The Prime Movers Blues Band (Feat. Iggy Pop): Instrumental

The legendary Prime Movers Blues Band recorded no albums. The band formed in the summer of 1965 at the same time the Grateful Dead began. Known mostly throughout the Midwest, the band did play in San Francisco during the 'Summer of Love' in 1967, opening for "Cream" at the Fillmore Auditorium, playing at The Matrix, The Straight Theater, the Avalon Ballroom, and many other venues. Recently a reel-to-reel tape was found. It is one summer night's bar gig, one complete set probably in 1966 or 1967.

The Prime Movers Blues Band (Feat. Iggy Pop): "Drinkin' That Orange Driver"

"Digging out these old recordings has been fun, but it also has made me realize what a great place Ann Arbor was in the middle Sixties. The Prime Movers Blues Band formed in the summer of 1965, the same time as the Grateful Dead were doing the identical thing out in San Francisco. Neither knew about the other. Later, of course there was interaction among these new music groups that were appearing all over the country. There was something in the air. It was the Sixties! The Prime Movers had gone to Chicago.

The Prime Movers Blues Band (Feat. Iggy Pop): "Watch Yourself"

"A question I get a lot is why did the Prime Movers never record and get famous? The short answer is: it was not in the cards. The longer version is actually pretty funny. Here it is in brief: There were two attempts to hitch our wagon to the stars. For a short time early on, we had the now-legendary 'Jeep' Holland, manager of the rock group "The Rationals" as our manager. For sure, he wanted to get us into the mainstream of popular music and to this end he tried to get us to conform, to wear little suits, and whatever he thought would help us.

The Prime Movers Blues Band (Feat. Iggy Pop): "Two Trains Running"

The Prime Movers Blues Band formed in the summer of 1965 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This audio track is from fairly early on, a gig at the Schwaben Inn and Jim Osterberg (AKA Iggy Pop) is definitely the drummer on this track. This video is a tribute to Dan Erlewine, lead guitar player for the Prime Movers Blues Band. Subsequent to the Prime Movers Dan played lead guitar for the Sam Lay Blues Band and was considering playing guitar with the Butterfield band, when he decided he really wanted to build some guitars.

The main band members included:

More on Ann Arbor in the 1960s

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12
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January
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2000

I am happy to share with you some wonderful reminisces on Ann Arbor in the 1960s back in the day by my friend Paul Bernstein.