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Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero
This is the definitive biography of the legendary guitarist whom Muddy Waters and B. B. King held in high esteem and who created the prototype for Clapton, Hendrix, Page, and those who followed. Bloomfield was a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, which inspired a generation of white blues players; he played with Bob Dylan in the mid-1960s, when his guitar was a central component of Dylan's new rock sound on "Like a Rolling Stone." He then founded the Electric Flag, recorded Super Session with Al Kooper, backed Janis Joplin, and released at least twenty other albums despite debilitating substance abuse. This book, based on extensive interviews with Bloomfield himself and with those who knew him best, and including an extensive discography and Bloomfield's memorable 1968 Rolling Stone interview, is an intimate portrait of one of the pioneers of rock guitar.
272 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 23, 2019
The first half, covering Bloomfield’s early years up through the Electric Flag, was excellent, worthy of 5 stars. Then around 1974, it kinda lost its way (much like Bloomfield). This is the 2016 edition, essentially an update/rewrite of the 1983 edition, as explained in an afterward. Also noted is that other people did a lion’s share of the work for this version, so this may account for the change of tone post-1974. 3 stars for this part.
There is no mention in the text of the flawed Legacy box set from 2014, which, IMO was dominated by Al Kooper’s view of Bloomfield. This book has very few AK references, other than the Dylan and Super Session albums. Curious.
It was nice of them to include the complete 30 page Rolling Stone Interview with Bloomfield conducted by Jan Wenner.
The discography is exhaustive (60 pages), though it only has 2 song entries for the box set.
If you’re a fan, get it for the back story and discography. Then download the excellent 4 hour audio profile Mike Bloomfield American Musician.
There is no mention in the text of the flawed Legacy box set from 2014, which, IMO was dominated by Al Kooper’s view of Bloomfield. This book has very few AK references, other than the Dylan and Super Session albums. Curious.
It was nice of them to include the complete 30 page Rolling Stone Interview with Bloomfield conducted by Jan Wenner.
The discography is exhaustive (60 pages), though it only has 2 song entries for the box set.
If you’re a fan, get it for the back story and discography. Then download the excellent 4 hour audio profile Mike Bloomfield American Musician.
June 30, 2025
Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero was an excellent biography of a great, influential rock/blues musician. Ed Ward’s book (“rock ‘n’ roll historian” for NPR & early staff member of Rolling Stone, Creem, NY Times & WSJ) highlights Bloomfield’s dedication and drive to excel as well as his mental and drug-induced flaws.
Michael Bloomfield grew up Jewish and wealthy in Chicago-not the usual blues man’s background. As a teen-aged music affeciando, he started to hang around the downtown clubs where Muddy Waters, How’lin Wolf, Buddy Guy, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson & other blues greats could be seen every night. Paul Butterfield also hung out at these clubs and both aspiring musicians were eventually asked to sit in with the older men.
The self-titled Paul Butterfield Blues Band album with Bloomfield on lead guitar (1965) was ahead of its time in its racial integration and blues authenticity, especially since two of its members came from Howlin’ Wolf’s band. It influenced all the blues-based rock groups that followed from the Stones and Cream to Steve Miller, ZZ Too & LZ. It was Bloomfield’s dynamic and unique guitar, along with Butterfield’s vocals and harp histrionics, that garnered attention and imitation, so much so that Bob Dylan requested Michael to play on Highway 61 Revisited.
Like many rock stars, Bloomfield was obsessed, impractical and later, addicted to heroin and alcohol. He hated to tour and often pulled out of recording or performing commitments with little or no warning. His mental and physical state deteriorated to the point where he barely performed later in life and it resulted in his tragic and somewhat mysterious death at age 38.
Michael Bloomfield grew up Jewish and wealthy in Chicago-not the usual blues man’s background. As a teen-aged music affeciando, he started to hang around the downtown clubs where Muddy Waters, How’lin Wolf, Buddy Guy, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson & other blues greats could be seen every night. Paul Butterfield also hung out at these clubs and both aspiring musicians were eventually asked to sit in with the older men.
