"CAPTAIN BILLY’S MAGIC 8 BALL" -SEASON TWO- EPISODE THREE - THE ELECTRIC FLAG "A LONG TIME COMIN'" (COLUMBIA, 1968) IN HIGH DEFINITION - THE ENTIRE ALBUM WITH THE CAPTAIN'S MAGNETIC NARRATIVE -THE CAPTAIN EXPLORES HIS COVE OF 8 TRACK TREASURES!

DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS

I scored this green plastic 4 track cart of musical magic on Ebay, along with Bookends by Simon and Garfunkel, and The Live Adventures of Bloomfield and Kooper, Vol. 2. I needed to acquire an antiquated device through which to hear them because 4s don’t play on standard 8 track machines, so I tracked down a heavy wooden Muntz cabinet model that still works. You have to change tracks with a lever - like an old time train conductor - (which is thrilling enough by itself) - but when I heard Nick Gravenites crooning “Groovin’ is Easy” and “Killin’ Floor” through the jerry-rigged Jensen speakers, I was hooked. I read that Mike Bloomfield had first approached Mitch Ryder to be lead singer, but he didn’t want to leave the Detroit Wheels. Nick was a better fit. This writer of “Born in Chicago”, and collaborator with Janis Joplin and Quicksilver Messenger Service was the Chicago to California connection that made perfect sense at Monterrey, where the band debuted.

I had forgotten that Bloomfield’s mission when he first assembled his cracker jack, “All American” band, was to encompass more native musical genres and to seamlessly mix R&B, Soul, Gospel, Country, and Pop. This was more than what the Chicago blues scene from which he emerged afforded. And, horns were part of the secret sauce. This happened at exactly the same time that Al Kooper’s Blood, Sweat, and Tears were forming. Unfortunately, heroin, and other intrusions caused Bloomfield’s band to break up before it could take its rightful crown, but this document, along with the soundtrack of Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson’s film, “The Trip” bears witness to their promised glory. Groovin’ may be easy, but Mike Bloomfield never did anything easy.