All language subtitles for Born.In.Chicago.2020.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.GG - YTS.BZ]

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[tuning instruments]

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[man on microphone]
Testing.

[tuning instruments]

[man 2]
What'd you like to hear?

[tuning instruments]

[man]
Like to do a tune we
recorded on our first album,

it's called, "Born in Chicago."

[upbeat blues music]

♪ I was born in
Chicago in 1941 ♪

♪ I was born in
Chicago in 1941 ♪

♪ Well my father told me

♪ Son, you had
better get a gun ♪

[music continues]

[man]
The Paul
Butterfield Blues Band,

a new generation of musicians,
white and Negro,

is taking the beat
and the message

of Chicago's South Side blues
to bigger audiences

introducing a musical
extension of blues

to white middle class
enthusiasts,

to college crowds everywhere,

as at this fraternity dance
at Columbia college

in New York City.

[music continues]

[crowd applauding]

[harmonica train sound]

[man] ♪ All aboard ♪

[upbeat blues music]

♪ Well them people
just don't understand ♪

[Dan Aykroyd]
Chicago,

"Hog butcher for the world,
tool maker, stacker of wheat,"

wrote the poet, Carl Sandburg.

"City of the Big Shoulders"
he called it.

Sandburg's, "stormy, husky,

brawling" metropolis sits smack
dab in the center of America.

Sooner or later,

every railroad in the country
leads to Union Station.

But it was the Illinois Central
running from New Orleans

through the Mississippi
Delta and Memphis

that brought the blues
to the Windy city.

[blues music]

[Yank Rachell]

[Rachell continues]

[blues music]

♪ I went down to Ely's

♪ To get my pistol
out of pawn ♪

♪ When I got back home

♪ My woman had gone

♪ Yeah, gonna murder my baby

♪ Oh, if she don't stop
cheatin' and lyin' ♪

♪ I'm gonna put
a hurtin' on her ♪

♪ Well I'd rather be
in the penitentiary ♪

♪ And to be worried
outta my mind ♪

[Aykroyd]
By the 1940s,

most Southern Blacks knew
someone living in Chicago,

maybe a relative.

They crowded into tenements
and neighborhoods

previously occupied by
other immigrant groups

like the area around
Maxwell Street,

which had been known
as Jew Town.

Musicians had flocked
to the open air market

along Maxwell Street since
the days of Big Bill Broonzy.

[blues music]

♪ Well I'd rather be
in the penitentiary ♪

♪ Than to be worried
outta my mind ♪

[music continues]

[Aykroyd]
Not only was
it a proving ground

for musicians fresh
from the South,

but with hundreds of people
jamming the sidewalks

every evening,

it was even possible
to make decent money

playing the blues
on Maxwell Street.

- You know, at that time
the migration era started

there were most of the Negroes
were coming up from the South

because there were
no work down there.

A lot of 'em come to Chicago,
lots to Detroit,

but mainly Chicago.

- Come up by the train, right?

- Train, any way
they can get here

and if they weren't workin'
they'd go on Maxwell Street

on Sunday with their
guitar and sit down

and put their hat down and
get to make

three, four or five dollars,

whatever it took to
live on at that time.

You name them they
were all there.

Little Walter,

Sonny Boy Williamson
from Helena, Arkansas.

You had Muddy Waters from
Clarksdale, Mississippi.

If they were on Maxwell Street,
they were there.

♪ Well, I feel, yes, I feel

♪ Feel that I could lay down,
oh, time ain't long ♪

♪ I'm gonna catch the
first thing smokin' ♪

♪ Back, back down
the road I'm goin' ♪

♪ Back down the road I'm goin'

- I've been in Chicago
for quite a few years,

but I was born in Mississippi.

And I was raised up
in Clarksdale,

I was raised up out on a farm
or plantation.

I began it in Mississippi,

I first stated by blowin'
the harmoni',

then by 17, 18
I switched over to guitar.

[blues guitar]

♪ I'm gonna get my 32 turnin'

♪ My baby she riding
around in V8 Ford ♪

[Aykroyd]
In 1942, the
Library of Congress archivist,

Alan Lomax, made field
recordings of Muddy Waters,

while he lived and worked
on Stovall's plantation

in Mississippi.

The following year,
Muddy moved to Chicago

and took the country blues
to the big city.

- I got a job.

I worked that during the days
and I played the weekend

at house parties, you know,
at different houses.

Just me and my guitar.

Finally, it began to leak out,
you know,

that they had a pretty
good guy from Mississippi.

They called me the young
blues singer then.

I think I'm responsible
for Chicago blues.

I think I'm the man that set
Chicago up for the real blues.

- I called him the godfather.

Muddy Waters did more
for blues than any of us

because he lit up Chicago.

When most people think
of Chicago blues,

the beginning was Muddy Waters.

♪ Got my mojo workin'

[backing singer]
♪ Got my mojo workin'

♪ Got my bl-bl-bl-bl, workin'

[backing singer]
♪ Got my mojo workin'

♪ Got my mojo workin'

[backing singer]
♪ Got my mojo workin'

♪ Got my mojo workin'

♪ Got my mojo workin'

[Waters]
♪ Got my mojo workin'

♪ But it, hmmm, just don't
work on you ♪

[music continues]

[crowd applauding]

[blues guitar]

♪ Well I wish I was a catfish

♪ Swimming in a ol',
deep, blue sea ♪

[Aykroyd]
"Rollin' Stone"
by Muddy Waters

was the record that put
the Chicago blues

on the map in 1950.

Released by the new
Chess Records label,

which had started life
three years earlier

as Aristocrat Records.

Chess was run by two
Polish immigrant brothers,

Leonard and Phil Chess.

There would be
other small labels

recording blues in Chicago,
Vee Jay, Cobra, Delmark,

but Chess Records was the
fountainhead of Chicago blues

making not only the greatest
records by giants,

Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf,

but also their talented
disciples, Little Walter,

Jimmie Rodgers, Sonny Boy
Williamson, and Buddy Guy.

The label broke into the pop
charts in the mid fifties

with rock and roll hits by
Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley,

but all was at the heart
of the label's music

was the towering blues man,
Muddy Waters.

He was the cornerstone
of Chess Records

and the entire Chicago
blues scene.

[blues music]

[Sam Lay speaking]

I know the whole band
used to rehearse there.

Muddy had a little Cadillac,
always had a Cadillac.

I learned a lot
from that old man.

You better believe it,
I learned a lot from him.

[Waters]
♪ Sail on, sail on,
my little honey bee, sail on ♪

- And on that corner there
was the Playhouse

where James Cotton got shot.

Wolf lived right over there
at 43rd.

You see how close they
were living together.

[Corky Siegel] Were Muddy
and Wolf friends?

- No.

[Siegel] Enemies?

- Yeah. [laughing]

It sure brings back some memory.

[blues guitar]

- Well...

I'm gonna just break it
down to you.

Muddy's a nice person,
you know,

but he's a little
jealous of me,

some kind of way.
- [laughter]

- I speak highly of Muddy,

but yet still I don't say a man
ain't jealous of me, you know.

I help him, he took my...

I give him two mens out
of my band once or twice.