The self-titled Paul Butterfield Blues Band album with Bloomfield on lead guitar (1965) was ahead of its time in its racial integration and blues authenticity, especially since two of its members came from Howlin’ Wolf’s band. It influenced all the blues-based rock groups that followed from the Stones and Cream to Steve Miller, ZZ Too & LZ. It was Bloomfield’s dynamic and unique guitar, along with Butterfield’s vocals and harp histrionics, that garnered attention and imitation, so much so that Bob Dylan requested Michael to play on Highway 61 Revisited.
Like many rock stars, Bloomfield was obsessed, impractical and later, addicted to heroin and alcohol. He hated to tour and often pulled out of recording or performing commitments with little or no warning. His mental and physical state deteriorated to the point where he barely performed later in life and it resulted in his tragic and somewhat mysterious death at age 38.
December 9, 2017
2.5/5. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via the Goodreads giveaway.
As the title suggests, this book tells the story of Michael Bloomfield, a talented guitar player from Chicago. This book details his early family life, his start with music and the guitar, and follows his career throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
This book is obviously very well researched, and digs in to both Michael Bloomfield's professional life and his personal life. The author includes conversations from many people who knew and worked with Bloomfield, and also contains lots of information on interviews that Bloomfield himself gave. I thought the last chapter was particularly well done, in which the author compiles quotes from many different people about Bloomfield.
Despite this, this book just wasn't for me and I found it very hard to get in to. Biographies aren't really a genre that I'm a fan of, and I found that this subject was one I didn't have much of an interest in. As such, I would instead recommend this book either to readers who are great music fans or to someone looking for their next non-fiction biography to read.
As the title suggests, this book tells the story of Michael Bloomfield, a talented guitar player from Chicago. This book details his early family life, his start with music and the guitar, and follows his career throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
This book is obviously very well researched, and digs in to both Michael Bloomfield's professional life and his personal life. The author includes conversations from many people who knew and worked with Bloomfield, and also contains lots of information on interviews that Bloomfield himself gave. I thought the last chapter was particularly well done, in which the author compiles quotes from many different people about Bloomfield.
Despite this, this book just wasn't for me and I found it very hard to get in to. Biographies aren't really a genre that I'm a fan of, and I found that this subject was one I didn't have much of an interest in. As such, I would instead recommend this book either to readers who are great music fans or to someone looking for their next non-fiction biography to read.
September 23, 2021
Those hungering for a history of rock and roll’s glory days, ala the Sixties, should latch onto a copy of Ed Ward’s book Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar World. Ward, a long time music historian and journalist was one of the original record reviewers in the early days of Rolling Stone is direct, succinct, accurate in detail and brimming with insights of breathtaking for their clarity. Ward’s no-fuss, no frills style serves his subject well, as Michael Bloomfield, arguably the first guitar hero, is nearly forgotten man in the discussion of how rock guitar evolved.
While Eric Clapton has won the praise and glory for his chops when he first appeared on American record stands in 1966 as the featured player on John Mayall’s Blues Breakers album, Bloomfield was already turning heads with this spiky fretwork on Dylan’s 1965 effort Highway 61 Revisited. Dylan had abandoned folk for rock and Bloomfield was instrumental in creating a new kind of music; it was nothing anyone had heard before. Later that same year, he was highlighted on the first Paul Butterfield Blues Band record, an integrated band out of Chicago that brought black blues back into the spotlight.
Combined with Butterfield’s serpentine harmonica work, it was an unbeatable combination, as Bloomfield’s fluid, biting style dominated the disc; audiences and reviewers raved and wrote about the guitarist, not the band leader .Bloomfield was the marvel, the toast among fans and critics, a white Jewish kid from Chicago suburbs who’d learned his trade from the Masters. It’s an old story; somewhat stale as you approach it in order to create a narrative, but it has the benefit of being true in large measure. Bloomfield was that good a musician; he was that important an innovator, his blend of blues-raga-jazz-and traditional was that far ahead of its time. It was as fast rise to the top, a sequence of memorable albums and live dates and then a long slide into a comparable obscurity. Ward makes the case that Mike Bloomfield is an artist whose influence is still very much felt today although his name is not often mentioned.
