Mike Bloomfield on Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Sessions

Bloomfield from a 1973 KSAN Radio Interview. No Copyright Infringement intended. I am uploading this from my personal archive copy of the radio interview and to celebrate the legacy of my musical hero and inspiration Michael Bloomfield (with some guy named Bob. I guess he's pretty good too :). If you wish for me to remove any of the following pictures and/or audio, just ask!

[@JB19504]

Bloomfield not only was a great player (we all know that) but he was extremely articulate in describing things. I love listening to him riff on the processes of a getting a song together and what he saw as far as the recording and arranging process.

[@42awww]

Bloomfield and Al Kooper, the 2 most under-appreciated and important musicians ever...

[@krisscanlon4051]

Just the perfect trio tied together by heritage and innocent yearning for sound

[@maryroot2599]

I loved his work on the first Blood Sweat and Tears album

[@42awww]

@@maryroot2599 Kooper was their creator/manager! Great band!

[@maryroot2599]

@@42awww Child is Father to the Man is a great album.

[@soofitnsexy]

it still amazes me how unknown and under appreciated Bloomfield still is…even among guitar players today

[@cardbored_]

As a younger guitarist, somewhat, in my 30's, I make a point to always bring up Bloomfield anytime I talk about guitar and early rock pioneers, he is truly the man.

[@PC160]

Sad he succumbed to heroin. I saw him once at Winterland, and he let a guy from the audience come onstage and play lead (he had his guitar, a Guild, I think). He just stood back and watched. The guy was pretty good, too. Who else would do something like that? Amazing memory. Saw him at Newport '65 also.

[@USNVA-yn6cp]

most young guitar player today think that Joe Bonnamasso is a real blues God,,lol

[@loupascarelli]

You said it .. I am not one that under-appreciated Mike .. He was fantastic..

[@Gretev1]

I would say that any blues guitarist knows who Mike Bloomfield is. I would say the reason more people don‘t know about Bloomfield is because he never had a huge solo career or any famous songs of his own. His claim to fame besides his phenomenal guitar chops is his contribution to Paul Butterfield Band and Dylan.

[@robertog9938]

I loved everything Michael Bloomfield ever played, with whoever he was playing with. Really the perfect example of a life and body of work cut wayyyy too short.

[@claraglatthaar998]

The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long. ~Lao Tzu

[@DuneAquaViva]

"He was the best from east to west, you shoulda heard the way he lived them blues, you all shoulda heard the way, that man could live them blues, he was born to win, you know he just had to loose..!" From my tune for Michael who I was lucky to know from just before I turned 16..

[@patcoughlin3104]

Michael Bloomfield, was tops.. as any guitarist of his time, he played masterfully styles that many of his contempts would sit listen and wonder how! he wasn't real comfortable playing rockstar, to soon gone ..Damm that junk

[@wipplerlaboratories3480]

Gddamn that Horse...we was robbed

[@lazur1]

1/More than any other musician, Mike Bloomfield connected white America to the blues musicians who had influenced him. He always told us: " Don't listen to me, listen to BB King, Albert King, Muddy Waters...." The extensive network of blues musicians today would not exist without his promotion of blues music. 2/Mike also is the #1 influence on the San Francisco /JamBand sound. He inspired the acoustic players to go electric, & the rockers to "stretch-out". Without "East-West" 's influence, the Grateful Dead would've been a completely different band.

[@frankny4947]

I thought Claptons' finest moment was his playing on the 1965 album 'Bluesbreakers'. Then I heard the 1st two Butterfield Blues Band albums, with Mike Bloomfield on guitar. 'The Butterfield Blues Band'-1965, and 'East West'-1966. Unbelievable playing from this young white guy and so early. Why he isn't mentioned whenever people discuss 'the greatest guitar players ever?

[@randalmcmurphy1893]

he turned hi sback on th ebusiness.

[@DagaanGalakticos]

When I was 16, in 1967, I quit high school and got a job in a dept store, lasted two weeks and took the remains of my last pay check - $18 - and me and my best friend Jimmy Jakowski hitched to New York to find out what it was all about. We walked across Manhattan to Greenwhich Village and found two clubs together with glassed in marquees right at Bleeker and McDougal; one place had some weird band called the Mothers of Invention, the other had a band called the Butterfield Blues Band. Jimmy wanted to see the weird band but it was my money and I'd just discovered the blues so we went for Butterfield. The band played downstairs in a basement with ancient, darkened brick walls. All the original members were in the band. For an encore they did the jazzed up The Work Song and played it for a looong time. When they were done I was on fire with blues harmonica playing. Before we went in we saw a big black Rolls Royce pull up the kerb and saw big, fat Albert Grossman get out. I only put that together later. That night we slept in the unlocked foyer of an apartment building, laying down next to the radiator at the bottom of the stairs. Years later - in '75, I was in Hollywood trying to break into the music biz and saw Al Kooper's Rolls with the license plate that said "PIG"!

[@Philharpo]

He is mentioned every time I discuss great guitar players!

