Customer Reviews

A Long Time Comin'

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This being one of my favorite cd's I was excited when I saw this available as a remastered import from Sony.However, when I put it on it sounded terrible. The highs were so screechy that the cd was unlistenable and lets not talk about the non-existent bass. I do have the original Columbia issue and compared to this "remastered version" the original sounds like an audiophile cd. Not really but this is how bad this thing sounds. In looking at the credits it appears that the same person did the remastering on both. I am guessing that the import is nothing more than a digital dub from way back when. Do yourself a favor and just get the Columbia/Legacy remastered compilation. It has 99 9/10 of the origial album and it sounds great. Happy listening

I ordered the import version of this CD (Sony Holland, English language label) because it was listed as "remastered" and I assumed it would have better fidelity than the domestic release. I have never heard the domestic version but it cannot be any worse than the import. Very tinny highs, not much bass. The original vinyl probably sounds better.

When this album first appeared in early 1968, underground freeform FM radio was in its heyday and the songs on "A Long Time Comin'" were a mainstay on underground radio. AM radio didn't know what to make of a band that combined blues, folk, jazz, rock and -- at times -- even classical modes in a sound that was astounding. This was the Bay Area's answer to New York's Blood, Sweat & Tears and it was an incredibly worthy answer indeed. Al Kooper built the original BS&T from the ashes of the little-known Blues Project, while The Electric Flag's Mike Bloomfield came from even headier stuff -- namely, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, where Bloomfield proved that a Jewish kid can have the blues -- real blues. To cover what other musicians in this band made this such an incredible group would take pages as there are so many of them. Buddy Miles handled the drums (who'd later launch his own Buddy Miles Express before joining Hendrix in the Band of Gypsies). Barry Goldberg added keys that were exquisite before leaving to form Barry Goldberg's Reunion. The horns in the Flag were more brash and bluesy than the classically-trained jazz musings of their New York contemporaries, BS&T. These guys could cook and when they turned up the heat, no audience I ever saw them perform to was able to withstand the spell they created live. The songs on this album are a remarkable testament to the precision, eloquence and power of the Electric Flag. Wow. Even the memory of these guys live is powerful. This album is their greatest recorded legacy.

What Mike Bloomfield wanted, when he bolted the Paul Butterfield Blues Band to make his home in San Francisco and put together this spry brass outfit, was a band that shied away from no portion of American music while keeping an anchor in the blues. What he got on this album was both a pretty powerful actuality and its own death sentence - the material is mostly top flight stuff but the cohesion doesn't always hold up as it should, given the talent Bloomfield assembled for the venture. And, considering that the band would purge Bloomfield, singer Nick Gravenites, and keyboardsman Barry Goldberg not long after this (their first) went onto the racks, that's a troublesome thought given the Flag's potential.

Still, this is the only Electric Flag you'll ever need; nay, require. You can't argue with the breezy power of "Killin' Floor," where Bloomfield and company wrap some vibrant brass lines around the Howlin' Wolf classic and give just about everyone room to breathe, even if it's Bloomfield's slinkily dangling guitar and Buddy Miles's rumble funk drumming that are the stars of the show. They rewrap Stick McGhee's vintage "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-De-O-Dee" into the lickety split boogie "Wine," grind it through practically laughing horns, Bloomfield's hit-the-roof-running guitar solo, and Gravenites's exhortative vocals, then finish off with a slowed-down coda that damn near serves up a round on the house. But they show some soul without being pretentious about it - Bloomfield's surprising "You Don't Realise" (he was usually, at best, a stumbling songwriter), Rick Polte's "She Should Have Just," and Gravenites's classic "Groovin' Is Easy" make a case for the Flag having been as credible a soul band as a blues-rock brass attack. They aim for expansive with "Another Country" and make it work, the second instrumental section giving gently urgent, freewheeling hints of some of what Bloomfield would deliver on "Super Session" and giving the band a chance to just lay forth and spread.

So what happened after Bloomfield, Gravenites and Goldberg were canned? Up front came Buddy Miles as the band's leader; there'd be one more album under the Electric Flag name, while Miles mutated the leftovers into his Buddy Miles Express, looked like a comer for a short while ("Expressway To Your Soul," "Them Changes"), then became a pleasant memory and wasn't he the guy who Jimi Hendrix almost had to tell to shut the hell up with that ridiculous scat-singing routine on "Band of Gypsys"? Bloomfield, meanwhile, went to Al Kooper and "Super Session," then spent much of the rest of his life gigging occasionally with a nucleus of "Friends" including Gravenites and fellow Flag alumnus Marcus Doubleday while hipping up to the point that his heart belonged purely to the blues, cutting albums for tiny indie and loss-leader labels rather than pretend he was any kind of real rock star. Until his death in 1981, Bloomfield had earned something better than stardom: real respect.

