Blood, Sweat & Tears was one of the rock bands of my youth. High School to be specific. Discovery of their first album let geeky guys on the debating team (me) actually think they were pretty hip (questionable). And while the second album lacked the genius of rock legend Al Kooper, it did still have guitarist Steve Katz. (Like Kooper, a former member of The Blues Project aka "The Jewish Beatles." )
My joy that I would be able to see the latest version of the band play live was tempered by the locale of the event, a "music under the stars" concert in Lyndhurst, New Jersey. So this is what the "counterculture" has become... a thousand "seniors" ensconced in lawn chairs in a park in suburban New Jersey?
The group did all the "hits," including some from what is admittedly the esoteric early years when (to use Steve Post's marvelous phrase) they "played in the FM band." There were the AM radio songs, along with some 1990's smooth jazz. And why not? No one should be condemned to living the life of a human jukebox, churning out the same songs the same way for eternity. (Wasn't that the plot of Satre's No Exit? See the advantages of a Jesuit education...)
Actually, the evening was a lot of fun. One of the more remarkable aspects was the small group of women who got up to dance. All these years later, they still could do those 1960's dance steps, while once again most of their husbands/boyfriends/significant others were nowhere to be seen. Proof positive that not everything changes with time.
