Michael Bloomfield - Gonna Need Somebody On My Bond

 

Michael Bloomfield (1943-1981), an American musician, guitarist, and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960's to earn his reputation entirely on his instrumental prowess. Respected for his fluid guitar playing, Bloomfield, who knew and played with many of Chicago's blues legends even before he achieved his own fame, was one of the primary influences on the mid-to-late 1960's revival of classic Chicago and other styles of blues music. In 2003 he was also also ranked at number 22 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

"You'll Need Somebody on Your Bond" (later titled "You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond") is a gospel song that is attributed to both tradition and to gospel blues musician Blind Willie Johnson. Johnson first recorded the song in December 1930, although Delta blues musician Charley Patton recorded a similar "You're Gonna Need Somebody When You Die" in October 1929. Over the years, several other musicians have recorded renditions of the song.

On February 15, 1981, Michael Bloomfield’s body was discovered in a parked car on a San Francisco side street. The 37-year-old Jewish blues guitar player, one of the most influential of the 1960s, was dead of a drug overdose. The body lay, unrecognized, in the morgue for days.