Blood Sweat & Tears Salt Away Live 1972

No American rock group ever started with as much daring or musical promise as Blood, Sweat & Tears, or realized their potential more fully and then blew it all as quickly. From their origins as a jazz-rock experiment that wowed critics and listeners, they went on in a somewhat more pop vein to sell almost six million records in three years, but ended up being dropped by their record label four years after that. Blood, Sweat & Tears started as an idea conceived by Al Kooper in July of 1967.

Clayton-Thomas revisits the music of his youth on Blue Plate Special, his first all-blues effort; in addition to a pallid remake of the Blood, Sweat and Tears hit "Lucretia MacEvil," he also tackles songs by Willie Dixon, Freddie King and Albert Collins.
David Clayton-Thomas fronted Blood, Sweat & Tears during their popular peak, singing the hits "You've Made Me So Very Happy," "And When I Die," "Hi-De-Ho," and his composition "Spinning Wheel." The latter suggested the musical ambitions he harbored and after the group's hot streak cooled in 1972, he set out on a solo career that he quickly put on ice so he could return to the group in 1975…

Brand New Day is an album by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, released in 1977. This was the band's tenth studio album and their first and only release for ABC Records. Brand New Day was produced by Roy Halee and former BS&T drummer Bobby Colomby. Colomby and Halee had also co-produced the group's fourth album, Blood, Sweat & Tears 4 in 1971. This collection failed to chart on the Billboard Album Charts in the top 200 even though it did reach #205 under the chart.

They were a pioneering jazz-rock outfit and a hit singles band (which shows how progressive pop music got in the late '60s/early '70s) that wowed fans and critics alike. They were Blood, Sweat & Tears and this two-CD, 32-track set offers not only the most comprehensive collection ever compiled of their work, but also the most appropriate lens through which to view their long and often chaotic career…

Essential: a masterpiece of rock music.
History has not been as kind as it might, and arguably should, have been to Blood Sweat and Tears. In their day, they made some of the most exciting progressively influenced jazz rock ever.