3 More Albums from the 28th of September

Ok, I've decided. It's Blood, Sweat & Tears (with Satie, without an oxford comma). Why, because Jim Fielder was a Mother of Invention before he bled, sweat, and cried through the constant cycle of lead singer auditions the band went through until he quit to do session work.

BS&T is their sophomore album, mostly written by Al Kooper, but realized by David Clayton-Thomas (and you know the first 2 songs of Side B even if you didn't know it was them). BS&T is a lot like Joni Mitchell, in that you either like them or you don't because they are exactly what they want to be: a rock solid band (pun intended) with a brass/wind section that didn't really care about genres or image or any of that stuff. They made whatever music came out of their instruments and it was pretty enjoyable.

If you're a real Grammy buff, you'll know exactly what record i'm going to listen to next. Go ahead, try to guess without looking it up...

[No good full album link on youtube]

Yes, BS&T won album of the year over Abbey Road (and the seemingly random choice of album i'll listen to after it).

The Beatles were basically done at this point. They had one more album already mostly recorded, but John was already off playing with Ono (remember, wink) and Paul was about to be imaginarily dead.

People didn't really like this album, then slowly realized they were wrong, then pretended like they weren't dumb and said "i always thought it was great."

So now, as i bring us around to the close of one  markov chain of musical associations and consider where i'll go next i want to make a couple points.

First, i'd like to think that my seemingly random perusal of my dad's record collection is starting to show you that everything is actually connected in multiple ways. The way i talk about one album points to the others in various ways that i didn't actually predict, and is so completely autobiographical that you could never fully understand it. I had the idea that this process might make an interesting book (so you could really see it in chronological order as it unfolds).

Second, this is obviously a personal and sentimental journey that i'm sharing with you, but we can't ignore the octopus in the room. These are 30/40/50 year old pieces of plastic that were a big part of my dad's life, and an equally big part of my childhood and my identity. Considering i'm listening to first or second runs of most of this music in it's original form, the replacement value is incalculable, irreplaceable, and I don't mind telling you i'm getting a little teary at how relevant this album is turning out to be at this exact moment.

Third, i've only scratched the surface in the last week, and this cleverly concealed listen to Abbey Road as the penultimate record of the week closes the "loss" portion of our journey.

One more record to go. You already know it's connected to the others by losing its nomination for a grammy to BS&T, but i think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how non sequitur it really is...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycVTiaj8OI-kwvNjgvvopMJt__x-y5mD

I told you it would be off the wall, but at the risk of sounding cheesy, it is time for me to "let the sunshine in."

I know i appear to be spastic, unpredictable, occasionally crass and moody (there i go using words that i know will be meaningful, but you don't), but that's because you aren't inside my head. The connections are there if you look hard enough (like that iconic bass line), i'm just not very good at cataloging or explaining all of them.

You can't be sad listening to this album. It's simply not possible. The 5th Dimension are awesome, and just when you least expect it i'll bring them back again and you'll smile because now you're in on it. Unless you forget. Don't forget.

[No good full album link on youtube]

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