Customer Reviews
Why you must have this recording 
2007-11-16
This recording contains what has to be the one of the greatest blues/rock songs of all time. The song is East West which contains some of the greatest music I've ever heard. It is a preview of what the bands later in the 60's will produce and remains one of the finest example of the extended guitar solo pieces.
At this time the Butterfield Blues Band had two of the best guitarist around, Elvin Bishop and (my favorite) Mike Bloomfield. They each take an extended solo, Elvin Bishop first. Elvin throws out a blazing fast mountain of notes. It is what happens next that makes this an unique experience. It is Mike Bloomfield's turn next, not with another show stopper solo, instead he pares back the music to the absolute minimum. His clear ringing notes lifts one from out under the mountain into the clear blue sky. From this he slowly builds, never to excess, an exquisite solo that sends us flying above the mountains. There is nothing else like it that I've ever heard. I cannot do it justice, this music must be heard. It is unique moment that everyone deserves to experience.
For this reason along, the song East West, makes this recording a must. But there is also all of the rest of the songs, including Butterfield's catchy solo on Work Song.
Better than ever! 2007-01-09
I sampled all tracks and was surprised that I knew all of them since I had never owned it or even heard it in 30 years. Bought it and love it.
YOU ARE BUYING THE RIGHT CD.................... 2007-01-04
I too had this on vinyl and wore it out 5 times and one listen to "I've got a mind to give up living" will send you out of your head. Maybe this is one of the cd's or of of the bands youeither love or hate because I don't love evry cd they have made. But with this versions line-up, the Butterfield Blues Band ain't s***. Sorry to all u die hards.
There are many more memorable sond here than on any other PBBB albums, but go ahead and listen and u be the judge.
Good, but not Great Blues 
2006-10-27
I'm a huge fan of Chicago blues and a big fan of Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield, but this album doesn't do it for me. The title cut East West is great and is nearly half the album hence the three stars. This album sounds a bit dated and I its due to the slightly heavy phycodelic rock influence found on this album. PBBB was on of those groups (like the ned of the Peter Green Fleetwood Mac era) that was trying to push the boundries of the blues art form. What you have 30 years later is an album that just doesn't sounds that good. that doesn't do it for me. I don't think this album as aged well. The blues are timeless and should hold up to the test of time. Great artist like Magic Sam and Lowell Fulson still sound great today. This album doesn't. Buyer Beware I guess.
Seminal Blues-Rock-Jazz Fusion 2006-04-12
The Jazz-Rock fusion movement of the late 70's (Weather Report, Spyro Gyra, Tony Williams) was born on this album. If I could only keep one record in my collection, this would probably be the main contender for that position. This album is a musical safari including a remarkable variety of musical idioms in a Blues context that goes way beyond Blues. Obviously, the East-West track is the pinnacle of this exploration. Listen closely and you will hear East Indian, Calypso, New Orleans Jazz, Bluegrass, and 4 or 5 other distinct musical styles each in a separate movement with very striking transitions. When I first got this album as a sophmore in college in 1966, I used to put on the East-West title track in the late afternoon and drift off into a wonderful, dreamy nap carried off in a magical concoction of World music as I think no one had ever heard before.
This is just a glorious masterpiece, a high-point in American popular music. It feels as good today to listen to it as it did in 1966.
Oh, aspiring blues guitarists would be wise to try to copy Mike Bloomfield's delicate, complex and powerful solo on "I've Got A Mind to Give up Living." I wore out my vinyl copy trying.
The Greatest Album of All Time 2005-07-30
1966's
East-West, the second album from the Butterfield Blues Band -- and their last with lead guitarist Mike Bloomfield -- found the group branching out from the electric blues and adding elements of modern jazz and the music of India, most notably on the landmark title track, which paved the way for much of the musical experimentation of the late '60s.
blues at its best 2005-07-06
In my opinion there has never been a finer blues band than Paul Butterfield. I had East-West back when it first came out on vinyl and now (finally) have it on CD. If you can find a better blues track than East-West, buy it. If you haven't heard it, treat yourself.
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band Masterpiece 2005-04-14
There are many albums which have introduced a new combined style of music to the masses (e.g. "Are You Experienced", "Sargent Peppers", "Johnny Winter" and "Texas Flood" are some). This set was way ahead of its time. The Butterfield Blues Band had made a name for itself on their first, self-titled, LP as great exponents of the revived Blues Power. The edge this band had was, say unlike Canned Heat, they had two Black musicians from Howlin Wolf's band. Sam Lay, the drummer, is still considered to be one the best Chicago Blues drummers ever and bassist Jerome Arnold. This lineup was impressive. Unlike John Mayall, whose album fired interest in the Blues from the far side of the Atlantic with its pre-Hendrix like overdriven sound and up front guitar. However, the PBBB had people from Chicago, the home of urban blues, who had grown up and played with all the greats. Butterfield, originally a flutist, is probably, along with Charlie Musselwhite, the greatest ever white harp player-his style of single note playing (listen to the record) is very unique and gives it a true horn sound. He had met Elvin Bishop at the University of Chicago and started jamming. Bishop, a native Oklahoman, was a Blues fanatic from the start. He played traditional blues styles on his Gibson 335 in the Freddie King, Eddie Taylor, Luther Tucker and Otis Rush tradition.