♪ Oh, the train I ride on

♪ Oh, the engine shine
like gold ♪

♪ Oh, the train I ride on

♪ Oh, the engine shine
like gold ♪

[Aykroyd]
Chester Burnett,
AKA Howlin' Wolf,

was first recorded in 1950
by Sam Phillips

on his Sun Records label
in Memphis

five years before Phillips
discovered Elvis Presley.

In 1952, Wolf moved to Chicago
and signed with Chess Records

where he recorded for
the rest of his life.

♪ Well now, baby,
'cause I know you ♪

♪ Comin' home, so smile
at my happiness ♪

♪ She said I'm sorry dear,
with tears ♪

♪ Don't do me that-a-way,
baby ♪

♪ Oh, she said,
smile at my happiness ♪

♪ Sorry my dear, with tears

♪ She said the words
I wanna tell you ♪

♪ They go right
into the ear ♪

[Aykroyd]
Wolf was an
imposing mountain of a man.

Everything about him
was oversized

from his massive hands

that cradled his guitar
like a toothpick,

to his deep, crusty growl

that sounded like it
had been summoned

from the center of the earth.

[Wolf]
♪ It could be spoonful
of diamonds ♪

♪ Could be a spoonful
of gold ♪

♪ Just a little spoon
of your precious love ♪

♪ Satisfy my soul

♪ Men lies about a little ♪

♪ Some of them cries
about a little ♪

[Aykroyd]
When Wolf
relocated to Chicago

and put together a band,

he sent for the young guitarist

who had been playing
with him in Memphis,

a teenager named
Hubert Sumlin.

- He was in Chicago getting
his new band together.

I wanted to play so bad.

I joined Wolf in Chicago.

He had the blues because
he showed them to me.

He told me, he say,

"Hubert you better have them
'cause you playing with me."

He did have a thing, man.

He turned me loose on
the recording a number

and when I hit a note, man,
when I hear, I mean business,

I mean business.

[blues guitar]

- Rock and Roll come from the
blues you better believe it.

I don't care how you
play it, it's the blues.

♪ I'm a man

♪ I'm a full grown man

[Aykroyd]
In 1960, Muddy Waters
and Howlin' Wolf

were the twin towers of
a thriving Chicago blues scene.

Two giants surrounded by
a remarkable community

of amazing musicians.

[piano music]

[Aykroyd]
There were side men
like piano player, Otis Spann.

The troubled genius
of the blues piano

who often played in
the Muddy Waters band.

[piano music]

[harmonica music]

[Aykroyd]
The king of
the blues harmonica,

Little Walter Jacobs, started
out playing on Maxwell Street

before appearing on the
early Muddy Waters records,

but soon graduated
leading his own band

after nationwide hits
like "Juke" and "My Babe."

[blues music]

[Jacobs]
♪ My baby don't stand
no cheatin', my babe ♪

[Aykroyd]
Little Walter's
sound went straight

to the heart of Chicago blues.

[harmonica blues music]

- ♪ Well everybody cryin' about
the seventh son ♪

♪ But in the whole round world
there is only one ♪

♪ I'm the one

[Aykroyd]
Standing
wide and tall

over the Chicago blues scene
was Willie Dixon.

- ♪ Well I'm the one,
I'm the one ♪

♪ I'm the one
they call the seventh son ♪

[Aykroyd]
Willie Dixon worked
in the recording studio

for the Chess brothers.

Record producer, songwriter,

talent scout and all around
engine of the label's music.

Not only did he write
landmark songs

like "Hoochie Coochie Man,"
"Back Door Man,"

"Spoonful" and
"The Red Rooster,"

he often played bass on Chuck
Berry's Rock and Roll hits.

[blues music]

- All the great blues players
I ever met in my life

was met in the city of Chicago.

Anytime you have Little Walter,
Muddy Waters, James Cotton,

Junior Wells, Jimmy Rogers,
Howlin' Wolf,

Sonny Boy Williamson,
Otis Rush,

Otis Spann, Sunnyland Slim,

Willie Dixon,
everybody was there.

- ♪ I found little notes ♪

[Aykroyd]
The city was full
of incredible musicians,

playing little bars
and tiny dives

in the Black neighborhoods on
Chicago's South and West Side.

- ♪ Good bye Junior darlin',
oh yeah ♪

♪ Momma sure 'nuf don't
want you no more, ha! ♪

[Aykroyd]
On any given night,
many blues bands

could be found
working across town.

An entire world that existed
without anyone

in the white community knowing.

- ♪ Oh, yeah!

- If it wasn't Junior Wells
at Pepper's Lounge,

it was the brilliant Otis Rush
at the Blue Flame.

[blues guitar]

- ♪ Well I'm tore up

♪ As drunk as I could be

[Aykroyd]
Or the amazing
Magic Sam at Silvio's.

[upbeat blues music]
[vocalizing]

[Aykroyd]
Or Buddy Guy
at Theresa's Lounge.

[soulful blues guitar]

[Aykroyd]
This was
the Chicago blues scene

of the early sixties,

bursting with fierce,
creative musicians.

Yet at the peak of its powers,
the blues was dying.

[rock music]

- ♪ Papa's got a brand new bag

[Aykroyd]
Artists like
James Brown,

Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke
ruled the ghetto jukeboxes.

Young Blacks had rejected the
blues as a relic of the past.

- We didn't have
too many young Blacks.

And for some reason they
didn't like the word blues.

[upbeat light music]

[Aykroyd]
This was
the Eisenhower era

and an entire generation
of young white Americans

shared the common knowledge

that their parents
didn't understand them.

The American dream
could be oppressive.

Many of these young
people bristled

at the rigid conformity
demanded of them.

They yearned for
something different.

Some sought refuge from
the white bread world

that surrounded them
in music.

[blues music]

A few of these lonely,
misunderstood kids

trained their beams on
mysterious obscure corners.

[radio static tuning]

[blues music]

[Aykroyd]
At the far end
of the radio dial

on late night, high-watt
specialty shows

that could be heard
throughout the Midwest,

they discovered a secret world.

- I was 14, the year was 1955,
listening to the radio,

I went to the end of the dial,
the end of the radio

and heard this really
far out music.

There was is this disc jockey,
his name was Sam Evans

and his show was called
"Jam with Sam."

And it was about
12 o'clock at midnight,

and he said, "We're gonna
go down to the basement now

and turn on this
little blue light,

and we're gonna dig
some Jams with Sam.''

And in the background was
this so far out theme song

of his "Blue Light"
by Little Walter.

[soulful blues music]

- He unleashed the reverbs
on the harmonica

and it just, things started
to explode in my mind

and for me, it was sort of
like a passport to freedom

and I turned it up
and my parents,

they were a little
concerned about it.

But to me, I discovered
a new world.

- ♪ That's evil,
evil is goin' on ♪

♪ I am warnin' you, brother

♪ You better watch
your happy home ♪

- I didn't know it,

but simultaneously
throughout the North Side,

in the suburbs of Chicago,
teenagers my age

were discovering
this same station.

