Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero

"I started playing the guitar when I was thirteen years old, and I was very bad for two or three years, and when I was about fifteen and a half, I got great." Mike Bloomfield.By the early '70s Mike Bloomfield's work with the Butterfield Blues Band wasn't heard as truly groundbreaking as it was when the album "East-West" was released because there was so much other good, innovative sounding music that came after it. I still remember hearing this album (being a blues fan) and being blown away by what I heard in those two instrumentals from that album. It had a similar affect that hearing Coltrane solo with his quartet did when first hearing him. So it's no wonder that listening to Bloomfield's solos in 2016 don't bring out all the wonder, amazement, and excitement that was so much a part of that first listening experience. Fans who came later on to this album have the hindsight of all the other music from that era. And that's okay, but hearing this album when it was first released was a truly groundbreaking event.And that's why this book written by Ed Ward is so important. There is another book that deals with Bloomfield's life and music ("If You Love These Blues") that was an oral history with comments from a cross section of people who were there at the time, and included a CD of rare tracks. But Ward's book steps in front of that effort because it's the first in depth biography of Bloomfield. In a relatively short 153 pages of text Ward lays out Bloomfield's short life in music and his sadly early death. Included is a 24 page section of both color and b & w photos that add depth to the story. There's a short section of quotes from people like Butterfield, Goldberg, Musselwhite, Naftalin, and a few others that add a bit to Bloomfield's story. A big plus is the complete (29 page) Bloomfield interview in Rolling Stone (when that magazine mattered) from 1968 which brings back some of the feeling of how good and important that magazine was in it's first years if you were around then. Plus there's a full (58 pages) discography of recordings Bloomfield played or sang on, or produced, plus videos of Bloomfield. There's a bibliography and an index also included. This new edition isn't solely Ward's work. He states he didn't have the time to finish this new edition of the book himself, so the job was given to Edd Hurt, who interviewed a number of people and incorporated his work into Ward's original book.The book traces Bloomfield's life from his early childhood (a short piece of the book), to first discovering music, hearing the blues, and his subsequent rise as a guitarist, and his decline and death under mysterious circumstances. The book also delves into the era and the locales where Bloomfield met and played with any number of blues greats and other white musicians who were attracted to the blues, like Nick Gravenites, Mark Naftalin, Barry Goldberg, Charlie Musselwhite, and others. But he also played with people like Muddy Waters, B.B. King and other well know blues greats. It was during this early period when Bloomfield played any gig he could, from fraternity parties, to folk music, to playing with any black blues band he could. And then he began his time with Butterfield, where his playing really began to soar, both in the traditional blues genre and with his explorations of different types of music. And Ward has concisely laid out Bloomfield's life in an interesting, informative, and nice to read style that any deep fan of Bloomfield will want to read.From his work with Butterfield to his playing (both live and in the studio) with Dylan, to his forming the Electric Flag, to his "super session" work with Stills and Kooper, to his solo albums and his production work (with people like Tracy Nelson) and finally to his unwilling stance to further his career and his decline into dope and depression, and finally, to his death, Ward has painted a good picture of Bloomfield's life and music with a feel for the times and the events that shaped that period in music and Bloomfield's life.As I wrote before, Bloomfield's work is now acknowledged for what it was--new and different, with his combination of various styles of music (helped along by LSD) which had never been heard before in the '60s. And fans can still revel at how great his best work was, whether it was with Butterfield, the Flag, his super session work, or his solo work. And that's why anyone who hears something in his music should check out this well written book by Ed Ward.Another recent book of interest to fans of the late '60s/early '70s is "Altamont", by Joel Selvin. He delves into that whole debacle--from pre-planning (if you could call it that), to the concert itself and how things deteriorated, to the ultimate disaster of the deaths that occurred during the festival. Selvin gets closer to the real truth of the end of the "Woodstock/peace and love" era and ethic than any previously written attempts. The section of color and b&w photos helps sharpen the concert into better focus. The photos used for the end papers pretty much tell the story--the front end papers have a photo of vehicles that streamed into the festival in the middle of nowhere, the rear end papers have a photo of a very banged up car after the concert with the words 'The End' spray painted on it--which indeed sums up the end. We've all read about Woodstock, now read about the other side of those times.

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.

If you love guitar, especially blues guitar, there was no one better than Mike Bloomfied. He is the reason most of our other favorites guitarists were able to do what they were able to do. Michael pioneered the extended guitar solo. When did any of us ever hear a guitar solo longer than 15 or 20 seconds before East West. He allowed Clapton to Crossroads, Beck to do his Bolaro, and so many others. They all learned from and followed Bloomfield. Sadly his body of work is short, but hopefully this book will inspire folks to find what there is and see for themselves.

I might give this even more stars but for the obscurity of the subject, at least today. The word "mercurial" was coined for people like Bloomfield - along with "self-destructive," "exasperating," but also "visionary." The book includes Ward's Rolling Stone interview with Bloomfield, wherein the guitarist unwittingly sheds a lot of light on his challenging personality. Read the bio first. It remains an amazing story, beginning with the teenaged Jewish kid playing in the jook joints of Chicago's South Side for the pure love of doing so. Sadly, he was never in one place for long enough to make quite the impact he could have, mastering this style and that and junking it for something else.

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.

Biografía básica de Michael Bloomfield escrita en inglés. Buen relato para conocer como comenzó a desarrollarse el blues entre los jóvenes músicos blancos de Chicago a principios de los años 60 del siglo pasado. Primeros pasos de músicos como Elvin Bishop, Paul Butterfield, Nick Gravenites, etc. y su relación con músicos negros como Big Joe Williams, Muddy Waters, y otros. Contiene una entrevista a Bloomfield publicada en la revista Rolling Stone y la discografía completa de este músico que sin duda influyó en otros como Eric Clapton, Peter Green o el mismo Bob Dylan. Interesante para cualquier aficionado al blues.

Ok

Read David Dann's more recent Bloomfield biography if you want to know EVERYTHING but this biog by Ed Ward is pretty darn good too. Ward writes well, knows his onions, and Mike Bloomfield was all the Claptons and Peter Greens are/were supposed to be and more. Ward should write more biographies, no question.

Michael Bloomfield nasceu em Chicago numa família judia. Desde cedo foi influenciado pela música negra dos guetos deChicago. Rapidamente desenvolveu um estilo próprio e foi convidado para tocar com Dylan, Muddy Waters, Otis Rush e B.B. King entre outros. Integrou a Paul Butterfield Blues Band, a Electric Flag e sua própria banda, renovando o Blues americano. O livro mostra a trajetória de Bloomfield desde Chicago até seus últimos dias obscuros viciado em heroína. Ed Ward tem o mérito de escrever a história de Bloomfield mostrando seu grande talento na guitarra que influenciou uma geração de guitarristas ao redor do mundo, bem como seu problemas pessoais com a família, com sua mulher e principalmente com as drogas.Para quem é fã de Blues Rock, de guitarra e da música desenvolvida nos anos 60 e 70, o livro de Ward é essencial.Uma pena que esteja restrito a língua inglesa. Bem que merecia uma edição nacional caprichada.

I adore Michael Bloomfield although is oeuvre is quite slim albeit highly influential. Bloomfield was the first one to popularize Bursts. After seeing him Clapton got one, Green one, Page got one, Beck got one(a Black converted 54). Ed Ward book clearly shows that Michael was an Antistar. He was not in the business for adulation but music. He consciously chose a path away from the limelight, alas to no avail. His heroin use which he relied upon to counteract his insomnia got him in the end. He played the Blues like few others. An authentic player with a career that did not fulfill the promise it made.A tragedy.