Forgotten Fretmasters #3 - Mike Bloomfield

chinese philosopher lao su once said the flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long we music fans know a lot of bright stars that have blazed through the sky only to shockingly burn out in the middle of their career leaving us with the tantalizingly small amount of recorded material in which to remember them by today we're going to focus on a guitarist who burned white hot literally from the moment he laid hands on a fretboard but unfortunately like so many others like him he would leave us too soon join me in remembering the dynamic and mercurial mike bloomfield [Music] hello and welcome once again to forgotten fretmasters the series where we shed light on guitarists and musicians that flew under the radar as a sideman or just may not have had as much commercial success as other musicians who often end up on all the top 10 lists today's episode will feature a musician who found himself in the middle of a huge sea change in music due to his connection with the folk legend bob dylan of course i'm talking about blues guitarist mike bloomfield most notably of the paul butterfield blues band but bloomfield's career while frustratingly short would leave a huge footprint in the guitar landscape and it's definitely something that needs to be celebrated and remembered but remember if you like videos like this do consider subscribing to the guitar historian channel and hitting the like button below to let youtube know that other guitar fans would like to see this video as well but with that as always let's go back to the beginning michael bernard bloomfield was born on july 28 1943 in the blues mecca of chicago illinois bloomfield was born into a wealthy jewish american family a part of the third generation of a successful business that had been started in the 30s by mike's grandfather samuel and then taken over by mike's father harold and his uncle daniel after samuel bloomfield passed away harold bloomfield would marry dorothy klein who came from an artistic and musical family and she had worked as an actress and model before marrying mike's father in 1940 in just a few short years the bubbly baby boy was born clearly mike owed his musical and artistic soul to the mother's side of the gene pool mike's family would move around in chicago area a bit but when he was 12 they would head out to the suburb of glencoe right before young mike started high school by this point bloomfield had already started playing in local bands and it formed his first outfit called the hurricanes bloomfield's high school career was interesting to say the least he attended new trier high school for two years before he was expelled after his band performed a raucous rock and roll song i tried and tried to find out what song the band played that led to their expulsion but that seems to have been lost to history mike would then attend a boarding school in massachusetts for one year before finally returning home to finish his education at a local ymca high school but bloomfield was already getting all the education he really wanted from the blues by the time he was just 14 mike started to hang out in the south side blues clubs often sitting in and learning at the knees of the legends that he admired so much sleepy john estes yank richelle and little brother montgomery were just a few of the acts that mike bloomfield both watched and studied hanging around after their performances to play guitar keyboardist al cooper would say in 2001 bloomfield's talent was instantly obvious to his mentors they knew this was not just another white boy this was someone who truly understood what the blues were all about by 1959 mike was sitting in live with luther guitar junior johnson and would later play with howl and wolf and muddy waters over the next few years these formative years were crucial to his authentic playing style bloomfield would later philosophically say it's a natural black people suffer externally in this country jewish people suffer internally the suffering's the mutual fulcrum for the blues mike spent most of the early 60s just living the dream playing all the time and running weekly blues showcase with a couple of friends at a chicago club called the fickle pickle great name bloomfield would even run into bob dylan in 1963 meeting him for the first time dylan would call bloomfield the best guitarist he's ever seen he said quote he could just play circles around anything i was doing in 1964 mike's friend joel harlad passed an audition tape to a talent scout from columbia records and before he knew it bloomfield found himself signed to epic records he would enter the studio to record some demos but these would remain unreleased until after his death mike would continue to build his reputation among the chicago blue scene becoming a mainstay at more clubs like big johns and magoos in much of the same way that mike had built his chop sitting at the feet of the chicago blues masters such was it for a young blue singer named paul butterfield who had made a name for himself both playing guitar and harmonica and many see him as one of the greatest harp players of the 60s blue scene paul and bloomfield knew each other through the big johns club and often jammed together and after butterfield met local guitarist alvin bishop who would go into a successful solo career in the 70s himself most notably with the mickey thomas sung fooled around and fell in love butterfield would form a band with bishop byron bass player jerome arnold and drummer sam lay from halo wolf's touring band to form his own self named blues band producer paul rothschild who would go on to most famously produce the doors had seen butterfield and bloomfield jammed together and strongly suggested that paul add bloomfield to the band he would then sign them to elect records despite mike's obvious talent butterfield was actually known as a bit