[blues music]

And one of them was
Michael Bloomfield,

who I would meet a
couple of years later,

when we had rival rock and roll
bands in high school,

we were competing to see
who would play

for sweet 16 parties

and we developed a respect
for each other

and we became friends.

[school bell ringing]
[blues music]

- So I'm at New Trier
High School in the hall,

and this kid with kinky,
curly hair comes up to me

and he says,
"Man I love your pants."

He knew I was Marshall Chess

and he knew about Chess Records,

but he introduced himself to me.

He used the pants as the entrée

and it was Michael Bloomfield.

And he invited me
over to his house

and he lived in
this big mansion.

He had a record player
in his room

and he was a BB King fanatic.

He kept asking me,
did ya ever meet BB King,

you know about BB King?

I know Mike Bloomfield,
even when he was 17,

he wanted to be a blues man.

- Michael and I would
see each other

in the halls
and say, "Hello."

And he's, one of those
times he said,

"Man, then you gotta
come on down with me

I can borrow my mother's car

and we could go down
to the South

and West Side of Chicago,"

which really no one ever did
at that particular time.

Michael had been
down there before

and struck up a relationship
with Howlin' Wolf

and he said, "Come on, man,
we're gonna go down

tomorrow night and sit in
with Howlin' Wolf."

Man, this is like really
far out, Howlin' Wolf,

and, "Are you sure it's good?"

And he said, "Just trust me."

So this was an adventure.

- ♪ I got to let you
dog me around ♪

- We went down to the West Side
at a club called Silvio's

and Michael said,
"Now just listen to me,

you walk straight ahead
you don't look to the left,

look to the right and we'll sit
at the front table

and Wolf will recognize us."

And we sat down and
there were a hush came

over the club and there are
these four little white kids,

you know, sitting there amongst
the blues lovers.

- Mike Bloomfield, Wolf used
to let him on the bandstand

and play.

- "Michael Bloomfield,
he got a friend with him,

he's gonna play
the keyboards."

I started to shake.

The first song Wolf did
was "Killing Floor."

- ♪ I shoulda quit you
a long time ago ♪

- We started playing, Michael
started playing the guitar

and the people really responded.

- And Wolf said, I don't care
what color you is,

these guys can play.

These guys, Wolf knows what
they is gonna be,

everybody knows.

They wanna learn
and they learn it.

But man, let me
tell you something,

Wolf loved these guys, man.

- All the great blues singers
live in Chicago.

They play there, you know,
since I was very young,

I've been going down
to hear them, you know,

I'd sneak down to the bars
and see, could I get in?

Listen and hear what
they're playing

It flipped me out.

[guitar music]

I wanted to know
the story of the blues

and the best way
for me to learn was

to actually meet the guys,
you know.

Muddy, he was in Chicago,
he was like a God to me.

I just couldn't even imagine
of ever knowing someone

of his magnitude and greatness.

I would go down the street,
man,

and from two blocks away hear

that harmonica come
out of the club

I hear that harp
and I'd hear Muddy's slide.

I'd be trembling,
I'd be like a dog in heat,

[stammers]
I didn't know what to do,

I'd get near that place,
man, I'd be all a-quiver.

I'd stand out in front,

me and Roy Ruby,
man, we'd stand,

this buddy of mine,

we would stand out
in front, man,

and just peer in the window.

We were too young to get in,
you know, we had phony IDs

but they just laughed at us.

I would just stand all night
long in the window, man.

It was just an amazing thing
for my eyes to behold.

- ♪ You say you love me,
darlin' ♪

- Not that we were
so good at that time,

but they recognized the
reverence and the passion

that we had for their music
and the respect,

which was really important
and Wolf liked it too.

[Aykroyd]
In some cosmic way,

these older Black
blues musicians

knew who these
young white men were

and what they had come for.

They welcomed them,
with gracious hospitality

and genuine warmth
and affection.

They shared their world
freely with these visitors.

These kids found something
they couldn't find at home,

they found love.

It was a coming together
of generations

bonded by music and
transcended social issues.

It was about sound, not color.

It was about the love
of the blues.

[blues music]

- ♪ Please, call me on
the phone sometimes ♪

Mike Bloomfield!

[music continues]

- You have
to hold your own.

If you sucked, you had
no business being there.

You'd now only be a white kid,
but you'd be a fool.

And the first initial reaction
was, "Oh, he's white"

and "What's he doing here?"

I was an oddity,

and after a while it was,
"He plays the blues."

[Interviewer]
Were
there any other white kids

coming down there?

[harmonica music]

[Bloomfield]
There was
Musselwhite,

but he was a country boy, man,

people just naturally loved him

they loved him cause
he was just country.

[harmonica music]

- Charlie Musselwhite
came into Chicago,

I think he was 17 or 18,
from Tennessee.

And they called him
Memphis Charlie.

And he lived in the basement

of Bob Koester's record store
for a while.

[harmonica music]

- Everybody was getting
out of the South

everybody was heading North.

I thought man, I gotta
get up to Chicago

and get me one of them
big factory jobs.

And I learned the city
real fast

and I would see these
signs and posters

and flyers in the windows
of clubs that'd say,

Elmore James or
Muddy Waters.

Wow, I didn't know
these guys are here.

So I go to these clubs

and there was people like
Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters.

They were real flattered
that I knew who they were

and I had their records and I
knew the names of their tunes.

I just became a fixture
at Silvio's.

Then one night, a waitress
that I'd gotten to know,

told Muddy Waters,

"You ought to hear that boy
play harmonica."

Everything turned there.
Muddy had me sit in

and then people started
offering me gigs,

and that got my attention.

Then I got focused on,

hmm, this is my way
out of the factory.

[harmonica music]

This one place
I played at a lot

called Rose and Kelley's
Blue Lounge is sort of

a harmonica hangout, be all
these harp players there

and we would play and then
you'd pass them the mic

and the harp to the next guy.

And he would play it,

do his best and he'd pass it
to the next guy.

We'd be shoulder to shoulder

and finally Shakey Horton
would walk up

and just take the harmonica
and take the mic

and just wipe the floor
with all of us.

[harmonica music]

This is the corner,

but it ain't like it
used to be. [laughs]

I spent a lot of time
right here,

Rose and Kelly's
Blue Lounge.

And Walter Horton
lived down here,

a couple blocks on this
side of the street.

Me and Walter Horton

would walk these bricks
right here many a time.

If I didn't find Walter here
or at home,

he'd be at the liquor store
between here and there.

I think he enjoyed playing
harmonica more out in the alley

with his buddies
then in any club.

[blues music]

- We'd all hung around
the University of Chicago,

which was in this
fringe Hyde Park,

which is a sort of integrated
neighborhood in Chicago.

And we all hung around
the university

'cause they had funky
music around there

and they had this
folklore society.

- I had heard that Chicago was
where blues was happening

'cause that's when Muddy Waters
and Howlin' Wolf were young

and strong and in their prime

and Chicago blues
was being created, ya know?

I got a National
Merit Scholarship

and I could basically go
to any college I wanted to.

So I said, I'm going to Chicago,
you know.

The University of Chicago is
in an island called Hyde Park.

It's right in the middle of
the South Side ghetto.

