Mike Bloomfield - Live At The Bottom Line (Live 1974) '2022

Tracks list

Tracklist:

01. Don't You Lie To Me (Live)
02. Linda Lou (Live)
03. Sweet Little Angel (Live)
04. Unchain My Heart (Live)
05. Inside Information (Live)
06. Shadows Told Me All (Live)
07. Glamour Girl (Live)
08. Heartbreak / Goin' To Kansas City (Live)
09. Got To Use My Imagination (Live)
10. Let Them Talk (Live)
11. I Smell Trouble (Live)
12. If I Get Started All Over Again (Live)


 moreMichael Bernard Bloomfield was born July 28, 1943, into a well-off
Jewish family on Chicago's North Side. A shy, awkward loner as a child, he
became interested in music through the Southern radio stations he was able to
pick up at night, which gave him a regular source for rockabilly, R&B, and
blues. He received his first guitar at his bar mitzvah and he and his friends
began sneaking out to hear electric blues on the South Side's fertile club scene
(with the help of their families' maids). The young Bloomfield sometimes jumped
on-stage to jam with the musicians and the novelty of such a spectacle soon made
him a prominent scenester. Dismayed with the turn his education was taking, his
parents sent him to a private boarding school on the East Coast in 1958 and he
eventually graduated from a Chicago school for troubled youth. By this time,
he'd embraced the beatnik subculture, frequenting hangout spots near the
University of Chicago. He got a job managing a folk club and frequently booked
veteran acoustic bluesmen; in the meantime, he was also playing guitar as a
session man and around the Chicago club scene with several different bands.

In 1964, Bloomfield was discovered through his session work by the legendary
John Hammond, who signed him to CBS; however, several recordings from 1964 went
unreleased as the label wasn't sure how to market a white American blues
guitarist. In early 1965, Bloomfield joined several associates in the Paul
Butterfield Blues Band, a racially integrated outfit with a storming,
rock-tinged take on Chicago's urban electric blues sound. The group's
self-titled debut for Elektra, released later that year, made them a sensation
in the blues community and helped introduce white audiences to a less
watered-down version of the blues. Individually, Bloomfield's lead guitar work
was acclaimed as a perfectly logical bridge between Chicago blues and
contemporary rock. Later, in 1965, Bloomfield was recruited for Bob Dylan's new
electrified backing band; he was a prominent presence on the groundbreaking
classic Highway 61 Revisited and he was also part of Dylan's epochal plugged-in
performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. In the meantime, Bloomfield was
developing an interest in Eastern music, particularly the Indian raga form, and
his preoccupation exerted a major influence on the next Butterfield album,
1966's East-West. Driven by Bloomfield's jaw-dropping extended solos on his
instrumental title cut, East-West merged blues, jazz, world music, and
psychedelic rock in an unprecedented fashion. The Butterfield band became a
favorite live act on the emerging San Francisco music scene and in 1967,
Bloomfield quit the group to permanently relocate there and pursue new projects.

Bloomfield quickly formed a new band called the Electric Flag with longtime
Chicago cohort Nick Gravenites on vocals. The Electric Flag was supposed to
build on the innovations of East-West and accordingly featured an expanded
lineup complete with a horn section, which allowed the group to add soul music
to their laundry list of influences. The Electric Flag debuted at the 1967
Monterey Pop Festival and issued a proper debut album, A Long Time Comin', in
1968. Critics complimented the group's distinctive, intriguing sound, but found
the record itself somewhat uneven. Unfortunately, the band was already
disintegrating; rivalries between members and shortsighted management -- not to
mention heroin abuse -- all took their toll. Bloomfield himself left the band
he'd formed before their album was even released. He next hooked up with
organist Al Kooper, whom he'd played with in the Dylan band, and cut Super
Session, a jam-oriented record that spotlighted his own guitar skills on one
half and those of Stephen Stills on the other. Issued in 1968, it received
excellent reviews and moreover became the best-selling album of Bloomfield's
career. Super Session's success led to a sequel, The Live Adventures of Mike
Bloomfield and Al Kooper, which was recorded over three shows at the Fillmore
West in 1968 and released the following year; it featured Bloomfield's on-record
singing debut.

Bloomfield, however, was wary of his commercial success and growing disenchanted
with fame. He was also tired of touring and after recording the second album
with Kooper, he effectively retired for a while, at least from high-profile
activities. He did, however, continue to work as a session guitarist and
producer, and also began writing and playing on movie soundtracks (including
some pornographic films by the Mitchell Brothers). He played locally and
occasionally toured with Bloomfield and Friends, which included Nick Gravenites
and ex-Butterfield mate Mark Naftalin. Additionally, he returned to the studio
in 1973 for a session with John Hammond and New Orleans pianist Dr. John; the
result, Triumvirate, was released on Columbia, but didn't make much of a splash.
Neither did Bloomfield's 1974 reunion with Electric Flag and neither did KGB, a
short-lived supergroup with Barry Goldberg, Rik Grech (Traffic), and Carmine
Appice that recorded for MCA in 1976. During the late '70s, Bloomfield recorded
for several smaller labels (including Takoma), usually in predominantly acoustic
settings; through Guitar Player magazine, he also put out an instructional album
with a vast array of blues guitar styles, titled If You Love These Blues, Play
'Em as You Please.

Unfortunately, Bloomfield was also plagued by alcoholism and heroin addiction
for much of the '70s, which made him an unreliable concert presence and slowly
cost him some of his longtime musical associations (as well as his marriage). By
1980, he had seemingly recovered enough to tour in Europe; that November, he
also appeared on-stage in San Francisco with Bob Dylan for a rendition of "Like
a Rolling Stone." However, on February 15, 1981, Bloomfield was found dead in
his car of a drug overdose; he was only 37. ~ Steve Huey

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