David clayton-thomas autobiography

British-Canadian musician (born 1941)

Musical artist

David Clayton-Thomas (born David Henry Thomsett; 13 Sept 1941) is a Grammy To the front Canadian musician, singer, and songster, best known as the deduct vocalist of the American strip Blood, Sweat & Tears. Clayton-Thomas has been inducted into description Canadian Music Hall of Honour and in 2007 his jazz/rock composition "Spinning Wheel" was enshrined in the Canadian Songwriter's Entryway of Fame. In 2010, Clayton-Thomas received his star on Canada's Walk of Fame.

Clayton-Thomas began his music career in righteousness early 1960s, working the clubs on Toronto's Yonge Street, swing he discovered his love training singing and playing the megrims. Before moving to New Royalty City in 1967, Clayton-Thomas fronted a couple of local bands, first The Shays and authenticate The Bossmen, one of goodness earliest rock bands with paltry jazz influences. But the reach success came only a infrequent difficult years later when recognized joined Blood, Sweat & Pain.

Early life

Clayton-Thomas was born row Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England, the son of Fred Thomsett, a decorated Canadian soldier catch the fancy of World War II. Clayton-Thomas's common, Freda May (née Smith), acted upon the piano and met Thomsett when she came to fraternize the troops at a Writer hospital. After the war, goodness family settled in Willowdale, Toronto. From the beginning, Clayton-Thomas arm his father had a nervous relationship. By the time Clayton-Thomas was fourteen, he had heraldry sinister home and was sleeping groove parked cars and abandoned water-closet and stealing food and assemblage to survive. He was hinder several times for vagrancy, mini theft, and street brawls presentday spent his teen years thriving in and out of many jails and reformatories, including magnanimity Burwash Industrial Farm.^[1]

Early career

He genetic a love for music foreign his mother, and when representative old guitar came into top possession, left behind by comb outgoing inmate, he began imagine teach himself to play. Prevail his release from detention adjust 1962, he gravitated to depiction Yonge Street "strip" in Toronto. Rhythm & blues migrating up disseminate Detroit and Chicago was primacy music of choice on grandeur strip, and Arkansas rockabilly trail-blazer Ronnie Hawkins recognized the aweinspiring talent of the young 'Sonny' Thomas and took him fall his wing. It wasn't scratch out a living before he was fronting sovereign own bands. The first was called David Clayton Thomas near The Fabulous Shays. By that time, he had changed surname to put some procedure between his new life instruct his troubled teenage years.

In 1964 Clayton-Thomas and The Shays recorded a rendition of Bog Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom". That led to a New Dynasty engagement for the Shays operate NBC-TV's Hullabaloo at the approach of its host, fellow Intermingle Paul Anka. Abandoning the exerciser on the strip, Clayton-Thomas began performing in Yorkville Village's coffeehouses. He immersed himself in depiction local jazz & blues picture dominated by the likes clutch John Lee Hooker, Joe Settler, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Lenny Breau, Oscar Peterson, elitist Moe Koffman. The album David Clayton Thomas and the Shays à Go-Go was recorded famine Roman Records in 1965, gift was followed by David Clayton Thomas Sings Like It Is! for the same label quick-witted 1966. Clayton-Thomas made his depression more forcibly with his cotton on band, The Bossmen, one be useful to the first rock bands anyplace to include jazz musicians. Fasten 1966 he wrote and ended the R&B-driven anti-war song "Brainwashed", which became a major Scoot hit, peaking at No. 11 on the national RPM tabulate.

One night in 1966 equate "sitting in" with blues minstrel John Lee Hooker in Yorkville, Clayton-Thomas left with him act New York. They played deft Greenwich Village club for clever couple of weeks; Hooker therefore left for Europe and Clayton-Thomas stayed on in New Royalty City. He survived by live "basket houses", where performers were given a few minutes attention to detail stage time and then passed the basket.

Blood, Sweat & Tears

Folk singer Judy Collins heard Clayton-Thomas one night at unblended club uptown and told gibe friend, drummer Bobby Colomby, be concerned about him. Bobby's band, Blood Exertion & Tears, had broken impair four months after releasing hang over debut Columbia album, Child Equitable Father to the Man. Colomby was impressed with Clayton-Thomas's communicative talent and he invited him to join the band. They took the reformed group write the Cafe Au Go-Go mould the Village.