This is before gangs and drugs,

there wasn't that bitter
edge on the ghetto

like there came to be later,
you know.

I made friends with
the musicians real quick.

They were much nicer to me
than they needed to be.

- ♪ Well, I can't
quit you baby ♪

♪ But I got to put you
down for a while ♪

- Otis Rush invited me
over to his house.

I'd go over and Otis
would show me blues stuff.

I'd walk into the door,

the first thing he'd do
is go in the kitchen

and go in the cupboard

and get down this
pint of whiskey

and pour us both a shot.

[blues music]

I wanted to play blues
like my heroes did, you know.

My main guy that really
helped me a lot was

Little Smokey Smothers
and he was beautiful, man.

I'd go over to his house
and he'd sit me down

and he'd show me tunes.

He'd make sure I got it, he was
conscientious about it.

If I was being hard-headed
and wasn't getting the part

to his satisfaction, he'd
take me in the kitchen.

He'd always had something
good on the stove

like ham hocks
and black-eyed peas

or neck bones, greens,
and like that you know,

he'd lift up the lid,
he'd say, "Smell that."

I'd smell, I'd say, "That's
great. Can I have some?"

He slammed that lid then said,

"When you get this part,
you can have some."

[blues guitar music]

[Interviewer] Yeah!

[blues music]

- I met Michael Bloomfield
in a pawn shop

that's where I'd look
for guitars.

So I was on Clark Street
on the North Side

and I walked in and there was
a guy behind the counter

looked kind of like
a smart ass, you know.

And I looked up on the wall,
I saw a guitar

I wanted to try out and I said,
"Can I try that guitar?"

He hands it to me,

I start fumbling around
a little bit, you know,

he said, "Oh, you like blues
huh, give me that thing."

He grabs it and he started
playing rings around the world.

[chuckling]
I said, "Well, hey,
that's great man."

That's how I met
Michael Bloomfield.

- When I was living in the back
of the record store

in Old Town, just a couple
of blocks away,

Mike Bloomfield was living in
the Carl Sandburg apartments.

So he would come over
to the record store

like almost every day.

We would go through all these
78's, and everything,

playing records and just
hanging out.

When he found out
I played a little,

he wanted to know what do you
know, who do you learn from?

What were they like?

He had a million questions.

He had this energy for life.

He wanted just to consume
it all, just eat it all up.

And he had access
to his mom's car,

so we'd drive around town
and get into trouble.

Well, Mike Bloomfield had like
a photographic memory,

he'd copy any style, whether
it was like country blues

or modern blues.

He could listen to it and
absorb that guy's style,

whether it was Muddy Waters
or BB King

or Arthur Crudup,
and he could play it.

[blues guitar music]

- Mike Bloomfield,
I first heard him

when Grossman had me come
out to play at a club

they had started in Chicago

and the name of the club
was The Bear.

I saw this guy coming
from across the street.

He was carrying a bag

and I knew there was
a guitar in the bag,

I just knew that.
He come in the front door

and he introduced himself
and told me who he was.

He said he had a band
on the South Side.

He said he'd heard my
first record [laughing]

and said he wanted to show me
how the blues were played.

He played Hubert Sumlin licks,
he played everything,

and one after another.

Then he started playing
Blind Lemon stuff,

which I couldn't believe.

And then he started
playing Blind Blake,

which was really hard.

I mean, he just was the best
guitar player I ever heard.

- I can play blues, you know,

but you can quote me on this,
man,

Butterfield's something else.

He feels it, he's in there
all the way.

- I met Butterfield the first
day I was in Chicago.

I was walking around
the neighborhood,

just checking it out you know,
wow, you know,

Chicago, I'm here.

And sitting
on some steps in front

of an apartment building
was white guy playing blues

on the guitar and drinking
a quart of beer.

I said,
"Wow, this is pretty cool,

looks like my kind of guy."

It was Butterfield.

For the first six months
I knew him,

he didn't play harmonica
hardly, he was,

he was more of
a guitar player,

but he picked up
the harmonica...

straight to the stratosphere.

He became as good as he was
ever gonna be in six months.

[harmonica music]

For the first couple of years
that we played together,

we just did acoustic stuff
at parties.

And that's where I met
Nick Gravenites.

- Nick Gravenites who was like
sort of the reputed leader

of this underground movement,
the blues movement.

- In my early blues days,

I was a thug sort of
a minor league gangster,

I carried a gun, I drank a lot,
I took a lot of pills.

- Nick was sort of like
the big chief,

he was the main guy

of the Chicago blues
young guys clique.

- So I became like a beatnik.

I loved that whole coffee house,
poetry, music,

folk music-type thing,
that was for me.

- And Nick was
also a scholar too.

Nick went to The University
of Chicago.

He's a really smart guy,

but, his reputation
was a real tough guy.

[Aykroyd]
Nick Gravenites
tested his way

into The University of Chicago,

but soon drifted off
into a beatnik reverie,

traveling the country,

settling for a while
in San Francisco,

before returning to Chicago
and hooking back up

with his old pal,
Paul Butterfield.

- Me and Paul, we were
South Side blues guys,

and that was the time

we were all steeped
in the blues real deep.

- A lot of the music,

the blues, is people
[indistinct]
jazz and stuff

came from Black American
heritage

came from the Black people, but
music, man, is universal thing.

If you feel music,
you play music

and it doesn't belong
to a Black man,

didn't belong to a white man.

- He wound up playing harmonica

at these blues revues
on the South Side.

He became part of the show,

particularly at a place called
The Blue Flame Lounge.

Sam Lay has these films,
you see a long shot

of one of those clubs that Paul
had all the way down the bar,

and every guy they're
all standing there.

And the last guy you see
is Paul smiling,

he was in his element,
they loved him.

They thought he was
a great musician.

All of a sudden here's some
white kid who could really play.

[harmonica music]

And the Black audiences
knew it.

[Aykroyd]
The origins of
the Paul Butterfield Blues Band

go back to Saturday nights
in the dorm lounge

at the University of Chicago

with Butterfield at first
on solo harp,

but soon joined on guitar
by his pal, Elvin Bishop.

- Wolf's rhythm section, well,
they were backing up

Junior Wells at
The Blue Flame lounge.

Junior sees Paul and he's--
introduces him to the crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen,
we have down here

Paul Butterfield, who's a great
harmonica player.

Why don't ya
have him come up here

and have him do
a tune for you."

Fine, they applaud,
he goes up there,

one and a two and a boom,
they hit something really hot.

And the people went nuts,

they loved that,
they were applauding.

Well, Junior Wells got so pissed
off at the crowd's reaction,

that he left.

[harmonica music]

- The beautiful thing
about Butterfield was

he was so strong and so dynamic,

but he didn't play
anybody's licks.

Butterfield was just him
right from the get go.

- All the stuff that Paul does,
he's taken from the groups

and the records that right
from the Chicago area

Muddy Waters,
Howlin' Wolf,

Little Walter,
Sonny Boy Williamson

and Otis Rush.

And Paul's taken them
and reworked them

with his own style, you know,

and it's Butterfield,
it's pure-D Butterfield.

[blues music]

[Aykroyd]
What happened next

could never
have been predicted.

