The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - East-West (1966)

> The album

Oldie but goodie

 1966 ! The beginning of the so inventive psychedelic music years, born with the "flower power" and the "discovery" of LSD, and opened ten years earlier by the beat generation (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Ferlinghetti ― 100 years old this year !) The year before Paul Butterfield and his brand new blues band played at the Newport Folk Festival, suddenly bringing Chicago electric blues to white audiences. A thundering revelation for Bob Dylan who suddenly decided to go electric too, asking the Butterfield’s band to back him during his set the next day !
Without the Chicago three Bs (Butterfield, Bloomfield & Bishop), the blues revival wouldn't have happened, or not so strongly, allowing black bluesmen to reach a new public and a much larger recognition.

This is the second album of the PBBB, and the last one featuring Bloomfield, who left shortly after its release to set a band called Electric Flag, which ended after only one album, then working with Al Kooper for sometimes before leading an erratic career due to his severe heroin addiction, until his death in 1981.
Harp master, singer and band leader Paul Butterfield also had an up-and-down career after the PBBB split, until his early death in 1987.
Elvin Bishop had a much more productive career after the PBBB, with the Elvin Bishop Group, then solo or in different configurations, and is still active on the blues scene.

More directly devoted to blues than the first one, this album features a number of traditional blues like "I Got A Mind To Give Up Living", "All These Blues" and "Never Say No", and covers of Robert Johnson's "Walkin' Blues", Allen Toussaint's "Get Out Of My Life, Woman", and Muddy Waters' "Still A Fool" re-titled here "Two Trains Running". There's also the odd choice of "Mary, Mary", a pop song written by Michael Nesmith from the Monkees, fortunately revisited in a definitely blues style.
Then there are the two real jewels of the album : "Work Song", a nearly 8-minute revisited piece of Cannonball Adderley, and icing on the cake, the rightly titled "East-West", a 13-minute piece of ground-breaking psychedelia featuring the incredible Indian music-inspired solo of Bloomfield.

This innovative moment of psychedelic guitar certainly opened the way for the future early recordings and performances of acid rock bands, like the Grateful Dead ("Dark Star"), Quicksilver Messenger Service ("Who do you love ?"), Jefferson Airplane ("After Bathing at Baxter's"), Moby Grape, Vanilla Fudge or indeed, the Doors… Melodic lines were exploding off of their traditional shackles. On a series of shows at the famous San Francisco Fillmore Auditorium (aka Fillmore West), the song extended to nearly one hour, setting the trend for very long tripping instrumental stretches in acid rock.

Though largely dominated by Bloomfield's flamboyant guitar and Butterfield's harmonica, this album sees Bishop emerging from the shade to show his talent on guitar. From the three Bs, he'll be the only one to survive to the drug and booze venture of the PBBB.
Even if today this album may sound like an oldie because of the recording techniques poorer qualities of that time, it remains a goodie which opened durable new horizons in music. Be it for the sole "East-West" track, this album is worth listening and keeping in one's collection.

Things to read

"Blues, booze and debauchery: the agonizing story of Paul Butterfield", a 2021 article by Rob Hughes from the online mag Classic Rock : https://www.loudersound.com/features/blues-booze-and-debauchery-the-agonising-story-of-paul-butterfield

Videos

 > "Driftin' Blues", Monterey, 1967 (Elvin Bishop on guitar) : https://youtu.be/e3LEhfbKCSc

 > Woodstock, 1969 ("Buzzy" Feiten on guitar) :

- "Driftin' and Driftin'": https://youtu.be/7jSSBAWeUCo

- "Everything gonna be alright": https://youtu.be/VoqG3hif_dg

 

> Second reunion gig of members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band at the Fenway Theater, Boston, in December 1971 (Paul Butterfield : harp & vocals - Mike Bloomfield (more likely Elvin Bishop) : guitar - Mark Naftalin : piano - John Kahn : bass - and Billy Mundi : drums) (23mn) : https://youtu.be/jTWP70FU-ew

> Reunion concert, Greek Theater, Los Angeles, 1978 (Mike Bloomfield ( ?) : guitar - Paul Butterfield : vocals/harmonica - Elvin Bishop : guitar - Mark Naftalin : keyboards - Sam Lay : drums - 'Jellyroll' Troy : bass) : https://youtu.be/_JooI-S42-c> Paul Butterfield live at The Maintenance Shop, 1985 (43mn) : https://youtu.be/BQvHBLkSzUE

> Elvin Bishop at the Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, 1973 (38mn) : https://youtu.be/rPjoWix9afA

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