We played Eli’s Coming and maybe one other song, and it was fantastic. We even had a rehearsal together, at the Cafe Au Go Go. Somehow I got to meet Laura, and when we were looking for a lead singer, she was our first choice. Bobby Colomby, BS&T’s drummer: “I thought Eli and the Thirteenth Confession was fantastic – one of the best pop records I have ever heard. Her second album Eli and the Thirteenth Confession was recently released on Columbia. While Al Kooper was quick to move on to his next project and worked on Supper Session with Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills, the band started auditioning vocalists.
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Peter, Paul and Mary, who knew how to pick them, grabbed the song for a mere $5,000 and performed it on their 1966 album The Peter, Paul and Mary Album.īS&T were in desperate need of a lead singer. Sometimes someone will say you were so young to write a song like that, yet I think that there is a folk wisdom in the song that a lot of teenagers have.”Īlthough a new artist on the scene, Nyro’s writing skills did not go unnoticed. When asked by Scott Simon in a 1989 interview how such a subject matter came to her at that young age she said: “I think that teenagers are in touch with a very primal truth in life. It was also the album that included one of the band’s best songs: And When I Die.Īnd When I Die was written by Laura Nyro at the age of 16 and released on her debut album in January 1967. Quite a heavy topic for a teenager to ruminate on, and I like the fact that the lyrics take a matter of fact view on it and perceive the eternal cycle of life: The band was left in a precarious state that would have dismantle most rock groups, but in a surprising turn of events they not only continued, but before the year’s end released a second album, this time an artistic AND commercial success, an album that went on to sell four million copies.
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Maybe it was his need for full control, or his pursue of an A&R and producer role at Columbia. They asked Kooper to give up his front man position but he declined. However the rest of the band found one weakness – Al Kooper’s voice. The band was happy with the then-innovative concept of combining Jazz and Rock in a large band, mixing together a rock band with a jazzy horn section. Kooper played a pivotal role on the band’s debut album Child is Father to the Man, writing some of the album’s best songs: I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know and I Can’t Quit Her. The album was artistically but not commercially successful on its release. Less than a year after forming the band, founder, principal songwriter, keyboard player and singer Al Kooper was out of the band.
5 And When I Die, by Blood, Sweat and Tearsġ968 was a landmark year for Blood Sweat & Tears, book-ended by the band’s first two albums and unfolding events that took the band through a critical transition.