{"id":11230,"date":"2012-01-05T10:40:37","date_gmt":"2012-01-05T15:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=11230"},"modified":"2012-01-05T10:40:37","modified_gmt":"2012-01-05T15:40:37","slug":"can-anything-be-worse-than-blood-sweat-tears-oh-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/can-anything-be-worse-than-blood-sweat-tears-oh-yes\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Anything Be Worse Than Blood, Sweat & Tears? Oh, Yes!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blood, Sweat & Tears<\/strong> (post-Al Kooper<\/strong> in particular) is not the most beloved group around Rock Town Hall – for good reason, too. They represent the bad side of the so-called “jazz-rock” trend of the early 1970s. Not only did BS&T render up laughably horrific versions of classic songs (“Symphony\/Sympathy for the Devil,” which I proudly inflicted upon the hall in a previous post<\/a>), but they also served up some of the most annoying radio fodder ever (“Spinning Wheel”, “Go Down Gamblin'”). While lacking in any real rock credentials (unlike early\u00a0Chicago<\/strong>) or true musical vision (unlike near-progsters like Soft Machine<\/strong>), they offered up fourth-rate bland Kentonisms<\/a> backing up immortally-bad vocalist David Clayton-Thomas, who always sounded like he was vomiting when he pushed himself. No jazz-rock could be more unlistenable than BS&T, right? Dear children, prepare yourselves for a plunge into the abyss….<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Chase <\/strong>was a short-lived “jazz-rock” group active from 1971 to 1974. The band was founded by Bill Chase, a veteran trumpeter who had played with such luminaries as Maynard Ferguson<\/strong>, Stan Kenton<\/strong>, and Woody Herman<\/strong>. Chase explored the same basic musical territory as Blood, Sweat & Tears even to the point of having a singer (G.G. Schinn) who worked very hard at being a Clayton-Thomas clone. However, there were a couple of vital differences…<\/p>\n