From "David Clayton-Thomas, Lead Singer of Blood, Sweat & Tears, Dies at 84/He was also the key lyricist of the Grammy-winning, genre-blending band, whose hits included 'Spinning Wheel,' 'And When I Die' and 'You’ve Made Me So Very Happy'" (NYT).
The headline gives the impression that Blood, Sweat & Tears wrote "And When I Die." In the 7th paragraph of the obituary, Laura Nyro is given proper credit. Save your "when I die" bons mots. Laura Nyro died 29 years ago.
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42 comments:
Lol... he popularized the line, babe.
Glad you properly credited her all those years ago when she passed. Have some respect for the dead, annie. This is about him, not advocating for your long dead girlios...
Rest in peace and all that. But Landau was right. Blood Sweat and Tears was not a good band, in the same way that Chicago was not a good band. Chicago was even worse, actually. Maybe it is just my innate dislike for genre mixing. Pick one. Nice to be reminded of the early days of Rolling Stone, though, when it was original and often illuminating.
I had to check when Laura Nero died— because it doesn’t seem that long ago! She was a treasure. Noteworthy that she died of ovarian cancer at 49, the same age as her mother, who also died of ovarian cancer.
Doing some genealogical research for my mother, I noted that my great-great grandmother, great grandmother and great aunt all died at age 75. Genetics is destiny, or at least it used to be. Mom is 98.
Rolling Stone hasn't gotten much right over the years, even with music. The overall product might not have been their taste, but there were some serious players in that band. Guys who went on to have great careers playing on other people's recordings, appearing with other serious musician-filled groups.
Also- the first edition of BS&T, featuring Al Kooper, cut a classic album.
I read the obit. The guy had a hard childhood and more problems as an adult. Divorced four times and fleeced by his lawyer. Wealth and fame exacerbate rather than alleviate some problems.....According to the obit, he fell out of favor because he was insufficiently hostile to the Nixon administration. Abbie Hoffman protested at one of his concert appearances. That might be the reason for the Rolling Stones low opinion. He was no Laura Nyro, but his music wasn't bubble gum pop.
Well the genius of Clive Davis seemed to think BST was great music. They had hits and when I saw them in concert they knew how to give the audience all they paid for AND more. Shame that after a 'state department tour of eastern Europe the same people stopped letting DC Thomas come to America he hated war.
Temujin, Remember that Rolling Stone gave us Matt Taibbi, who has been a champion of digging into the topics the lamestream doesn't touch.
Neither Chicago nor BS & T were my cup of tea when I heard them on AM radio in the day, but I didn't mind listening to them. Commercial music has become so formulaic and over-defined now. There is very little genre mixing or blending that I hear of these days. Country is country, hip hop is hip hop, and it's boring to listen to either one, this enforced genre creativity within strict limits. We used to get quite a bit of rich variation in our pop music, and AM radio would play all of it.
I always assumed "You've Made Me So Very Happy" was by Chicago. Same sound.
Now that rock is finally dead, Rolling Stone doesn't care so much about genre mixing. Aren't all genres subject to and often the product of such musical miscegenation?
Blood, Sweat, and Tears -- somehow they left out Toil.
Not sure which sound was more annoying - Chicago or Blood, Sweat, and Tears. But my car's radio channel change buttons always got punched when either one of them came on.
At the time I was all about electric guitar bluesy stuff like Hendrix, Joplin, Clapton, Jeff Beck, Allman Bros even though I was a band kid. I didn't think band instruments belonged in a rock band. As I matured I came to enjoy tight bands like Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears. Give credit where credits due. They had a tight horn section that was instantly recognizable and people love their music to this day. All our old rock heros are in their 80s now and they're going fast. The late 60s and the 70s were a great time for music.
Imagine being a music critic in 1969. You'd be lucky to be right about anything, and whatever you got wrong would eventually live forever on the internet.
RIP.
This is prompting me to check whether the Temu David Clayton-Thomas is still among the living…
Yes he is. Gary Puckett is alive at 83 years of age.
I love the sound of both BS&T and Chicago (and I’m guessing most of those dissing on Chicago are thinking of their music post-Chicago III). I also like the brass sound of Earth, Wind & Fire. And David Clayton-Thomas was a great vocalist.
They don't make songs like "Lucretia MacEvil" anymore. Actually, I guess rappers do.
I applaud bands like Blood, Sweat and Tears, Chicago, Traffic, and Jethro Tull for expanding the repertoire of sound that rock music was capable of by including horns and strings, and for making great songs and great music in the 60's and 70's. It was the peak of pop-rock which really declined musically from that early era and became an ear-splitting "tyranny of guitars" by the 80's. Different genres like New Wave, Disco, and eventually rap came along to displace its preeminence while rock devolved into a deafening hell-spawn of hair bands and heavy metal.