Ward accomplishes setting up a story of the young Bloomfield, a young man in the Chicago suburbs and the son of a successful business man, discovering the blues and seeking out the musicians who played it, Muddy Waters, Hubert Sumlin, and B.B.King. Always restless and impatient with his own progress, Bloomfield jumped between many styles, from Chuck Berry rock and roll to Chicago Blues, country blues and jazz, learning the riffs, the phrases and the subtle embellishments of each style. Particularly fascinating are the variety of circumstances with which he became acquainted with other white musicians obsessed with black blues music, in the persons of Paul Butterfield, Nick Gravesites, Charlie Musselwhite.
In quick succession the guitarist was in the spotlight for his work with Dylan and the acclaimed he drew for his blistering fretwork on the first Paul Butterfield Blues Band album. With the release of that band’s second album, East/West, the consensus seemed to be that Bloomfield was the finest guitarist on the planet, with the band in large measure leaving the traditional blues styles they’d been interpreting behind and extending themselves in long improvisations. Key to this was a swinging workout on Nat Alderfly’s “The Work Song” that was elevated by Bloomfield’s fluid single note lines. But what closed the deal on Bloomfield’s reputation was the title track, a 13 minute raga/drone improvisation influenced by John Coltrane’s integration of Indian classical music techniques into his register-jumping flights. The center of the piece was Bloomfield, extemporizing in a manner that was a curious but entrancing mixture of both his jazz and raga influences; this was the guitar solo that raised the bar perilously high for other players.
Ward goes through the highlights and low points of Bloomfield’s career, using a series of effectively placed quotes from those who knew and worked with him to provide context to the problematic musician’s life. He was a manic personality, perpetually ill at ease, starting projects and abandoning projects in quick order, blazing through stints with Butterfield, The Electric Flag, Muddy Waters, Al Kooper, KGB, John Hammond Jr. and Dr.John. There were so many promising starts, so many abrupt departures. Audiences took him for granted; critics started awarding him negative reviews. By his own admission, Bloomfield’s heroin use eroded his skills as a guitarist to the extent that he ceased playing altogether for a period. Ward details the effects of drugs on his work, and admirably resists the urge to sermonize, lecture or otherwise wring his hands over the murky circumstances about Bloomfield’s death from a drug overdose in 1981. The tragedy, the loss of a gifted musician too early in his life, is effectively conveyed through the way Ward has laid out the progress of Bloomfield’s life of music making, from a naïve but engaged kid from the suburbs seeking out his heroes in the bars of Southside Chicago to an artist making his way through the mad eddies and inviting distractions of the Sixties counter culture. Detailed, perceptive, free of babble and cant, Ward represents this master musician wonderfully and respectfully. He comes not sensationalize this life but to celebrate the music Michael Bloomfield played a blues that all these decades later that still moves the soul and warms the heart.
While Eric Clapton has won the praise and glory for his chops when he first appeared on American record stands in 1966 as the featured player on John Mayall’s Blues Breakers album, Bloomfield was already turning heads with this spiky fretwork on Dylan’s 1965 effort Highway 61 Revisited. Dylan had abandoned folk for rock and Bloomfield was instrumental in creating a new kind of music; it was nothing anyone had heard before. Later that same year, he was highlighted on the first Paul Butterfield Blues Band record, an integrated band out of Chicago that brought black blues back into the spotlight.
Combined with Butterfield’s serpentine harmonica work, it was an unbeatable combination, as Bloomfield’s fluid, biting style dominated the disc; audiences and reviewers raved and wrote about the guitarist, not the band leader .Bloomfield was the marvel, the toast among fans and critics, a white Jewish kid from Chicago suburbs who’d learned his trade from the Masters. It’s an old story; somewhat stale as you approach it in order to create a narrative, but it has the benefit of being true in large measure. Bloomfield was that good a musician; he was that important an innovator, his blend of blues-raga-jazz-and traditional was that far ahead of its time. It was as fast rise to the top, a sequence of memorable albums and live dates and then a long slide into a comparable obscurity. Ward makes the case that Mike Bloomfield is an artist whose influence is still very much felt today although his name is not often mentioned.