The blues moved across town
to the North Side,

the Old Town neighborhood

around the famous
improv theater, Second City,

was studded with small clubs
and bars

that catered to
the college crowd.

Although it was only
across town,

it was a million miles
from the South Side.

Big John's was
a Wells Street club,

first mapped out
by Mike Bloomfield

and Charlie Musselwhite.

- The Bloomfield band,
the band I was in,

when we left Big John's,

Butterfield took our spot.

[Aykroyd]
When Butterfield
was offered

a spot at the club,

he borrowed Howlin' Wolf's
rhythm section,

Jerome Arnold on bass
and Sam Lay on drums,

and started The Paul
Butterfield Blues Band.

[upbeat harmonica music]

- Big John's was great, man.

It was sold out all the time.

It was running
seven days a week.

It was Butterfield's home base,

and they were the center
of that scene.

[harmonica blues music]

[Aykroyd]
Almost immediately,

the place was packed with
young white college students.

It was 1964,
the year The Beatles

were breaking big in America.

And the blues was
suddenly coming to life

with the frat crowd.

♪ Yeah, you know
I'm a hoochie coochie man ♪

♪ Everybody knows I am

- You know, we told
the owners of the bar,

you know, you should get
other blues bands in here.

Get Muddy Waters, get
Little Walter, Otis Rush.

And so they started
booking blues

at this little bar
on the North Side.

There hadn't been blues
on the North Side.

And then the other little
bars on the North Side

started seeing
what great business

Big John's was doing, so

they wanted to book blues too.

- ♪ Lead me by my hand ♪

♪ Then the world'll know

[Aykroyd]
Big John's
started bringing in

the other blues men.

Muddy Waters never thought
he would live long enough

to work on the North Side.

- ♪ Everybody knows I'm him ♪

- We were all in Chicago
at the same time.

That era between 1964 and 1966.

Musselwhite, Mike Bloomfield,
Paul Butterfield,

Corky Siegel, James Schwall,
Barry Goldberg, Steve Miller.

White kids, all of 'em
about the same age,

nuts for blues.

- I remember Steve Miller, he
would come into Big John's.

I think he had gigs there.

- And there were fights
at Big John's

and the Blue Flame
and Pepper's.

And wherever you went,
you know,

there was always trouble,
and you know,

somebody being beaten
with a pool cue

or something, you know,
a lot of times,

you'd have to kind
of get off the stage

and sort of let things cool off,
and then come back in and play.

- Well, at one point, him and
Barry had a band together.

It was called The Miller
Goldberg Blues Band.

- The way I met Steve
was he was playing

at a place down the street
about two blocks from here.

And I was walking by one day

and I heard this
amazing guitar playing

coming out of the storefront.

And I said, man, it sounds
just like T-bone Walker to me.

So I said, "Steve, I heard that

The Butterfield Band
was leaving Big John's

to go to New York and
they need a band in here,

why don't we get
a group together,

I play the keyboards."

And he said, "Great!"

We got the gig,

and we played there
for about a year.

- As far as I was concerned,
as soon as I met Barry

and we played together,

I had found like
a soul brother,

because Barry was brilliant
on keyboards, man.

He was something else.

And he and I just hooked up
[fingers snapping]

just like that.

- Barry Goldberg was more
of a get-along kind of guy,

the rabbi type.

But under that rabbi look,

he was very fierce.

Fierce blues man.

- Writing tunes with Barry
was just phenomenal.

I mean, I'd sit down and say,

"You know, Barry, I got this
one lick, what do you think?"

And he'd go,
"Yeah, how 'bout this lick?"

And then, "How about that?"
And then we'd go,

"Okay, that one's done,
let's do another one."

[upbeat blues music]

- ♪ All right!

♪ Ow! Hey!

[music continues]

- You know everybody
talks about it like

we were these
little white boys.

We were competing
with Howlin' Wolf

for his gig at his club.

There were about
five or six clubs,

there were about
five or six bands.

And boy, the minute they
weren't in that club,

we were in that club.

So we had, it was like business.

It wasn't like we were getting
a free pass for anything.

- It's like that saying
when the water goes up,

all the boats go
with it, you know?

We were doing things for
and with each other

and we're all part
of the scene

and anything one of us did was
helpful to the other one too.

[blues music]

[Aykroyd]
Guitarist Harvey Mandel

was a teenager from Detroit
when he found his way into

the South Side blues clubs.

- Sammy Fender took
me down to Twist City,

where I got to meet all
the famous blues people,

BB King and Howlin' Wolf
and Muddy Waters.

The biggest influence
of all was Buddy Guy,

'cause he was a regular
that played there weekly.

Being influenced by him
transformed my playing

because I went from
a very beginner

playing Venture music
and all of a sudden

I'm seeing the real blues,
and it was like

watching him up close
was like going to college

for playing guitar.

[blues guitar music]

- Harvey had his own identity.

He wanted to be in those clubs,

playing in the meanest,
toughest places,

holding his own.

- Harvey was real cool
and playing all this

incredible guitar, you know?

Just totally in control and
totally cool all the time.

- If you go into any club,
no matter where,

if you can play,
you're halfway home.

- Harvey was one of the first
white guitar players

that was coming
in the Black club.

Great guitar player, man.

We used to have Sunday
and Monday evenin',

what they called
Battle of Guitars.

You'd have to play
to come there.

[blues guitar music]

- Buddy Guy used to come
tearing out here

with his guitar and
his hundred-foot cord,

and literally go out in the
middle of the street here

and stop traffic everywhere
and be blasting

on the guitar and stuff.

I've seen guys out
here get knifed,

giant fights, unbelievable,
but I used to come park my car,

be carrying this big
amplifier, my guitar,

and everything, no one
ever bothered me though.

- One of the things
about Chicago

that was really interesting

was that every band was
a little bit different.

[upbeat blues music]

- ♪ You say I'm mad

♪ I got priorities

[Aykroyd]
The Siegel-Schwall
Band was

another group of young
white musicians

who popped up on
the Chicago scene

gigging regularly on the
South Side at Pepper's Lounge

in between the old guard bands.

- We didn't think we
were a blues band,

but we were intensely
influenced by the blues.

We also had other influences
that changed the music,

so it didn't sound exactly,
you know, like other stuff.

We were hired by Johnny Pepper
at Pepper's Soul Lounge,

and I just thought it was a bar

on the South Side of Chicago,
I had no idea.

And then some guy
walks up to the stage

the first night and says,
"I'd like to sit in."

He was a little drunk,
and so I didn't think,

you know, I wanted him
to sit in and I said,

"Nah, maybe later" or something,

and one of the people
in the audience said,

"No, no, no, come on! Let him
sit in, that's Little Walter."

[laughing]

And so, Otis Spann, you know,
came and sat in with us

and Willie Dixon and
Howlin' Wolf showed up

and Muddy Waters, you know,
and Hound Dog Taylor.

You know, so what's
happening is,

we're playing this club

that's sort of the center
of the blues scene.

Howlin' Wolf asked us to go
on the road with him,

so we went on the road
with him and we played

The Café Go-Go together.

