Mike Bloomfield & the Electric Flag

recgord27

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Got hold of the album KGB featuring Mike Bloomfield and Rick Grech (one of my favourite bassists of all time) :) Some nice guitar work from Mike. Not bad at all :)
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Neshabur

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From the underrated album Casting Pearls edited by Mill Valley Bunch, a US supergroup behind which there is Michael Bloomfield featuring Barry Goldberg, Mark Naftalin, Nick Gravenites, Michael Shrieve (Santana's drummer) etc...Nick sings; Mike plays an heartfelt guitar solo:


 

E-Z

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The late great MICHAEL BLOOMFIELD as was previously said by other's the American answer to ERIC CLAPTON although unfortunately one of those guy's that has slowly been airbrushed out of rock history.

At onetime back in the early 1980s (just after Michael died) i bought a number of his solo albums and a book that was called-

MICHAEL BLOOMFIELD: THE RISE AND FALL OF AN AMERICAN GUITAR HERO.
Just quoting myself rock dudes from an old post of mine.

E-Z
 
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Rock2Blues

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Totally agree Billtjr51. I wore out 3 copies of the Supersession. The used some of the music in a Robert Redford movie called Sneakers.
 

E-Z

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Totally agree Billtjr51. I wore out 3 copies of the Supersession. The used some of the music in a Robert Redford movie called Sneakers.
The Supersessions album released in 1968 that features Micheal Bloomfield on side one and Stephen Stills on side two is bit of a minor classic amongst certain groups of people and is usually given high praise amongst most rock critics of 1960s rock. From memory as I haven't heard this album for a number of years now first hearing it back in the early 1980s there are two of Michael Bloomfield performances that stand out on the record one number is called 'Stop' and the other number is called 'Albert's Shuffle' Michael really burns on those two tracks and of the Stephen Stills performances on side two of this record the stand out number from Stephen is 'Seasons of the Witch' which again from memory comes in at around 11+minutes in duration and has Stephen playing some nice wah-wah guitar on it.

E-Z
 
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BikerDude

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Perhaps a bit off topic. But still in praise of the great Mike Bloomfield.


Mike Bloomfield's famous tele. He later cut the body to a double cut away.
Ouch!
 

E-Z

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From what I remember reading about Michael Bloomfield I guess he was what would be called a 'troubled individual' these days. I read that Michael was the American Eric Clapton and was possibly the finest white American blues guitarist ever!. Michael apparently suffered from a sleep disorder (insomnia) when he was working (recording and playing live concerts) where apparently it was quite common for him to stay awake for days on end (I believe I read 4 or 5 consecutive days & nights) after which he would 'crash' for 2 or 3 consecutive days sleeping!.

This is being written from memory only anyway during 1967-68 Michael was in a group called The Electric Flag which featured amongst other musicians future Hendrix/Band of Gypsy's drummer Buddy Miles also during 1968 Michael participated in the Supersession recordings where Michael is featured on side one of the record and Stephen Stills is featured on side two. After the Supersessions album was released Michael played on a couple of live albums recorded at the Fillmore West around 1969 which feature Al Kooper on one of them. During the 1970s Michael was in a rock group called KGB that featured amongst several other musicians Carmine Appice ex Cactus on drums and Rick Grech ex Blind Faith on bass Michael also appeared on a number of blues orientated albums during the 1970s with one in particular being called Play These Blues As You Please which was from 1977 and was an instructional record on how to play different blues styles such as Chicago blues or Gospel blues or Boogie blues. Also during the mid/late 1970s Michael scored music for porn movies I presume just to make some extra cash because I believe Michael unfortunately had a drug habit possibly for all of the 1970s?.

Michael took his own life and was found dead in his car in a car park in 1981.

MICHAEL BLOOMFIELD 1943-1981
 
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BikerDude

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I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz
 

Old Dude

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If you read up on Super Session, Bloomfield recorded side one, and was too strung out on heroin to show to record side two. Kooper called in Stills at the last minute to finish the record. Think about it. That's one of the best albums of the era, and was recorded in two days, with one side all a last minute ad lib.
 

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