Did you know Blood, Sweat & Tears (BS&T) did a tour behind the former Iron Curtain? I didn't. +++ HERE +++ is a link to a documentary website that explores the consequences of that tour.

"Whatever Happened To Blood, Sweat & Tears?"



They bled, sweated and cried themselves to death.

I'll watch that later, but I wonder at the onset if there are any original members left. They'd be like 80 years old now. I know who some of the 2nd generation guys were, but to me they were always going to be Kooper and Katz. Even by the time David Clayton-Thomas joined they were FAR removed from the "real" BS&T.

I literally wore out 2 vinyl copies of Child Is Father To The Man. I liked The Blues Project, but when Kooper and Katz left to form BS&T the original band really fizzled out. What Bobby Colomoby and Steve Katz did to Kooper just a couple of years later really angered me. You don't fire the guy who started the band and gave you jobs, though to be honest Kooper didn't like the music they were doing after that first album. It was because of BS&T, REAL BS&T, that I developed my love for horn bands.

That video will be for tonight!

Who here who liked BS&T were also fans of Canada's Lighthouse? They were GREAT! That whole bigger band concept always appealed to me because of the increased number of textural things you can do with 12-13 pieces on stage. Particularly loved ELO with the string players. I never got to see Lighthouse play in person. Alas the founding Lighthouse guys are almost all dead now. They'd almost all be approaching to 80 if they were still around. Skip Prokop died in 2017 after years of dealing with heart problems and later diabetes. However, Howard Shore is still quite alive and went on to become band leader on Saturday Night Live and later did the score for all the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies.

I may have to listen to Lighthouse Live tonight after the football game!

Lighthouse, Chase, Ides of March, BS&T and, of course, Chicago. For too brief a time period horns ruled Rock & Roll radio. Late eighties to early nineties an updated version of big band ALMOST became popular, even Brian Setzer had the Brian Setzer Orchestra.

I was lucky enough to see ALL of those bands except Chase and Lighthouse. Setzer's big band was absolutely AMAZING. Chicago at least a dozen times, add Tower of Power about 6 times. Ides was less than stellar when I saw them but still good. And ELO came to Cleveland with the tour that was the space ship stage. At the time they had 3 horns and 4 string players. Incredible sound. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy too.