PS, Chicago rocked in the Terry Kath era, and only became lame-ass elevator music when Peter Cetera took creative control.
I love some horns in my Rock. Not always, but it's not a negative to me. Many of my favorite bands have them.
My life would have been less fulfilled and happy if I didn't enjoy bands like BST, Chicago, etc., etc. Not the ballads. I don't enjoy those from anyone really, but I loved those bands back then, and I still do more than ever.
In my high school dance class, the instructor was fond of Laura Nyro's, And When I Die. He had choreographed a dance to part of it and we all had to perform that dance sequence, repeatedly. Typing class, however, was all Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
Groups like Chicago and BS&T gave college and high school marching and pep bands some great material to work with, and fans loved it.
And when I die, and when I'm gone
There'll be one child born, and the world to carry on...
"Mother, in so many ways. Laura Nyro, American genius, seen [in "expectant silhouette"] here pregnant with her son Gil..."
As Temujin stated, the 1st BS&T album “Child Is Father to the Man” is an all-time incredible classic, due to Al Kooper, who originally lead the band as the follow-up group to Blues Project. It’s definitely in my top lps ever list.
As for Laura Nyro, interestingly her all-covers soul/R&B album from 1971 “Gonna Take A Miracle” with LaBelle, recorded in Philly and produced by Gamble & Huff, is my fave of hers.
Play these 2 albums back-to-back, as they absolutely go great together.
He’s gone.
Who is that one child who was born in this world?
To carry on.
To carry on.
BST wasn't as good after they kicked Al Kooper out of his own band but they still put out some solid music. Like Chicago, success spoiled them. It doesn't to but for some bands, it does.
If you want horns in your R/R, fine with me. Just keep your R/R out of my Jazz. The only thing worse then electric guitar "Jazz" is a xylophone or a harp.
"Their music is not as good as it sounds."--Jon Landau (paraphrased).
Miles davis did fusion jazz, and it wasn't bad. It wasn't that good either.
I always got them mixed up with 3 Dog night. Probably because they're from the same time period. Joy to world was actually written by Hoyt Axton. Strange but true. His mother wrote "Heartbreak Hotel" which is even weirder.
Steely Dan did a nice job using jazz in rock. Aja.
Jon Landau championed (and then managed) Springsteen, FFS.
Talk about shit music!
Danno,
It's also important to remember that Taibbi *is no longer with Rolling Stone*.
“The only thing worse than electric guitar "Jazz" is a xylophone or a harp.”
Fans of John McLaughlin want a word, Rube…
As long as the “horn section” plays punchy, they are very additive to good rock. IMHO.
We boomers were all sold the lie that rock n roll sprang forth like Athena from the head of Zeus. Ekshually, rock n roll imported lots from the musical genres that preceded it. Its importations from the Blues tradition are noted and celebrated. Its importations from the Big Band tradition are not. Muddy Waters be cool, dude --- Dinah Shore not so much.
But, there's lots of big band in R&R. Not only BS&T & Chicago as discussed above, but think about guys like Sly & the Family Stone, or this performance by Sam & Dave. This is all big band stuff! Hell, even The Mothers of Invention were a big band act!
And don't even get me started on other genre bending stuff in R&R. "Today", one of my favorite Jefferson Airplane songs, was written in the hope that it could be shopped to Tony Bennett! And, "Eleanor Rigby"?! A song backed by a string quartet ain't no rock song!
Music from my childhood when all we had was AM radio in the car.
First concert I ever attended was BST. I say the horns stay.
And a crowd of young boys
They're fooling around in the corner
Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies
And their platform soles
They don't give a damn about any trumpet playing band
It ain't what they call rock and roll
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_the_Hell_Happened_to_Blood,_Sweat_%26_Tears%3F
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13693964/
😁 I can remember watching BS&T perform “And When I Die” on the Ed Sullivan Show one Sunday evening long ago. And remember my father walking in and saying “what the Hell kind of music is that!?!?” during one of the tempo changes.
And he loved horns… that Summer (1974?) when Chicago had a series on television, he and my mom were big fans… all because of the horns, lol.
I went to see Chicago in 1976, 4th row tickets, frankly not expecting much. The front man (can't remember his name) started out with a smile and announced "We're gonna play the old shit" and they proceeded to do just that. One of the best concerts I ever attended.
"We're gonna play the old shit"
Jimmy Buffett, on playing "the old shit": "I don't get tired of playing 'Margaritaville.' It's paid my bills for years."
Band's reputation crashed when they did a U.S. government-sponsored tour of Eastern Europe. What was uncool then worked for McCartney and the Stones later. Bad timing.
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