Paul Butterfield Blues Band / East-West [Enhanced, Extra tracks, Import]

Paul Butterfield | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 29, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Enhanced, Extra tracks, Import
• Label: Rhino/Wea UK
• ASIN: B00005OKOW
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,339 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #73 in Music > Imports > Blues

Track Listings

1. Born In Chicago

2. Shake Your Money-Maker

3. Blues With A Feeling

4. Thank You Mr Poobah

5. I Got My Mojo Working

6. Mellow Down Easy

7. Screamin

8. Our Love Is Drifiting

9. Mystery Train

10. Last Night

11. Look Over Yonders Wall

12. Walkin Blues

13. Get Out My Life Woman

14. I Got A Mind To Give Up Living

15. All These Blues

16. Work Song

17. Mary Mary

18. Two Trains Running

19. Never Say No

20. East-West

Editorial Reviews

UK remastered reissue combines the blues-rock act's first two albums for Elektra, 'Paul Butterfield Blues Band' (1965) & 'East-West' (1966). Includes new liner notes & rarely seen photos. 2001.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's About Time, November 29, 2001

By 

N. Wakabayashi "Nobs" (Jawsey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paul Butterfield Blues Band / East-West (Audio CD)

This is a reissue with the first two albums by the Butterfield Blues Band(first & most important line up). Chances are, if one has the first two albums in the old cd format, they have wondered how it would sound if they were sonically remastered.

Fans like me get their wish. The results are STUNNING, as Bloomfield's licks absolutely RING throughout. I always wondered how Bloomfield would sound in this new age of digital remastering (due to albums such as Super Sessiom not being remastered, Fillmore West & My Labors out of print), & the results are unbelievable.

Some questions: were they any outtakes available aside from the Elektra Anthology? There are no bonus tracks present, & I'd dish out $$ to hear them. It's also annoying that it's available only as an import...

However, there are some new pics of the classic line up, & like I mentioned before, the sound improvement is outstanding. Worth every penny of the import price. Recommended, & in many ways, essential.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Throw out the old CDs, February 6, 2002

By 

Flipper Campbell (Miami Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Paul Butterfield Blues Band / East-West (Audio CD)

Butterfield aficionados are spreading the word on this twofer. Sound quality a quantum leap from the old Elektra single albums. Hard to believe East West was recorded almost four decades ago, based on the audio quality found here. Paul's harp no longer piercing, but musical. Bloomfield-Bishop guitars rendered powerfully, soaring above the mix. Here's hoping In My Own Dream gets this treatment. Encore!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stands the Test of Time, March 11, 2005

By 

Kurt Harding "bon vivant" (Boerne TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Paul Butterfield Blues Band / East-West (Audio CD)

There are some bands that sound fresh and compelling when they first appear on the scene, but when you listen to them nearly forty years later, you wonder why you ever liked them. Then there are others, like the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, that sound just as good if not better than when you first heard them.

Paul Butterfield's debut album is one of the first I owned at the tender age of eleven. Back then, I mostly just liked a half-dozen songs on side one and rarely listened to the flip side. And when East-West came out, I flippantly dismissed it, thinking at the time it couldn't hold a candle to the first one.

My old album is now worn and scratched, so when I saw the pair being offered together as a remastered set, I could not resist ordering it. When I threw it in the CD player, all I could do was marvel at the miracle wrought by remastering. The percussion, in particular, comes to life. Now here are a couple of albums that truly stand the test of time!

After listening to both CDs several times, I am still of the opinion that the eponymous debut is superior to East-West, but not by that much. I like the entire debut album, the follow-up is only mariginally and perhaps necessarily weaker than its blockbuster predecessor.

In my opinion, the following songs are the highlights of disc one: Born in Chicago, Shake Your Money-Maker, Blues With A Feeling, the instrumental Thank You Mr. Poobah, the driving I Got My Mojo Working featuring drummer Sam Lay on vocals, Screamin', and Look Over Yonders' Wall, a song that seems to presage the southern blues/rock of the Allman Brothers.

Disc two features fewer standouts, but is nevertheless worthwhile. My favorites are: Get Out of My Life Woman (later covered by Iron Butterfly on their debut), I Got A Mind To Give Up Living, and a couple instrumentals, Work Song and East-West.

Getting this set gives the listener the opportunity to hear some great musicians at their peak. In addition to Butterfield, there is the immortal blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield and an early Elvin Bishop who went on to light up the San Francisco scene before falling into commercialism. In addition, there is the drumming of the great Sam Lay and the fabulous keyboard work of the lesser-known Mark Naftalin.

These guys were far advanced for their day and from their collaborations sprang a number of important late 60s musical groupings. If blues is your thing, how can you be without a great pair of albums like these?