And he used to knock on
my door every morning

and say, "Come on,
we're gonna go take a walk,"

and I'd take a walk
with him every morning

through the village for like,
a couple of hours,

you know, me and the Wolf,
and it was just, it was amazing.

[Radio Announcer]
Well, let's hear that number

now that's shooting
up the charts,

called "Little Red Rooster"!

[girls screaming]

[blues music]

[Aykroyd]
Across
the Atlantic ocean,

an unexpected development
took place.

The old Howlin' Wolf song,
"Little Red Rooster,"

hit number one on
the British charts,

courtesy of a young
group of Brits

called The Rolling Stones.

- ♪ I am
the little red rooster ♪

♪ Too lazy to crow for day

[Aykroyd]
Chicago blues was
always the foundation

of the Stones' music.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
famously met

when Richard spied
Jagger getting

on a London underground train
carrying a couple of Chess LPs.

- And I must say, we
must have been wearing

brass balls that day when
we decided to put that out

as a single, right?

We knew it was kind
of a bold move.

"Let's see if we can actually
spin it back around

and make American
white kids listen

to 'Little Red Rooster,'"
but it worked.

- ♪ Dogs begin a-barkin' ♪

♪ Hounds begin to howl

- Felt it was a privilege
to be the conduit.

It was our job to pay back.

[harmonica music]

[Aykroyd]
Inspired almost
exclusively by precious records

from exotic Chicago, Illinois,

The Stones arrived in town

on the band's
first tour in 1965.

About the same time The
Paul Butterfield Blues Band

was packing out Big John's.

But they made a beeline for

the Chess Records
Recording Studio

where their heroes made
all their records.

- Here's The Rolling
Stones story,

my uncle called me on
the intercom and said,

"Marshall, there's
a call, white guys

with a strange accent,
something about

recording in the studio, take
it and see what they want."

And it was Andrew Oldham,
the Stones manager.

He introduced himself to me,

and I knew who
The Rolling Stones were.

So I set it up with
Andrew Oldham,

the Stones arrived
and we had never seen

hair like that,
especially Brian Jones.

It was shocking!

- My brother looked at me
and I looked at him

and I said, "Who are they?"
- [laughing] That's true.

Who are those freaks?

[laughing]
- They looked like freaks!

[Richards]
That was '64,

when I first got here
to America

and I got the chance
to sit around

with Muddy Waters
and Howlin' Wolf,

and they were all just
wanting to share ideas.

They wanted to know like
how we were doing it,

and why we wanted to do it.

It didn't take long for us
all to become friends.

♪ Well I was doing right

♪ You couldn't believe
a word I say ♪

[Aykroyd]
In fact, when
The Rolling Stones

were asked to star in
the prime time American

teen dance show,
Shindig,
the Stones only agreed

if producers also
booked Howlin' Wolf,

in what would be the only
nationally televised appearance

he would ever make.

♪ You think I'm crazy ♪

♪ But I can't let you
have your way ♪

[blues music]

- ♪ Well, you pretty women

♪ Stand in a line

[Aykroyd]
But The Stones
were far from

the only young
British musicians

inspired by the blues.

The music had been welcomed
since Big Bill Broonzy

first brought the blues to
Europe in the mid 1950s.

- ♪ A boom, boom, boom, boom,

♪ Shoot you right down

♪ Right off of your feet

♪ Take you home with me

♪ But you're in my house

♪ Making love

[Aykroyd]
These young,
largely working class

British youth identified with
the alienation and anger

they heard on the
Black American records.

- ♪ You knock me out

[Aykroyd]
Eric Burdon,
of the Animals,

remembered seeing Muddy Waters

on the American Folk Blues Tour
in his native Newcastle.

- The first time I was really
aware of Chicago blues

as a sort of powerful
entity unto itself,

was Muddy Waters at
City Hall in Newcastle.

As I was coming home
from night school,

my rucksack on my back,

doors were open,
it was a hot night

and I was two blocks away,
and I could hear his voice,

and I thought,
that's where I want to be.

- ♪ Got my mojo working ♪

♪ But it just don't work
on you ♪

[audience clapping]

[slow harmonica music]

[Aykroyd]
Back in Chicago,
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band

was poised to burst
onto the national scene.

It was producer Paul Rothchild
who suggested

adding Mike Bloomfield
on lead guitar

to The Paul Butterfield
Blues Band,

and then signed the group
to Elektra Records,

a hip New York City label
specializing in folk music.

He also brought in another
University of Chicago grad,

Mark Naftalin on keyboards.

The new Paul Butterfield
Blues Band

entered the studio to record

its first album
in December, 1964.

- That album to this day,

is something that should
not be ignored

because it was
a great contribution

to bringing back the Blues
into the mainstream.

After a while,
"Satisfaction" and "Gloria"

were kind of corny to us.

This was the new anthem,
or the new thing,

"Born in Chicago."

Man, people would be--

[imitating guitar] That's it.

[blues harmonica music]

[Aykroyd]
Growing interest
in the band

led to an invitation
to play the prestigious

Newport Folk Festival in
Rhode Island in July, 1965.

Following in the footsteps
of Muddy, Wolf,

and other Chicago blues artists
who have played the festival,

The Butterfield Band
unknowingly

set forth on a date
with destiny.

- One, two,
one, two three.

[high-energy blues music]

♪ Look over yonder's wall

♪ And hand me down
my walkin' cane ♪

♪ Well I got my sugar woman

♪ Yonder come your man

♪ Well I love you baby

♪ Can't treat me right

♪ Take all my money,
walk the streets at night ♪

♪ Look over yonder's wall

♪ Hand me down my walkin' cane

♪ Well I got my sugar woman

♪ Yonder come your man

[music continues]

[music continues]

♪ Look over yonder's wall

♪ And hand me down
my walkin' cane ♪

♪ Look over yonder's wall

♪ And hand me down
my walkin' cane ♪

♪ Well I got my sugar woman

♪ Yonder come your man

- Oh!

[slow music]

[Aykroyd]
Also appearing
at Newport that summer

was folk music's number one
attraction, Bob Dylan,

who was about to turn
a corner in his career

from protest songs into
something altogether larger.

[Dylan] Hey!
- [hand knocking]

[woman] Okay.

[crowd cheering]

[Aykroyd]
He had already
drafted Mike Bloomfield

to play on sessions in 1965

that produced the classic song,
"Like a Rolling Stone."

[Dylan]
When it was time
to bring in

a guitar player to play
on my record,

I couldn't think
of anybody but him.

[Aykroyd]
The next month
at Newport,

members of The Butterfield
Band and Dylan

would combine in one of the
most historic performances

in rock history.

- It is essential that you
get your levels for your,

for your instruments
and for your amplifiers

and get them into your heads.

- Of course, Bloomfield
was playing there

with The Butterfield Band,

then they decided to have
The Butterfield Band

backup Dylan and Michael
got Barry Goldberg

to play, also.

- Michael said, "Hey,
this is my buddy,

he can play the keyboards, man,
he's really good, you know?"

And Bob said, "Hey man, do
you want to play with me?"

And I said, "Yeah!"

That's how I wound up, you know,

playing in Bob Dylan's
first electric band.

