Customer Reviews

Nuclear Blues

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found this in the LP cut-out bin four years after its release and had never even known about the album !! WEA must have kept this secret WELL!! After I got it home and played it, it quickly became one of my very favorites. You probably need a Hindu ascetic to help you keep track of all the different incarnations of this band...it wasn't Lew Soloff, Chuck Winfield, Bobby Colomby and company, nor was it the BIG group which recorded "New Blood." In fact, it was David Clayton Thomas and just THREE horns, plus rhythm section...

The writing was GREAT. (Some listener reviewers here don't think the album is "innovative" enough...truthfully, it's one of the most creative and covers as broad a musical spectrum as ANY of the group's albums). The playing is flawless and David is on a "ROLL!" ( Listen to "I'll Drown In My Own Tears" and find me a BETTER blues singer !! I dare you !!). Maybe having a totally instrumental suite ("Red Wine") and the technically-challenging first track, "Agitato," were just too much for some BS&T "purists." I loved them. Then, change up the time on Jimi Hendrix's "Manic Depression," add "Fantasy Stage" and the title track, and you have a typical BS&T album: inventive, a little radical and totally MUSICAL !! Certainly one of the two best the band did after D.C.T. took his first hiatus from the group, whether you are a casual BS&T fan, or the WORST GROUPIE, this is DEFINITELY one for your collection!!!

I'm editing my original review right now. It seems I was too
quick to make my mind up on this one. The first time I listened
to it I did not like it at all. After 5 or 6 listens it started
sounding much better, now I've been listening to it at least
every other day and I like it alot. I guess I was expecting
something that sounded closer to their earlier releases, and
was initially disappointed that it did not quite fit the bill.
This one seems to grows on you{or at least it did on me}. This
one is much more jazzy than the others,so the comparison is to
them is an unfair one. The brass is good,different, but good.
Thomas' voice seems strained at times, but for the most part
it's not bad. This bands first 4 releases are still my favorites,
but ths one is good too. Like I said, it grows on you. I would
recommend this c.d., I would just recommend their earlier ones
a bit higher.
Thanks,
Tom

This edition of the band is much different than any or the previous editions. On this recording the horn textures are different, darker. The suite is very well developed with outstanding solos. The guitar work is the best this band has ever had. The Piltch brothers shine. There are a few rough spots and some people tend to fault this band for not staying with a set formula but that has been one of the best aspects of this band since it's inception. They have always had type flight musicians so they could always afford to take chances. This recording has the most different feel of all their albums. The whole structure and style of arrangment is different. Strong soloing throughout.

First, there was the rich blues voice of David Clayton Thomas as heard on the second, third and fourth efforts on the 1970s. This was during their big R&B pop period of the hits like "You've Made Me So Very Happy", Spinning Wheel", "And When I Die", "Lucretia MacEvil" and the underexposed Billie Holiday classic "God Bless the Child". Many other singers' careers took off bigtime due to their vocal similarity to Thomas, including Lighthouse's Skip Prokop, but especially Robin Trower's James De War and Chicago's Terry Kath. Then came the albums "New Blood", "No Sweat" and "Brand New Day", where the sound was jazzier, more in line with the "jazz-rock" niche they'd always occupied once Al Kooper had moved on after their debut "Child Is Father To the Man". "New Blood" even had a great cover of Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage" provided by new key man Larry Willis. But by then they'd lost David and thereby lost their powerful access to the mass market. The next I heard of them was 1991's "Live and Improvised", but I thought back then that it was the product of some sort of nostalgia tour. I mean, they had David back and all. This album stands as proof that I was wrong. To have the solid jazz feel of the "davidless" trilogy with him back at the mike is like having your cake and being able to eat it too. The epic "Spanish Wine" is a what-if: what if Miles had done the Gil Evans period stuff without the orchestra burying the core ensemble we'd come to love from Miles? My copies of those releases are the least-played of my Miles collection. And the Hendrix classic "Manic Depression" comes across as a great jazz waltz while still faithful to Jimi's original arrangement. Pulling that off is an accomplishment in itself. When I first heard Jimi's own version, I thought it just one more example of his creativity--not many rock songs were done in 3. But I'd never considered it a jazz waltz. Well, that sells me on the other BS&T release of this period: "Mirror Image". That one goes on an order in the very near future.