[@frankny4947]

@@DagaanGalakticos I'm jealous..I was only 9 in 1967 so I never got to see the original BBB....Fuck!!....Seen Jimmy Page right up front at MSG in NY on the 1977 tour for 3 1/2 hrs non stop..He was ripping out blues licks like I never seen before..Live....That was Killer...but....

[@frankny4947]

@@randalmcmurphy1893 Absolutely...And I can't blame him.

[@zenzen1916]

Bloomfield was a genius, it's a sin that his life was cut short🥀🎶✨

[@astolatpere11]

This interview with Rolling Stone pissed off so many phoni hippies in the Bay Area at the time cause he told the truth that there weren't many good musicians in the early years of that music scene. I'll drink to Michael Bloomfield.

[@intune11001]

Bloomfield made Dylan electric.....so did Al Kooper!

[@johntechwriter]

Bloomfield was a wonderful blues guitarist. Like the master he learned from, B.B. King, he had a light hand. Then along came Clapton, who also assimilated some of King's magic. It's a tragedy Bloomfield's early death robbed the rest of us of who knows how many great recordings. But there it is when you can't handle your dope. Another great guitarist whose early death from heroin is diminishing him to obscurity? Lenny Breau. Check him out here on KZbin.

[@USNVA-yn6cp]

love that album..!! I always thought it was kinda crazy sounding and now I know why!

[@anotherjoshua]

And yet. that madness produces one of the greatest albums in history. Maybe Dylan was on to something

[@rddavies]

A la Kubrick very possible.

[@eargasm1072]

That's what gives him that unique style and sound....there are no charts or preparation. The bard starts singing and playing, and the session musicians follow suit to the best of their abilities. Raw yet pure

[@greghale6272]

Check out the Album " Super Sessions."

[@ferabra8939]

Bloomfield could bad mouth those sessions all he wanted...but they yielded a classic album. Saying there was "no concept, just Dylan's chords and words" is an understatement..yeah...Dylan's songs. No concept?. Dylan at his peak and the finest musicians around was more than enough.

[@anUHkins]

you can also catch some footage on youtube of Bloomfield playing Maggie's Farm with Dylan from Newport '65.

[@bloozedaddy]

"the producer ....was a non-producer....I don't know who it was....I think it was a black guy named Tom Wilson"......that statement uttered today would've gotten Bloomfield blackballed.....he'd be gigging with Michael Richards and Gilbert Gottfried :-)

[@EricScottBloom]

his master licks: TOMBSTONE BLUES

[@FlatlandMando]

I had no idea that sessions like that, all with professionals would lead to a giant rift where many early Dylan folk fans abandoned him. I never understood that & remained a Dylan fan because of such creative challenges he issued himself & others.You hear in this Bloomfield interview the wacky creative chaos that later resolved itself to acclaim from a whole new set of fans

[@zeab47]

I first heard Freewheelin in 63 when i was16 and i was hooked right away, loved Dylans folk music, then he moved to rock, and a lot of my friends dismissed him then. From Bringing all back home to Blonde on Blonde i consider his best most creative period ever, that music in my mind will never be surpassed.

[@JasonFerguson1283]

I love listening to Mike talk! Hilarious!

[@genewest8426]

Michael is still my favorite guitar player

[@andrewm1112]

The piano player had not been a piano player in the studio before. Funny, fascinating stories about this great record.

[@NorthDallasForty.]

Happy Birthday the late great Mike Bloomfield July 28 1943 🎸

[@genegreathouse6840]

Bloomfield, Steven Stills and Al Kooper put out an album named Super Session in the late 60's that had an absolutely stunning version of Season of the Witch. I met him in a small bar across the street from a motel I was staying at in California sometime in the late 70s not too long before he died. Interesting guy.

[@dukingtheraven]

Season of the witch was done by Steven Stills, not MB.

[@golds04]

Virtually the - same story line- for the most famous jazz recording in history- kind of blue. Perhaps says something about the creative process? Interesting similarities. 2 magical records

[@RobbinBrysonHero]

I had no idea Micheal had played or even had a thought about Bob. I had the luxury of seeing the three B's several times at the old Philmore Auditorium in SF. Paul Butterfield, Michael and the only surviving B. That would be Alvin Bishop. I think I'll put on East West for the fun of it! RB

[@roberttjordan9662]

Dylan's heresy at Newport included Michael and other members of the Butterfield Blues Band

[@mitchgawlik1175]

ELVIN Bishop.

[@randalmcmurphy1893]

MIke Bloomfield the greatest.

[@o7y]

While I heard he was a nice guy, it's obvious there was a rebellious, non-conformist streak in Mike Bloomfield. "Nobody's gonna tell ME what to do!" That's the music biz in general - totally unpredictable. As it should be, I suppose. For better or for worse.

[@anUHkins]

In Heylin's book about Bob, Bloomfield is quoted as saying everyone was just "chucklefucking" around.

[@Stephen-zq2wf]

Michael BloomField > Made Chicago Proud !

[@pabloprieto5381]

Mike is the best of all times!

