Electric Flag
Encyclopedia
The Electric Flag was a blues
rock
soul
group, led by guitar
ist Mike Bloomfield
, keyboardist Barry Goldberg
and drummer Buddy Miles
, and featuring other well-known musicians such as vocalist Nick Gravenites
and bassist Harvey Brooks
. Bloomfield formed the Electric Flag in 1967, following his stint with the Butterfield Blues Band
. The band reached its peak with the 1968 release, A Long Time Comin'
, a fusion of rock, jazz, and R&B styles that charted well in the Billboard
Pop Albums
chart
. Their initial recording was a soundtrack
for The Trip
, a movie about an LSD experience by Peter Fonda
, written by Jack Nicholson
, and directed by Roger Corman
.
, and Guitar Slim
(Eddie Jones), but also by the contemporary soul sounds of Otis Redding
, Steve Cropper
, Booker T & the MGs, and other Stax recording artists. He also drew inspiration from traditional country, gospel, and blues forms. He organized the Electric Flag, initially called the American Music Band, in the spring of 1967, not long after he produced a session with Chicago harp
player James Cotton
that featured a horn section. Bloomfield decided that his new band would also have horns and would play an amalgam of those American musics he loved.
The group was initially formed at the instigation of Bloomfield, but with the strong encouragement and organization of Goldberg. Harvey Brooks, who had previously worked with Bloomfield in 1965, recording Bob Dylan's
Highway 61 Revisited
, joined as bassist, and recommended Buddy Miles, then 19 years old, who was the drummer at the time for Wilson Pickett
. Bloomfield and Goldberg had originally been considering approaching Billy Mundi
, then playing with the Mothers of Invention. Miles was persuaded by Goldberg and Bloomfield to leave Pickett, after the former attended Murray The K's
Easter Show in New York, on March 26, 1967 and met Miles afterwards. Mitch Ryder
was initially approached to be the vocalist, since Bloomfield had, through Goldberg, been contributing with Goldberg to some Ryder recording sessions. Ryder declined the invitation, preferring to remain with the Detroit Wheels. Bloomfield next approached Nick Gravenites
, originally also from Chicago, who agreed.
Peter Strazza, whom Goldberg knew from Chicago, joined on tenor saxophone. Jazz guitarist Larry Coryell
, who had developed his career in Seattle while a university student, recommended Seattle-based Marcus Doubleday on trumpet.
Bloomfield and Goldberg developed the group in San Francisco, under Albert Grossman
's management, and immediately began working on the band's first project: the soundtrack for the film The Trip. Actor Peter Fonda
approached Bloomfield for the project, as a replacement for Gram Parsons'
International Submarine Band
. Director Roger Corman
did not find the music of Gram Parsons' band appropriate for a movie about the LSD
experience. At the time, the Electric Flag was rehearsing in Gram Parsons' Laurel Canyon
home.
Bloomfield was solely credited for all of the compositions on the album. He hired keyboardist Paul Beaver
to add texture to the soundtrack, through the use of one of the first Moog Synthesizer
s on record. The soundtrack recording was reportedly completed in ten days. While the movie received mixed reviews, the soundtrack attracted positive critical notice. As described by David Dann in his biography of the Electric Flag, "The record was also one of the most adventurous for pop music in 1967, sampling freely from jazz, rock, blues and classical idioms, and doing so with wit and intelligence. It very much favored the eclectic approach toward American musical forms that Bloomfield wanted the new band to embody. That Michael could create such unusual and wide-ranging pieces said much for his appreciation and knowledge of those forms, and displayed his characteristic fearlessness when it came to experimentation."
One of the Bloomfield compositions from The Trip soundtrack, "Flash, Bam, Pow," was later included in the soundtrack to the 1969 film Easy Rider
. The song was omitted from the release of the original soundtrack and has not been included in subsequent reissues.