The band's name had a subtitle, "An American Music Band". This CD is far more than just 'blues with horns'. It beautifully integrates musical elements from an incredibly diverse range of sources, including Chicago, Memphis, Texas, Motown, Philly, MuscleShoals, NewOrleans, Nashville. It is more deeply and respectfully rooted in those musical traditions than probably any of the other hybrid pop music of its era. The music has somewhat less harmonic sophistication and self-conscious compositional structure than the music of its nearest competition from that era, Blood, Sweat & Tears, but it delivers more immediacy, drive, solo instrumentalism, idiom and soul. It thumps; it rocks; it screams; it moans; it wails; it cruises; it caresses.

Bloomfield, Gravenites, Miles, et al., knew in their heads and in their bones exactly what they were doing.

Personally, I'd recommend this CD over the other Electric Flag CDs, including the various anthologies and collections. This was their first, their best, and the only one that was conceived and realized (by the band itself) as a single integrated work.

This album along with the first Blood, Sweat and Tears and Paul Butterfield's Pigboy Crabshaw form the triumverate of great blues rock horn driven bands. Nick Gravenites soars, Buddy Miles drives and Mike Bloomfield lets loose with some of the best guitar ever. I still get chills every time I listen to the guitar solo on Wine and think that in under a minute Bloomfield created possibly the tastiest playing of the sixties!
The album as a whole may not be as consistant as some but the highs are well worth the lows.

Without a doubt the Electric Flag was one of the most talented bands ever assembled in pop music. Michael Bloomfield's statement about the band's mission on back of the album spoke to an audience that was ready to hear more than three-chord rock n' roll. The music here is extremely tight, the horn section revolutionized rock music, and Bloomfield's heartfelt playing is matched in this period only by Clapton, Mick Taylor, Peter Green, each,not coincidentally, a protege of John Mayall's blues bands. Any one song on this album is worth the price of admission. And though many of the band members went on to solo careers, this is a moment in time--a long time comin'--that will not be duplicated because the music captures the energy of the American city within its grooves like no other album. I have been playing this album for 30 years; yet every time I hear it, the energy and the range of the songs still strike me as unique.

We think of a lot of great bands and musicians when we think of the music that defined a generation and the music that still influences songwriters today. The obvious candidates aside, most musically-inclined folks my age can reel off a string of names of bands from that era that still resonate with them today: John Mayall, Steve Miller, Cream, Paul Butterfield, the Faces, Elvin Bishop, and a host of others. Yet there is one band whose life was short and influence great that many of my generation have forgotten and that band is the Electric Flag.
This is it. Though other groupings of musicians have called themselves the Electric Flag, this CD showcases the incarnation of the band whose members are the real deal.
Like a shooting star, EF appeared on the scene then was gone before anyone realized it. This CD is obligatory for fans of the late sixties honky blues. The legendary Mike Bloomfield was near his peak and Buddy Miles was coming on to his own as an innovative drummer. Combine those two with the voice of Nick Gravenites, add some other quality musicians, and you have the makings for a distinctive sound.
A Long Time Coming starts strong, but finishes weak. However, it is the strength of the great songs which give it a four star rating. The first six tracks would be enough to give the Flag blues immortality and are reason enough to own this recording. Killing Floor is nothing short of sensational and Wine will have you on your feet.
Most of the rest of the CD is rather mediocre with the exception of Another Country and a bonus track, Goin' Down Slow. But focus on the best, and you can ignore the rest.

Words about the talent and energy present on this album have already been said by others. The truely impressive feature about this CD as opposed to the original album are the bonus tracks, particulary the Flag's version of "Sunny". Buddy Miles soulful vocal performance is compelling. The horns are radiant. You will wish that the organ solo would never end. If only "Sunny" had been issued as single. If only the group had stayed together. If only . . .

I'd known the ELECTRIC FLAG forever, tho I'd think, "How is this band so important? The real motor and instigator of this band was Michael Bloomfield. Bloomfield was famous around 1965-1967 in the USA, the way Clapton or Jeff Beck was in England. First he played on the early Butterfield Blues albums, including EAST WEST, which came out in 1966 with the first 14 minute raga rock freak out song, "East West". Most of that song is played by Bloomfield, especially, the eastern raga scales. Also, Bloomfield contributed lead guitar on Dylan's 'HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED". Just that would have kept him in our country's musical history books. BUT, add the BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND, the ELECTRIC FLAG, and BLOOMFIELD KOOPER SUPER SESSIONS, you have a top shelf 60s legend. Michael Bloomfield faced 1967 away from his sweet home Chicago, moving to acid drenched San Fransesco, where he hooked up with Nick Gravenites (composer and blues singer extrodinaire), and Buddy Miles, who ended up as Jimi Hendrix's drummer after the Experience broke up. Combining intelligent, cutting edge blues guitar, a fantastic blues singer and songwriter , with a funk drummer before there WAS funk, Bloomfield creates a NEW SOUND for big band blues, at a time when NEW SOUNDS were erupting everywhere. The band in question, ELECTRIC FLAG, brought together BLUES and POP music, with a Chicago HORN section, with a good dose of LSD. AND YES, this was DEFINATELY a psychedelic band, tho there's not much flipped out music on THIS album. (Most of their Psychedelic work ended up on soundtrack albums like Roger Corman's THE TRIP, and the rare 60s underground film, YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.) Once you get past the basic blues song structure, you hear how all these influences, and giant talent, brought together excellent execution of material, wild time changes, experimental soundscapes, and heart breaking blues riffs, mixed with Indian raga rock. Music like the STAX VOLT sound predominated, but this album is great for the songs that people forget about. The song I listen to all the time is ANOTHER COUNTRY. IT's a total psychedelic masterpiece, with sitar droning, (Courtesy of Richie Havens), and the long, modernist song center, where the music breaks into free form freak out. Seriously, for a few minutes it gets downright scary. THEN, the brass figure breaks in like gangbusters, the sitar starts to drone, while Nick Gravenites begins to sing of the horrors of the time. Back then, songs were called "heavy" which often sound trite, or dated. However, ALMOST ALL of this album, that's NOT the case. The sound was freaky then, and its freaky now.

