Blood, Sweat & Tears - What The Hell Happened To Blood Sweat & Tears? (2023)
For a
short time Blood, Sweat & Tears (BS&T) were among America's most popular
musical artists. They were even one of the headliners at Woodstock. Unfortunately, their days in the sun were fleeting because people of
all political persuasions eventually discovered reasons to hate them. To
use today's overly trite terminology, they were canceled.
This new soundtrack CD features ten performances from that
infamous tour of the Iron Curtain.
The movie takes place in the Spring of 1970 when the nine musicians committed an unforgiveable
sin. At that time it wasn't a good career move to cooperate with the
United States government in any way, but at the request of our State
Department BS&T toured three of Eastern Europe's communist bloc
nations -Yugoslavia, Romania and Poland - as part of a cultural exchange
program. Because the band worked with "the man" many rock fans on the
radical left came to despise them.
Conservatives were critical of the group too. Some blasted the Nixon
Administration for financing a tour for a bunch of musicians whose members
were outspoken critics of the truly contentious war in Viet Nam. Much to their dismay, BS&T
was caught in the middle of a controversy that wouldn't go away.
Before the tour, BS&T committed another grievous error that didn't help their career. They performed at Caesar's Palace on the Las Vegas strip, a gig that branded them as too establishment to be taken seriously by hip music fans of the late 60s who often cared more about an artist's image than the actual music they played.
Later, it was discovered that vocalist David Clayton-Thomas (DCT) had
trouble obtaining permanent residency status in the United States because
he accumulated a criminal record as a teenager in his native Canada, and he
was also previously deported for overstaying his American visa. As the
voice of the band he needed to have his green card situation resolved, so
BS&T "agreed" to the tour in exchange for the government "fixing" his
immigration problems. As band members Bobby Colomby and Steve Katz later
told interviewers, they were blackmailed.
BS&T is on fire for much of this live set. It opens with "Something's
Coming On" from their upcoming third LP. The group played with wild abandon,
highlighted by a truly interesting sax solo from Fred Lipsius. They also did
a lively version of their future #14 hit - Goffin and King's "Hi-De-Ho" -
from the same album.
The setlist included two songs from the band's astounding debut record
that starred the great Al Kooper, "I Can't Quit Her" and "Something Goin'
On." The latter morphs into "Blues, Part II" from their Grammy winning,
eponymous second LP. DCT's vocals on the two Kooper songs give them an entirely different
vibe. The Canadian is a better singer than Kooper, but the latter's overall talent
and eclecticism made it hard for me to forget the group founder's importance to the band.
This 15:34 medley contains some great rock, blues and jazz with
top flight solos by Katz on guitar, Dick Halligan on organ and either Lew
Soloff or Chuck Winfield on trumpet. There is also some unique improvisation
from bassist Jim Fielder and drummer Colomby.
The rest of the disc is made up of live versions of tracks from the LP
that made them stars. Included are "God Bless the Child," "Smiling
Phases," "Sometimes In Winter" featuring Katz singing lead, and three
singles that each climbed to #2: "You've Made Me So Very Happy," "And When
I Die," and "Spinning Wheel."
The band plays everything with much more verve than on the group's studio records. If there was a flaw on any of their first three albums it was
that BS&T's songs were often a bit too meticulously rehearsed.
Recorded by their classic hit-making lineup, the live tracks on this set
are much looser by comparison. Despite the circumstances the band was pressured
to play under it sounds like they were truly devoted to the music and DCT's
singing is far more expressive on stage. This outstanding CD sounds like it was
freshly recorded using today's latest technology.
I haven't seen the movie, and it isn't necessary to enjoy the album. Unfortunately, I haven't found any audio from it that I can post here,
but you can watch the film's trailer below.
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