is Carmelita Skiffle from the Fillmore West album, which I think has gone to the My Labors Gravenites CD now.  IIt sounds like a composed, written-out thing.

If you listen to Gypsy Good Time from My Labors, the call and response with Nick on the verses, and the solo are like that.  As if it had been composed for a string quartet.  Perfection.   Listen closely to the turnaround at the end of the first solo verse, going into the seond verse.  Who the hell could do that except Michael??  On Holy Moly he does that Memphis Steve Cropper stuff as a backup player - you know the two and three-note lead fills - and could easily be mistaken for a Stax-Volt session guy who was trying to beat Cropper at his own game.

Both Michael and Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys insisted you get ahold of the early 60's Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Booker T and other Stax records to hear "a real ryhthm section and horns that had more lung, more dense coloring."

I became his personal roadie during one summer of Golden Bear (Huntington Beach) gigs - he and Mark Naftalin retreated there to have a small venue to try stuff out, they said.  Also, he said, "to read some books and get away from the filthy lucre."  He paced around like a caged lion, in contrast to what he said about a retreat or vacation, though.  They never went to the beach that I knew of.   Later I found out poppy was in it.  No wonder.

I am trying to remember the year.  It had to be 1970-71.  I've been recovering from back surgery, and that experience muddles the memory a bit.  Hi Peggy, long time no hear.  Sorry I dropped off the floor when we started corresponding a year or so ago.

Michael loved antithesis.  He read about the Greek Sophists, and they were teaching that speech could be persuasive without your having to believe the point you were making.  Very cynical guys.  He would get up on the Golden Bear stage and announce that the guy from Ampeg was there, and all the amps tonight were provided by that company.  His Twin Reverb was in the back room gathering sawdust.  He said "listen now, these amps are incredible, really great amps, but basically they are totally fucked-up amps."  When a writer would be trying to interview him as they waited in the sawdust room drinking Heniekens (Naftalin's fave then), he would play with this.  "I use really heavy strings with an .013 e-string so they give me lots of resistance when I do bends to achieve notes between the intervals."  Then he'd go onstage and tell the crowd (with the writer still there), "I always use Ernie Ball Super Slinkies - with the .009 e-string so I can control my bending."

"My picks are the heaviest, thickest ones Fender makes, but really they are quite thin & flexible."

I aksed him why he did this, and he said because he was bored.  He liked to reverse the first and last letter of words too.  Did it frequently.  Frid it dequently.  Freq it didquently.

I simply started to fetch him new e-strings, straps and cords from my own case when he broke stuff.  I read books about philosophy, history and weird religions, so he let me hang out. Eventualy I got the job.  My goal, of course was to recieve some guitar lessons.  I had to go to the motel.   He taught me how to finger-pick.  At the club he insisted upon pacing around or talking.  I told him how much I liked the Blues On A Westside cut from Fillmore West and he told me the horror stories about "all the horn players."  He got distracted and could not get them charts, so they'd get up and improvise.  "Those people like Snooky Flowers would be trying to be jazz guys, and would play notes that didn't harmonize.  It sounds like a bunch of wheezing asthmatics."

I told him "yeah, but the rhythm section with John Kahn (bass) - with you and Nick (Gravenites) doing the call and response is one of the best slow blues in the history of the world."  "Too bad the horn players had no idea what they were doing," he kept on insisting.  To him, all the chaos and drug problems were ruining his dreams of perfect, organzied music - like the Pinnacle show.

He'd disappear from the motel and no one could find him when he wanted to use heroin.  There, he never let on he was doing it.  Maybe because I was like 18-19.  A youngster.  Maybe he didn't want to infect me.  Or, maybe he was just embarassed.

He was interested in Islam and Sufiism (Gurdjieff's Meetings With Remarkable Men), and said the other Jewish people he knew would get nervous when he talked about it.    Like Bill Graham and his staff.  More anthithesis.  Another thick/thin guitar pick.

He actually used the Super Slinkies. I know because I kept his strings.  And Fender Extra Heavy picks.  That tobacco Les Paul got lost shortly thereafter.

Michael was a hero of mine at the time, and in later years when I found out how dissolute he'd become I was so sad.  He just hated the business people who controlled the music industry.  Imagine how he'd feel today!

More later,
Dave

Riothamus:

--including Jimi Hendrix.  Mitch Mitchell was so good, though, holding things together.  Allen Holdsworth was there with Soft Machine, but not yet playing that incredible stuff he started doing in the mid 80's.

Hi Dave,
    Thoroughly enjoyed reading your message.  Thanks for posting!  One correction, though.  This was nearly a decade before Holdsworth joined Soft Machine. Actually it was none other than a young Andy Summers (yep, the same Andy Summers later in The Police) that played guitar in Soft Machine on that tour. 
    Regards,      Alan

Riothamus:

Hi Peggy, long time no hear.  Sorry I dropped off the floor when we started corresponding a year or so ago.

 

Hi Dave!

It's about time you showed up here!  Hope you're feeling better!

 

Peggy