"Go Down Gamblin'" from BS&T4 (1971)
these doods rocked
captaink.home.texas.net
Producer Don Heckman writes:
Blood, Sweat & Tears. Vitality, energy and inspiration. That's what it's all about--channeling the powers of nine gifted performers into a dynamic blend of song and spirit, of melody and rhythm.
We recorded in San Francisco, with its glorious light, clean air, and brilliantly sparkling Bay. A good place to make music. Some of the guys were already there. Fred Lipsius rambling around his house, doing a marathon piano-playing trip, 24-hours a day, non-stop. Jim Fielder, lean and laconic, impatiently waiting for a new place near Muir Wood, and David Clayton-Thomas, writing new tunes in his ultimate bachelor's digs--perched like an eagle's aerie high in the hills of Marin Country. Roy Halee, master engineer and co-producer, was just glad to be living in San Francisco, and enthusiastic as a cherub about the bright new studios and spaceship recording console Colombia had built for him. Dick Halligan commuted from Los Angeles, flying in through the smog almost daily, usually carrying a new arrangement.
The rest of us moved West, en masse, from cold and amp December New York City. Chuck Winfield and Dave Bargeron--the quiet ones--came like a gypsy caravan, trailing wives, children, and assorted pets. Bobby Colomby and Steve Katz reluctantly left their houses and basketball courts and pool tables, and Lewie Soloff somehow managed to convince an airline that his 14 trumpets and flugelhorns really were part of his hand luggage.
Two months had been cleared from our schedules by the most stringent methods--only one or two bookings for the band, and for me, some midnight hour moonlighting to keep up my writing commitments. Two months to produce an album that might match the electric energies of previous Blood, Sweat, and Tears recordings.
We decided to go for as many original pieces as possible. Given the range of backgrounds and skills in the band, it seemed to me that the album should be a kind of seed-bed for the future--a garden of music that would bloom with brightly colored perennials. "Lisa, Listen To Me" came first, flowing with such good vibrations that we knew the Karma was right. On "Go Down Gamblin'," David holstered up his trust guitar (for the first time with BS&T) and ripped out solo lines raunchy enough to quiver the walls in the adjoining studio (no mean feat, considering that Santana was recording there).
"Redemption" came in a sudden, almost magic rust. Everything jelled--the rhythm's furious drive, a roaring, shouting horn section, and David's powerful vocal. There never was a question of making another take. Steve's "For My Lady" and "Valentine's Day," called for particularly sensitive treatment. In both cases--Dick's arrangement of "For My Lady" and Freddie's chart on "Valentine's Day"--the textures are richly impressionistic, filled with the sounds of woodwinds and fluegelhorns. (And, on "Valentine's Day," Lew finally got his long-awaited chance to play piccolo trumpet.)
"Cowboy's and Indians" was a Halligan surprise; he just showed up with it one day. (The unusual sound at the end, by the way, is made by Dave Bargeron, playing a low note on his tuba and singing another note at the same time.) It took at least two or three metamorphoses before we found the right frame for 'High On A Mountain," and again it was Halligan's extraordinary scoring--almost symphonic in character--that created the perfect setting for David's vocal. "Mama Gets High" developed out of a half-joking conversation that Steve, Dave Bargeron, and I had about the possibilities of a Dixieland-rock tune, and "A Look To My Heart" celebrates Freddie's pleasure over the sense of peace he has discovered since moving to San Francisco.
Two pieces came from outside the band. Al Kooper and Phyllis Major's "John The Baptist" stimulated some of Freddie's finest scoring, and the gutsy rhythm-secion surge on the Isley Brothers' "Take Me In Your Arms," lets David get down to the basics.
The old labels--Jazz-rock and the like--are gone, replaced by the simple straight-forward idea of making music. With nine players who share individual and common experiences that include everything from Ars Nova to Bluegrass how can any other description be adequate? (Taken from the sleeve of BS&T 4) |
