The 500 - #266 - Child Is Father To The Man - Blood, Sweat & Tears

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #266

Album Title: Child Is Father To The Man

Artist: Blood, Sweat & Tears

Genre: Jazz Rock

Recorded: November - December, 1967

Released: February, 1968

My age at release: 2

How familiar was I with it before this week: Not At All

Is it on the 2020 list? No

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: I'll Love You More Than You Will Ever Know

I'll admit that as a kid flipping through albums in the record department of the Leamington Mall I would get jazz-rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears confused with Earth, Wind & Fire, a progressive soul and funk group. I suppose I was recognizing patterns and two groups with three-part names that included a comma and an ampersand.

I was right about the fact that both groups were large ensembles with a brass section. However, had I flipped over one of the records to look at the pictures on the back, I would have realized that the members of Earth, Wind & Fire were all African-American and that the musicians in Blood, Sweat & Tears were all Caucasian.

Earth, Wind & Fire (left), Blood, Sweat & Tears (right)

When I got a little older and began to build my knowledge of music, the distinction became clear: I was never a big fan of Blood, Sweat & Tears, but I knew their hits -- Spinning Wheel, You Make Me So Very Happy and, my favourite, Hi-De-Ho (That Old Sweet Roll), the cover of a song written by Carole King.

Child Is Father To The Man was the debut record from Blood, Sweat & Tears, which formed in New York City in 1967,  inspired by the brass-rock sound of another American band, The Buckinghams, who had five top-20 hits in the mid-60s including a number one, Kind Of A Drag.

Initially, B, S & T was a four-piece which played regularly at the Village Theatre (later Filmore East) in the Lower East neighbourhood of Manhattan. The members were Al Kooper (vocals, keyboards), Bobby Colomby (drums), Steve Katz (guitars) and Jim Fielder (bass). Originally built in 1926, the venue was located on a section of 2nd Street known as the "Yiddish Theatre District" or "Jewish Rialta". Kooper, Colomby and Katz, born and raised in  Jewish households in Manhattan and Brooklyn, grew up with the theatre as a significant part of their lives. Fielder was born in Texas and raised in California. He enjoyed  success with Tim Buckley, Frank Zappa and Buffalo Springfield before moving to New York City in 1966.

B, S & T expanded to an octet in the summer of 1967, adding saxophonist and pianist Fred Lipsius as well as brass players Dick Halligan, Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss. There are two stories circulating about the naming of the group. Kooper says he named them after a jam at the Cafe au Go-Go when he cut his hand on his keyboard and it was covered in blood by the end of the show. Colomby disagrees, saying Kooper got the idea either from a 1963 Johnny Cash record of the same name, or a phrase from Winston Churchill's speech to the U.K. Parliament in 1940 when his actual words were "blood, toil, tears and sweat".

Despite helping to create and name the group, Kooper  was only with them for this first record. Due to artistic differences, he left in April, 1968. Canadian David Clayton-Thomas moved in with trombonist Jerry Hyman. The musical chairs allowed the resident trombonist, Halligan, to move to keyboard. The nine-piece configuration proved the most successfu,l their second, self-titled record winning the Grammy Award for Record Of The Year in 1970.

Given the success of their second record, their self-titled album Blood, Sweat & Tears, with its three Top Ten hits and quadruple platinum certification in the United States, it is surprising it didn’t make The 500. However, their first title, Child Is The Father To Man, barely sold 40,000 units by 1970 and yet found its way onto the list despite an average review from Rolling Stone Magazine in 1968.

Bobby Colmby (mid-70s)

Fortunately, the guest on this week's episode of The 500 podcast was founding member and drummer Bobby Colomby. Podcast host Josh Adam Meyers posed the question to him – Why was this record selected for The 500 list when your second record won a Grammy?  Colomby’s answer was simple: "It's Rolling Stone (Magazine), who knows?"

That's the thing about this list that I am dutifully working through weekly. It was compiled based on the weighted votes of 273 rock musicians, critics and industry figures. For some reason, Child Is The Father To Man garnered enough votes to put it near the middle of this list. So, Colomby is right, "who knows" why? Personally, I agreed with the 1968 assessment. I'll Love You More Than You Will Ever Know and Somethin’ Goin' On are really good and the rest of the album is enjoyable. This is a record that will find its way into my listening rotation for many years to come.

B, S & T at The Filmore East

I'll also look forward to the upcoming release of a new documentary about the band. Titled, What The Hell Happened To Blood, Sweat & Tears, it documents an ill advised trip to Yugoslovia, Romania & Poland that was sponsored by the U.S. government.