- ♪ I ain't gonna work on
Maggie's farm no more ♪

[blues guitar]

[crowd applauding]

- You could hear Michael,
he was almost like,

assaulting people
with his guitar,

saying, okay take this,
take that, with his licks,

and overpowering Bob
a little bit.

[crowd cheering]

- People were shocked,
you know, the folk crowd.

They felt really sold out
and betrayed.

But Bob had created
something really different.

From my recollection
of the concert,

a lot of people did get it,
and a lot of people loved it.

I mean, it was like
a really inspired,

intense performance,
like, and--

but most of the people booed.

- They came out and played
three burning electric tunes

and then came out and sang
"It's All Over Now Baby Blue."

I mean, that's the thing
they should've

paid attention to, not
that stupid booing thing.

I had been at the festival,

I knew other people
played electric,

Chambers Brothers
played electric,

Butterfield played electric,

so, you know, big deal.

- I didn't see it because
I was a blues guy.

I was hangin' out the other side
of the fairgrounds

with Mance Lipscomb
and Mississippi John Herd

splitting a half
pint of whiskey.

[Aykroyd]
Meanwhile,
in Chicago,

other folk music
labels took note

and went looking for
a blues band of their own,

thinking this might be
the beginning of a new trend.

[harmonica blues music]

They found Charlie Musselwhite.

- Sam Charters, he was
producing for Vanguard.

Sam would say, "Well,
Elektra's got Butterfield,

let's do Charlie Musselwhite."

When Sam Charters wanted me
to make this album,

I got Harvey and Barry
and I got Fred Below

and Little Bob on bass.

Stand Back,
my first album,

if I remember right,
we cut the whole album

in about three hours.

There's people that
still bring that album

to gigs to have me sign.

And a lot of Vietnam veterans
had that album in Vietnam

and they would tell me
how much it,

the music had meant to them.

That's 'bout as good as it gets.

But that record put me on the
road and it gave me a career,

and I've been on
the road ever since.

- They call him
Memphis Charlie,

he's Chicago's adopted son,
Charlie Musselwhite!

[harmonica blues music]

- We started playing
college gigs

and traveling,
gettin' out of town

and playing concerts in
East Coast, West Coast.

[Aykroyd]
In March 1966,
The Butterfield Band

exploded on the psychedelic
rock scene

only just emerging
in San Francisco.

- We had been playing
at a club called

The Trip in Los Angeles.

Grossman, our manager, said
there's a hip place to play

called The Fillmore.

And at that time Chet Helms,
who owned The Avalon,

was partners with Bill,

and they said, "Okay, we'll
get this Butterfield Band."

- Part of the magic
of that weekend was

how well the first night went

and the success of
that first night,

just packed the next two nights.

- The impact of
The Butterfield Blues Band,

their first time here,
was awesome.

Just a driving groove,
it made you wanna move.

They just took
the town by storm.

- Michael Bloomfield,
he and Elvin Bishop

played so well together.

Just to see that kind
of virtuosity and power,

it was a real epiphany for me.

- Very structured, tight,
all the players could play,

there wasn't no fuckin' around.

- I remember talking
to Paul and Mike,

when they came back
from California,

and they were talkin'
about how great it was,

and there was plenty
of places to play,

and they were talkin' about
how the musicians

in California
really weren't much.

- But they had this
social thing going on,

and the acid thing
was going on,

so that was all a big revolution
that was happening.

- California was great,
man, I loved it,

immediately, as soon
as I got off the plane,

I knew this was for me.

Such freedom and
open-mindedness.

There's like room
for everybody.

There's room for
every kind of music,

and they actually
paid good money.

- I was remembering

seeing The Paul Butterfield
Blues Band,

Butter was a great
harmonica player,

and Elvin, he was great.

One of the greatest blues
bands I had ever seen before,

but Michael, shit!

Man! That guy!

[blues electric guitar music]

- We were all just awestruck.

Not only did he up the ante

in terms of musicianship
for the San Francisco scene,

he was also sort of a teacher

because we'd all go
and watch him,

and within about six months,
everybody copped

all his licks and stuff
like that.

[upbeat music]

- Paul Butterfield's band, by
the time
East-West
came out,

it was like another band.

- This was in the full bloom
of psychedelic experimentation,

where we had encountered
what was represented

as being Leary acid.

[psychedelic rock music]

- Some people will say,
well it has to be

like Muddy Waters
to be the blues.

And some people say
that you have to have

a certain kind of
instrumentation for the blues,

and it's all bullshit, man.

The word means as much
as saying greens and reds

or, ya know?

[blues electric guitar music]

- East-West
was
based on gettin' high

and listening to
Ravi Shankar a lot,

and Bloomfield was the main
instigator on that.

And he used to kill 'em
at the bar with that

because he did a fire eating
act in the middle of that,

and that music was
going on behind him.

Boy, you talk about some
people losing their minds

watching that.

[Aykroyd]
Bill Graham,
who knew little

about the music scene
before he started promoting

shows at San Francisco's
Fillmore Auditorium,

quickly turned to
Mike Bloomfield for advice.

Bloomfield told him to book
the older blues guys.

- And right then, you know,
I started talkin' to Bill.

I said, listen if
you like us, man,

you've gotta get these
other cats in here,

you gotta get
the real cats down.

You've gotta get Muddy Waters.

You've got to get BB King
because you know,

I mean, this is
the real thing, man.

The kids didn't dig us, man,

they're going to have
to dig these people.

You know and by God,
the kids did have enough taste

and they do have enough taste

to dig the real thing,
you know?

- Michael and Butter
were really my teachers

as far as who they thought
I should also

bring into the Bay Area,

and to expose to the
predominantly white audience

that came to rock
and roll shows.

- As a result we were,
between Bill and I,

we kind of created,
we resurrected careers

of a lot of, at that point,

somewhat obscure Black artists,

who are not obscure any longer.

- A lot of doors
was then opening up

that had not been open for us.

And this was a great big push

in the right direction
for blues.

Then finally, one day
I was booked

into The Fillmore,
where we used to play

before Bill Graham
had bought it.

Now, when I get there this day,

I see a young crowd,
white kids.

I start to think then
I'm in the wrong place.

Bill Graham came out and said,

this is where you're
supposed to play right here.

I get in the dressing room,
I'm real nervous.

Go get Bill Graham,
tell him I want a drink.

And he came back and I had
a couple of slugs of that,

and I remember this, when he
got to the stage, he said,

"Ladies and gentlemen,
I bring you

the Chairman of the Board,
BB King."

All of a sudden,
all of the kids stood up.

[audience applauding]

I cried, 'cause I'd never had
this happen before.

[crowd applauding]

[Aykroyd]
The torch
had been passed.

[upbeat music]

At the same time,
the relationship

between Mike Bloomfield and
Paul Butterfield fractured.

- I think what led up
to Mike's leaving

The Butterfield Band
was a dissatisfaction

with the lifestyle of
the band on the road

and itchiness to do
his own thing.

- ♪ Groovin' is easy, baby

[Aykroyd]
Bloomfield followed
Nick Gravenites

out to Marin County
in California,

across the Golden Gate Bridge
from San Francisco,

where, along with
Barry Goldberg,

they put together
a new band they called

The Electric Flag.