Mike Bloomfield, whose father owned a club in Chicago, had only been playing about 10 years when he made this record. He played jazz, blues and fingerpicking styles well. Mike took up slide on a Fender Telecaster and became known around town for his fabluous technqiue-similar to Elmore James. He was hired to play slide in the initial album on "Shake Your Moneymaker" and joined the band. (However, he was in and out the whole time-I saw the PBBB several times growing up in NY and Bloomfield was never in the line up). On East-West Bloomfield switched to the Gibson Les Paul (Like Clapton) and history was made. His lines are clear and many of his runs are virtually seamless. And amazing effort-one he himself never duplicated- like Eric Clapton on the Bluesbreakers first LP. Mark Naftalin does a great job on the keyboards. And Jerome Arnold plays bass with soul (especially notice his work on "The Work Song" similar to Duck Dunn of the MGs).
This band was interracial, a great thing for the Blues Revival that they helped start (Like SRV in the 1980s). They were the Blues Booker T and the MGs. This set combines all genres of music but basically shows the world what Willie Dixon always said "The Blues is the Roots, Everything else is the Fruits!". They do impressive and updated (at the time) versions of many types of tunes. "Walking Blues" is of course a Robert Johnson tune and was probably done because Clapton had done "Ramblin On My Mind" on the Mayall LP. "Mary, Mary" was a tune by the Monkees!!!!!!Can you believe it!
"I Got A Mind To Give Up Living" was a B.B. King tune (redone many times with many different titles). Which to me always has been the highlight of the record. It's a blues, but a new wave type of feel and arrangement. Butterfield sings, but plays no harp! Bloomfield produced his best ever blues solos- slightly understated and perfect, especially the intro. "Two Trains Running" has a funky feel and is nothing like Muddy Waters original or the Danny Kalb and the Blues Project's slow version on "Projections". This one rocks and the intro to the guitar solo is fantastic with its tension and build up.
The title track is no less interesting. It featured ragas from India with a basic jazz background. Bloomfield and Butterfield's playing is fantastic and highly original. This was the start of the Grateful Dead style psychedelic rock that came in the late 60s. (I can remember playing in bands in 1967 where we did "Gloria" and "Light My Fire" for a half hour each!!!) This track was 13 minutes long and a milestone for the time- the Door's The End was 11 minutes!
The Work Song is a powerful jazz-fusion number that has Bloomfield's best solos ever. This was someone at the height of their creative powers. The whole tune is solid and explores the jazz potential of the basic blues pentatonic scale. I feel this was Butterfield's instrumental masterpiece.
It is unfortunate that the Blues gave way to soul and country in the 1970s. Butterfield's subsequent work (although some was excellent) never sold well (Like Mayall's as well) and he and Bloomfield had drug addictions which killed them both. Bishop continues to play and had chart success in the seventies. Naftalin played with Otis Rush and others and Sam Lay is still a Chicago institution (see him on the Howlin Wolf DVD and The Fathers and Sons DVD in the Blues series, 2003).
This is an essential recording in the history of American Music and should be in everyone's collection.
YOU'RE BUYING THE WRONG CD! 
2004-11-02
Yes, this is the great PBBB's 2nd album, but it's not the CD you should be buying.
This domestic CD was released in 1990 and has never been remastered.
The import 2CD version of this title (backed with the PBBB's 1st album) is the one to get. It was remastered by Bob Irwin in 2001.
Ditto for "Pigboy Crabshaw" & "In My Own Dream"; the 2004 import 2CD is also remastered (and sounds incredible) and the domestic CD's are not.
Why WEA and Elektra have not made these four remasters available domestically is a mystery.
Don't waste your money on these inferior versions: Get the imports!
Link to the import remastered Paul Butterfield Blues Band/East West
Best Rock instrumental Ever ? 2004-08-31
The title track, East-West, is one of the best rock songs ever recorded. It's a different level than the rest of the songs on the CD, which contain some excellent blues/rock numbers.
Very few people seem to 'get' what I call the sub-theme, you need to listen to it in the proper frame of mind. Unfortuneately, you probably also need to be at least 50 yrs old to have absorbed the background needed - many of the cues come from 1950s/1960s TV