Ward accomplishes setting up a story of the young Bloomfield, a young man in the Chicago suburbs and the son of a successful business man, discovering the blues and seeking out the musicians who played it, Muddy Waters, Hubert Sumlin, and B.B.King. Always restless and impatient with his own progress, Bloomfield jumped between many styles, from Chuck Berry rock and roll to Chicago Blues, country blues and jazz, learning the riffs, the phrases and the subtle embellishments of each style. Particularly fascinating are the variety of circumstances with which he became acquainted with other white musicians obsessed with black blues music, in the persons of Paul Butterfield, Nick Gravesites, Charlie Musselwhite.
In quick succession the guitarist was in the spotlight for his work with Dylan and the acclaimed he drew for his blistering fretwork on the first Paul Butterfield Blues Band album. With the release of that band’s second album, East/West, the consensus seemed to be that Bloomfield was the finest guitarist on the planet, with the band in large measure leaving the traditional blues styles they’d been interpreting behind and extending themselves in long improvisations. Key to this was a swinging workout on Nat Alderfly’s “The Work Song” that was elevated by Bloomfield’s fluid single note lines. But what closed the deal on Bloomfield’s reputation was the title track, a 13 minute raga/drone improvisation influenced by John Coltrane’s integration of Indian classical music techniques into his register-jumping flights. The center of the piece was Bloomfield, extemporizing in a manner that was a curious but entrancing mixture of both his jazz and raga influences; this was the guitar solo that raised the bar perilously high for other players.
Ward goes through the highlights and low points of Bloomfield’s career, using a series of effectively placed quotes from those who knew and worked with him to provide context to the problematic musician’s life. He was a manic personality, perpetually ill at ease, starting projects and abandoning projects in quick order, blazing through stints with Butterfield, The Electric Flag, Muddy Waters, Al Kooper, KGB, John Hammond Jr. and Dr.John. There were so many promising starts, so many abrupt departures. Audiences took him for granted; critics started awarding him negative reviews. By his own admission, Bloomfield’s heroin use eroded his skills as a guitarist to the extent that he ceased playing altogether for a period. Ward details the effects of drugs on his work, and admirably resists the urge to sermonize, lecture or otherwise wring his hands over the murky circumstances about Bloomfield’s death from a drug overdose in 1981. The tragedy, the loss of a gifted musician too early in his life, is effectively conveyed through the way Ward has laid out the progress of Bloomfield’s life of music making, from a naïve but engaged kid from the suburbs seeking out his heroes in the bars of Southside Chicago to an artist making his way through the mad eddies and inviting distractions of the Sixties counter culture. Detailed, perceptive, free of babble and cant, Ward represents this master musician wonderfully and respectfully. He comes not sensationalize this life but to celebrate the music Michael Bloomfield played a blues that all these decades later that still moves the soul and warms the heart.
February 5, 2021
One of the original Guitar Gods
This book carries you through the life and tragic death of Michael Bloomfield. From his early life as a son of privilege to his discovery of the guitar and Blues Music. His physical and mental trials and tribulations. His love of all types of music and the remembrance by those who both knew him and the sheer tragedy of his early loss. This book takes you on a a ride from beginning to end.
This book carries you through the life and tragic death of Michael Bloomfield. From his early life as a son of privilege to his discovery of the guitar and Blues Music. His physical and mental trials and tribulations. His love of all types of music and the remembrance by those who both knew him and the sheer tragedy of his early loss. This book takes you on a a ride from beginning to end.
September 6, 2021
You get a fair amount of intimate detail of Bloomfield’s development and musical thought with this book. You also will get a pretty realistic insight into the Chicago music scene over the time period in which it takes place. I caught the tail end of that scene and as it’s portrayed in Ward’s book, rings pretty much true from my memory it.
