One of two guitars he left behind. It’s a Mike story. It’s a story that’s so crazy that when you think about it, only Michael Bloomfield could be the main character in it. In 1974 Michael, and some of his friends, were asked to play on a PBS TV special featuring Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Pinetop Perkins and some other legendary Chicago blues musicians. The show was called, “Soundstage.” Production finished up on the show and it was set to air on the PBS TV station while Mike was in Vancouver B.C. to do some shows at a place called, “The Cave.” It was mid November in 1974.
This was back in the day before there was any sort of means to easily record a TV show. Mike really wanted to watch this show and he tried to find a station in Vancouver that was airing the show. He had no luck with finding the show, he was in Canada after all, so he did the most Mike Bloomfield thing that Mike Bloomfield could do. He pulled up stakes and bugged out! He just up and left town. Mike bought a plane ticket home even though he had remaining shows to do at The Cave. Legend has it the owner of the club was pretty salty about Mike backing out of his remaining dates that he was contracted for. Mike was prepared for that though. He told the club owner to keep all his gear that was stored at the club, as in… you can have it. Among that gear was Mike’s legendary burst, a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, a couple of amps and another guitar. The other guitar was a 1966 Fender Telecaster that had a custom paint job.
In his 37 years on earth, Mike went through quite a few guitars. A couple of the most famous ones were his ’59 Les Paul and the “Butterfield/Dylan” Telecaster. Mike owned and played two Telecasters in his life. The first one was a ’63 that Mike used on the the first Butterfield Blues Band record. Mike also used it in 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival for Bob Dylan’s first show ever featuring electric instruments. That first Telecaster, the ’63, was known as the, “The guitar that killed folk music.”
The exact subject of this blog is the second Telecaster that Mike owned: the ’66. Sometime in the later part of 1966, the Butterfield Blues Band had some new amps shipped to them from Fender. Along with the amps, Fender sent Mike a new Tele. The ’63 had been traded away for a ’54 Goldtop about a year previously, and I have a feeling Mike was a little nervous running around playing shows without a Telecaster. Why was he nervous? I’ll get to that.
Fender used to run ads in music trade papers back in the day and one of the most famous of those ads were the “You Won’t Part With Yours Either” series. One of the ads showed a kid skateboarding with a Tele strapped to his back. Another one was someone in scuba gear walking into the ocean with a six string from Fullerton strapped across the back of their scuba tank. It was a very successful ad campaign because it was absolutely true. Back in the day, if you were a touring musician and you spent most of your time on the road, a Telecaster was just part of almost everyone’s gear manifest. Why? A couple of reasons: they sound great, they’re simple as a brick and they’re also as sturdy as one. You’ve got to seriously try to break a Tele. They are one of the most reliable and totally functional solutions for a road guitarist, who’s constantly touring, back in the day.
Think about it, it’s the ‘60s man. That means no road cases, no flight cases. ATA “Road cases” are a thing of the future, the ‘70s. Before that, whatever case came with your guitar was the case that you hauled that thing all over the world with. No wonder so many vintage Gibsons have cracked headstocks and broken necks. A brown Lifton case is nice to have with an old Les Paul, but it’s not a good bet for the road. Not at all.
With a Fender you have guitars that don’t have angled headstocks. This gives them a tremendous advantage when you take them on the road. Ever drop a Gibson? It’s usually heartbreaking to drop or have one fall over. Heartbreaking, expensive to fix, and unfortunately all too easy to break a Gibson. A Fender? I had an old Bobby Lee guitar strap (my bad for using it) break on a Tele of mine the other day while I was playing it. The guitar flew out of my hands and onto the hardwood floor at my house. I was worried about the floor; that Tele hit hard! The floor was ok, luckily. The Tele? It was still in tune and it didn’t suffer so much as a scratch.
It’s pure conjecture on my part but I think Mike wanted some of that security that comes with having a Tele on the road and that’s why he got the ’66.
The other day I found a YouTube clip of Mike playing the ’66 Tele, after it had been customized with a (at least to me) very cool paint job. He’s playing with the Electric Flag on Don Kirshner’s Rock Show in 1974. Mike’s playing great and sounds totally like Mike in this clip.
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