I remember reading a review of this in an old Stereo Review, and the reviewer had an attitude of "why". He was very dismmissive of this album, and made it feel like it was the worst album ever made, like a low class producer just trying to exploit the BST name. The only member here from the classic lineup is David Clayton-Thomas. But this album is produced by Jerry Goldstein, who produced War's classic albums (War had much in common with BST, except they had more of a Latin flavour to their albums, and more jamming).

This album is pretty damn good, with excellent instrumentation. It's obvious after finally forgetting the critical dissing of it you realise that it was not a fly by night operation to exploit the BST name. It is an extremely well crafted album, especially for the 1980's, when musical ambition started to go down the tubes. I really love the lengthy suite Spanish Wine, and the opener Agitato, a song that has a bit of a slick feel to it, but it works rather well, because it doesn't overshadow the virtuosity of the musicians. Clayton-Thomas's voice sounds as good as anytime in BST's career, even though he sings on only 4 tracks (the others are instrumental, which isn't a bad thing). Overall, it's an excellent album, and if you're a Blood, Sweat, and Tears fan, you should pick this one up.

you can only buy this CD for the instrumental piece "spanish wine"
it will be one of the best music that you've heard in your life
it consists of several pieces combined together to form the spanish wine and its a little bit differenet from the band style so even if you did not like B.S&T you may fall in love with the spanish wine coz its pure jazz music
this album worth every single penny you pay for and it should be named with spanish wine not nuclear blues !

No doubt this album shows what this great group can produce, it shows moves from diffrent styles; jazz, rock and blues and every singel tune in this album is great! buy it if you like Blood, Sweat & Tears!

This is certainly a well crafted and played album. Some of the group's best playing and most imaginitive arrangements, in fact. As others say, you can't compare it to BS&T's early music - ESPECIALLY their first album, since obvioulsy NONE of the musicians on Nuclear Blues were present when Child is Father to the Man was made. I don't even think any original members were around for the previous album either, except for maybe Bobby Colomby producing. Anyway, there are those who think Clayton-Thomas IS BS&T, but then you will be disappointed to find him on only HALF of this album. So now you have an album of completely non-original members unless you cherish DCT for his hit-power but only get him half the time. That being said, I don't mind instrumental music at all. At face value though, the album is more "fusion" than "jazz" or "rock" and there are plenty of other bands who can churn out bewildering time-signature-confusing fusion better than this. I do enjoy it, but there is a certain magic lacking. Except for Dave's singing, the performances, though on the money, are very dry. So is the production for that matter. Everything is so thin. I hate the drum sound and especially the snare which is a shame because the drumming is top notch. Where is the ambience? Maybe I'm too used to reverb.

Anyway, it is better than no 1980 BS&T album at all. It is, after all, their final studio album - but I would prefer that they start releasing their mid-70's stuff on CD. I have the New Blood as a Japanese Import (excellent) and someone had the right idea and hopefully started a trend when they released the lukewarm More Than Ever, so maybe there is hope. I saw them live in NJ last year (TOTALLY different band from anything here or in their catalog - BS&T seems to exist merely as a backing band for Dave's live performances) and they SOUNDED much better than Nuclear Blues. I also hear that Bloodlines, a DCT "solo" effort (where is the line drawn?) has many original members and sounds great, but that is another subject...

Unless you can relate to the "nothing I can do about it paranoia nuclear blues" one would be well advised to stay away before the toxic lyrics on this album overwhelm you. Also, chemotherpay may be in order after you listen to B,S&T's funkified version of Hendrix's "Manic Depression". This album is bewildering for a number of reasons. It raises the question as to why this album was made. After having been made, why was it subsequently released on compact disc? Why was a live album of the Nuclear Blues tour also released on compact disc? Blood, Sweat & Tears helped pioneer the jazz -rock movement. Their contribution to rock remains immeasurable. This album is not part of that contribution.

To me this album was a disappointment. Had I first listened to it without knowing who it was, B,S & T wouldn't have appeared on the radar screen. The musicianship is very good, but the songs aren't memorable. When you listen to B, S & T you expect it to sound like B, S & T. That's what attracts you to the group. The arrangements are heavily funkafide. Put this at the end of your B, S & T album buys and when you do, don't file it with the rest of their albums. It's a different animal.