I enjoyed the supplementary interviews and information at the end which supported the main body of the text.
I enjoyed the supplementary interviews and information at the end which supported the main body of the text.
January 1, 2019
Did anyone know mike
This book is as good as it gets with mike. It didn’t get as intimate as insightful as I would have liked. It is put together from a lot of quotes from other people rather than interviews with those who were closest to him. The time line was poor. It kept repeating itself rather than progressing. perhaps because Mike’s life was short.
This book is as good as it gets with mike. It didn’t get as intimate as insightful as I would have liked. It is put together from a lot of quotes from other people rather than interviews with those who were closest to him. The time line was poor. It kept repeating itself rather than progressing. perhaps because Mike’s life was short.
December 18, 2017
Not a particularly well written book, but if you are a fan of this legend you will still find many things about Mike that you probably didn't know. One of the great blues guitarists of all time.
October 27, 2019
I was somewhat familiar with Mike Bloomfield but I learned much more about his life. Quite a tragic, but brilliant figure.
March 1, 2017
Now I Know...
Mike Bloomfield, the guitarist I can't get enough of. Now I've at least discovered the back stories and sources of his creativity. He fought demons all his life and -in spite of them- forged some of the finest music around.
I'm still on the hunt for Bloomfield music - and always will be.
Mike Bloomfield, the guitarist I can't get enough of. Now I've at least discovered the back stories and sources of his creativity. He fought demons all his life and -in spite of them- forged some of the finest music around.
I'm still on the hunt for Bloomfield music - and always will be.
Read
September 22, 2016Who knew Bloomfield was the template for Clapton, Page, Hendrix? At least that's how Ward tells it. Bloomfield declined Dylan's plea to join his tour after Newport 1965 because Bloomfield hated Dylan's passive approach in the Highway 61 sessions in which Bloomfield was not only the lead guitarist but the de facto musical director. Bloomfield swore off Dylan and stuck with Paul Butterfield Blues Band instead, then set up Janis Joplin's post-Big Brother band (which her heroin habit sidetracked), then formed Electric Flag with Buddy Miles. He would go onto his own serious heroin habit and then, of course, an early exit. Barnes & Noble should add another shelf category for all these books about musicians I've read—Gregg Allman's "Cross to Bear," Clapton's autobiography, Blair Jackson's "Garcia An American Life," anything about James Brown, Graham Nash's "Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life" (heavy on David Crosby's legendary drug problems), and now Ward's Bloomfield tome: Junkies.
October 4, 2016
First let me say I've been hooked on Bloomers music since I heard it for the first time in 1966. Now I love this book but if your the type that thinks musicians are all perfect do not read this book. If you understand that nobody is perfect and you like Michael Bloomfield then you will love this book like I did. The book gives a clear picture of who the man was and what he was about. The listings of all his recordings are listed which helps if your trying to fill the gaps in your collection now that it's easy to get albums from all over the world. Michael didn't want to be a rock star, he wanted to be know as a bluesman and he was...........
September 14, 2016
compelling subject, a peculiar read ... Bloomfield is tagged as "the first bona fide American guitar hero" a fact I don't dispute, but the book never delivers the goods to prove the point ... Bloomfield was undoubtedly gifted yet the picture painted is incomplete, so the takeaway is he is troubled, a recluse, maybe a cult hero within the narrow musical/blues cognoscenti ... Few today would know of Michael Bloomfield and after reading this book, when it comes to why he is revered and what troubled him so, I'd have to conclude that I don't know him either
February 7, 2017
A compelling, insightful biography of the greatest white Jewish blues guitarist of all time. This is an update of a book originally published in 1983. It includes a complete transcript of a 1968 Rolling Stone and an excellent discography.
April 29, 2017
This is a pretty short and succinct biography of Michael Bloomfield, a 1960s guitar hero I loved then and today. I knew some of the broad outlines of his story - growing up in Chicago; playing with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Bob Dylan, and The Electric Flag; and his early death due to alcoholism and/or drug use in 1981.
