Blood, Sweat & Tears - Blood, Sweat & Tears

I was a little kid when I first heard "Spinning Wheel" on my dad's little AM radio. The song was really cool, and those long unencumbered trombone slides when the band takes a beat still puts a grin on my face. It was a strange song bordering on novelty - the cacophonous assortment of instruments at the end is still a thing of wonder.

Then as quickly as they came, they went and I never really thought about them. The band's lead vocalist David Clayton-Thomas seemed to be on the CBC a lot when I was growing up. The most memorable was a black clad, complete with the hat David squaring off against Burton Cummings who was wearing a while cowboy outfit. The two went back and forth duelling their hits. Even then I thought it was a but unfair as Blood, Sweat & Tears couldn't match what Burton brought to the table. Still, it was pretty cool. It's funny to see now, because at the time I thought David Clayton-Thomas must have been an ancient fossil back in 1978 - the reality was he was still in his mid thirties.

Over the years a few songs by BS&T became classics. "And When I Die" and "You've Made Me So Very Happy" come to mind, with "God Bless the Child" skirting on the periphery. Now I'll be honest I didn't really think that much of "And When I Die" it was just too weird. It felt like an orphaned show tune that needed context. They were okay songs, but really not my thing.

When Blood, Sweat & Tears came out near the end of 1968 it was an album that would cement the band's reputation and frankly as far as I'm concerned is their defining moment. This was the album that had the hits, and conceptually was a cohesive album from start to finish that was masterfully executed and brilliantly engineered. Watching the documentary you get the sense that it was the band's tour of Eastern Europe in the spring of 1970 that brought about the demise of the band. The film makes a compelling case that when they returned home the band was viewed as neither fish nor foul and would soon be been abandoned by a fickle audience.

Sitting here in the comfort of my basement with the benefit of an internet connection and history I suspect the the actual truth is a little more nuanced. The band would continue to release albums to ever diminishing returns. Whether those said returns were based on audience apathy is debatable, from the reviews of the band's subsequent records the material just got weaker as time went by and pretty soon audiences moved on to something else. Yes I am aware there's a danger in assuming chart success and quality are correlated. Many of the band's I love have never had a hit or sold a lot of records. In the case of BS&T who knows? It was likely a bit of both, and I suspect the reality of trying to balance the input of nine musicians was more than a little challenging. It should be noted that even with this album some of the reviews were particularly scathing which just goes to show you can't make everyone happy.

I'll freely admit that I have a newfound respect for the band, and particularly David Clayton-Thomas who was a hell of a singer. The whole band was firing on all cylinders and delivered one hell of an album. It was a big band too in more ways than one. The inside of the gatefold probably sums it up best: 

Nine musicians - vital and diverse. Their rich musical tapestries will stun you. Brash and exciting, their music is a wedding of rock and jazz. For you and those who have waited so long - with polished prose fancies - this album is a joy of vision and design, the freshest experience of its kind."

These are the nine from left to right on the inner photo.

• James Thomas Fielder - bass
• Steve Katz -guitar, harmonica, vocals on "Sometimes in Winter"
• Chuck Winfield - trumpet, flugelhorn
• Lew Soloff - trumpet, flugelhorn
• Bobby Colomby - drums, percussion, vocals
• Dick Halligan -organ, piano, flute, trombone, vocals
• Fred Lipsius - alto saxophone, piano
• Jerry Hyman - trombone, recorder
• David Clayton-Thomas - vocals

The secret sauce here was Roy Halee and Fred Catero who engineered this album. This albums sounds absolutely fantastic, and I'm sure at the time it was mind blowing.

I won't shit on the band for leaning on outside writers, Three Dog Night managed to do pretty well with their interpretations, and BS&T had a recognizable sound, even Chicago who started around the same time were managing to blend fusion and rock, although they wrote their own songs. It shouldn't have mattered, so long as the material was good.

So what happened to these guys? One minute they're on top of the world ... followed by an equally quick descent. What went up, did indeed come down. Apparently I wasn't alone as there is a wonderful documentary about the band, What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears? That came out a couple of years ago. I sought it out after buying this album. It was absolutely riveting, and gave me an entirely new appreciation for the band.

Regardless of what came before and what the band would do after, with Blood Sweat & Tears the band crafted an album that has stood the test of time. I mean, here I am over fifty years later writing about an album simply on the merits of what I'm hearing. I don't have any of the cultural context or behind the scenes political machinations that likely accelerated the band's path to irrelevance. Sure I have some baggage, mainly my early memories as a kid who really only needed one hand to count how old I was at the time.

This was eye opening for me.