140. Blood, Sweat & Tears - Blood, Sweat & Tears (December 1969)

1. Variations on a Theme by Eric Satie (1st and 2nd Movements)

2. Smiling Phases

3. Sometimes in Winter*

4. More and More

5. And When I Die

6. God Bless the Child

7. Spinning Wheel*

8. You've Made Me So Very Happy*

9. Blues - Part II

10. Variations on a Theme by Eric Satie (1st Movement)

**1/2

I kept confusing Blood, Sweat & Tears with Earth, Wind & Fire. It's annoying, as I'd much rather have listened to the latter band.

The big problems with this album are ones that will plague a lot of the albums I'm going to have to listen to until at least the mid-70s. 1) This album is pretentious, and 2) BSAT seem to think that "more is more". The result? A patchwork of "high art" influences that mean that every song goes from a simple R&B number, to high-energy soul, before wandering into big band jazz, and then finally collapsing inelegantly back into R&B. None of these elements are well-integrated. I can't but quote from a Rolling Stone review at the time of release, which observed something to the effect of "the combination of all these elements is meant to trick you into thinking you're hearing something new, when really you're just hearing mediocre rock, then mediocre R&B, then OK jazz". 

The annoying thing is that BSAT are obviously highly talented musicians, and if they'd thought a bit more about how to integrate their influences this album might have been something special. Instead they wound-up with some sort of Frankenstein with pretensions to jazz-fusion. 

There is one song here I genuinely like, although even it has been jacked-up with pointless jazz nonsense. "Spinning Wheel", written by the singer, actually has a solid hook and a good rhythm, at least when David Clayton-Thomas is singing. I was surprised to find that I recognised the song. I think someone must have recorded a stripped down version at some point. I guess I also like the understated (for this album, anyway) "You Make Me So Very Happy". 

Unfortunately, those songs are islands of sanity in a sea of madness. I mean, the album is bookended with flashy rearrangements of Satie's Gymnopedies. The second to last track, "Blues - Part II", is twelve minutes long, and really I thought that the opportunity to work-out their musical ideas in a looser, non-pop format might have shown BSAT in their best light. Instead, it just sort of meanders for a while, then quotes "Sunshine of Your Love" and Willie Dixon's "Spoonful" for some reason. It's not very good.

If you're one of those people who's really into technical, flashy music, you might enjoy this. If you're looking for well-crafted songs and instrumentation that serves the lyric, you'll probably be disappointed. As the write-up in the Book observes, this album is just too big for its boots.