[DOC] Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero by Ed Ward; Billy Gibbons in Arts-Photography

Review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A must-read for a limited audienceBy HTThis 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 Johns "he noticed that Paul Butterfield. a musician he didnt 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. Bloomfields guitar playing is sublime. Just listen to "Blues With a Feeling" to get an idea of Bloomfields 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 "Ive Got A Mind to Give Up Livin"Around the same time Bloomfield found his way into Bob Dylans orbit for the Highway 61 Revisited album. "Dylan confronted Bloomfield with only one rule: I dont 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 werent 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 nroll music into the experimental. long-for directions that would characterize the late 1960s" [p 57] but not by much.The Newport Folk festival of 1965 is famous for Bob Dylans going electric - he was booed heavily by the crowd who expected acoustic. Ed Ward tries to make the argument that the problem wasnt Dylan going electric; its that the stage and amplifier configuration was the problem. I dont agree with that. In Marc Marons WTF podcast #781 Robbie Robertson talks about this whole era when The Band was backing Dylan on tour. The people werent 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 Maggies 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 Bloomfields epic guitar playing. search for Maggies 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 Dylans song."[p 66]Michael Bloomfield then formed The Electric Flag with his pals Nick Gravenites and Mark Naftalin. The band was good but Bloomfields 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 didnt 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 wasnt 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 70s 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 Bloomfields music and is a good read about the music scene of the mid 60s but Ed Ward doesnt 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.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Interesting. just not much of a storyBy Coronet BlueMike Bloomfield was a one of a kind guitar player. hugely influential and to this day. no one else really sounds like him. That said. his story seems to be less than the sum of its parts. If you grew up with this music and wonder what happened to Bloomfield after Super Session and Electric Flag. the answer seems to be. not much from a story point of view. He made a lot of great recordings but I think its better to listen to what he did than try to stretch out the story arc.The book is a quick read with a few revelations. The rest is a long interview with Rolling Stone(d) and praise from people who knew Mike Bloomfield. You already know how the story ends. so this book is for those who are either unfamiliar with Bloomfield or who are curious as to what happened when he dropped off the radar.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. About Michael Bloomfield...By J.L. PopulistThis book was a good read. There was an interview that Jann Wenner did with Michael Bloomfield in the back of the back.Otherwise the majority of the material was recollections from his brother. contemporaries. and many musicians of Michael Bloomfield. It was interesting and the author included a discography and the interview.I like the book and would recommend it to any Michael Bloomfield fan.