Bloomfield was devoted to the blues; he grew up in Chicago and became entrenched in the black blues clubs in his teens. I especially enjoyed reading how the musicians of the day discovered and worked with one another as an extended club. As Bloomfield worked at Big John's "he noticed that Paul Butterfield, a musician he didn't particularly care for, was coming in to sit in more and more. Despite their personal antipathy, they sounded good playing music together."[p 42] A little later "Butterfield joined Bloomfield onstage to jam on a Freddie King instrumental. 'Paul and I exchanged looks,' [Joe] Boyd wrote later. 'This was the magic dialectic, Butterfield and Bloomfield. It sounded like a firm of accountants, but we were convinced it was the key to fame and fortune for the band and for us.'" [p 47] The resulting album, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, was one of the first albums I remember buying. Bloomfield's guitar playing is sublime. Just listen to "Blues With a Feeling" to get an idea of Bloomfield's style - at turns laid back and driving it is still one of my favorite songs. On their follow-up album, East West, Bloomfield again lights up the world with his work on "I've Got A Mind to Give Up Livin"
Around the same time Bloomfield found his way into Bob Dylan's orbit for the Highway 61 Revisited album. "Dylan confronted Bloomfield with only one rule: 'I don't want any of that B.B. King [$#!+]', he said"..."Bloomfield sat listening to Dylan reel off song after song, trying to figure out guitar lines that weren't too bluesy to go along with them."[p 55] I think he succeeded. Just listen to his work on the subtlety of "It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" and his strong front work on "Like A Rolling Stone". Later Bloomfield claimed to not like the album. "'The session was very chaotic,' Bloomfield told Tom Yates and Kate Hays. 'Bob had the vaguest sound ... I could probably have put a more formal rock 'n' roll sound to it or at least my idea of one, but I was too intimidated by that company."[p 56] Ed Ward may be stretching a bit when he says "'Like a Rolling Stone' went beyond all previous essays into folk-rock. It made history as a pop record that pushed Beatles-era rock 'n'roll music into the experimental, long-for directions that would characterize the late 1960's" [p 57] but not by much.
The Newport Folk festival of 1965 is famous for Bob Dylan's going electric - he was booed heavily by the crowd who expected acoustic. Ed Ward tries to make the argument that the problem wasn't Dylan going electric; it's that the stage and amplifier configuration was the problem. I don't agree with that. In Marc Maron's WTF podcast #781 Robbie Robertson talks about this whole era when The Band was backing Dylan on tour. The people weren't getting what they wanted. Regardless, they were getting history. When Dylan came out to play with members of the Butterfield Blues Band, "the next five minutes would mark a turning point in the history of electric guitar. His performance on 'Maggie's Farm' was a radical move... what Bloomfield gave them on the evening of July 25, 1965, was the future of rock guitar."[p 66] For an idea of Bloomfield's epic guitar playing, search for 'Maggie's Farm Bob Dylan Live at Newport Folk Festival'. The lighting is terrible and you only see Bloomfield for a few seconds but you can sure hear him sit "so hard on top of the beat that it screams, and what he plays amounts to a sardonic running commentary of Dylan's song."[p 66]
Michael Bloomfield then formed The Electric Flag with his pals Nick Gravenites and Mark Naftalin. The band was good but Bloomfield's troubles took their toll on the band. A short - less than one minute - gem from this era is "Easy Rider."A sweet guitar riff that he must have played between other parts of rehearsal.
Bloomfield was an insomniac and seemed to have stage fright. He famously missed the second day of recording of the "Super Session" recording because he just didn't want to play. That is why we hear Stephen Stills on side two of the album. Bloomfield would frequently just walk away in the middle of a project if he wasn't pleased. He was a purist and if a project was commercially successful it was just evidence that it was no good. He played off an on through the 70's but dropped out of sight for a good part of the time. He died too young in early 1981.
