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East-West [The Paul Butterfield Blues Band]

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
1 disc

1. Walkin' Blues
2. Get Out of My Life, Woman
3. I Got a Mind to Give up Living
4. All These Blues
5. Work Song
6. Mary, Mary
7. Two Trains Running
8. Never Say No
9. East-West
Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): 7315
Credits

Producer
Engineer
Paul Butterfield Blues Band: Paul Butterfield (vocals, harmonica); Mike Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop (guitar); Mark Naftalin (piano, organ); Jerome Arnold (bass); Billy Davenport (drums).
Producers: Paul A. Rothchild, Mark Abramson, Barry Friedman.
Includes liner notes by Paul Nelson.
A pivotal '60s album. The Butterfield Blues Band's 1965 debut was a life-changing experience for a generation of young blues players; this follow-up, while not quite as epochal, can still be credited with influencing just about every underground band then percolating in San Francisco.
In fact, the album's title track is an epic 13-minute modal jam that is an obvious template for what the Airplane, the Dead, Quicksilver, and the rest would be doing a year later. The remainder of the album is more traditional, save for a radical deconstruction of Monkee Mike Nesmith's "Mary Mary" (if this was a bid for a hit single, they were kidding themselves), and there are sensational performances in abundance, including a deeply-felt rendering of the blues classic "Got a Mind to Give Up Livin'."
Critic Reviews

Mojo (Publisher) (p.70) - "[T]he album still sported tough WindyCity blues...but also delved into jazz improvisation around Nat Adderley's'Work Song,' a master-class in controlled dynamics under Butterfield's bandleading."