Play This Record at the Highest Possible Volume

As opposed to the previous post, this nostalgia fest doesn't disappoint at all, in fact all the music stands up very well in the present day. An Anthology - The Elektra Years by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. A substantial double cd package containing 33 tracks, it details the various stages the band moved through. The first incarnation was as an archetypal Chicago blues band. Although a mixed black and white band, Butterfield was a native Chicagoan who had been around black blues artists from an early age and there was nothing affected about his performances. He possessed a strong blues voice but the main thing about him was his virtuosic harmonica playing which was from the tradition of Little Walter et al but which he took to an entirely different level bringing in many wider influences. I don't think there has been anything quite like it before or since. The band then had a period where the psychedelic hippy influence played a part, particularly with the land mark track East West where guitarist Mike Bloomfield really broke loose. Still a remarkable piece of India meets Mexico music. After Bloomfield's departure from the band, Butterfield recruited horns to replace the gap left by the guitar lead and the band entered more of a soul phase but still with a solid blues base and fine playing from the likes off David Sanborn. Both Butterfield and Bloomfield were destined to die relatively young but hre is some great music here to remember them by. The title of this post refers to the message on the sleeve of the band's first album and obliquely to the reaction they got when backing Bob Dylan at the famous Newport Folk Festival gig when he first went electric.