The band made its debut appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival
, the first of the '60s rock music extravaganzas. Now called the Electric Flag, the group was well received by the audience of 55,000, though its performance fell short of Bloomfield's high standards. Following Monterey, the Flag proceeded to tour the Northeast and perform in the San Francisco area while working on a recording for Columbia Records. Though a critical success, the Flag remained largely unknown to the general public due in part to the band's inability to complete its first album in a timely manner. In addition, Marcus Doubleday had joined the Electric Flag as a heroin addict, while Peter Strazza, Barry Goldberg and Michael Bloomfield developed heroin problems thereafter. In November 1967, Barry Goldberg left the Electric Flag in an effort to bring his personal cirumstances under control. He was replaced by Michael Fonfara
, at the time playing with David Clayton-Thomas
in New York, and who was recommended by Buddy Miles. Fonfara was fired by Albert Grossman by December, after a drug bust in Los Angeles. Herb Rich, who had been playing saxophone, assumed Fonfara's role on keyboards and was in turn replaced on saxophone by Stemzie Hunter, a friend of Buddy Miles.
Subsequent to completing the soundtrack to The Trip, the band commenced work on its long-awaited first album, A Long Time Comin'
. The album, released in March 1968, was recorded between July 1967 and January 1968. The album was one of the first pop recordings to blend sound and voice samples with music. By early 1968, drummer Buddy Miles
had become a dominant force in the Flag's musical direction. The group's repertory by then included numerous contemporary soul covers, featuring Miles on vocals, plus many classic blues tunes. The band produced fewer than a dozen original pieces, mostly written by vocalist Nick Gravenites. Bloomfield's original "American music" concept appeared to have narrowed considerably. In terms of the band's original material, Miles Davis
praised the Bloomfield–Goldberg composition, "Over-Lovin' You", in a Down Beat
Blindfold Test in 1968.
By June 1968, only months after the release of the album, Bloomfield quit the group, based on exhaustion brought on by continuing insomnia that was ineffectively medicated through heroin. In the weeks prior to his departure, there had been much public speculation as to whether Bloomfield was leaving the group or whether the group was leaving him. Buddy Miles, rather than Bloomfield, had become the de facto leader of the group. Though they strove to carry on under Miles' direction, the Electric Flag was effectively finished. They issued the late 1968 album The Electric Flag: An American Music Band, but personality conflicts, differing aesthetics, and a series of drug problems hastened the band's downfall.
.
Al Kooper left BS&T in April 1968, and was inspired by a jam recording with Moby Grape to the organize the similarly structured Super Session
album. He included Bloomfield, Barry Goldberg and, after Bloomfield left the session due to a bout of insomnia, Stephen Stills
. Bloomfield and Kooper also toured together, while drummer and vocalist Buddy Miles went on to form the Buddy Miles Express and also play in Jimi Hendrix
's Band of Gypsys
. Bloomfield also developed a solo career, commencing with the release of It's Not Killing Me
in 1969, which included former Electric Flag bandmate Marcus Doubleday on sax.
A reunion of sorts took place in 1974, with the Electric Flag releasing The Band Kept Playing, but the recording was not a commercial or critical success and the band quickly disbanded after several months of sporadic gigs.
On July 28 and 29, 2007, a concert took place at the Monterey County Fairgrounds
, commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Monterey Pop Festival. One of the acts featured was a one-time reunion of The Electric Flag, anchored by original members Gravenites, Goldberg, and Hunter, backed by members of the Tower of Power
and The Blues Project. The one hour set featured material from the first album, as well as several blues covers.
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
group, led by guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist Mike Bloomfield
Mike Bloomfield
Michael Bernard "Mike" Bloomfield was an American musician, guitarist, and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960s to earn his reputation almost entirely on his instrumental prowess, since he rarely sang before 1969–70...
