The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (album)

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The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Studio album by
the Paul Butterfield Blues Band
ReleasedOctober 1965 (1965-10)
RecordedSeptember 1965
GenreBlues[1]
Length38:15
LabelElektra
ProducerPaul Rothchild, Mark Abramson
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band chronology
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
(1965) 		East-West
(1966)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Sputnikmusic[2]
The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings[3]

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band is the self-titled debut album by the American blues rock band of the same name, released in 1965 on Elektra Records. It peaked at number 123 on the Billboard albums chart. In 2012, the album was ranked number 453 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[4] It is also ranked at number 11 on Down Beat magazine's list of the top 50 blues albums.[5]

Recording and releases[edit]

In late 1964, Joe Boyd, an aspiring producer and friend of Elektra house producer Paul Rothchild, told Rothchild that the "best band in the world was on stage at a blues bar in Chicago". Rothchild took a plane to Chicago to see the Butterfield quartet, and later the same night went to a different club – again, at the suggestion of Joe Boyd – and saw guitarist Mike Bloomfield with a different band.[6] According to Rothchild, it was at his impetus that Paul Butterfield hired Bloomfield as his second guitar alongside Elvin Bishop; Joe Boyd says that it was his idea.[7] The Butterfield rhythm section of Jerome Arnold and Sam Lay had been hired away from Howlin' Wolf.

Sessions were arranged for December 1964, but these were abandoned for live recordings from the Cafe Au Go Go in New York City after the band's appearance at the Newport Folk Festival. The earlier studio recordings were eventually released on The Original Lost Elektra Sessions in 1995. Upon hearing the live tapes, Rothchild remained dissatisfied, and the band went into the studio in September 1965 in an attempt to record the album for the third time.[8] The guitar solos were all played by Bloomfield, Bishop relegated to rhythm guitar. Keyboardist Mark Naftalin was drafted in at the September sessions and asked to join the band by Butterfield, expanding it to a sextet.[9]

The album presents band originals and songs in the style of electric Chicago blues. On October 29, 2001, a reissue of this album remastered by Bob Irwin at Sundazed Studios and coupled with East-West appeared on Rhino WEA UK for the European market.

Track listing[edit]

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Born in Chicago"Nick Gravenites2:55
2."Shake Your Money-Maker"Elmore James2:27
3."Blues with a Feeling"Walter Jacobs4:20
4."Thank You Mr. Poobah"Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Mark Naftalin4:05
5."I Got My Mojo Working"Preston Foster3:30
6."Mellow Down Easy"Willie Dixon2:48
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Screamin'"Mike Bloomfield4:30
2."Our Love Is Drifting"Paul Butterfield, Elvin Bishop3:25
3."Mystery Train"Junior Parker, Sam Phillips2:45
4."Last Night"Walter Jacobs4:15
5."Look Over Yonders Wall"James Clark2:23

Personnel[edit]

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Technical
  • William S. Harvey – cover design
  • Leonard Heicklen, William S. Harvey – cover photography

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b The Paul Butterfield Blues Band at AllMusic
  2. ^ g, manos (20 September 2014). "Review: CD The Paul Butterfield Blues Band – The Paul Butterfield Blues Band Album". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 2015-01-01.
  3. ^ Russell, Tony; Smith, Chris (2006). The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings. Penguin. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-140-51384-4.
  4. ^ "500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time". Rolling Stone. 2012. Retrieved September 2, 2019.
  5. ^ Down Beat Top 50 retrieved 28 August 2010
  6. ^ Doggett, Peter. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band/East West. Warner Strategic Marketing 8122 73571-2, 2001, liner notes, pp.4–5.
  7. ^ Boyd, Joe (2007). White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s. Serpents Tail Classics. pp. 62–63.
  8. ^ Doggett, liner notes, p. 6.
  9. ^ Bloomfield biography retrieved 28 August 2010
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