Rant #3,972: And When I Die

Hopefully, with my most recent health woes supposedly behind me, I don't have to worry about this possibility just yet, but did you notice that satellite radio was all over this song last week--

And its lyrics were all over social media during the same time, because the song was just so fitting for the passing of a singer who made the song his own--

Although he didn't write it.

Laura Nyro's "And When I Die" seemed just so perfect, so fitting, and so natural for the occasion, as we all learned that David Clayton-Thomas left us late last week.

He was the heart and soul and lead voice of Blood, Sweat and Tears--fashioned after a Winston Churchill saying--who, for about two or maybe three  years, were on top of the musical world, then faded as fast as they ascended.

I personally saw them in concert probably about a half-dozen times--with and without Clayton-Thomas--and they dominated radio airplay in the late 1960s into the cusp of the early 1970s--

And then PFHHT--that was it--even though they continued to produce LPs and were a pretty big concert draw on the oldies circuit.

Clayton-Thomas was a wayward youth in Canada, a petty criminal whose love of music kept him from being just another statistic.

The story goes that during another episode, he found a guitar, learned to play it by himself, and somehow, the burly Clayton-Thomas engaged himself to the burgeoning Canadian music scene in the years prior to acts like the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive making themselves known internationally.

He gravitated to the States, and when Al Kooper left the original Blood, Sweat and Tears over creative matters--Kooper formed the band to meld rock and jazz and horns, but he was not happy with their first album and split--and Clayton-Thomas became the act's lead singer and sometimes songwriter.

And those hits--"Spinning Wheel," "You've Made Me So Very Happy," and yes, "And When I Die"--made the band a very commercial one, but they were one of the headliners of Woodstock and were in heavy rotation on both AM and FM stations.

As the 1960s ended, the bubble burst, and by the early 1970s, Blood, Sweat and Tears were still touring, still putting out records, but the magic had clearly left.

Clayton-Thomas was in and out of the band, he put out numerous solo LPs, but Blood, Sweat and Tears--based on a couple of AM radio hits and about four classic albums--became staples on the oldies circuit, which is where I saw them numerous times.

Yes, their music did meld jazz and rock and pop, but by the time I saw them, it wasn't such a revolutionary thing anymore.

But they persevered, and now their lead singer is gone.

And here is his epitaph, the Laura Nyro song that was one of Blood, Sweat and Tears' biggest hits, with lyrics from the Genius website (https://genius.com/Blood-sweat-and-tears-and-when-i-die-lyrics):

[Verse 1]
I'm not scared of dying
And I don't really care
If it's peace you find in dying
Well then, let the time be near

If it's peace you find in dying
Well, then dying time is near
Just bundle up my coffin
'Cause it's cold way down there
I hear that it's cold way down there, yeah
Crazy cold, way down there

[Chorus]

And when I die, and when I'm gone
There'll be, one child born in this world
To carry on, to carry on

{​Instrumental}​

[Verse 2]
Now troubles are many
They're as deep as a well
I can swear there ain't no Heaven
But I pray there ain't no Hell
Swear there ain't no Heaven
And I'll pray there ain't no Hell
But I'll never know by livin'
Only my dyin' will tell
Yes, only my dyin' will tell, oh yeah
Only my dyin' will tell

[Chorus]
And when I die, and when I'm gone
There'll be, one child born in this world
To carry on, to carry on, yeah yeah

{​Instrumental}​
Yee-ha

[Verse 3]
Give me my freedom
For as long as I be
All I ask of livin'
Is to have no chains on me
All I ask of livin'
Is to have no chains on me
And all I ask of dyin' is to
Go naturally
Only wanna go naturally

[Bridge]
Here I go, hah!
Hey hey
Here come the devil
Right behind
Look out, children, here he come
Here he come, hey

Don't wanna go by the devil
Don't wanna go by demon
Don't wanna go by Satan
Don't wanna die uneasy
Just let me go naturally

And when I die
And when I'm dead, dead and gone
There'll be one child born in our world
To carry on, to carry on

{​Outro}​