A Long Time Comin'
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Album Summary
A Long Time Comin' came roaring out of the gate in 1968 on Columbia Records, the debut offering from The Electric Flag — a band that Mike Bloomfield and Barry Goldberg put together with the kind of ambition that only that particular moment in American music could inspire. Produced by John Simon, the record was cut during the full flower of the San Francisco psychedelic scene, but The Electric Flag wasn't chasing anybody's trends. Bloomfield brought that deep Chicago blues fire on guitar, Goldberg laid down waves of churning organ, and Nick Gravenites delivered soul vocals with a weight and authority that made it clear this was something altogether different from what was happening up and down the Haight. The album arrived as a full-on collision between blues tradition, rock electricity, and soul feeling — and Columbia had itself one of the more adventurous debut records of the entire decade.
Reception
- The album peaked at number 31 on the Billboard 200 chart, a genuinely strong commercial showing for a debut record built on such uncompromising blues and soul foundations.
- Critics responded warmly to the album's adventurous blending of blues, soul, and psychedelic rock, and Bloomfield's guitar work drew particular praise from those who knew how rare that level of playing was in any genre.
- 'Groovin' Is Easy' emerged as the album's most recognized track and did meaningful work in establishing The Electric Flag's name in rock circles across the country.
Significance
- A Long Time Comin' stood as one of the first and most fully realized fusions of electric blues guitar with psychedelic rock and soul vocals, arriving at a moment when that synthesis still felt genuinely dangerous and new.
- Mike Bloomfield's work on this record cemented his standing as one of the defining electric guitarists of his generation — a player who carried the blues tradition forward without ever losing its soul or its grit.
- The album represented a bold and early example of interracial musical collaboration in rock, weaving together Black soul and blues traditions with the psychedelic rock energy of the San Francisco scene in a way that felt organic rather than calculated.
Samples
- Killing Floor" — one of the most electrically charged blues performances on the album, rooted in the Howlin' Wolf original, and a track that has drawn the attention of samplers working in hip-hop and rock production across the decades.
Tracklist
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A1 Killing Floor 136
4:11
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A2 Groovin' Is Easy 99
3:05
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A3 Over-Lovin' You 118
2:10
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A4 She Should Have Just 93
5:04
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A5 Wine 199
3:15
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B1 Texas 137
4:48
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B2 Sittin' In Circles 94
3:53
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B3 You Don't Realize 117
4:58
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B4 Another Country 128
8:46
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B5 Easy Rider 78
0:50
Artist Details
The Electric Flag was a gritty, soul-drenched rock collective born out of San Francisco in 1967, assembled by the visionary guitarist Mike Bloomfield after his departure from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, bringing together a powerhouse lineup that fused Chicago blues, rock and roll, soul, and brass-heavy R&B into something that folks just weren't ready to call by a single name. They burst onto the scene at the Monterey Pop Festival before they'd even cut an album, blowing minds with that raw, expansive sound that pointed straight toward where American music was heading — a sound that laid groundwork for everything from jazz-rock fusion to the horn-driven soul of the early seventies. Though they burned bright and brief, their 1968 debut *A Long Time Comin'* stands as a landmark of psychedelic soul and blues rock, a testament to what happens when truly gifted musicians refuse to stay in any one lane.