of a diva and actually resisted the bloomfield's joining as he already recruited elven bishop and felt that bloomfield's presence would outshine his own but he would eventually defer to rothschild's expertise they would enter the studio in december of 1964 to record their first album but the work didn't meet with rothschild's approval some of the songs would end up on an election records compilation later called what's shaken in 1966 incidentally a record that popped up previously in my many bands of eric clapton episode of if guitars could speak clapton would appear on the album as well under a one-time only super group with steve wynwood called eric clapton and the powerhouse anyway rothschild would realize that the only way to really capture the power and spontaneity of the band was through a live performance so he convinced electric president jack holtzman to give them another crack at a live debut but before the band would get a chance to record it they would be hastily booked to play at 1965's newport folk festival after an early slot that led to a small audience the band would be booked to play a workshop the next day which is usually a smaller side performance but the band would attract an unusually large number of people the dismissive introduction by blues researcher alan lomax was what led bob dylan to change his plans from an acoustic performance and he would recruit some of butterfield's band and keyboard assal cooper to back him the next day in an electrified performance that would become the stuff of legend after a hazy nighttime rehearsal the band would play four songs with dylan to mixed audience reception listening to bloomfield's playing on maggie's farm will literally make you want to throw your guitars in the trash but some of the folk hardliners at the newport folk festival were saucy if you're interested i covered this whole affair in an episode of if guitars can speak that you can watch right here there will also be a link at the end of this video and even though i miss wrote the script and called mike paul butterfield it's still a pretty good video anyway the butterfield blues band's performance at the workshop in newport was obviously it and most of the audience were knocked out as was the first time they'd seen a high-powered electric blues combo their association with one of the most famous musicians in the world bob dylan didn't hurt either and their fortunes started to change their self-titled first album would finally be released later in 1965 and even though it only made it to number 127 in the us album charts its impact was felt throughout the musical community they became an act that was not to be missed by local musicians and their star was unquestionably mike bloomfield with his loud aggressive tone around mid-year 1965 bloomfield would rejoin bob dylan for his seminal album highway 61 revisited and play electric guitar on almost all of the tracks the electric guitar you hear on leica rolling stone is played by mike bloomfield incidentally the keyboard by al cooper dylan would try to coax mike to join his touring band but bloomfield mercurially preferred to stay in butterfield's band shunning one of the biggest stars in the world and they would go on to record their second album east west in 1966. the album was a brave departure from their first installment with a dive into modal jazz in eastern style genres bloomfield would also get around continuing as one of the hardest working guitarists in show business after the butterfield blues band made stops in southern california in the bay area mike found himself with a cadre of young and hungry axeman who saw him as a mentor and he did his best to pass down the knowledge that he received as the feat of the chicago blues men that he'd followed in his youth he would also lend his playing to recordings by chuck berry mitch ryder and james cotton of course what would be the guitarist without the guitar and mike was best known during this period for his white 1963 fender telecaster which gave him an easily cutting tone that was impossible to ignore he used it most famously at the aforementioned dylan newport performance but believe it or not bloomfield would trade this guitar soon after that performance to a jon noose a studio musician who strangely would play the guitar left-handed but with the strings still strong right-handed eventually noose would chop out the left-base bout to more easily reach the higher frets as a lefty in return bloomfield would receive a 1954 gibson les paul gold top later in 1967 bloomfield would relocate permanently to san francisco and was growing weary of the non-stop touring commitments of the paul butterfield blues band he wanted to start his own group in that area and he would grab two chicago mates in barry goldberg and nick gravinitis to form electric flag the band featured a horn section and added two veterans of the blues scene bassist harvey brooks who played with al cooper in the new york area and drummer buddy miles who toured with wilson pickett electric flag would play the monterey pop festival and issue one album the aptly titled a long time coming but the band would quickly disintegrate amidst egos poor management and heroin abuse and bloomfield would depart taking most of the band with him it was around this time that he would also fall in love with another man's last ball dan erlewein was a friend of bloomfield's and a guitarist in a local band called the prime movers who were playing a birthday show for butterfield after a while listening to the movers play their songs back and then bloomfield couldn't help but jump up on stage and sit in with the band as he played earl wine's 59 burst les paul he became enamored with the guitar and offered to trade him his 54 gold top right then and there but erlawine wasn't quite ready to part with it just yet a few months later and bloomfield refused to forget about