The Butterfield Blues Band - East-West {Original USA Mono}
24bit/96kHz (Hi-Rez Audio)
01. Walkin' Blues
02. Get Out of My Life Woman
03. I Got A Mind to Give Up Living
04. All These Blues
05. Work Song
06. Mary, Mary *
07. Two Trains Running
08. Never Say No
09. East-West
All tracks Mono
All of these mixes are officially unavailable on CD.
Producer: Paul Rothchild / Mark Abramson except * by Barry Friedman
Engineer: Ron Malo (Chess)
Location: New York, NY / Chicago, IL (Chess Studios) / Los Angeles, CA *, Summer '66
Hardware:
- Technics 1210mk2
- Jelco SA-750D Tonearm (w/ JAC 501 cable)
- Audio Technica AT33PTG MC
- Pro-Ject Tube Box SE-2
- Yamaha CA-1010
- RME ADI-2 A/D Interface
Software:
- Audition 3.0 used for editing, (incl. manual removal of clicks and pops) & adding gain.
- Click Repair 3.9.1 used with setting Cl: 5, Cr: 0
Transfer & Restoration by Prof. Stoned
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Prof. sez:
Here's another rarity in the series "essential in mono but not available on cd".
A largely influential and important album. On this second one, Paul Butterfield loosened up and
became immersed within his own band -rather than being on top- and the results are spectacular.
Mike Bloomfield & Mark Naftalin were given the space to develop the hypnotic centerpiece
of the record: "East-West" which hosts a wide variety of musical influences (raga, free-jazz,
rock, bossa-nova). Secret weapon here is jazz drummer Billy Davenport, who replaced the band's
ill-fallen original drummer Sam Lay. Though still largely blues-based, the remainder of the record
too shows a more adventures approach. "Got a mind" is possibly one of the best things the band ever
recorded and Michael Nesmith's "Mary Mary" is given a sinister quality which of course is completely
absent from the Monkees version.
This was transferred from a very well kept copy (near mint condition). I've gone through the trouble
of comparing the two different USA cuttings that are known to exist, but found almost no discernible
differences between them. A couple years ago, when I first acquired a mono copy of this record, I
thought the hot gritty sound was due to playwear, but it turned out that all copies had it,
and that it is part of the recording itself (probably because every track was recorded in the red).
The stereo has that same quality, but just a little less upfront. Yet, the mono mix is super greasy
and IMO is the only true way to digest this 5 star album.
Enjoy!
