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David Clayton-Thomas
with Blood Sweat & Tears
He was born David Henry Thomsett in an air-raid shelter in London,
England, September 13, 1941. It was the height of the Blitzkreig
and the bombs fell nightly on London. His mother Freda was an
English war-bride with a musical theater background; his father
Fred, a Canadian soldier, was away fighting in Italy. In 1944,
Freda and young David emigrated to Canada, Fred joined them a year
later. From the beginning there was trouble... David never
accepted this stranger who had seen so much war and brutality, and
Fred, twice wounded, highly decorated, resented the sullen,
withdrawn son he barely knew. Things got worse as David grew
older. Their confrontations grew increasingly violent. Finally,
barely fourteen, David left home for good. He soon got into
trouble with the law. In the spring of 1962, David walked out of
Millbrook Reformatory with twenty dollars and a battered old
guitar, and he never looked back. He was twenty-one and had been
in and out of such institutions since age fifteen. As a homeless
young runaway, he had been jailed a half-dozen times for vagrancy,
parole violations, petty theft. While other teenagers in suburban
Toronto were attending high school proms, David was a street kid,
a loner, sleeping in parked cars, stealing food and clothing,
learning how to survive and fight behind bars. He might have been
trapped in the endless cycle of recidivism but for that old
guitar. It had been left behind by an outgoing inmate, and David
claimed it. He began to learn to play, practicing alone, late into
the night, and for the first time in his life he had a dream, a
plan for the future. He left Millbrook tough and determined,
vowing never to return. He came to Toronto, to Yonge Street, a
rough, brawling strip filled with sex shops and bars, hookers and
hustlers of every kind. Rhythm and Blues was the music of choice
on "the strip". It migrated up from Chicago and Detroit and was
adopted by the musicians of Toronto. The king of "the strip" was
Ronnie Hawkins. The Arkansas-born rocker and his band "The Hawks"
ruled Yonge Street. David would hang around the clubs just for a
chance to sit in with "The Hawks" or to sing the Blues with Robbie
Robertson and Levon Helm. Soon he was leading bands of his own,
"The Shays" and "The Bossmen". To put some distance between this
new life and his past, he changed his name to David Clayton-Thomas
and soon began to attract attention in the fledgling Canadian
music industry. His first venture into the recording studio
produced "Boom Boom," a John Lee Hooker blues which rose to number
one locally. He then wrote "Walk that Walk" and "Brainwashed".
Both rocketed to number one nationally. A top-selling album,
numerous TV appearances, and hundreds of club and concert dates
followed, and David Clayton-Thomas was known across Canada. Paul
Anka, Canada's biggest international star, invited David to New
York to guest NBC's "Hullabaloo". After this nationally televised
appearance, David returned to Toronto. But New York had changed
him forever. He took his band out of the lucrative bars on "the
strip" and into the coffee houses of Yorkville, hangout for the
artists, writers, and musicians of the Bohemian set. The money was
lean, but here David could play alongside the great bluesmen he
worshipped: John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Sam Hopkins, Son House,
Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee. His
band soon drifted away. There was simply not enough money in
Yorkville to support them. But David hung in, doggedly playing for
whoever would listen, learning the music from the masters. John
Lee Hooker took the young singer-guitarist into his band, and when
he came to New York to play a Greenwich Village club, David came
with him. When that gig ran out, Hooker left for Europe and David
stayed on in the Village. It was 1967, and the Village was a
hotbed of creative activity. David roomed with other hungry young
musicians, playing for pizza money, hanging out in all-night
cafes, arguing music, politics and philosophy with the young
activist firebrands of the era, sharing gigs with Richie Havens,
James Taylor and Jimi Hendrix, playing "basket houses," (play a
few songs then pass the basket). Scuffling to survive was nothing
new to David. Word got around about the white blues singer from
Canada who sang and played with such conviction. Genuine stars
began to show up wherever he played. One night folk singer Judy
Collins dropped in and was deeply moved by the intensity of the
young man's music. She told her friend Bobby Colomby about the
experience, and the next night they returned together. (Bobby was
trying to hold together his faltering band "Blood, Sweat and
Tears". Even though the band's first album, "Child Is Father To
The Man," had been released, the band was already torn by
infighting over direction and leadership. Singer Al Kooper and
several founding members had already left.) BS&T's drummer was
stunned by what he heard that night, He immediately asked the
young Canadian blues singer to help reorganize his failing band,
and an American musical institution was born. BS&T's first album
with David sold an amazing ten million copies and launched three
gold singles, "You've Made Me So Very Happy", "And When I Die" and
"Spinning Wheel". The album won an unprecedented five Grammy
awards, including album of the year and best performance by a male
vocalist. David's rendition of Billie Holiday's "God Bless The
Child" became a classic. Five successive gold albums and three
more gold singles, "Hi De Ho," "Lucretia MacEvil" and "Go Down
Gamblin'" followed, and by 1972 BS&T was at the very top of the
music industry. Blood, Sweat and Tears, daring and innovative, a
fiery fusion of jazz and rock, blues and the classics . . . This
superb band defied all boundaries, performing with consummate
artistry in front of a symphony one night, thousands of rock fans
the next. BS&T played the Metropolitan Opera, the Fillmores, the
Newport Jazz Festival, and Caesar's Palace--all in the same year.
