Weekend Economists: What Goes Up....June 1-3, 2012

[Demeter]

24. FOR THE AFFICIONADOS: THE OFFICIAL BS&T WEBSITE

http://www.bloodsweatandtears.com/

MORE FROM WIKI---

The David Clayton-Thomas era

Colomby and Katz then started looking for singers, considering Stephen Stills and Laura Nyro before deciding upon David Clayton-Thomas, a Canadian singer, born in Surrey, England. Reportedly, folk singer Judy Collins had seen him perform at a New York City club and was so taken and moved by his performance that she told her friends Bobby Colomby and Steve Katz about him (knowing that they were looking for a new lead singer to front the band). With her prodding, they came to see him perform and were so impressed that Clayton-Thomas was offered the role of lead singer in a re-constituted Blood Sweat & Tears. Trombonist Halligan took up the organ chores and Jerry Hyman joined to take over trombone. New trumpeters Lew Soloff and Chuck Winfield brought the band up to nine total members and the new lineup of the band debuted at the Cafe Au Go Go on June 18, 1968, at the beginning of a two week residency.

Eponymous 1968 album Blood, Sweat & Tears

Blood, Sweat & Tears, the group's self-titled second album, was produced by James William Guercio and released in late 1968. The album was much more pop-oriented, featuring decidedly fewer compositions from within the band (David Clayton-Thomas, however, had already mounted a solo career as a singer/songwriter over this same time period, beginning with an album released in 1969 by Decca). The record quickly hit the top of the charts, winning Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards over The Beatles' Abbey Road, among other nominees. Blood, Sweat & Tears spawned three major hit singles: a cover of Berry Gordy and Brenda Holloway's "You've Made Me So Very Happy", Clayton-Thomas' "Spinning Wheel", and a version of Laura Nyro's "And When I Die." All three singles reached #2 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart. The commercial and critical acclaim enjoyed by the band in 1969 culminated in an appearance at the Woodstock Festival, in which the band enjoyed headliner status. The Woodstock Movie camera crew even caught the band's opening number, "More and More", as they took to the stage. But the band's manager at the time, Bennett Glotzer, ordered the movie crew to turn off the cameras and leave the stage since the band had not agreed or been paid to be filmed.

Arguably, as a result of Al Kooper's departure, Blood, Sweat & Tears had difficulty maintaining its status as a counterculture icon at a time when record company executives deemed this characteristic importance as a tool to lure young consumers. This was compounded by a United States Department of State-sponsored tour of Eastern Europe in May/June 1970. Any voluntary association with the government was highly unpopular at the time and the band was ridiculed for it. In retrospect, it is now known that the State Department subtly requested the tour in exchange for more amicability on the issuance of a visa to Clayton-Thomas.

After returning to the U.S., the group released Blood, Sweat & Tears 3; produced this time by Roy Halee and drummer Colomby, which was another popular success, spawning hit singles with a cover of Carole King's "Hi-De-Ho" and another Clayton-Thomas composition, "Lucretia MacEvil". While this was a successful attempt to re-create the amalgam of styles found on the previous album, the band once again depended almost exclusively on cover material. Album reviews sometimes focused solely upon the band's willingness to work with the U.S. State Department, without bothering to discuss the actual music. Compounding the image problems of the band was a decision to play at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip, widely seen at the time as a mainstream venue for acts that did not engage in radical politics. In 1970, the band provided music for the soundtrack of the film comedy The Owl and the Pussycat , which starred Barbra Streisand and George Segal, further damaging the group's underground reputation.

Following this period of controversy, the group reconvened in San Francisco in January 1971 with jazz writer/saxophonist Don Heckman serving as their producer and, with Dave Bargeron replacing Jerry Hyman, recorded material that would comprise their fourth album, BS&T 4 (June 1971). For the first time since the first album, Blood, Sweat & Tears presented a repertoire of songs composed almost entirely from within the group. Also included on the album is a cover of former member Al Kooper's "Holy John (John The Baptist)". Loaded with hooks and a wide variety of moods (featuring such songs as "Go Down Gamblin'", "Lisa, Listen To Me", "High on a Mountain", "Redemption&quot , BS&T 4 broke into the album charts, resulting in a gold record for the group. Unfortunately, none of the singles from the album managed to land in the Top 30 on any of the singles charts, and the period after the release of the fourth album began the group's commercial decline.