Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band Masterpiece, April 14, 2005
There are many albums which have introduced a new combined style of music to the masses (e.g. "Are You Experienced", "Sargent Peppers", "Johnny Winter" and "Texas Flood" are some). This set was way ahead of its time. The Butterfield Blues Band had made a name for itself on their first, self-titled, LP as great exponents of the revived Blues Power. The edge this band had was, say unlike Canned Heat, they had two Black musicians from Howlin Wolf's band. Sam Lay, the drummer, is still considered to be one the best Chicago Blues drummers ever and bassist Jerome Arnold. This lineup was impressive. Unlike John Mayall, whose album fired interest in the Blues from the far side of the Atlantic with its pre-Hendrix like overdriven sound and up front guitar. However, the PBBB had people from Chicago, the home of urban blues, who had grown up and played with all the greats. Butterfield, originally a flutist, is probably, along with Charlie Musselwhite, the greatest ever white harp player-his style of single note playing (listen to the record) is very unique and gives it a true horn sound. He had met Elvin Bishop at the University of Chicago and started jamming. Bishop, a native Oklahoman, was a Blues fanatic from the start. He played traditional blues styles on his Gibson 335 in the Freddie King, Eddie Taylor, Luther Tucker and Otis Rush tradition.
Mike Bloomfield, whose father owned a club in Chicago, had only been playing about 10 years when he made this record. He played jazz, blues and fingerpicking styles well. Mike took up slide on a Fender Telecaster and became known around town for his fabluous technqiue-similar to Elmore James. He was hired to play slide in the initial album on "Shake Your Moneymaker" and joined the band. (However, he was in and out the whole time-I saw the PBBB several times growing up in NY and Bloomfield was never in the line up). On East-West Bloomfield switched to the Gibson Les Paul (Like Clapton) and history was made. His lines are clear and many of his runs are virtually seamless. And amazing effort-one he himself never duplicated- like Eric Clapton on the Bluesbreakers first LP. Mark Naftalin does a great job on the keyboards. And Jerome Arnold plays bass with soul (especially notice his work on "The Work Song" similar to Duck Dunn of the MGs).
This band was interracial, a great thing for the Blues Revival that they helped start (Like SRV in the 1980s). They were the Blues Booker T and the MGs. This set combines all genres of music but basically shows the world what Willie Dixon always said "The Blues is the Roots, Everything else is the Fruits!". They do impressive and updated (at the time) versions of many types of tunes. "Walking Blues" is of course a Robert Johnson tune and was probably done because Clapton had done "Ramblin On My Mind" on the Mayall LP. "Mary, Mary" was a tune by the Monkees!!!!!!Can you believe it!
"I Got A Mind To Give Up Living" was a B.B. King tune (redone many times with many different titles). Which to me always has been the highlight of the record. It's a blues, but a new wave type of feel and arrangement. Butterfield sings, but plays no harp! Bloomfield produced his best ever blues solos- slightly understated and perfect, especially the intro. "Two Trains Running" has a funky feel and is nothing like Muddy Waters original or the Danny Kalb and the Blues Project's slow version on "Projections". This one rocks and the intro to the guitar solo is fantastic with its tension and build up.
The title track is no less interesting. It featured ragas from India with a basic jazz background. Bloomfield and Butterfield's playing is fantastic and highly original. This was the start of the Grateful Dead style psychedelic rock that came in the late 60s. (I can remember playing in bands in 1967 where we did "Gloria" and "Light My Fire" for a half hour each!!!) This track was 13 minutes long and a milestone for the time- the Door's The End was 11 minutes!
The Work Song is a powerful jazz-fusion number that has Bloomfield's best solos ever. This was someone at the height of their creative powers. The whole tune is solid and explores the jazz potential of the basic blues pentatonic scale. I feel this was Butterfield's instrumental masterpiece.
It is unfortunate that the Blues gave way to soul and country in the 1970s. Butterfield's subsequent work (although some was excellent) never sold well (Like Mayall's as well) and he and Bloomfield had drug addictions which killed them both. Bishop continues to play and had chart success in the seventies. Naftalin played with Otis Rush and others and Sam Lay is still a Chicago institution (see him on the Howlin Wolf DVD and The Fathers and Sons DVD in the Blues series, 2003).
This is an essential recording in the history of American Music and should be in everyone's collection.
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55 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
YOU'RE BUYING THE WRONG CD!, November 2, 2004
Yes, this is the great PBBB's 2nd album, but it's not the CD you should be buying.
This domestic CD was released in 1990 and has never been remastered.
The import 2CD version of this title (backed with the PBBB's 1st album) is the one to get. It was remastered by Bob Irwin in 2001.
Ditto for "Pigboy Crabshaw" & "In My Own Dream"; the 2004 import 2CD is also remastered (and sounds incredible) and the domestic CD's are not.
Why WEA and Elektra have not made these four remasters available domestically is a mystery.
Don't waste your money on these inferior versions: Get the imports!
Link to the import remastered Paul Butterfield Blues Band/East West
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
East-West is a guitar Mecca, February 20, 2004
By now it seems like everything in music has been tried and done - or overdone - and most of it badly. But back in 1966 when this album debuted, it was nothing less than astonishing. A mixed-race band? A white guy singing blues like nobody's business? A Jewish kid and a southern farmboy sounding like Robert Johnson on guitars? None of us had heard anything quite like it and it gave me, a 15-year-old rock&roll wannabee guitar player, something to focus on. Right out of the chute, this is a strong album. Opening with "Walking Blues", the BBB struts their stuff with strong vocals, soulful harmonica, and wicked guitar. "I've Got a Mind to Give up Living" was most people's first taste of what Michael Bloomfield could do - simply a stunning blues solo to cap off a great twelve-bar blues. The album highlight, in my opinion, is their rendition of "The Work Song". Always a great jam song, they carried it to new heights. Bloomfield plays a dizzying guitar solo for 4 verses; Butterfield smokes 2 verses on his harp; Mark Naftalin follows with an understated organ solo; Elvin Bishop gets down & dirty for 4 verses. Then it really gets good; trading off every 2 bars, the musicians rotate for a few verses, each time upping the ante on each other as the song intensifies before resolving into a final melody verse. Whatta song!!! Noteworthy on side 2 is Elvin Bishop's singing and playing on the sultry "Never Say No". Who knew he could sing? Finally, the album culminates with the title song "East-West", one of those 60's long-songs which were oftentimes wretched excess, but this one keeps your interest. For 5 minutes or so, guitar and harmonica imitate an Indian raga in a slowly building crescendo. Sudden break, and the music becomes western, muted, and diatonic scale until once again transitioning to the final east-west blend. Hard to describe -- by the CD and hear it yourself. While "East West" wasn't on the top-10 decade list for sales, it represented a watershed for pop music -- more maturity, better musicianship, more exploration, more successful blending of other genres. If you're a blues fan, an Alan Lomax enthusiast, or a student of the 60s progression, this album is a must. Enjoy.
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