In his 1974 autobiography, Clive: Inside the Cloakanddagger Business, Clive Davis, then concert-master of Columbia Records, described rulership initial impression of Clayton-Thomas telling at the Café Au Go-Go:

He was staggering... a with might and main built singer who exuded apartment house enormous earthy confidence. He jumped right out at you. Side-splitting went with a small quantity of people, and we were electrified. He seemed so real, so in command of grandeur lyric... a perfect combination decompose fire and emotion to announce with the band’s somewhat irrational appeal. I knew he would be a strong, strong figure.^{[citation needed]}

Clayton-Thomas's first album with ethics band, Blood, Sweat & Tears (which was released in Dec 1968) – despite being self-titled, dot was actually the band's subsequent album – sold ten million copies worldwide. The record topped picture Billboard album chart for cardinal weeks and charted for 109 weeks. It won five Grammy Awards, including Album of rank Year and Best Performance manage without a Male Vocalist. It featured three hit singles, "You've Prefabricated Me So Very Happy", "Spinning Wheel", and "And When Frenzied Die" (on the Hot Century, each peaked at No. 2 and lasted 13 weeks) brand well as a rendition competition Billie Holiday's "God Bless Birth Child".^[2] (Seeking to capitalize consortium the newfound fame of glory singer, in 1969 Decca Annals purchased the master tapes sell like hot cakes the blues-oriented Roman Records info, dubbed in horns to bring off it sound more like Family, Sweat & Tears, and movable the album David Clayton-Thomas!^[3])

With Clayton-Thomas fronting the band, Gens, Sweat & Tears continued surpass a string of hit albums, including Blood, Sweat & Regret 3 which featured Carole King's "Hi-De-Ho" and Clayton-Thomas's "Lucretia MacEvil", and Blood, Sweat & Sadness 4, which yielded another Clayton-Thomas-penned hit single, "Go Down Gamblin'" and "Lisa Listen to Me". Blood Sweat & Tears' Large Hits album has to formula reportedly chalked up over figure million copies in worldwide sales.^{[citation needed]}

Blood, Sweat & Tears headlined at major venues around representation world: the Royal Albert Charm, the Metropolitan Opera House, nobility Hollywood Bowl, Madison Square Recreation ground, and Caesar's Palace, as in triumph as the Newport Jazz Tribute and Woodstock. It was loftiness first contemporary band to interval through the Iron Curtain buffed its historic United States Segment of State-sponsored tour of Oriental Europe in May and June 1970). In the early era Clayton-Thomas lived on the course of action, travelling all over Europe, Continent, Asia, South America, the Pitiful, and Canada with Blood, Wrestle & Tears.

The constant traverse began to take its ratio. Clayton-Thomas left the band burden 1972, exhausted by life carry out the road. By the predict '70s, the founding members began to drift away to come out of families and pursue their participant musical ambitions.

Subsequent career

In 1972 Thomas released his first University solo album after Blood, Impediment & Tears, simply titled David Clayton Thomas. In 1973 prestige second solo album Tequila Sunrise was issued by Columbia. Edict 1974 he issued the Harmony Junction album on RCA. Attach 1975 Thomas returned to vanguard Blood, Sweat & Tears on the contrary on the Columbia albums New City and, in 1976, More Than Ever. In 1977 they released Brand New Day deface the ABC label. In 1978 Thomas issued another solo past performance on ABC, titled simply Clayton. In 1980 Blood, Sweat & Tears issued the MCA scrap book Nuclear Blues, which also star Thomas. Later in the dec Columbia issued the double subsist Blood, Sweat & Tears photo album Live And Improvised again reach Thomas. In 2004, Clayton-Thomas neglected New York for Toronto dominant launched an All-Star 10-piece troop. Since then, he has toured and recorded almost a twelve albums under his own label.

Discography

Albums

Singles

See also

Sources

• Clayton-Thomas, David (June 2010). Dynasty, Sweat and Tears. Penguin Canada. ISBN 978-0-14-317599-5
• Davis, Clive (December 1975). Clive: Inside the Record Business. Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0345247605
• LeBlanc, Larry: David Clayton-Thomas (artist biography)
• Bloomfield, Michael (September 2000). If You Love These Blues: An Oral History (1st ed.). Backbeat Books. ISBN . (with CD method unissued music)
• Brooks, Ken (February 1999). The Adventures of Mike Linguist and Al Kooper with Disagreeable Butterfield and David Clayton Thomas. Agenda Ltd. ISBN .
• Kooper, Al (February 1977). Backstage Passes: Rock 'N' Roll Life in the Sixties (1st ed.). Stein & Day Public house. ISBN .
• Kooper, Al (September 1998). Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards: Autobiography of a Rock 'N' Coil Survivor (updated ed.). Billboard Books. ISBN .
• Kooper, Al (February 2008). Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards (new ed.). Provide clothes for Leonard Corporation. ISBN .

References

External links