The Electric Flag was an American blues/rock/soul band from Chicago, led by guitarist Mike Bloomfield, keyboardist Barry Goldberg, and drummer Buddy Miles, and featured various other musicians such as vocalist Nick Gravenites and bassist Harvey Brooks.

Their initial recording was a soundtrack for The Trip, a movie about an LSD experience by Peter Fonda, written by Jack Nicholson and directed by Roger Corman.

King, T-Bone Walker, and Guitar Slim (Eddie Jones), but also by the contemporary soul sounds of Otis Redding, Steve Cropper, Booker T. & the M.G.

[3] Harvey Brooks, who had previously worked with Bloomfield in 1965, recording Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, joined as bassist, and recommended Buddy Miles, then 19 years old, who was the drummer at the time for Wilson Pickett.

Jazz guitarist Larry Coryell, who had developed his career in Seattle while a university student, recommended Seattle-based Marcus Doubleday on trumpet.

Bloomfield and Goldberg developed the group in San Francisco, under Albert Grossman's management, and immediately began working on the band's first project: the soundtrack for the film The Trip.

As described by David Dann in his biography of the Electric Flag, "The record was also one of the most adventurous for pop music in 1967, sampling freely from jazz, rock, blues and classical idioms, and doing so with wit and intelligence.

That Michael could create such unusual and wide-ranging pieces said much for his appreciation and knowledge of those forms, and displayed his characteristic fearlessness when it came to experimentation.

Now called the Electric Flag, the group was well received by the audience of 7,000, though its performance fell short of Bloomfield's high standards.

Subsequent to completing the soundtrack to The Trip, the band commenced work on its long-awaited first album, A Long Time Comin'.

The group's repertory by then included numerous contemporary soul covers, featuring Miles on vocals, plus many classic blues tunes.

In terms of the band's original material, Miles Davis praised the Bloomfield–Goldberg composition, "Over-Lovin' You", in a Down Beat Blindfold Test in 1968.

By June 1968, only months after the release of the album, Bloomfield quit the group, based on exhaustion brought on by continuing insomnia that was ineffectively medicated through heroin.

Al Kooper left Blood, Sweat and Tears in April 1968, and was inspired by a jam recording with Moby Grape to organize the similarly structured Super Session album.

Bloomfield developed a solo career, commencing with the release of It's Not Killing Me in 1969, which included former Electric Flag bandmate Marcus Doubleday on trumpet.

This lineup of the band featured Bloomfield, Goldberg, Miles, and Gravenites, along with new member Roger Troy on bass and vocals.