, keyboardist Barry Goldberg
Barry Goldberg
Barry Goldberg is a blues and rock keyboardist, songwriter and record producer.-Career:As a teenager in Chicago, Goldberg sat in with Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, and Howlin' Wolf. He played keyboards in the band supporting Bob Dylan during his 1965 'electrified' appearance at the Newport Folk Festival...
and drummer Buddy Miles
Buddy Miles
George Allen Miles, Jr. , known as Buddy Miles, was an American rock and funk drummer, most known as a founding member of The Electric Flag in 1967, then as a member of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys from 1969 through to January 1970.-Early life:George Allen Miles was born in Omaha, Nebraska on...
, and featuring other well-known musicians such as vocalist Nick Gravenites
Nick Gravenites
Nicholas George Gravenites , with stage names like Nick "The Greek" Gravenites and Gravy, is a blues, rock and folk singer–songwriter, and is best known for his work with Janis Joplin, Mike Bloomfield and several influential bands and names of the generation springing from the 1960s and 1970s...
and bassist Harvey Brooks
Harvey Brooks
Harvey Brooks is an American bassist. He has played in many styles of music...
. Bloomfield formed the Electric Flag in 1967, following his stint with the Butterfield Blues Band
Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield was an American blues vocalist and harmonica player, who founded the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the early 1960s and performed at the original Woodstock Festival...
. The band reached its peak with the 1968 release, A Long Time Comin'
A Long Time Comin'
A Long Time Comin' is the first album by American rock band The Electric Flag, released in 1968. The meat of the album is Soul along with Blues and Rock with a horn section...
, a fusion of rock, jazz, and R&B styles that charted well in the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Pop Albums
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
. Their initial recording was a soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
for The Trip
The Trip (1967 film)
The Trip is a cult film released by American International Pictures, directed by Roger Corman, written by Jack Nicholson, and shot on location in and around Los Angeles, including on top of Kirkwood in Laurel Canyon, Hollywood Hills, and near Big Sur, California in 1966...
, a movie about an LSD experience by Peter Fonda
Peter Fonda
Peter Henry Fonda is an American actor. He is the son of Henry Fonda, brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget and Justin Fonda...
, written by Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...
, and directed by Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
.
History
With his great appreciation for blues, soul and R&B, Mike Bloomfield wanted to create a group of his own that would feature what he called "American music." He was inspired not only by the big band blues of B.B. King, T-Bone WalkerT-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was a critically acclaimed American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the jump blues and electric blues sound. He is the first musician recorded playing blues with the...
, and Guitar Slim
Guitar Slim
Eddie Jones , better known as Guitar Slim, was a New Orleans blues guitarist, from the 1940s and 1950s, best known for the million-selling song, produced by Johnny Vincent at Specialty Records, "The Things That I Used to Do"...
(Eddie Jones), but also by the contemporary soul sounds of Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
, Steve Cropper
Steve Cropper
Steve Cropper , also known as Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T...
, Booker T & the MGs, and other Stax recording artists. He also drew inspiration from traditional country, gospel, and blues forms. He organized the Electric Flag, initially called the American Music Band, in the spring of 1967, not long after he produced a session with Chicago harp
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
player James Cotton
James Cotton
James Cotton is an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who has performed and recorded with many of the great blues artists of his time as well as with his own band.-Career:...
that featured a horn section. Bloomfield decided that his new band would also have horns and would play an amalgam of those American musics he loved.
The group was initially formed at the instigation of Bloomfield, but with the strong encouragement and organization of Goldberg. Harvey Brooks, who had previously worked with Bloomfield in 1965, recording Bob Dylan's
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
Highway 61 Revisited
Highway 61 Revisited
Highway 61 Revisited is the sixth studio album by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released in August 1965 by Columbia Records. On his previous album, Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan devoted Side One of the album to songs accompanied by an electric rock band, and Side Two to solo acoustic numbers...
, joined as bassist, and recommended Buddy Miles, then 19 years old, who was the drummer at the time for Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...
. Bloomfield and Goldberg had originally been considering approaching Billy Mundi
Billy Mundi
Billy Mundi is an American drummer, who has played a multitude of sessions and been a member of countless bands, most notably The Mothers of Invention and Rhinoceros. He sometimes used the name Tony Schnasse.A former Hells Angel, his career dates back to the late 1950s, when he majored in music at...
