The Rock Hall of Fame Recognizes a Groundbreaking Band
Today is Paul Butterfield’s 72nd birthday anniversary. Yesterday it was announced that the Paul Butterfield Blues Band has been elected to the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame.
Congratulations to the families of Butterfield, guitarist Mike Bloomfield, and East-West drummer Billy Davenport, all of whom are deceased, and to the band’s living alumni, guitarist Elvin Bishop, keyboard player Mark Naftalin, bassist Jerome Arnold, and drummer Sam Lay. Many other great musicians added swing and soul to subsequent editions of the Butterfield Blues Band, but the Hall’s focus was on the original, groundbreaking outfit with Bloomfield and Bishop.
I’ve written several blog posts on Butterfield, Bloomfield, and related matters. Here’s a compendium of them.
Paul Butterfield: Origins of an Originator
Paul Butterfield and Chaka Khan: Tradition Bearers
Dylan’s Guitar: Credit Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield
Big Joe’s Proteges: Bob Dylan and Mike Bloomfield
A Michael Bloomfield Retrospective
A Mike Bloomfield Alt-Anthology
There’s very little film footage of the original Butterfield Blues Band, but a board tape of their performance at the Unicorn Coffeehouse in Boston (misidentified as Cambridge on this file) on May 18, 1966 has circulated for years and now it’s on YouTube. The show opens with a veritable concerto of what’s to come. All vocals are by Paul Butterfield except as indicated below. Billy Davenport had succeeded Sam Lay by this time on drums.
1 Look Over Yonders Wall
2 Born In Chicago
3 Love Her With a Feeling
4 Get Out of My Life, Woman
5 Never Say No (Elvin Bishop)
6 One More Heartache
7 Work Song
8 Comin’ Home Baby
9 Serves You Right to Suffer
10 I’ve Got a Mind to Give Up Living
11 Walking by Myself
12 Baby Please Come Home (Mike Bloomfield)
13 Danger Zone (Elvin Bishop)
14 In the Midnight Hour (Jerome Arnold)
15 You’re So Fine (Jerome Arnold)
16 Got My Mojo Working