BS&T DOC: WHAT GOES UP, COMES DOWN

Documentarian John Scheinfeld has excelled at finding gems in music history where the story has appeared to have already been satisfactorily documented. In What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears, which starts in theaters Friday, Scheinfeld peels away the layers of Blood, Sweat & Tears’ rapid rise and fall as expertly as he did in The U.S. vs. John Lennon and Who Is Harry Nilsson…?

Blood, Sweat & Tears, the film exposes, were early victims of cancel culture following a 1970 tour behind the Iron Curtain in Yugoslavia, Romania and Poland via the U.S. State Department. Largely perceived as apolitical hitmakers, the counter-culture turned their backs on the groundbreaking horn-driven band following the tour, which in turn led to their commercial downfall.

In discographic terms, Scheinfeld’s film takes the BS&T story from the months after their self-titled second album ruled the charts in 1969—#1 for seven weeks, 4m sold, Album of the Year Grammy plus three Top 5 singles—and being a headliner at Woodstock to fully falling out of favor with audiences in 1971. That decline, What the Hell Happened exposes, owes to a quid pro quo arrangement between BS&T’s manager and the government to secure a green card for the band’s Canadian singer, David Clayton-Thomas.

Yet upon their return to the States, BS&T wound up trapped in a no man’s land: Their audience, rock fans who railed against anything associated with “The Man,” turned their backs on them, accusing the group of being tools of the Nixon administration. Of course, the establishment had no use for rock music to start.

What the Hell Happened, distributed by Abramorama, weaves footage from the tour—much of which was confiscated by government officials—with recent interviews with guitarist Steve Katz, drummer/band leader Bobby Colomby, then-Columbia Records chief Clive Davis and others who offer clear reflections of their experiences on tour and the aftermath. Scheinfeld does a superb job explain BS&T’s history and standing alongside U.S. political turmoil without trotting out cliched language or overused footage of the era.

Colomby wrote the film’s score, which is performed by the current BS&T lineup that Omnivore Recording is releasing 4/21 along with 10 of the performances from the film.

And could there be a better tagline for the BS&T story? The line from "Spinning Wheel" says it all: What goes up must come down.