, then playing with the Mothers of Invention. Miles was persuaded by Goldberg and Bloomfield to leave Pickett, after the former attended Murray The K's
Murray the K
Murray Kaufman , professionally known as Murray the K, was an influential rock and roll impresario and disc jockey of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s...
Easter Show in New York, on March 26, 1967 and met Miles afterwards. Mitch Ryder
Mitch Ryder
William S. Levise, Jr , better known by his stage name Mitch Ryder, is an American musician who has recorded over two dozen albums in more than four decades.-Career:...
was initially approached to be the vocalist, since Bloomfield had, through Goldberg, been contributing with Goldberg to some Ryder recording sessions. Ryder declined the invitation, preferring to remain with the Detroit Wheels. Bloomfield next approached Nick Gravenites
Nick Gravenites
Nicholas George Gravenites , with stage names like Nick "The Greek" Gravenites and Gravy, is a blues, rock and folk singer–songwriter, and is best known for his work with Janis Joplin, Mike Bloomfield and several influential bands and names of the generation springing from the 1960s and 1970s...
, originally also from Chicago, who agreed.
Peter Strazza, whom Goldberg knew from Chicago, joined on tenor saxophone. Jazz guitarist Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell is an American jazz fusion guitarist.-Biography:Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland, Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby...
, who had developed his career in Seattle while a university student, recommended Seattle-based Marcus Doubleday on trumpet.
Bloomfield and Goldberg developed the group in San Francisco, under Albert Grossman
Albert Grossman
Albert Bernard Grossman was an American entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music scene and rock and roll. He was most famous as the manager of Bob Dylan between 1962 and 1970.-Biography:...
's management, and immediately began working on the band's first project: the soundtrack for the film The Trip. Actor Peter Fonda
Peter Fonda
Peter Henry Fonda is an American actor. He is the son of Henry Fonda, brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget and Justin Fonda...
approached Bloomfield for the project, as a replacement for Gram Parsons'
Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work within the country genre; he also mixed blues, folk, and rock to create what he called "Cosmic American Music"...
International Submarine Band
International submarine band
The International Submarine Band was formed by country rock pioneer Gram Parsons while a theology student at Harvard University and John Nuese, a guitar player for local rock group, The Trolls. Nuese is largely credited with having persuaded Parsons to pursue the country-rock sound he would later...
. Director Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
did not find the music of Gram Parsons' band appropriate for a movie about the LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
experience. At the time, the Electric Flag was rehearsing in Gram Parsons' Laurel Canyon
Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, California
Laurel Canyon is a canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was first developed in the 1910s, and became a part of the city of Los Angeles in 1923 ....
home.
Bloomfield was solely credited for all of the compositions on the album. He hired keyboardist Paul Beaver
Paul Beaver
Paul Beaver was a jazz musician and a pioneer in popular electronic music, using the Moog synthesizer.Beaver was the electronic half of a 1965 experimental free-form album for Dunhill Records with studio drummer Hal Blaine called "Psychedelic Percussion"...
to add texture to the soundtrack, through the use of one of the first Moog Synthesizer
Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...
s on record. The soundtrack recording was reportedly completed in ten days. While the movie received mixed reviews, the soundtrack attracted positive critical notice. As described by David Dann in his biography of the Electric Flag, "The record was also one of the most adventurous for pop music in 1967, sampling freely from jazz, rock, blues and classical idioms, and doing so with wit and intelligence. It very much favored the eclectic approach toward American musical forms that Bloomfield wanted the new band to embody. That Michael could create such unusual and wide-ranging pieces said much for his appreciation and knowledge of those forms, and displayed his characteristic fearlessness when it came to experimentation."
One of the Bloomfield compositions from The Trip soundtrack, "Flash, Bam, Pow," was later included in the soundtrack to the 1969 film Easy Rider
Easy Rider
Easy Rider is a 1969 American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It tells the story of two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and South with the aim of achieving freedom...
