Al cooper blood sweat and tears songs
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However, the Sundazed copy I got was very well finished and reasonably quiet, but not as quiet. The Speakers Corner reissue, which uses the wrong label art is pressed at Pallas and consequently it’s quieter and better finished overall. The duplication that’s currently underway between domestic and overseas pressings seems to be growing as vinyl gains popularity and it confuses the marketplace. One is from Sundazed and there’s a far more expensive one from Speakers Corner. That said, unlike the second BS&T album this one wasn’t all that popular so I’m not sure what’s out there in the used market. I’m not sure it can get much better than the original given how well-pressed Columbia records were in those days, especially if you have a clean original. The soundstage is expansive and the images tightly presented. It’s a high quality Columbia studio recording, with vivid harmonics, impressive transparency and dynamics, shimmering highs and tight extended bass. I also bought Steppenwolf’s debut for the aluminum foil cover before I’d heard “Born to Be Wild,” and The Moody Blues’ Days of Future Past again, just because the cover looked cool and what was on the back was so damn pretentious and ambitious.Īnyway, the original “360 Sound” edition of this record sounds fantastic.
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The bizarre cover got me and then I noticed it was Kooper and Katz from The Blues Project and I bit. I’d gone down to New York to visit friends and stopped in at Sam Goody’s. I remember buying this album upon its initial release. Fortunately there’s not much of it, but it includes manic cackling behind Al Kooper’s lovely “Overture” and a “zany” “House in the Country” by Kooper that has its compositional strengths and sketch-like weaknesses. Perhaps that’s why the album is sprinkled with unnecessary “humor” that detracted some when the album was first released and detracts more now. The smartly chosen covers are Tim Buckley’s “Morning Glory,” Goffin-King’s “So Much Love,” Harry Nilsson’s suave and deboner “Without Her” done as a bossa-nova and Randy Newman’s “Just One Smile.” But better than the covers are the dark blues/funk originals from Kooper among which are “I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know,” “My Days Are Numbered” and “I Can’t Quit Her.” The playing is suave and the arrangements sophisticated. Some may still dig “Spinning Wheel,” the great reworking of Traffic’s “Smiling Phases,” and the rest of the second album, and I have to admit that for pop dross it’s awfully good (though the passage of time really exposes David Clayton Thomas as little more than a facile lounge singer), but if that’s where you got to know the group and are either afraid to dig further back, or wonder whether this record can possibly live up to that one, have no fear.Įverything about this production reeks of quality from John Simon’s producer credit to Fred Catero’s engineering and the BS&T string section made up of N.Y.C.’s best ‘60s session men that included Harry Lookofsky, whose son wrote “Walk Away Renee” for his group The Left Banke. It remains a stunning example of jazz-rock sophistication that has never been matched in my opinion by any of the follow-up horn bands like Chicago or Mom’s Apple Pie (just kidding) and certainly not by the David Clayton Thomas led BS&T, though that one was far more commercially successful and though it included five of the original crew that perform here, Randy Brecker left and Al Kooper was only involved on two tracks. Then he picks up to 10 tunes, writes a paragraph on each, and streams them on his blog, “ New Music for Old People.The first Blood, Sweat and Tears group led by Al Kooper and including his former Blues Project bandmate Steve Katz, was the sophisticated assemblage that produced but one album. Kooper uses iTunes and Amazon to scour practically every new album, from major labels to obscure and private releases. He and guitarist Mike Bloomfield were jam-band pioneers. His French horn opened the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t always Get What You Want ” he whispered Neil Young lyrics in the background on “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, for whom he produced their first three albums. He wrote songs, both bubble-gum (1965’s “This Diamond Ring,” by Gary Lewis and the Playboys) and sublime (BS&T’s “ I’ll Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know,” from 1968). Here are just a few of his contributions to rock ‘n’ roll: He played the signature organ riff on Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone” and founded Blood, Sweat & Tears. Now 70 years old and living in Boston, he’s experienced plenty of music history already. Al’s work with Bob Dylan and Mike Bloomfield was truly memory making.Īl Kooper doesn’t really need to listen to the latest songs by garage bands comprised of 20-year-olds. Al Kooper is one of the most underrated members of America’s Rock & Roll legacy.