BST Child Father Man

Blood, Sweat and Tears

Child Is Father to the Man

Released February 21, 1968

BST Child Father Man

That crazy and wondrous overture!

The Beatles and Dylan kept changing the equation. In 1967 Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band said, Do what you want. Segue songs together. Put lyrics on the album. Add sounds. Add more instrumentation. Or not.

Al Kooper was there when Dylan went electric. Kooper accidentally added the iconic organ on Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.”  It was Kooper and Steve Katz’s underground masterpiece Projections  [produced by Tom Wilson] with the Blues Project that got people searching for more when they left the Project. Where had they gone?

Blood, Sweat and Tears was where they’d gone and had given birth to…

BST Child Father Man

Child Is Father to the Man

Rolling Stone magazine’s review said “This album is unique. More precisely, it is the first of its kind — a music that takes elements of rock, jazz, straight blues, R&B, classical music and almost anything else you could mention and combines them into a sound of its own that is “popular” without being the least bit watered down.”

The All Music review states: “This is one of the great albums of the eclectic post-Sgt. Pepper era of the late ’60s, a time when you could borrow styles from Greenwich Village contemporary folk to San Francisco acid rock and mix them into what seemed to have the potential to become a new American musical form.”

BST Child Father Man

The whole band was…

• Randy Brecker – trumpet, flugelhorn
• Bobby Colomby – drums, percussion, vocals
• Jim Fielder – bass guitar, fretless bass guitar
• Dick Halligan – trombone
• Steve Katz – guitar, lute, vocals
• Al Kooper – organ, piano, ondioline, vocals
• Fred Lipsius – piano, alto saxophone
• Jerry Weiss – trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals

And though Al Kooper wrote most of the songs, he had a great ear from whom to cover. My quick thoughts are in blue following each title.

Overture

“Overture” (Kooper) – 1:32…I don’t know about you, but even the Beatles hadn’t done something as crazy sounding (to that point) as that loony laughing during the Overture. 

I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know

“I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know” (Kooper) – 5:57…How sweet this was. To this adolescent’s innocent ears (I’ll admit it), the passion behind Kooper’s voice was so cool. And those horns! “I could be President of General Motors!” 

Morning Glory

“Morning Glory” (Larry Beckett, Tim Buckley) – 4:16...a nice segue into this song. “I lit my purest candle…”  And oh yea, recognize that organ sound? Like a Rolling Stone??? 

My Days Are Numbered

“My Days Are Numbered” (Kooper) – 3:19…more of those horns. I’d never heard (remember those innocent ears) horns used with such strength.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=782yCOaAiJw

Without Her

“Without Her” (Harry Nilsson) – 2:41…This was the first time I heard Nilsson and “Without Her.” I’d come to love his version more, but at that moment, such a cool beat. 

Just One Smile

“Just One Smile” (Randy Newman) – 4:38…Didn’t realize that a Randy Newman song could have such strength! And side one ends after over 22 minutes. About how long some entire albums were. Getting my money’s worth.

I Can’t Quit Her

 

“I Can’t Quit Her” (Kooper, Irwin Levine) – 3:38...cool guitar, bumping bass, and more cool horns. I could get used to this.

Meagan’s Gypsy Eyes

“Meagan’s Gypsy Eyes” (Steve Katz) – 3:24…I loved the Blues Project’s “Flute Thing” and this had that same feel for me. Gurgling vocals. Neat.  Mee-gan, not Meg-an.

Somethin’ Goin’ On

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbzDl8DvSbQ

“Somethin’ Goin’ On” (Kooper) – 8:00…Eight minutes. Very nice. This is not American Bandstand.

House in the Country

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssdtM2UAOFo

 

“House in the Country” (Kooper) – 3:04…I was a straight suburban kid who loved the country (part of Woodstock’s appeal) and this song with all its sound effects was another reason that I knew I was headed in the right direction. Who was that kid?  

The Modern Adventures of Plato, Diogenes and Freud

“The Modern Adventures of Plato, Diogenes and Freud” (Kooper) – 4:12…Taking a break.

Father of my morning,
Once my child to the night
I see that you have minds to cop
And I can only watch the sickened sorrow
Little do you know
Of the progressions that you teach
The people that you reach are tired
Of livin’ in a world of elastic towers
Dance with them and sing a song of changes
And talk with them of life and all its dangers
Surround yourself with now familiar strangers
Who kiss and who hug and eventually mug you of your time

So Much Love”/”Underture

“So Much Love”/”Underture” (Gerry Goffin, Carole King) – 4:47...I’d heard of the term Overture. Never Underture. One hell of a way to split after over 49 minutes of amazing music.

BST Child Father Man

Happy anniversary Child Is Father To the Man

Whipped Cream Dolores Erickson

We stood in record stores and flipped through albums starting at A and hoped we had the time to get to Z. Homework be damned. Dentist be damned. World be damned. So much to look at. So many wishes to make.

Sometimes we flipped over the album to read the back. Some covers we stared and searched.

Whipped Cream Dolores Erickson

Other Delights

Whipped Cream and Other Delights we stared. Maybe we’d missed something the last time.

On February 19, 1966  Herb Alpert’s Whipped Cream and Other Delights became the Billboard #1 album. The record spent 141 weeks on Billboard’s Top 40 albums chart and its cover an eternity in the minds of those then adolescent boys.

In  2006 a New Yorker magazine article explained the cover’s impact saying that it “fogged the minds of many young men, as they gazed at the… personalized come-hitherhood to the woman staring back … the inner portion of a bare breast protrudes from the foam. She is licking cream from the index finger of her right hand… in the virtually pornless atmosphere of the suburban mid-sixties it was … the pinnacle of allure.”

Whipped Cream Dolores Erickson

Dolores Erickson

Who was this visage?  Model Dolores Erickson . And we didn’t know it then, but the picture was taken when Erickson was three months pregnant. During concerts, Herb Alpert would tell the audience, “Sorry, we can’t play the cover for you!”

Spoiler alert: it is not whipped cream, but shaving cream. Whipped cream just wouldn’t have worked under the lights needed for the shot, although it is apparently actual whipped cream on Erickson’s head.

And underneath? Erickson said in an interview, “I was wearing a bikini, and there was a cotton cloth that went around my body.”

The outtakes for the album were given to Erickson in 1965 and she still has them. She was shocked at how much it revealed, but by today’s standards they are rather modest.

Whipped Cream Dolores Erickson

Not everyday famous

Because Erickson was not one to walk around partially nude covered in shaving cream, the cover did not make her life everyday-famous. She later retired from modeling and went on to become an artist.

She sometimes appears at record and collectibles shows.

Peter Whorf, who designed the album cover, passed away at the age of 64 on November 11, 1995 in Los Angeles, CA.

• Reference >>> Seattle Times article
• Reference >>> Outtake photo article
  

  Whipped Cream Dolores Erickson