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I bought P. Particularly, Michael Bloomfield. All my guitar picking friends wore out a couple of copies straight away. They knocked my socks off.
This album was and is a very important album in grand scheme of Popular Music. East-West kicked off a whole Raga rock thing in midst of the oncoming wave of Psychedelia. I never get tired of hearing Mike Bloomfield's solos. I came up in Texas in the traditional Blues tradition. (T-Bone and the 3 Kings, Freddie, Albert and BB, Lightnin' Hopkins, Johnny Winter etc). Wow. I remember when this album came out, everyone was primed to buy it.
The Harmonic minor scale existed well before that but not the way Michael played it and connected it to the Blues. I've been playing guitar for almost 50 years. Butterfield B.B.'s first album because they had Howlin' Wolf's rhythm section with new guitar players. Those Michael Bloomfield solos became "The Encyclopedia".
The band even manages to take teen fare--the Monkees' "Mary Mary," and give the puppy love sentiment of "I can't live without ya" a darkly sexual threat; all thanks to the grawling guitars, churning harmonica and the singers leering vocals. There is the jazz of Cannonball Adderly's "Work Song," the pure sound of "I've Got A Mind,"and the raga of the title track. It contributes a lot to the back alley feel even the best Chicago Blues had, and the contrast betweent this and the ellegance of the actual music is extreamly powerful.Essential. There were lots of takes on the blues in the late 1960s: the improvosation of Cream, the acid blues of Hendrix, the elegent jazz of Colwell-Winfield's Cold Wind Blues.East-West is in the top of the top leauge. Paul Butterfield had an amazing band, featuring Michael Bloomfield, arugably the best pure blues axeman of the era.What Butterfield did on this album was to take numerous styles and run a Chicago Blues thread through them. The transformation is astounding, showing the ture raw power of the blues.'The recording is stuck in 1967--it still has that "twang" that disappeared from records around 1969--but here, that is actually an asset.
The guitar solos by both Bloomfield & Bishop are excellent & tasteful & the rhythm section of Jerome Arnold & Billy Davenport rank right up there with Ron Carter & Tony Williams of the great Miles Davis bands of the 60's, not to mention John McVie & Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac. Bishop & Bloomfield then begin an ascending dual guitar build-up which leads to the song's ending climax. For all of the endless accolades showered on EVERYTHING recorded by Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, & Stevie Ray Vaughan, nothing these three titans of blues-rock recorded approaches what this band accomplished on "East-West". "Work Song" is a faithful version of the original with excellent solos by each member of the band. Bloomfield's playing isn't lightning fast like McLaughlin's would be in the M.O., but has that same India inspired feel of McLaughlin's best work. The music again reaches a climax after his solo followed by another sudden stop.
This is serious, driving blues-rock at its best, made by serious musicians, not a bunch of stoned hippies. "East-West" combines the emotion & power of the blues along with the swing & instrumental dexterity of a great jazz band. This album with it's lengthy, India-inspired soloing on the title cut is frequently credited with starting the acid rock movement which grew out of San Francisco in the late 60's. This is a major crock folks. Along with the innovative blues-rock recordings of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac made a few years after the release of this recording, this recording is seriously underrated & ignored by FM album oriented rock stations & today's blues-rock bands & fans. with their meandering, loosely structured jams, could hold a candle to this band & to compare this recording with the excessive, disjointed music put out by the acid rock movement of the late 60's does this band & this recording a major disservice. A breath taking performance from beginning to end which never goes overboard or becomes boring at any point. Michael Bloomfield then launches into a lengthy, powerful guitar solo that previews the coming of John McLaughlin's jaw-dropping guitar work in the original version of the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
This album has aged well & is still relevant today. The title song "East-West" starts out with Elvin Bishop on guitar joined by Michael Bloomfield playing an ascending build-up to Paul Butterfield's harp solo. King, which features great, slow burning guitar work by the late Michael Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop's slow blues "Never Say No" which features great, moody vocals & a dreamy-swampy feel, & the two centerpieces of the album, the instrumentals "Work Song" written by jazz great Nat Adderly, & the title cut "East-West" written by Michael Bloomfield & Nick Gravenites, who would collaborate with Bloomfield further after he left the Butterfield Blues Band. Blues-rock fans who haven't yet heard this recording, pick up a copy of this album a.s.a.p. NONE of the stoner acid rock bands (The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, etc). The instrumental skills displayed on this recording are outstanding & the sheer power this version of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band generated has not been replicated by any other blues-rock band other than Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac since. The highlights for me on this album are their version of "I Got A Mind To Give Up Living", made famous by B.B. After the harp solo the music reaches an edge of the world crescendo before coming to a sudden stop.
It's that good. You won't be disappointed & you'll find it hard to take this album out of your cd player. I LOVE this record & today's young blues-rock bands & fans need to discover this record. "Work Song" & "East-West" are probably the first recorded versions of jazz-rock fusion put to vinyl. That statement leads me to my final statements regarding this album.
Stretching out tunes into monster instrumental masterpieces with amazing guitar, harmonica, and organ solos. An all time must have. A classic from some of the great young white blues players coming out of Chicago in the early sixties. Micheal Bloomfield helps invent raga-rock guitar on the title track.
But there is also all of the rest of the songs, including Butterfield's catchy solo on Work Song. It is Mike Bloomfield's turn next, not with another show stopper solo, instead he pares back the music to the absolute minimum. The song is East West which contains some of the greatest music I've ever heard. It is what happens next that makes this an unique experience. There is nothing else like it that I've ever heard. I cannot do it justice, this music must be heard. It is a preview of what the bands later in the 60's will produce and remains one of the finest example of the extended guitar solo pieces.At this time the Butterfield Blues Band had two of the best guitarist around, Elvin Bishop and (my favorite) Mike Bloomfield. Elvin throws out a blazing fast mountain of notes.
His clear ringing notes lifts one from out under the mountain into the clear blue sky. It is unique moment that everyone deserves to experience.For this reason along, the song East West, makes this recording a must. This recording contains what has to be the one of the greatest blues/rock songs of all time. They each take an extended solo, Elvin Bishop first. From this he slowly builds, never to excess, an exquisite solo that sends us flying above the mountains.
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