this guitar he called erlowine back up and literally begged him for the guitar in the end erlewine would get mike's 54 gold top and 125 dollars and watch his 59 bursts leave in a green railway express fan in a strange twist of fate it would be decades later that erwine would actually be the first guitar tech to look over bloomfield's original 63 tele complete with dan noyce's hacked up baseball and about 50 years of dirt and grime bloomfield's next project would be an interesting one with his friend al cooper who he'd previously worked with on dylan's like a rolling stone he had the idea to do a loser jam album that could highlight bloomfield's incendiary playing and finally get it on record cooper remembered that he'd always felt that mike's playing had been previously reigned in by producers and didn't match his live performances which often left audience members and fellow band members awestruck the result was the album super session which featured bloomfield's work on side one but bloomfield showed his mercurial nature once again not showing up on the second day of recording leaving a note saying that he couldn't sleep and wasn't coming forcing cooper to scramble in steven stills who was leaving buffalo springfield then about to start one of the greatest vocal groups of all time and crosby stills nash and sometimes young to finish the album in the end though it would become the biggest selling work featuring mike bloomfield and achieving gold status on a budget of just thirteen thousand dollars bloomfield and cooper would work together again recording a live album in 68 called the live adventures of mike bloomfield cooper that double album would feature one of the first appearances of the then mostly unknown latino guitar player carlos santana on the song sunny boy williams following the work with cooper bloomfield would enter into a solo in session work recording and aiding acts like mother earth janice joplin and taj mahal at various times in 1969 he would release his first solo album it's not killing me which would head scratchingly not feature too much of bloomfield's signature guitar work in a review all music would say it makes about as much sense as led zeppelin having jimmy page sing lead while robert plant plays tambourine it received mostly negative reviews due to that and faded quickly into obscurity bloomfield had well-known issues with chronic insomnia often causing periods of bone crushing fatigue he would dull the pain from these periods with drugs and alcohol especially heroin which would continue to haunt him in 1970 he simply gave up playing the guitar for a time he said quote i put the guitar down didn't touch it shooting junk made everything else unimportant null and void nolo contendre by playing fell apart i just didn't want to play this wouldn't last long and despite his fatigue and depression he still continued his hard work as a session man writer and producer helming otis rush's 1969 album morning in the morning at fame studios in muscle shoals alabama with a band that included dwayne allman he would take another crack in an album but it would be rejected by his record company and not released until 1990. the 70s would see a mixture of highs and lows with bloomfield rejoining old friends and continuing to make new ones he made an album in 73 with dr john and john hammond jr he cut another one called kgb with singer-songwriter ray kennedy barry goldberg and his own last names to form the initials rick wretch of blind faith also played base on that one as the late 70s approached bloomfield mostly played the san fran clubs around town with various acts and simply continued to live the dream one of his last major appearances was in november of 1980 with bob dylan in san francisco where he would sit in and play on like a rolling stone and the groom is still waiting at the altar it would only be a few short months later on february 15 1981 when bloomfield would be found slumped behind the wheel of a chevy impala all four doors were locked and an empty bottle of valium next to him on the passenger seat there was no suicide note and authorities ruled his death as an accidental overdose the details of bloomfield's death remain hazy with multiple stories floating around to this day whatever happened though the real tragedy was that mike bloomfield was only 37 years old mike bloomfield leaves behind a titanic legacy in the blues guitar scene clearly a prodigy it's not easy to be accepted by the african-american artists who built the genre but if mike lacked one thing it was the ability to be fake bloomfield was fiercely authentic and this is what those blues masters saw the kid legitimately had the blues despite the fact that his family was successful and bloomfield received a 50 000 trust every year money couldn't buy him happiness whatever demons drove mike to hammer the crap out of every guitar he owned every single performance he was a fire of unquenchable thirst that drove him to leave every bit of him on the stage every single night and even though we cannot say that we ever got the real mike bloomfield in a studio recording there are enough live performances and footage and recordings to give us a taste of what it was like to actually be in his presence that's another episode of forgotten fret masters please don't forget to subscribe to the guitar story and channel and be sure to hit the bell icon next to the subscribe button to be notified whenever we post new content thanks so much for watching and we will see you next time

Channel: The Guitar Historian

Views: 141,504

Keywords: Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Blues, Chicago Blues, Fender Telecaster, Gibson les Paul, Al Kooper, Bob Dylan, Like A Rolling Stone, Virtuoso, Prodigy, Forgotten Fretmasters, The Guitar Historian

Id: O70upIkoCLA

Length: 17min 4sec (1024 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 04 2021