Woodstock; Blood, Sweat & Tears
Ā Ā The Story Behind our Musicās past few shows have been about some of the singers and bands that played Woodstock in 1969. Recently the lineup for Woodstock 50 was made public. It is an amazing list of now popular acts along with many acts that performed the show in 1969. The theme is very similar to the vision of the original festival, this time their catch phrase āPeace, Love, Music for the People, for the Planet.ā One of the names that seems to have been left off the list of performers at Woodstock 2019 is Blood, Sweat and Tears.Ā
Ā Ā There were some unusual acts at Woodstock and Blood, Sweat and Tears was definitely one-of-a-kind in 1969. The festival had itās rock bands, itās psychedelic bands, itās folk bands, a doo-wop band and even a band called āThe Bandā, but that will be a later show. Yet Blood, Sweat and Tears really wasnāt any of those. The bands style was later labeled as Jazz-rock or ābrass-rockā or even āTrumpet-rockā, but they were quite unique at the time. The only band that had attempted a blend like this was a group called The Buckinghams, and they only had some mild success.Ā
Ā Ā The group came together in 1967 with members from both the US and Canada and started playing gigs in New York City. They were getting quite popular with the local crowds when Columbia records signed them to a contract and they released their first album. It was called Child is Father to the Man, and reached #47 on the Billboard magazine āPop Album Chartsā. It was an unusual album with an unusual cover, that must have taken quite some time cutting and pasting to create. The cover shows the band members holding children in their laps, the strange part is that the band members headās have been morphed on to the child they are holding.I think it is actually a little creepy.
Ā Ā As the album slowly gained popularity, behind the scenes the band was falling apart. The keyboardist and lead singer, Al Kooper, left because some of the other members didnāt want him to sing on any more recordings. The groupās trumpeters left to join another band leaving this ātrumpet-rockā band without trumpets. But, as you figured, a new trumpet section was hired and with the help of singer Judy Collins, they found a new singer as well. Ms. Collins, who just happened to know about an amazing singer with an unusual voice and the fact that BS&T was looking for someone to fill that roll, brought David Clayton-Thomas and Blood, Sweat and Tears together. This was it, the sound that they had been wanting. In late 1968 BS&T released their second album. The record quickly hit the top of the charts and won Album of the Year at the Grammys. It had some serious competition for that award too, as the Beatles' Abbey Road, was among the other nominees.Ā
That album was simply titled āBlood, Sweat & Tears, and three hit singles were released from it. "You've Made Me So Very Happy", "Spinning Wheel", and "And When I Die".Ā
Ā Ā So, when Blood, Sweat and Tears took the stage at Woodstock, they were at the top of their game and were one of the headliners at the music festival.
Ā Ā The next few years were tough on the band and it struggled with many member changes in the next few years. The band did release more albums with catchy names like; āBlood, Sweat and Tears 3ā, and āBlood, sweat and Tears 4ā and had a few more hits like āHi-De-Hoā in 1970. They also struggled with their image because after Woodstock they voluntarily went on a US Department of State sponsored tour in Eastern Europe, and that was seen as āselling outā to the ācountercultureā of the 1960ās. Then in 1972 David Clayton-Thomas, took what had become their signature voice and left to pursue a solo career.
Ā Ā But the band did survive and is still alive today. Although there are no remaining members from the glory days, they are still touring and making audiences smile by doing something very few bands had tried before them, and that is, combining Rock music with an amazing horn section to create a signature sound. It has been done since, but Blood, Sweat and Tears was the original to succeed at it.Ā
