The Smiley Smile Message Board

For the past couple of months I've been listening to the first self titled album and their second record 'East West'. They are so Gosh Darn good, the whole band is amazing and Mike Bloomfield is the best guitarist ever.

Listened to EAST-WEST quite a bit back in the day.  Yeah....Mike Bloomfield was hot.  Ever listen to Mike on Supersession or Bob Dylans Highway 61?  Tombstone Blues has some of the tastiest blues licks ever laid down.
Might want to check out some vintage Electric Flag.

I've been listening to Highway 61, but I haven't bought Supersession yet. Electric Flag is on my list of bands to listen to this year.  Over the past year I've discovered Chicago blues, and blues rock in general. Bloomfield's guitar licks on Tombstone Blues are pretty damn good but so far my favorite songs, on the Highway 61 album, are are 'From a Buick 6' and 'Highway 61 Revisited'.

I liked the 'Pigboy Crabshaw' album a lot and got to see that version of the BBB, with Elvin Bishop on lead guitar, a couple of times.   Here is a great video of that band at Monterey:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3LEhfbKCSc

Heywood, I don't have any Paul Butterfield albums, but I wanted to respond to your thread anyway....

Paul's performance of "Mystery Train" (with Levon) in The Last Waltz is a highlight for me.

I'm a big Doors fan, and I have heard/read Robby Krieger mention several times that Paul Butterfireld was a big influence on him. I even read one time that Krieger and Densmore's post-Doors group, The Butts Band, was named after Paul Butterfield.

Your thread prompted me to read about Paul Butterfield on Wikipedia, and found out that, sadly, Paul Butterfield died of a heart attack at the young age of 44.

 

Right on.

Mikee is lucky that he actually got to see them at the peak of their powers, they were still pretty good after Mike Bloomfield left.

It's too bad they're not better known. I guess that's 'cause they didn't have any hit singles, but 'Mary, Mary' is probably the most commercial of their recordings and should have been a big hit. 'Mary, Mary' was actually written by Mike Nesmith and later recorded by the Monkees. It was on their second album 'More of the Monkees'.

I just wanted to add that the Butterfield band's version of 'Mary, Mary' is equal to, if not superior to, 'Gloria' by Van Morrison & Them

The track "East West" totally sounds like it's from the soundtrack of an American International  exploitation flick about teenagers on Sunset Strip.  Which is a supreme compliment, by the way.