[@guillermoortega4119]

AWESOME

[@walterfish2]

A real hero. Man I'm looking for that clip where Mike starts a song with an amazing dirty opening lick and makes a great face during it.....i think maybe Monterey with Dylan.....or was it Newport? I think Monterey....

[@Anthony-hu3rj]

Dylan never played Monterey.

[@addie2739]

Twenty alternate takes of the same song? unholy moly! That could wear anyone down. 😮

[@marguskiis7711]

"The producer, he was nonproducer, I don't know who the hell he was, the black guy..." of course, black guy producing folk record, unbelievable, yeah. Tom Wilson was damn famous producer those days with 10plus years career.

[@christianlacheze3323]

He was fired by CBS at Dylan’s request right after the Like a Rolling Stone session. The rest of the album was produced by Bob Johnston.

[@Danielle7208]

Fantastic !

[@theoriginalchefboyoboy6025]

why do I get the feeling there's another hour to this story...? And Woodstock would've meant Big Pink!

[@MrBluoct]

The energy …

[@s4burf]

Love that hoppin Electric Flag!

[@qwj68boots]

Maybe, just maybe, this is the reason why Tom Wilson only produced Like a Rolling Stone for that album then was replaced...

[@RolandDuke]

Man I can hear pastrimi

[@MrRatherino]

too sad..planted a flower in my garden for him today

[@MarcBrewer]

Tell that to Simon & Garfunkel

[@robertpeters4075]

Why Mike didn't make it is he wasn't as good as Eric either writing or singing. He was not a great song writer he needed to have someone who could write like Al Kooper who produced Mike's best stuff. Albert's Shuffle is maybe the greatest Chicago Blues song ever and Mike walked out on that recording session saying it was too commercial and left Al down and out that's why he brought in Stills who didn't mesh with that album.

[@Banzo_]

I read after doing the first half of the album everyone decided to call it a night and they'd resume the next day and mike bloomfield went to a hotel, couldn't sleep because he had to use heroin to fall asleep and didn't have a heroin connection where he was recording. So he flew back home to get heroin. Apparently he always had sleeep troubles.

[@michaelcelani8325]

....Robert...i bought the Super Session the first week it came out...Both sides of the album were as close to perfect as I could EVER want. Steve Stills with the wah wah...great....Al. Koopers singing ....great. Both sides different and really inspiring. I can not ask more than that from any piece of art work......

[@MBRMrblueroads]

👍👍

[@doubleslit3389]

Bloomy.....just play your guitar.

[@RobbinBrysonHero]

I didn't know he played or even thought of

[@laurencerezendes9009]

santana

[@Savage5854]

Haha finest recording artists of the time, Al Kooper was playing organ, he'd never even played organ before

[@smedleybutler8787]

Didn't care about the money or the witchcraft only the music.

[@factorylad5071]

You're not a full person until you've heard Big C Blues.

[@MarcBrewer]

I love MB, but Tom Wilson was the driving force behind"Folk-Rock"

[@madihernandez5027]

I think he's referring to what dylan called 'vision music' or 'mathmatical music', Dylan himself said he doesn't play folk rock.

[@garygcs]

Like you were there.. TW was not the driving force behind anything!

[@jackv6227]

Nobody knows Electric Flag at all. It's a shame

[@MrWildcountry]

I have ONE lp,, THERE are ,at lest 6 !!

[@TheIgnatzz]

Electric Flag's first album - the one with Bloomfield - is a TERRIFIC record.

[@bulababa9819]

Electric Flag Reunited in 1974/1975 and did album "The Band Kept Playing" and toured some, saw them at San Jose State with Sly Stone as the headliner. There were some new members but Mike,Nick and Buddy were the original members.

[@richardlay9663]

@@TheIgnatzz technically, their first album was the soundtrack for “The Trip”.

[@TheIgnatzz]

@@richardlay9663 Now I have to check that out.

[@smedleybutler8787]

4 best white blues player, mike Bloomfield, Rory Gallagher, Roy Buchanan, Peter Green. Honorable mention Gary Moore

[@gregmccurry5619]

you know music Erick I like Duane allman and pat travers too

[@idiotsavant751]

Ramshackle glory

[@richardbowes6897]

Bloomfield was before Eric Clapton and just as professional music wise. Why is this about Dylan like he was already dead ?

[@triplucid3563]

Well actually it's talked about in the way that it is : because it was one of the last interviews that Bloomfield did +he was actually talking about knowing Dylan and his time with him so that's why it's past-tense , however it would be Bloomfield who would die 1st , Dylan still alive : thank goodness

[@iainfleming2853]

@@triplucid3563 long live dylan

[@MarcBrewer]

That would be your area of expertise, I guess

[@riversidepete6128]

bloomfield could have been a star like eric clapton....but the heroin got to him

[@nickb3250]

Clapton did a ton of heroine too. Bloomfield had no interest in being famous.

[@claymationwaves]

@kevindlinc people..

[@SlimDavenport]

His vocals were weak.

[@factorylad5071]

Ah shit. You haven't heard Linda Lu then.

[@derekmtheriault]

UGottaListen2B4UDie.