- ♪ You don't have to keep
yourself forever slavin' ♪

- In short order, they would
be joined in the Bay Area

by Steve Miller,
Charlie Musselwhite,

Harvey Mandel and Elvin Bishop.

For Electric Flag,
Goldberg and Bloomfield

found a 19-year-old drummer
who could sing

his ass off, named Buddy Miles.

[slow blues music]

- ♪ I've just got in
from Texas, babe ♪

♪ You didn't even know
I was around ♪

- We had two great singers,
we had Nick,

who was like the consummate
like, blues band singer,

we had Buddy Miles, man,
a tremendous soul singer

who could rock the place like
no one could with his drums.

We had the horn section,

and then we had Michael
Bloomfield as a guitar player.

When he was on, there was
no one that can touch him.

[Aykroyd]
The Electric Flag
made the band's

highly anticipated live debut

at the historic Monterey
Pop Festival in June, 1967,

topping the Saturday
afternoon bill

over the new Steve Miller
Blues Band

and the revised Paul
Butterfield Blues Band.

- ♪ Does that little girl
even think of me ♪

♪ Do you think of me

♪ Yeah!

♪ Oh!

[crowd cheering]

- We really mean this,
we love you all, man,

'cause this is very groovy, man.

Monterey is very groovy, man!

This is something, man,

this is our generation, man,

all you people, we're all
together, man, and it's groovy.

- Michael was so intense
and so high-strung and up,

that he counted off the songs
at twice the speed that,

you know, we normally did them.

[upbeat blues music]

- ♪ Down in New Orleans
where everything fine ♪

♪ All them people
just buy that wine ♪

♪ Drinking wine
is their delight ♪

♪ And when they get drunk they
start fighting all night ♪

♪ Knockin' down windows,
breakin' down doors ♪

♪ Drinking half gallons
and calling for more ♪

♪ You got a nickel
and I got a dime ♪

♪ Let's get together
and buy some wine ♪

♪ Some buy a pint,
some buy a quart ♪

♪ But if you're
buying half gallons ♪

♪ You're playing it smart

♪ Drinking wine, wine, wine

♪ Hey buddy!

♪ Pass that bottle to me

♪ Everybody

♪ Port or sherry

♪ Sweet Lucy

♪ Find a good wine

♪ Hey buddy, pass
that bottle to me ♪

[music continues]

[music continues]

♪ Hey da hadie

♪ Yo da yodie

[scatting]

♪ Hey!

[slow blues music]

[crowd cheering]

[Aykroyd]
The blues
had been rescued.

With the explosion of
music that happened

in the wake of the
Monterey Pop Festival,

the blues was carried
into the mainstream.

[slow blues music]

[Aykroyd]
The original masters,
such as BB King,

Muddy Waters and the others,

lived out their lives
in prosperity

and acclaim they
couldn't have imagined

when the music was
only to be found

in a couple of small
Chicago neighborhoods.

- ♪ Rhythm and blues
had a baby ♪

♪ And they named the baby
rock and roll ♪

[blues guitar solo]

[Aykroyd]
Mike Bloomfield
played the blues

the rest of his life and
died in 1981 at age 37.

[slow blues guitar music]

Paul Butterfield
never quit playing.

He passed in 1987 at age 44.

- ♪ Oh, the sky is crying ♪

♪ People look at the tears
roll down the street ♪

♪ Mmmmm

♪ Yeah ♪

- Mike Bloomfield
was like a son.

We lost him too early.

[harmonica music]

[Aykroyd]
Charlie Musselwhite
and Elvin Bishop

continue to play the blues
to this day.

- Oh yeah, it's been
really interesting times,

I feel real fortunate.

[train horn blows]

[chuckles]

The world just agreed with me.

- When you're a kid, you think
that stuff's gonna last forever

and you know, it was
just this perfect storm.

[upbeat blues music]

[Aykroyd]
Steve Miller
went on to become

one of the leading rock
stars of the seventies,

plays Chicago blues in
every concert he performs.

- ♪ I love you in the morning
and in the nighttime too ♪

♪ You know, every time
you leave me baby ♪

♪ I get fed up with you

♪ Cause I'm tore down

- I was in Chicago just
at this peak period

of time where
Butterfield bloomed

and where Howlin' Wolf
and Muddy Waters

came over to the North Side
and started playing.

It couldn't have happened
anywhere but Chicago.

♪ When I feel like this

♪ My baby can't be found

[blues guitar]

♪ Yeah, yeah

[soft piano music]

[Aykroyd]
Today, the blues
stands at the heart

of American music.

The original masters have
been recognized and honored,

many inducted into the
Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame,

including Muddy Waters,
Howlin' Wolf,

Little Walter, Buddy Guy,
BB King,

and The Paul Butterfield
Blues Band.

[upbeat blues music]

- I ended up in a band
with Paul Butterfield,

Michael Bloomfield and
Mark Naftalin and Sam Lay

and Jerome Arnold.

That was a butt-kicking band,

and we helped blues cross over
to the regular public.

[audience cheering]

And we set an example which was
badly needed in those days,

that people of different
races can work together

and do good.

[crowd cheering]

[upbeat blues music]

♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪

♪ Fantasy world, hey, hey

♪ Fantasy world, hey-ey-ey

♪ Fantasy world,
hey, hey, hey-ey-ey-ey ♪

♪ Fantasy world, bet you
can't figure it out ♪

♪ You're livin' in
a fantasy world ♪

[Aykroyd]
For the 21st
century, Nick Gravenites,

Barry Goldberg, Harvey Mandel,

and Corky Siegel came together

to form the Chicago
Blues Reunion,

to celebrate the music they
all started out playing.

- This band is loaded with
artists that have a history

and want people
to know about it.

It wasn't all The Rolling Stones
and Eric Clapton,

it was the Chicago blues guys.

[upbeat blues music]

♪ Born in Chicago

♪ Born in Chicago

♪ Born in Chicago

♪ Born in Chicago

♪ Born in Chicago

♪ Born in Chicago

♪ Born in Chicago

♪ Born in Chicago

♪ Born in Chicago

♪ Things don't seem
the same though ♪

♪ No

[crowd cheering]

[slow blues music]

♪ Had a sweet little girl

♪ I lose my baby,
boy, ain't that bad ♪

♪ Had a sweet little girl

♪ I lose my baby,
boy, ain't that bad ♪

♪ Well you know, you can't
spend what you ain't got ♪

♪ You can't lose some little
girl you ain't never had ♪

♪ Had money in the bank

♪ I got busted,
people ain't that sad ♪

♪ I had some money
in the bank ♪

♪ I got busted,
people ain't that sad ♪

♪ Well you know you can't
spend what you ain't got ♪

♪ You can't lose some little
girl you ain't never had ♪

[music continues]

♪ Had a sweet little home

♪ And it got burnt down,
people ain't that sad ♪

♪ Yeah, you know it
was my own fault ♪

♪ People, ain't that bad

♪ Well you know you can't
spend what you ain't got ♪

♪ You can't lose some little
girl you ain't never had ♪