When I got out of high school, I was in a blues band. It was the kind of music I was interested in, and listening to,
mostly because it was becoming a vehicle
for a generation of guitarists –
like Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. Mike Bloomfield. And that’s what I wanted to be, principally: a guitar player.
Todd Rundgren
Mike Bloomfield, a 60s American guitarist prodigy who shaped Bob Dylan’s music was born today, July 28th, 1943. He was a member of the Paul Butterfield Band and Electric Flag.
He played on Bob Dylan’s album Highway 61 Revisited, and his telecaster guitar licks were featured on Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone’. Bloomfield appeared onstage with Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival. This was the concert that marked Dylan’s first use of an electric band in a live performance.
Bloomfield was found dead in his car in San Francisco from an accidental heroin overdose on 15 February 1981 aged 37. Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