This is a good biography on Bloomfield's music and is a good read about the music scene of the mid 60s but Ed Ward doesn't really dive into the personal matters of alcoholism and drug abuse. If you are a fan of Michael Bloomfield and/or the music of his time this is a nice quick read. I especially like the discography at the back. You get a great idea of how much work goes into recording a song as well as the breadth of the music industry.
Even if you don't read the book; listen to Michael Bloomfield play; a good place to start would be the songs I mention.
Bloomfield was devoted to the blues; he grew up in Chicago and became entrenched in the black blues clubs in his teens. I especially enjoyed reading how the musicians of the day discovered and worked with one another as an extended club. As Bloomfield worked at Big John's "he noticed that Paul Butterfield, a musician he didn't particularly care for, was coming in to sit in more and more. Despite their personal antipathy, they sounded good playing music together."[p 42] A little later "Butterfield joined Bloomfield onstage to jam on a Freddie King instrumental. 'Paul and I exchanged looks,' [Joe] Boyd wrote later. 'This was the magic dialectic, Butterfield and Bloomfield. It sounded like a firm of accountants, but we were convinced it was the key to fame and fortune for the band and for us.'" [p 47] The resulting album, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, was one of the first albums I remember buying. Bloomfield's guitar playing is sublime. Just listen to "Blues With a Feeling" to get an idea of Bloomfield's style - at turns laid back and driving it is still one of my favorite songs. On their follow-up album, East West, Bloomfield again lights up the world with his work on "I've Got A Mind to Give Up Livin"
Around the same time Bloomfield found his way into Bob Dylan's orbit for the Highway 61 Revisited album. "Dylan confronted Bloomfield with only one rule: 'I don't want any of that B.B. King [$#!+]', he said"..."Bloomfield sat listening to Dylan reel off song after song, trying to figure out guitar lines that weren't too bluesy to go along with them."[p 55] I think he succeeded. Just listen to his work on the subtlety of "It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" and his strong front work on "Like A Rolling Stone". Later Bloomfield claimed to not like the album. "'The session was very chaotic,' Bloomfield told Tom Yates and Kate Hays. 'Bob had the vaguest sound ... I could probably have put a more formal rock 'n' roll sound to it or at least my idea of one, but I was too intimidated by that company."[p 56] Ed Ward may be stretching a bit when he says "'Like a Rolling Stone' went beyond all previous essays into folk-rock. It made history as a pop record that pushed Beatles-era rock 'n'roll music into the experimental, long-for directions that would characterize the late 1960's" [p 57] but not by much.
The Newport Folk festival of 1965 is famous for Bob Dylan's going electric - he was booed heavily by the crowd who expected acoustic. Ed Ward tries to make the argument that the problem wasn't Dylan going electric; it's that the stage and amplifier configuration was the problem. I don't agree with that. In Marc Maron's WTF podcast #781 Robbie Robertson talks about this whole era when The Band was backing Dylan on tour. The people weren't getting what they wanted. Regardless, they were getting history. When Dylan came out to play with members of the Butterfield Blues Band, "the next five minutes would mark a turning point in the history of electric guitar. His performance on 'Maggie's Farm' was a radical move... what Bloomfield gave them on the evening of July 25, 1965, was the future of rock guitar."[p 66] For an idea of Bloomfield's epic guitar playing, search for 'Maggie's Farm Bob Dylan Live at Newport Folk Festival'. The lighting is terrible and you only see Bloomfield for a few seconds but you can sure hear him sit "so hard on top of the beat that it screams, and what he plays amounts to a sardonic running commentary of Dylan's song."[p 66]
Michael Bloomfield then formed The Electric Flag with his pals Nick Gravenites and Mark Naftalin. The band was good but Bloomfield's troubles took their toll on the band. A short - less than one minute - gem from this era is "Easy Rider."A sweet guitar riff that he must have played between other parts of rehearsal.