. The song was omitted from the release of the original soundtrack and has not been included in subsequent reissues.
The band made its debut appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival
Monterey Pop Festival
The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California...
, the first of the '60s rock music extravaganzas. Now called the Electric Flag, the group was well received by the audience of 55,000, though its performance fell short of Bloomfield's high standards. Following Monterey, the Flag proceeded to tour the Northeast and perform in the San Francisco area while working on a recording for Columbia Records. Though a critical success, the Flag remained largely unknown to the general public due in part to the band's inability to complete its first album in a timely manner. In addition, Marcus Doubleday had joined the Electric Flag as a heroin addict, while Peter Strazza, Barry Goldberg and Michael Bloomfield developed heroin problems thereafter. In November 1967, Barry Goldberg left the Electric Flag in an effort to bring his personal cirumstances under control. He was replaced by Michael Fonfara
Michael Fonfara
Michael Fonfara is a keyboard player who is most notable for his work with the bands The Electric Flag and Rhinoceros in the 1960s, Lou Reed in the 1970s and The Downchild Blues Band, from 1990 to the present.- History :Fonfara's career as a professional musician commenced in 1963, when he started...
, at the time playing with David Clayton-Thomas
David Clayton-Thomas
David Clayton-Thomas is a Canadian musician and singer best known as the lead vocalist for the American band; Blood, Sweat & Tears...
in New York, and who was recommended by Buddy Miles. Fonfara was fired by Albert Grossman by December, after a drug bust in Los Angeles. Herb Rich, who had been playing saxophone, assumed Fonfara's role on keyboards and was in turn replaced on saxophone by Stemzie Hunter, a friend of Buddy Miles.
Subsequent to completing the soundtrack to The Trip, the band commenced work on its long-awaited first album, A Long Time Comin'
A Long Time Comin'
A Long Time Comin' is the first album by American rock band The Electric Flag, released in 1968. The meat of the album is Soul along with Blues and Rock with a horn section...
. The album, released in March 1968, was recorded between July 1967 and January 1968. The album was one of the first pop recordings to blend sound and voice samples with music. By early 1968, drummer Buddy Miles
Buddy Miles
George Allen Miles, Jr. , known as Buddy Miles, was an American rock and funk drummer, most known as a founding member of The Electric Flag in 1967, then as a member of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys from 1969 through to January 1970.-Early life:George Allen Miles was born in Omaha, Nebraska on...
had become a dominant force in the Flag's musical direction. The group's repertory by then included numerous contemporary soul covers, featuring Miles on vocals, plus many classic blues tunes. The band produced fewer than a dozen original pieces, mostly written by vocalist Nick Gravenites. Bloomfield's original "American music" concept appeared to have narrowed considerably. In terms of the band's original material, Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
praised the Bloomfield–Goldberg composition, "Over-Lovin' You", in a Down Beat
Down Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
Blindfold Test in 1968.
By June 1968, only months after the release of the album, Bloomfield quit the group, based on exhaustion brought on by continuing insomnia that was ineffectively medicated through heroin. In the weeks prior to his departure, there had been much public speculation as to whether Bloomfield was leaving the group or whether the group was leaving him. Buddy Miles, rather than Bloomfield, had become the de facto leader of the group. Though they strove to carry on under Miles' direction, the Electric Flag was effectively finished. They issued the late 1968 album The Electric Flag: An American Music Band, but personality conflicts, differing aesthetics, and a series of drug problems hastened the band's downfall.
Epilogue
Though the Electric Flag was together in its original configuration less than a year, the band made a strong impression on critics and musicians, primarily in the San Francisco area where they were based. One of the first rock groups to include horns, the Electric Flag preceded the earliest edition of Blood, Sweat and Tears with Al KooperAl Kooper
Al Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears , providing studio support for Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965, and also bringing together guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills to...
.
