Blood, Sweat and Tears started out of the ruins of the Blues Project, which broke up in mid-1967. (As an aside, I recently posted one of their last performances as part of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.) Both Al Kooper and Steve Katz left the Blues Project and became the two main leaders of the new Blood, Sweat and Tears. Both of them wrote songs and sang lead vocals, though Kooper sang more of the songs. The new band started playing concerts in late 1967, but they'd only played a dozen or so concerts until performing the concert presented here. It took place only about four days after the release of their album "Child Is Father to the Man."
This version of the band didn't last long. Their album got very good reviews and limited but promising sales for a new band. (It reached Number 47 on the U.S. album chart.) However, some other band members, especially Katz and drummer Bobby Colomby, thought the band could do much better if they had a stronger lead vocalist. So they kicked Kooper out of the band in April 1968, at the end of their short tour to promote their debut album. This was a pretty shocking move, because Kooper was the de facto leader of the band. In addition to singing and writing songs, he was largely responsible for picking the many cover songs the band did, and coming up with arrangements in the band's unusual horn section-heavy style. Keep in mind this was about a year before other rock bands with horn sections like Chicago and the Ides of March had a lot of success.
What makes this album even more interesting is that only three of the songs performed were from the debut album that had just been released ("I Love You More than You'll Ever Know," "Morning Glory," and "Somethin' Goin' On"). They played three songs that would be on their very successful next album ("More and More," "You've Made Me So Very Happy" and "Smiling Phases.") All three of them were already arranged by Kooper, and the versions on their next album would closely follow his arrangments. But on that album they would be sung by Clayton-Thomas, whereas this gives one a chance to hear how Kooper sang them. Furthermore, there's the song "Camille." Kooper announced during the concert this would probably be the band's next single. In fact, that wouldn't be the case, because he wrote it and he would be kicked out of the band. So it showed up on his solo album released in early 1969, "I Stand Alone."
Okay, so that's some history of the band and this concert. Now, let me explain this recording. I've included the text file from an earlier version (posted by someone named Knees) because it contains a lot of interesting information in greater detail than what I'm writing here. To make a long story short, around 2005, a rock journalist decided to go looking through some old cassettes to find an interview that person had done with Jimi Hendrix. They found the Hendrix interview, but let the tape keep playing and discovered this forgotten concert recording on it as well. They sent the Hendrix interview to the Hendrix estate, and asked them to make a digital transfer of this concert as well, which they did. Even Al Kooper was pleasantly shocked when he learned about it and heard it, because he thought nobody had ever bothered to record any live performances of the original Blood, Sweat and Tears.
This recording is just an audience bootleg. The person mentioned above named Knees made many audio edits to improve the sound quality. It sounds very good for an audience boot. However, one problem I noticed was that the lead vocals were way down in the mix. I was able to fix this with help from the MVSEP program. Now, one could easily believe this was a soundboard boot instead.
I don't know the real name of the original recorder. They may have purposely left their name out of this, since they were a rock journalist. And strong evidence that they were comes in the form of the bonus track. This is a twenty-minute long interview with Jim Fielder, the bassist of the band. The band was opening for Big Brother and the Holding Company, starring Janis Joplin. The interview took place shortly after their set finished. One can tell because one can hear Joplin faintly singing in the background during the interview.
This album is 47 minutes long, not including the bonus track.
01 More and More (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
02 You've Made Me So Very Happy (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
03 I Love You More than You'll Ever Know (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
04 talk (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
05 Morning Glory (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
06 talk (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
07 Camille (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
08 talk (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
09 Smiling Phases (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
10 Somethin' Goin' On (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
Jim Fielder Interview (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/349aST5r
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/W5AXLqpiqkU2M6n/file
The cover shows, from left to right, horn players Dick Halligan, Jerry Weiss, and Randy Brecker, and then Al Kooper on keyboards. It was taken at one of the band's very first concerts, at The Scene, in New York City, on November 25, 1967. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Canva program, plus some touch-ups with Photoshop.
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