Bloomfield was an insomniac and seemed to have stage fright. He famously missed the second day of recording of the "Super Session" recording because he just didn't want to play. That is why we hear Stephen Stills on side two of the album. Bloomfield would frequently just walk away in the middle of a project if he wasn't pleased. He was a purist and if a project was commercially successful it was just evidence that it was no good. He played off an on through the 70's but dropped out of sight for a good part of the time. He died too young in early 1981.
This is a good biography on Bloomfield's music and is a good read about the music scene of the mid 60s but Ed Ward doesn't really dive into the personal matters of alcoholism and drug abuse. If you are a fan of Michael Bloomfield and/or the music of his time this is a nice quick read. I especially like the discography at the back. You get a great idea of how much work goes into recording a song as well as the breadth of the music industry.
Even if you don't read the book; listen to Michael Bloomfield play; a good place to start would be the songs I mention.
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August 4, 2017An ambiguous biography of an ambiguous rock star. Originally a “quickie” account of Bloomfield, published “briefly” in 1983, according to a prefatory note, it was just reissued, with an elaborate discography, the complete interview with Rolling Stone from 1968 (which is pretty embarrassing – proof that no one was immune to the word “groovy”) by the prestigious-sounding Chicago Review Press (which might explain why every venue in Chicago is given a precise address). Bloomberg’s father, Harold, is a fascinating, very Jewish, character: he got rich in the 1930s because his brother-in-law discovered a well-constructed pie case in a diner, bought the patent, and began manufacturing them. At first Harold was merely an assembler of the cases, but eventually he was the force behind the business (after Samuel Bloomfield died in 1954). Bloomfield industries eventually made over 1000 products! In the midst of this ascent, Michael Bernard Bloomfield was born, on July 28, 1943. His Oedipal grappling with his brutal dad would eventually lead – through a sympathetic maid – to a lifelong romance with the blues, the guitar, and The Great Rebellion of Rock ‘n Roll. (Though eventually, after his brush with fame, his dad supported him – same as he supported his brother Allen – giving him 50,000 bucks a year, with which to buy heroin, groceries, and guitar picks.)* In other words, Michael remained a child his whole life, until his overdose death on February 15, 1981.
I found this book infinitely compelling, the way only rock biographies are. Bloomfield was a real musician, with talent and musical insight – though an extremely inarticulate human being, in interviews. He had met, and apprenticed with, some of the greatest blues players who ever lived: B. B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Sleepy John Estes, Big Joe Williams – actually dozens of great and minor Chicago musicians. He knew the depths of the Blues, could sometimes play them perfectly, but ultimately had “no direction home.” In the song “East-West” that he wrote for the Paul Butterfield Blues Band after taking an LSD sugar cube, Michael invented psychedelic guitar – but later forgot about it. Butterfield ended up as a regional California guitarist, occasionally writing a song like “I’m Glad I’m Jewish.”
*Michael’s fraternal grandmother organized the trust fund, but his dad oversaw a lot of his financial muddles: helped him buy a house in 1971, and unraveled his finances of 1968-72, during which time the guitar hero paid no taxes.
I found this book infinitely compelling, the way only rock biographies are. Bloomfield was a real musician, with talent and musical insight – though an extremely inarticulate human being, in interviews. He had met, and apprenticed with, some of the greatest blues players who ever lived: B. B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Sleepy John Estes, Big Joe Williams – actually dozens of great and minor Chicago musicians. He knew the depths of the Blues, could sometimes play them perfectly, but ultimately had “no direction home.” In the song “East-West” that he wrote for the Paul Butterfield Blues Band after taking an LSD sugar cube, Michael invented psychedelic guitar – but later forgot about it. Butterfield ended up as a regional California guitarist, occasionally writing a song like “I’m Glad I’m Jewish.”
*Michael’s fraternal grandmother organized the trust fund, but his dad oversaw a lot of his financial muddles: helped him buy a house in 1971, and unraveled his finances of 1968-72, during which time the guitar hero paid no taxes.
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November 5, 2018Mike Bloomfield was a hero my mine when I first started listening to music Butterfield Electic Flag Super sessions and on all favorites great troubled man
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