1064 - Mojo 65. The Butterfield Blues Band - East-West (1966)

Track Listing

1. Walkin' Blues
2. Get Out Of My Life, Woman
3. I Got A Mind To Give Up Living
4. All These Blues
5. Work Song
6. Mary, Mary
7. Two Trains Running
8. Never Say No
9. East West

Review

A good Blues rock album situated somewhere between Derek and the Dominoes and Led Zeppelin it really puts the rock into the blues and has some pretty amazing guitar playing thrown into the mix.

Actually it is in the more instrumental tracks that the album really shines, it has a verve the just seeps through, these are people really enjoying the music they are playing, being respectful of their origins but still aiming to push the envelope just that little bit further.

There is good reason for Mike Bloomfield to be considered the first guitar-hero of the 1960, just listen to the jazzy Work Song to get an idea for it. Still he never falls into the worse excesses of guitar heroes, it is just really enjoyable stuff.

Track Highlights

1. Work Song
2. East-West
3. Two Trains Running
4. Walkin' Blues

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Marsh's expansive liner notes observe that the song "East-West" "was an exploration of music that moved modally, rather than through chord changes. As Naftalin explains, "The song was based, like Indian music, on a drone. In Western musical terms, it 'stayed on the one'. The song was tethered to a four-beat bass pattern and structured as a series of sections, each with a different mood, mode and color, always underscored by the drummer, who contributed not only the rhythmic feel but much in the way of tonal shading, using mallets as well as sticks on the various drums and the different regions of the cymbals. In addition to playing beautiful solos, Paul [Butterfield] played important, unifying things [on harmonica] in the background - chords, melodies, counterpoints, counter-rhythms. This was a group improvisation. In its fullest form it lasted over an hour."

Work Song: