Godspeed You, Barry Goldberg

The great Barry Goldberg passed away on January 22nd at the age of 85, and an entire era of white blues died with him. The Chicagoan may have taken his place in history at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 as a pianist of Bob Dylan’s first electric ensemble and laying down ivories for Mitch Ryder’s take on “Devil With A Blue Dress On” in 1966, yet the teenage Goldberg’s appearances as part of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf’s stage entourage and his apprenticeship with Paul Butterfield prepared Barry for doing his own thing. Together with Mike Bloomfield he formed THE ELECTRIC FLAG in 1967 before moving on to THE BARRY GOLDBERG REUNION a year later and becoming an in-demand session player whose fingerwork can be heard on such classic albums as “Super Session” which Bloomfield recorded with Al Kooper and Stephen Stills and “The Gilded Palace Of Sin” by THE FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS, as well as “End Of the Century” from THE RAMONES, to name but three platters.

And, of course, Barry became a songwriter whose numbers – often co-penned with Gerry Goffin, like “I’ve Got To Use My Imagination” and “It’s Not The Spotlight” – covered such prominent acts as Gladys Knight & THE PIPS and Maggie Bell, THE BAR-KAYS and Rod Stewart, yet the veteran’s solo offering emerged surprisingly rarely. Most famous of those was Goldberg’s self-titled 1974 longplay, coproduced by Jerry Wexler and Dylan, while his production credits included Percy Sledge’s “Blue Night” and “From Cotton With Verve” by James Cotton, and the list of his performances is long and impressive. Already in this millennium Barry got involved with Stills’ THE RIDES and on Carla Olson records, and shone at the "Chicago Blues Reunion" shows, as stopping has never been part of Goldberg’s plans. His passing is said to be sudden, but his passion is known to be eternal.

January 22, 2025

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