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Child Is Father to the Man

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Child Is Father to the Man is the debut album by Blood, Sweat & Tears, released in February 1968. It reached number 47 on Billboard's (North America) Pop Albums chart.

History

Widely regarded as a classic fusion of jazz, rock and roll, psychedelia and classical music, Child Is Father to the Man is one of bandleader Al Kooper's most enduring works. The album introduced the idea of the big band to rock and roll and paved the way for such groups as Chicago. Kooper left the band after this album, changing the nature of the group.

Child Is Father to the Man peaked at #47 on Billboard's (North America) Pop Albums chart. It failed to generate any Top 40 singles in the United States, although "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" and "I Can't Quit Her" found some play on progressive rock radio.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 264 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The title is a quotation from a similarly titled poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, slightly misquoting a poem by William Wordsworth called "My Heart Leaps Up".

The album was re-released in the UK in 1973, entitled "The First Album" on Embassy Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records (catalogue number EMB 31028) with an identical track listing and the same picture on the front of the sleeve. The rear had new sleeve notes written by English DJ, Noel Edmunds.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [1]
Rolling StonePositive [2]

Writing for Allmusic, critic William Ruhlman wrote the album was "Al Kooper's finest work, an album on which he moves the folk-blues-rock amalgamation of the Blues Project into even wider pastures, taking in classical and jazz elements (including strings and horns), all without losing the pop essence that makes the hybrid work. 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... This is the sound of a group of virtuosos enjoying itself in the newly open possibilities of pop music. Maybe it couldn't have lasted; anyway, it didn't."[1]

Track listing

  1. "Overture" (Kooper) – 1:32
  2. "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" (Kooper) – 5:57
  3. "Morning Glory" (Larry Beckett, Tim Buckley) – 4:16
  4. "My Days Are Numbered" (Kooper) – 3:19
  5. "Without Her" (Harry Nilsson) – 2:41
  6. "Just One Smile" (Randy Newman) – 4:38
  7. "I Can't Quit Her" (Kooper, Irwin Levine) – 3:38
  8. "Meagan's Gypsy Eyes" (Steve Katz) – 3:24
  9. "Somethin' Goin' On" (Kooper) – 8:00
  10. "House in the Country" (Kooper) – 3:04
  11. "The Modern Adventures of Plato, Diogenes and Freud" (Kooper) – 4:12
  12. "So Much Love"/"Underture" (Gerry Goffin, Carole King) – 4:47

1994 Master Sound edition bonus tracks (Columbia CK 64214)

  2. "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" [demo version - mono] (Kooper) – (6:10)
  3. "Refugee from Yuhupitz (Instrumental)" [demo version - mono] (Kooper) – (3:44)
  4. "I Can't Quit Her" [demo version - mono] (Kooper, Levine) – (3:00)
  5. "Morning Glory" [demo version - mono] (Beckett, Buckley) – (4:11)
  6. "Somethin' Going On" [demo version - mono] (Kooper) – (5:19)
  7. "The Modern Adventures of Plato, Diogenes and Freud" [demo version - mono] (Kooper) – (5:03)

2002 remastered edition bonus tracks

  2. "Refugee from Yuhupitz (Instrumental)" [demo version - mono] (Kooper) – (3:44)
  3. "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" [demo version - mono] (Kooper) – (6:10)
  4. "The Modern Adventures of Plato, Diogenes and Freud" [demo version - mono] (Kooper) – (5:03)

Personnel

Blood, Sweat & Tears

Additional musicians

  • Anahid Ajemian – violin
  • Fred Catero – sound effects
  • Harold Coletta – viola
  • Paul Gershman – violin
  • Al Gorgoni – organ, guitar, vocals
  • Manny Green – violin
  • Julie Held – violin
  • Doug James – shaker
  • Harry Katzman – violin
  • Leo Kruczek – violin
  • Harry Lookofsky – violin
  • Charles McCracken – cello
  • Melba Moorman – choir, chorus
  • Gene Orloff – violin
  • Valerie Simpson – choir, chorus
  • Alan Schulman – cello
  • John Simon – organ, piano, conductor, cowbell
  • The Manny Vardi Strings

Production

  • Producers: Bob Irwin, John Simon
  • Engineer: Fred Catero
  • Mixing: John Simon
  • Mastering: Vic Anesini
  • Arrangers: Fred Catero, Al Gorgoni, Fred Lipsius, Alan Schulman, John Simon
  • Art direction: Howard Fritzson
  • Photography: Bob Cato, Don Hunstein
  • Packaging: Michael Cimicata

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year Chart Position
1968 Pop Albums 47

Later Samples

References

  1. ^ a b Ruhlman, William. "Child Is Father to the Man' > Review". Allmusic. Retrieved July 9, 2011.
  2. ^ "Blood, Sweat & Tears: Child Is Father to the Man : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". 27 April 1968. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
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