![]() In truth, most of the up-tempo tunes evoked '50s rock 'n' roll more than they did the insistent beat of club music. The completed album featured an expensive gatefold cover with color photos of the Count and his Originals and a liner with complete song lyrics, detailed notes and extensive credits. Delighted with their unexpected windfall, Mike and Norman hired a bevy of musicians and spent several weeks recording at a small studio north of San Francisco. Stone, a veteran of the recording industry, was cashing in on the new dance music fad called "disco," and he gave Bloomfield a huge budget of $50,000 to create an album in that style. They worked through a set of music that included dance tunes he had written for his next recording project – an album to be called "Count Talent & the Originals." Count TalentMichael and Norman Dayron had convinced Henry Stone of TK Records to foot the bill for a series of full-blown recording sessions. For a while, Michael had been billing himself as "Count Talent," and he had been telling interviewers that he was interested in making – of all things – a "disco record." Donning a white suit ala John Travolta in "Saturday Night Fever," he and the band appeared onstage at Tulagis with a horn section and backup singers. Later in the year he took bands on the road to Utah and New York, and at Tulagis in Boulder he premiered a new look for Mike Bloomfield & Friends. In March, he attended the opening of "Andy Warhol's Bad" in Los Angeles and went to a gala party for its stars at actress Susan Tyrrell's home in Hollywood. For several nights he joined famed Kansas City blues shouter Joe Turner at San Francisco's Palms Cafe. While working on the album, Michael continued to play regularly at the Old Waldorf. ![]() Of course, they and fans alike still wanted to hear more of the trademark Bloomfield guitar pyrotechnics of days past. Though its distribution was uneven and it didn't receive much promotion, "Analine" was well received by the critics. For the first time, fans could hear Michael playing the music that currently interested him. The result, called "Analine" after Nick's composition, was issued in July 1977 and featured Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" and Claude Jeter's "At the Cross" along with a few Bloomfield pieces in a variety of blues styles. Michael decided to play most of the instruments himself on a number of originals and standards, and Nick Gravenites contributed one tune. Their first project was for Takoma Records, a small label located in Santa Monica that also issued records by its founder, guitarist John Fahey, and other acoustic players. Each record could be financed by an advance from the record company, and whatever was left over was theirs to keep. They would use local recording facilities for a fraction of the cost of the majors, do sessions for scale with friends, and then edit and mix the recordings themselves. Dayron was a gifted and experienced sound engineer, and Michael suggested that they produce recordings together and market the tapes to small labels for production and distribution. ![]() It was longtime friend, Norman Dayron, who held the solution to Michael's lack of visibility. That would have to change, but no major label would take a chance on an artist whose recent history included so many commercial debacles. In fans' minds across the country and around the world, he was still the Bloomfield of 1969. THE PROBLEM WAS that nobody outside of the San Francisco area knew the Mike Bloomfield of the '70s. ![]()
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