0313. Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears

Well, here we are again with the naming. Blood, Sweat And Tears, as 1001 Albums You Must Hear... calls it is an album by Johnny Cash, while Blood, Sweat & Tears is the second album by the band also called Blood, Sweat & Tears. It's not that hard, people, it's printed on the damn cover!

This is a very disparate album. There are huge steps from the introductory Variations On A Theme By Erik Satie (1st And 2nd Movements) which start off very true to the original classical setting, and blatant funk to almost elevator pop and what sounds like a show tune (in And When I Die, which since it was written by Laura Nyro its show-tuniness isn't really a surprise) and over to an elongated jazz-session (which seem to borrow a bar or two from Sunshine Of Your Love close to the nine minute mark).

Their best work is however when they dig themselves down in the funk.
The cover of Traffic's Smiling Phases and the hit Spinning Wheel are (despite some campy elements) the stuff that gets your ears to go "Aww, yeah!"