The Electric Flag-A Long Time Comin(1968)(2003 Columbia Rem)(mp3 320kbs)ICM369
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All Music Guide Review
Writer Jeff Tamarkin says "ex Butterfield Band guitarist Mike Bloomfield,
drummer Buddy Miles, and others put this soul-rock band together in 1967.
This debut is a testament to their ability to catch fire and keep on burnin'."
That The Electric Flag do so well and they appeared at the Monterey
International Pop Festival with the Blues Project, Paul Butterfield, and Janis
Joplin, and all these groups had some musical connection to each other
beyond that pivotal festival.
A Long Time Comin' is the new soul described appropriately enough by the
late critic Lillian Roxon, and tunes like She Should Have Just and
Over-Lovin' You lean more towards the soul side than the pop so many radio
listeners were attuned to back then.
Nick Gravenites was too much of a purist to ride his blues on the Top 40 the
way Felix Cavaliere gave us Groovin', so Janis Joplin's eventual replacement
in Big Brother & the Holding Company, Gravenites, and this crew pour out
Groovin' Is Easy on this disc.
It's a classy production, intellectual ideas with lots of musical changes, a
subdued version of what Joplin herself would give us on I Got Dem Ole
Kozmic Blues Again, Mama two years later, with some of that album written
by vocalist Gravenites.
Though launched after Al Kooper's the Blues Project, A Long Time Comin'
itself influenced bands who would go on to sell more records.
In the traditional Wine,it is proclaimed you know Janis Joplin, she'll tell you
all about that wine, baby.
As good as the album is, though, the material is pretty much composed by
Mike Bloomfield and Barry Goldberg, when they're not covering Howlin'
Wolf's Killing Floor and adding spoken-word news broadcasts to the mix.
More contributions by Buddy Miles and Gravenites in the songwriting
department would have been welcome here.
The extended CD version has four additional tracks, Bobby Hebb's Sunny
and Mystery, both which appear on the self-titled Electric Flag outing which
followed this LP, as well as other material which shows up on Old Glory:
The Best of Electric Flag, released in 2000.
Sittin' in Circles opens like the Doors' Riders on the Storm, the keyboards
as well as the sound effects, and a hook of hey little girl which would
resurface as the title of a Nick Gravenites tune on the aforementioned
follow-up disc, where Gravenites and Miles did pick up the songwriting slack,
Bloomfield having wandered off to Super Session with the Blues Project's
Al Kooper.
Amazing stuff all in all, which could eventually comprise a boxed set of
experimental blues rock from the mid- to late sixties.
Either version of this recording, original vinyl or extended CD, is fun
listening and a revelation.
~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide
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1. Killing Floor (Chester Burnett, Howlin' Wolf) – 4:11
2. Groovin' Is Easy (Nick Gravenites) – 3:06
3. Over-Lovin' You (Mike Bloomfield, Barry Goldberg) – 2:12
4. She Should Have Just (Ron Polte) – 5:03
5. Wine (Traditional) – 3:15
6. Texas (Mike Bloomfield, Buddy Miles) – 4:49
7. Sittin' in Circles (Barry Goldberg) – 3:54
8. You Don't Realize (Mike Bloomfield) – 4:56
9. Another Country (Ron Polte) – 8:47
10. Easy Rider (Mike Bloomfield) – 0:53
bonus tracks
1. Sunny (Bobby Hebb) – 4:02
2. Mystery (Buddy Miles) – 2:56
3. Look into My Eyes (Harvey Brooks, Buddy Miles) – 3:07
4. Going Down Slow (James Oden) – 4:43
Personnel
* Mike Bloomfield – guitar, vocals
* Buddy Miles – drums, vocals
* Barry Goldberg – keyboards
* Harvey Brooks – bass
* Nick Gravenites – vocals, guitar
* Herbie Rich - organ, baritone saxophone, guitar, vocals
* Michael Fonfara - Keyboards
* Marcus Doubleday - trumpet
* Peter Strazza - tenor saxophone
* Stemsy Hunter - alto saxophone
* Richie Havens - Percussion, Sitar
* Sivuca - Guitar, Percussion
* Paul Beaver - Keyboards, Moog Synthesizer
* Leo Daruczek - Strings
* Charles McCracken - Strings
* Bobby Notkoff - Strings
* Julius Held - Strings
* Roy Segal - Engineer
* Jim Marshall - Cover Photo
* Joe Church - Percussion, Producer
* John Court - Percussion, Vocals, Producer
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Format : MPEG Audio
File size : 9.61 MiB
Duration : 4mn 11s
Overall bit rate : 320 Kbps
Album : A Long Time Comin'
Track name : Killing Floor
Track name/Position : 1
Performer : The Electric Flag
Recorded date : 1968
Writing library : LAME3.92
Audio
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Duration : 4mn 11s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 320 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Stream size : 9.61 MiB (100%)
Writing library : LAME3.92
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Mp3
Ripped:320
Enjoy:D
