Michael Bloomfield, "Don't Say That I Ain't Your Man! Essential Blues 1964-1969" (Columbia/Legacy, 1994)

Serious music collectors traditionally have avoided the "best of" and "greatest hits" types of packages, preferring to delve deeper into artists' repertoires than the obvious selections.

Plus, many of those compilations are so haphazardly assembled to be sources of embarrassment to the artists and their more discerning fans. A glaring example is "Skeletons from the Closet," a Grateful Dead anthology compiled by Warner Bros. as the band was in the process of leaving the label to start its own operation. Everything from the cover art to the song selection to the hatchet job on "Turn On Your Lovelight" is an affront to Deadheads everywhere. Yet you still see it in the collections of folks who don't know any better. Please, buy "Workingman's Dead" instead!

The presentation of anthologies has changed in recent years, though, and for the better. The discovery by record companies that baby boomers want to hear stuff from old tapes that have sat gathering dust for decades has led to many worthwhile recordings finally seeing the light of day.

Fans of the late guitar genius Michael Bloomfield should enjoy a collection released by Columbia/Legacy in the mid-'90s that feature some very early work of his as a potential solo artist. The first 15 minutes or so of "Don't Say That I Ain't Your Man! Essential Blues 1964-1969" features Mike singing and playing on some old blues standards that never appeared in public before this CD hit the shelves, and as such, makes it a good purchase even for people who usually shy away from anthologies.

Those five songs were recorded in Bloomfield's native Chicago under the auspices of John Hammond Sr. - a man with a definite eye for talent, having "discovered" Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Robert Zimmerman, Stevie Ray Vaughan and some guy named Springsteen - with a crack lineup that included blues harp whiz Charlie Musselwhite.

The tune selection represents something blues purists of the time would consider a decent set list, with such better-known compositions as Magic Sam's "Feel So Good," Jimmy Oden's "Goin' Down Slow" and Muddy Waters' "I Got My Mojo Working" alongside relative obscurities called "Last Night" (later recorded by Fleetwood Mac, also in Chicago) and "I've Got You In the Palm of My Hand." A couple of those would appear later on Bloomfield's work with the Butterfield Blues Band and the Electric Flag.

As would be expected, the previously unreleased compositions are of relatively raw recording quality, but they show that even at the tender age of 21, Mike was already playing like no one else's business. (As a teenager, he reported would step onstage with some of the most hardened veterans of Chicago blues and proceed to blow everyone away.) The songs also are evidence of a man who could sing a mean blues, something he rarely did as he let his guitar do most of his talking during the latter part of the '60s.

The remainder of "Don't Say That I Ain't Your Man!" (the title is taken from a line in "I've Got You In the Palm of My Hand") is culled from Bloomfield's various albums with Butterfield, the Flag, Al Kooper and as a solo artist with Elektra and Columbia. While I'd recommend collecting each of those works individually, this anthology selects some decent enough tunes as examples. Butterfield's "Born In Chicago," for example, usually is cited as the starting point for blues-rock guitarists as the genre proliferated throughout the rest of the decade. And the Electric Flag's version of Howlin' Wolf's "Killin' Floor" is a pioneering example of blending loud guitar and horns in a rock context.

But the choice of Cannonball Adderly's "Work Song" as the selection from Butterfield's "East-West" is kind of curious. Not that it's a weak song, but the title track from the album represents one of rock's transcendent performances. At 13-plus minutes, "East-West" might have been considered a bit long to include on an anthology; then again, this collection does include 11 minutes of a live performance of Albert King's "Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong."

That track was recorded as Bloomfield teamed with Kooper to promote their "Super Session" album, which - for whatever it's worth - went on to become the biggest-selling album on which Mike's name appears. (Fortunately, the most recent release of the CD contains versions of songs before they were doctored postproduction with sterile-sounding horn charts.) An instrumental version of the late-'60s standard "Stop" is representative here of the Kooper-Bloomfield studio collaboration.

The last few songs on the anthology are from solo albums released just before the end of the '60s. "It's Not Killing Me" put Mike back in the role as lead vocalist, with a ton of musicians backing him (including future longtime Jerry Garcia collaborator John Kahn on bass), while "Live at Bill Graham's Fillmore West" takes elements of that band onstage at the famed venue, with former Electric Flag frontman Nick Gravenites supplying the vocals.

After this gig, incidentally, Nick the Greek would go on to sing for a revamped version of Big Brother & the Holding Company, thus serving as Janis Joplin's replacement.

Unfortunately, the end of the '60s pretty much meant the end of Michael Bloomfield as a household name within rock circles, although he did produce some quality material for John Fahey's Takoma label in the latter part of the '70s. Even more unfortunately, he died Feb. 15, 1981, losing a long battle with addiction.

To get a good idea of what a mighty player he was, check out any number of his proper albums. But to hear how strong he already was playing as a relative youth, the five tracks that open "Don't Say That I Ain't Your Man!" are where to listen.