It was the first contemporary band to break through the iron
curtain with the historic 1970 tour of Eastern Europe, and of
course headlined at Woodstock, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie
Hall and the Hollywood Bowl . . . Blood, Sweat and Tears was the
hottest concert ticket in America. From the beginning, BS&T was a
strange hybrid. The Julliard graduates, with their classical
training, felt the band should aspire to loftier musical goals,
and Bartok and Satie became a part of the repertoire. The Berklee
grads were jazz purists, and long improvised solos became a part
of the show. Others were pure rockers whose experience included
"The Blues Project" and Frank Zappa's "Mother's of Invention".
Then there was David Clayton-Thomas. He prowled the edge of the
stage, that big blues-drenched voice, totally unique, filled with
raw naked emotion that no audience could resist. He drove the band
relentlessly. Without him it was academic perfection. With him it
came alive. Yet in spite of the success and accolades, the old
tensions and rivalries still existed in the band. Here lies the
magic - - and the eventual downfall - - of the early band. The
Julliard types, embarrassed by the hype of pop stardom, tried to
steer the band in a more classical direction, disdainful of both
jazz and rock. The Berklee boys resented the structure of the
classics and the simplicity of rock and pushed towards a more
complex improvisational style. David was the center of this
musical tug-of-war. He possessed neither classical training nor a
jazz background. But he was undoubtedly the star of the show,
attracting most of the media attention and composing most of their
hit songs. By the mid-70's, BS&T was submerged in a wave of its
own creation. Every record company had its horn bands: Chicago,
Earth Wind And Fire, Tower of Power... Even the Rolling Stones
carried a horn section. The founding members of BS&T began to
drift away to pursue their own musical ambitions. The classical
musicians went on to film scoring and teaching fellowships. The
jazz players left to play pure jazz. One by one they were replaced
with an illustrious lineup of renowned musicians: Joe Henderson,
Jaco Pastorius, Mike Stern, Larry Willis, Don Alias, Gregory
Herbert. In concert, the band was a musical powerhouse, but
inwardly it was in turmoil. The unique creative team was gone, so
the band took to the road, playing 300 concerts a year through the
70's. David left the band twice, exhausted by the brutal tour
schedule and frustrated by the lack of creative time. In 1976,
even Bobby Colomby, the sole remaining founding member, left to
become a music executive, and David was the only one left from the
glory years. In 1983, David teamed up with hard-driving young
manager, Larry Dorr, formerly a tour manager with the band. Larry
convinced David that there was still life in the once-proud name
Blood, Sweat & Tears, and that with the right musicians, good
management, and strong leadership, it could once again be an
attraction on concert stages around the world. They recruited
musical director/trumpeter Steve Guttman, graduate of Oberlin
Conservatory of Music, former musical director for the 70's
recording stars Gloria Gaynor and Evelyn "Champagne" King, and
alumnus of the Tito Puente and Machito big bands, and he assembled
an exciting lineup of top New York musicians. With Steve
conducting, Blood, Sweat & Tears began performing with prestigious
American symphonies like the Detroit, the Houston, and the
Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestras. Larry Dorr was right. A
revitalized BS&T under his direction and David's leadership came
storming back to the concert stages of the world, playing
international jazz festivals, symphonies, concert halls and casino
show rooms. David never sounded better. The personnel of the band
stabilized, and BS&T once again delivered the same exciting
diverse sound that made it such a well-loved part of America's
musical heritage. David Clayton-Thomas has returned to the studio
and has completed his first solo album in a decade. Recorded live
at Ornette Coleman's Harlem studio, David produced "Blue Plate
Special" himself. A blazing collection of new original songs and
classic blues tunes, it is music straight from the heart. This is
David Clayton-Thomas as he should be --direct and honest. The
production is "right in your face", with David's powerful vocals
front and center. In 1996, David was inducted into the Canadian
Music Hall of Fame, where he takes his place alongside his
country's musical giants... Oscar Peterson, Joni Mitchell, Neil
Young... Artists of legendary stature around the world. Sitting
proudly in black tie at the head table, was Fred Thomsett. David
and his Father have long since reconciled their differences. Freda
passed away in 1990, but she lived to see her son at the top of
his profession. From a prison cell to his nation's Hall of Fame...
it's been one hell of a journey! |