Al Kooper left BS&T in April 1968, and was inspired by a jam recording with Moby Grape to the organize the similarly structured Super Session
Super Session
-Personnel:* Al Kooper — vocals, piano, organ, ondioline, electric guitar, twelve-string guitar* Mike Bloomfield — guitars on side one, reissue tracks 10, 12, 13* Stephen Stills — guitars on side two, reissue track 11...
album. He included Bloomfield, Barry Goldberg and, after Bloomfield left the session due to a bout of insomnia, Stephen Stills
Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
. Bloomfield and Kooper also toured together, while drummer and vocalist Buddy Miles went on to form the Buddy Miles Express and also play in Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
's Band of Gypsys
Band of Gypsys
Band of Gypsys was a blues rock band led by Jimi Hendrix and backed by Billy Cox and Buddy Miles. Hendrix formed the band after the dissolution of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Band of Gypsys is also the band's eponymous live album recorded on two separate nights, 31 December 1969 and 1 January...
. Bloomfield also developed a solo career, commencing with the release of It's Not Killing Me
It's Not Killing Me
It's Not Killing Me is the first solo album by American blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield and was released in 1969. Following his success with Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Electric Flag and in the Super Session recordings with Al Kooper, Bloomfield teamed up with former colleagues to record this...
in 1969, which included former Electric Flag bandmate Marcus Doubleday on sax.
A reunion of sorts took place in 1974, with the Electric Flag releasing The Band Kept Playing, but the recording was not a commercial or critical success and the band quickly disbanded after several months of sporadic gigs.
On July 28 and 29, 2007, a concert took place at the Monterey County Fairgrounds
Monterey County Fairgrounds
Monterey County Fairgrounds is the site of the Monterey Pop Festival and the Monterey Bay Race Place.- External links :*...
, commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Monterey Pop Festival. One of the acts featured was a one-time reunion of The Electric Flag, anchored by original members Gravenites, Goldberg, and Hunter, backed by members of the Tower of Power
Tower of Power
Tower of Power is an American R&B-based horn section and band, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing for over 43 years. They are best known for their funky soul sound highlighted by a powerful horn section...
and The Blues Project. The one hour set featured material from the first album, as well as several blues covers.
Soundtrack
- The Trip "Musical Score Composed and Performed by The Electric Flag, An American Music Band" (1967, Curb RecordsCurb RecordsCurb Records is a record label started by Mike Curb originally as Sidewalk Records in 1963...
; CD abbreviated version 1996)
Albums
- A Long Time Comin'A Long Time Comin'A Long Time Comin' is the first album by American rock band The Electric Flag, released in 1968. The meat of the album is Soul along with Blues and Rock with a horn section...
(1968, ColumbiaColumbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
) (with Bloomfield and Goldberg) - The Electric Flag: An American Music Band (1968, ColumbiaColumbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
) (led by Buddy Miles, after Bloomfield and Goldberg left) - The Best of the Electric Flag (1971, ColumbiaColumbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
) - The Band Kept Playing (1974, AtlanticAtlantic RecordsAtlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
; CD Reissue 2002, Wounded BirdWounded Bird RecordsWounded Bird Records is a CD only, re-issue record label, that was founded in 1998 in Guilderland, New York. They re-release lesser known albums from both popular and lesser known artists, including Deborah Harry, Chic, David Blue, Marilyn Martin, Gordon Haskell, Jon Anderson, Adrian Belew, Ellen...
) (reunion recording) - Old Glory: Best of the Electric Flag, An American Music Band (1995, Sony) ("best of" compilation, including outtakes and selections from the band's Monterey Pop Festival appearance)
- Groovin' Is Easy (1983), The Electric Flag: Live (2000), I Found Out (2000), Funk Grooves (Classic World ProductionsClassic World ProductionsClassic World Productions-, based in Naperville, Illinois, was a significant issuer of back music catalogues and television programs.- History :...
, 2002), I Found Out (Dressed To Kill, 2005), I Should Have Left Her (Music Avenue, 2007) (Being the same material on different releases, namely outtakes from the 1974 reunion recording and live performances from the original band in 1968)