Original Album Classics

Greetings, All, Back in the 1970's-1980's, I worked as a professional musician in many large horn bands of that time. We played all the clubs and lounges in San Diego, as well as others in LA. Of course, we were playing songs from our favorite popular horn bands back then, i.e., Tower of Power, Cold Blood, Chase, Chicago, and many more, including, of course, Blood, Sweat, and Tears!! In fact, BS&T was one of our most favorite bands, and we loved playing their music! Later, when our band was on the road, touring for eleven months of the year, for five years, we actually got to open for BS&T!! Talk about a thrill!!! Suffice it so say, I still have all their albums, but on vinyl, so when I found this excellent 5-album set of these same albums, I bought it straight away! I was a bit worried about the quality of the transfer from analog to digital, but I needn't have been!! The music is clear, detailed, and has tons of musical range and great dynamics!! I've been in BS&T heaven since my first listen, and now, I can't stop myself!!! In any case, IF you loved BS&T, and don't have their music on CD format, do yourself a favor and purchase this excellent compendium of their music! I'm sure that you, like me, will LOVE them, and the cost is well worth the enjoyment you're going to get, time after time, when listening to BS&T again!!! I'd say more, but hey, time to play some more music, and join David Clayton-Thomas in doing some singing!! Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc Mark Lead Vocalist Drums and Congas Trombone and "Flugebone" (King Model 1130).

This CD collection of the first five studio albums from Blood Sweat & Tears is outstanding. The sound quality and clarity is superb, clear, crisp and sounds like it was remastered. The five albums cover the time period from 1968 through 1972 and the jazz, rock, big band style that defined Blood Sweat & Tears had still sounds great. Listening to the CD collection shows how many well regarded songs the band performed and the history of hits that Blood Sweat & Tears is known for. The lead vocals, first with Al Cooper and later with standout David Clayton Thomas are stellar. The horns, piano, organ, guitar, bass and percussion all sound magnificent. Jon Green

There are a few extras on the first two albums, nothing on the rest. And I didn't want anything else. Yes, it would be nice to know who wrote & played on what, and there's no way I'll be able to read that tiny print on the photo-repro'd mini-covers, but so what? That's why there's Wikipedia (I know, because I looked it up on Wikipedia, and they said so: "That why there's Wikipedia" it said, so I rest my case). What you get of course is the music that made these five albums. They aren't the right five albums by anybody's estimation, they're simply the chronological first five to be issued under the band's name, but that's the logic by which record companies work (gee, and they wonder why they're doing so poorly these days). If you want sensible, artistically-based decisions, you'll have to look elsewhere. Most importantly, all the best-selling [and therefore most familiar] albums issued under the BST name are available in this budget-priced, um, set (is that what it is?). Sure, including NEW BLOOD only makes that album seem the odd-man-out, but Columbia didn't ask anyone first whether or not to issue the LaCroix-era albums as their own set. As I see it, it's like a free disc showing what you didn't miss by stopping with BST 4 -- just as CHILD IS FATHER [etc] shows why [despite all the great aspects heard there] BST desperately needed David Clayton-Thomas on board. Then BST 3 shows why they shouldn't have kicked Guercio to the curb, where he shrugged and made great Chicago albums instead [which you should also get]. BST 4 is sometimes dismissed as more Clayton-Thomas solo album than BST proper but darn if it doesn't still sound solid four or five decades later: strong songs, well-played & arranged. I know; some people will slag me for not appreciating New Blood's musicianship more. It's not Mr LaCroix's fault: the core of that one great BST album was its wildly inventive arrangements of solidly good songs -- songs strong enough to support such arrangements, not to mention DCT's powerful singing style. New Blood, by contrast, shows the same weakness of most of the fusiony early 70s records: musicians who are much greater performers than composers or arrangers. You might find yourself singing "You've Made Me So Very Happy" or "Spinning Wheel"; you might do the same with "Hi-De-Ho" or "Go Down Gamblin'". You won't with ... well, I can't think of one thing from New Blood besides "Maiden Voyage", which is instrumental & Herbie Hancock already did it, so what's the point? No, you have to fast-forward up to 1975's reunion with David Clayton-Thomas, NEW CITY; that was the logical fifth album to put here --- and a better album than BST 3 by a distinct margin. Oh, you didn't hear that one? Neither did anyone else, which is why it isn't here -- and it isn't easy to find either: Columbia let some budget label do that CD reissue. But it's as fully worth hearing as BST 4, so don't say nobody told you. A close follower would be the 1977 BRAND NEW DAY, but by then nobody even remembered that BST was anything but David Clayton-Thomas' backing band -- still very good stuff, but the days of "And When I Die" were over. Which is why it's great that this set is available; I must really have wanted it, because I mistakenly ordered it TWICE. And y'know what? *I kept both*. Now it's your turn.

Blood Sweat & Tears sold a LOT of records -- especially in 1970 -- without ever getting much respect from the critics (apart from their debut album, CHILD IS FATHER TO THE MAN, which is really the work of a different, Al Kooper-led band [and one of the most monumental records of its era]). They never got the box set treatment, and a big chunk of their Columbia/Sony library is either out-of-print or licensed to other companies (mostly Wounded Bird). So this set was a kind of surprise -- it's handy, and offers very good sound throughout, most impressively (and not surprisingly) on the first two albums (Child Is Father To The Man; Blood Sweat & Tears), but fine from beginning to end (and the bonus tracks on the first two albums' reissues are here, too). The packaging is stripped down, but so what? I buy these things to LISTEN to them, and we can look to other incarnations, audiophile and otherwise, for fancy packaging if we want it. Now if only Sony would do the same kind of package on Al Kooper's post-BST solo stuff we'd really be ecstatic!!!!

I love these sets that include an artists early releases all in one package. Economical way to have a collection of music from a good artist.

I love having all 5 of their recordings. Great music and memories.

Classic on vinyl. so bought this box set and I'm very happy with the CDs

First four albums are all great. The fifth album without David Clayton Thomas is very week. Even though he wasn’t on the first one it’s still great