THE ELECTRIC FLAG's "A LONG TIME COMING" is a compendium of all Bloomfield's influences, like Dylan in 1965, the Butterfield Blues band's extended blues, and a stax/ volt reed section, with a funky, freaky drummer. BINGO..music history is made. The Flag's first album was huge, and a big influence on Janis Joplin's KOSMIC BLUES BAND. (Doubt it? Check out how many Nick Gravenite Songs are on her album, after the Electric Flag album came out.) The psychedelic Funk sound influenced JIMI HENDRIX to leave the Experience, and hook up with the Flag's drummer, on BAND OF GYPSIES. When the CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY got their first album together, it was almost a xerox of this band's sound, minus the funk and deep blues. In fact, without ELECTRIC FLAG, I doubt we'd have heard CHICAGO's first 3 albums, which were psychedelic and experimental, before they mellowed out. THis album is Michael Bloomfield's true masterpiece, and yet, as soon as he succeeded with the sound, he left the band to Buddy Mile's leadership. (The second Electric Flag album looses everything, that makes the first album so great....BLOOMFIELD.) Michael Bloomfield abandoned this success to record the SUPER SESSION album with Al Kooper. A huge smash, tho by this time Bloomfield was addicted to smack, like his other psychedelic blues buddy, Janis Joplin. HE had a couple of other cool albums, before his long slow demise during the 70s. Gravenites and Bloomfield LIVE at the FILMORE WEST 1969 has great live blues, even country rock, with lots of songs written or sung by Gravenites. But it can be argued, that after ELECTRIC FLAG's first album, Bloomfield lost his direction as an artist. But on this album, a lack of tight stylistic focus contributes to an EYE OPENING RANGE OF SOUNDS, that really made me a major fan of Bloomfield's work. You like JUMP BLUES? Listen to the song WINE. You like Slow Blues like early SAVOY BROWN played so well? Listen to the song TEXAS. You like that OTIS REDDING R&B sound, or STEVE CROPPER? Listen to YOU DONT REALIZE. And, if you enjoy Psychedelic freak out somewhat like the Grateful Dead on ANTHEM OF THE SUN? Then, get into their song ANOTHER COUNTRY. It's all here waiting, for over 40 years, just waiting to be discovered again.

Some of the less innovative material from the second album is tagged onto the album's end, including the single SUNNY, and Easy Rider. Also are two outtakes, one of which, GOIN DOWN SLOW is another fantastic slow blues. The horn charts are almost like clarion calls, nearly classical for the times (until the songs start, and you get those horn jabs, or backing horn chords). And everywhere, restrained, but present, is BLOOMFIELDS AMAZING ACID BLUES GUITAR WORK. The only part of this act, which isnt drenched in the psychedelic formula of the times, are the lyrics. To the band's credit, you dont get to hear about how "green blue rays of alien love bring courage to the hobbits who want to stop the war." No, this band remained deeply grounded in the blues street attitude. This blues foundation, the kick butt horn charts, and down to earth lyrics, keep the psychedelic element from becoming trite, or silly. Nick Gravenites wrote incredible songs at this time. (Remember Janis Joplin's songs BURIED ALIVE IN THE BLUES, and WORK ME LORD? Nick Gravenites wrote both of them, so that's what I'm talking about.) As the 60s becomes more of a historical artifact, and not a memory of a generation, its important that future generations latch onto the very best of the 1960s artistic renaiscence. Bloomfield's name, and this first ELECTRIC FLAG album A LONG TIME COMIN' needs to be remembered, as the initial influence for everyone from Janis Joplin's breakaway KARMIC BLUES album, Jimi Hendrix's funky blues extensions, and the fountainhead of the early sounds of the band CHICAGO. I'm SO happy to have finally found out what this album has buried in it. Now, who's going to dig this? Well, you had better like Blues, and you had better like experimentation, and you had better like horn charts from R&B songs, and you had better enjoy gut busting blues singers. The ELECTRIC FLAG is connected to the genre of other american bands like BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS and early CHICAGO. Yet, they surpase those more famous bands. A LONG TIME COMING is a blazing example of what the freedom to experiment, and mix genres, did for a creative group of people, willing to innovate and expand musical boundries. Bloomfield's guitar playing is at turns scorching, then dripping with languid blues understatement. I waited to get into this band, and I regret it. Even if you only like half the songs after you buy it, you are still getting a huge bargain.