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San Francisco funk ensemble Cold Blood were contemporaries of Bay Area greats Tower of Power and supposedly got their first break from Janis Joplin. Driven by the powerful vocals of Lydia Pense, the band unleashed a number of classic early-’70s records, including 1973’s monster Thriller (a decade earlier than Mr. Jackson!), which includes this epic version of Bill Wither’s “Kissing My Love”.
We dropped this jam at a dance party a while back, and people actually danced to it! I know, right? To a song they didn’t even know! Part of its power lies in its slight reconfiguring of James Gadson’s original beat, laying harder into it and stripping it of the original’s slight swing (a Gadson hallmark). Pense unleashes a fury on top of it, turning Withers’ head-nodding groove into a fiery, apocalyptic jam, complete with the band’s trademark killer horns (they shared and traded some members with Tower of Power).
The band still plays around to this day, led by the indefatigable Ms. Pense. I hear she’s still got it!
Here’s the fantastic Withers original.
And here’s another Cold Blood classic, “Down to the Bone”.
When I was in high school in the early ’70s, our student government found themselves with a budget surplus and decided to book a “name” band for one of our dances. The choice came down to Cold Blood or Bachman Turner Overdrive (this was just after BTO’s first album had come out). They chose Cold Blood. I didn’t go, but judging from everything I heard after it was a terrible mistake.
I’ve never heard of this band, but this rocks like a motherfucker.
I believe Max Haskett, who later went on to play with Todd Rundgren, was in this band.
Donny Hathaway produced one of their albums, the one where they do a nice take of his “Valdez in the Country.”
@juiceandgin: Indeed. Spread the word! I don’t think the lps are hard to find but it’s all out of print as far as I can tell.