The Paul Butterfield Blues Band with Muddy Waters - The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA, 10-2-1966

Here's a really great concert by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. At the time, the band was firing on all cylinders with Paul Butterfield on harmonica and Mike Bloomfield playing lead guitar. (Bloomfield would leave for a solo career a year later.) But what really kicks this concert to the next level is that the blues legend Muddy Waters joined them to sing two songs for an encore.

Lucky for us, promoter Bill Graham was running the Fillmore venue at the time, and he often recorded the concerts there. So this is an excellent sounding soundboard, despite the fact that it's still unreleased.

The only problem with this recording was the song "East-West." This is a truly great instrumental, on the cutting edge of improvisational rock in 1966. Each time the band played it, it came out quite differently, so much so that there's an official release just consisting of different versions of this song. Unfortunately, most versions of this song that I've come across get cut off before the song finishes, probably because the song was so long that the tape would run out. That's the case here, with this 18-minute-long version. So I found a different version and added the last 15 seconds or so from that to this version, just long enough to give it a proper finish. That's why this one song has "[Edit]" in its title.

I believe Muddy Waters and his band was on the same bill as the Butterfield Blues Band. At the time, the Fillmore often added musical acts to concerts that weren't just the usual rock acts, to help give the audience a musical education. So that's why there was a cross over, with Muddy Waters joining in for a couple of songs.

This album is 58 minutes long. 

01 Shake Your Money Maker (Paul Butterfield Blues Band)
02 The Sky Is Crying (Paul Butterfield Blues Band)
03 talk (Paul Butterfield Blues Band)
04 Oh Pretty Woman (Paul Butterfield Blues Band)
05 Help Me (Paul Butterfield Blues Band)
06 Never Say No (Paul Butterfield Blues Band)
07 talk (Paul Butterfield Blues Band)
08 You're So Fine (Paul Butterfield Blues Band)
09 talk (Paul Butterfield Blues Band)
10 East-West [Instrumental] [Edit] (Paul Butterfield Blues Band)
11 talk by Bill Graham (Paul Butterfield Blues Band & Muddy Waters)
12 Clouds in My Heart [Edit] (Paul Butterfield Blues Band & Muddy Waters)
13 talk (Paul Butterfield Blues Band & Muddy Waters)
14 I Got My Mojo Working (Paul Butterfield Blues Band & Muddy Waters)
15 Closing Theme [Instrumental] (Paul Butterfield Blues Band & Muddy Waters)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KgY5ip8K

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/vg3LnwD0AJhMLnZ/file

The cover image shows Paul Butterfield playing harmonica on the left and Mike Bloomfield playing guitar on the right. It was taken in New York City, probably in 1966.

B.B. King & Various Artists - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 8-30-1974

Here's another album from the "Midnight Special" TV show. It's a special one, because it's another musical themed episode. I believe this is the only show that exclusively focused on blues music, at least in the 1973 to 1975 time frame that I've investigated so far. The main host was blues legend B.B. King. However, there were a number of others blues figures too: Paul Butterfield, Jimmy Witherspoon, John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, Joe Williams, and Papa John Creach.

Normally, I edit these episodes down to just the music performed by the host, plus maybe one more musical act. But because this episode had a coherent theme, I included all the music. I did cut out some things, as I usually do, such as the theme song at the beginning, and announcements of commercial breaks, as well as announcements of who would be on the show in the next episode. The first track has "[Edit]" in the title, because I removed the usual theme song and replaced it with cheering in the background instead, using the MVSEP program to do so.

The sound quality is excellent throughout. The only problem was that the last song faded out before it really got going. So I don't even know what that song is. I just called it "Outro," since it had B.B. King giving some final words before the fade out started. I considered adding in some extra crowd cheering, but I decided to just keep it as it was, fading out into silence.

The music is excellent as well. I doubt there were many instances of the blues getting this kind of exposure on a national TV show, though admittedly one that was broadcast late at night. One special highlight is "Gettin' It Together," in which blues legends B.B. King and John Lee Hooker joined forces, assisted by violinist Papa John Creach. King and Hooker were actually long-time friends, with both of them starting their musical careers not far from each other, in the late 1940s. 

This album is an hour and four minutes long. 

01 talk [Edit] (B.B. King)
02 Why I Sing the Blues (B.B. King)
03 talk (B.B. King)
04 Meet in the Bottom (Paul Butterfield's Better Days)
05 talk (B.B. King)
06 Nothing's Changed (Jimmy Witherspoon)
07 talk (B.B. King)
08 Boogie with the Hook [Edit] (John Lee Hooker)
09 talk (B.B. King)
10 Ball and Chain (Big Mama Thornton)
11 talk (B.B. King)
12 Who She Do (Joe Williams)
13 I Like to Live the Love (B.B. King)
14 talk (B.B. King)
15 Goin' Down Slow (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
16 talk (B.B. King)
17 John's Other [Instrumental] (Papa John Creach)
18 talk (B.B. King)
19 Gettin' It Together (B.B. King, John Lee Hooker & Papa John Creach)
20 talk (Wolfman Jack & B.B. King)
21 The Thrill Is Gone (B.B. King)
22 Love Is a Five Letter Word (Jimmy Witherspoon)
23 Tell Me Where to Scratch (Joe Williams)
24 talk (Wolfman Jack & B.B. King)
25 I Got Some Help I Don't Need (B.B. King)
26 Outro (B.B. King)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/gLzcWuLc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/jkeglxL80nYZq0T/file

The cover photo is a screenshot taken from a video of this exact concert. From right to left: John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, & Papa John Creach.