Supergroup? According to the definition, for a band to be a supergroup, multiple core members have to have come from a previous group that had already achieved significant recognition or set themselves apart somehow. Let's test the band in the title.
Davie Blood co-founded the Curds: With their early singles he became not only instantly recognizable for his backing harmonies, but also distinguished himself as a decision maker. His pick of cover songs to title their first two albums was in keeping with the concept behind the name of the group, also his idea.
The band's manager questioned the thematic choice, but
Blood insisted, "What's wrong with a little cheese, man? I mean, everybody loves
cheese. Like, both the tunes and the food."
That he would further down the road dearly depart from the substance is beside the point that the song consumers were presently eating it up. "Mr. Ham & Bree Dan" rose to the top immediately and stayed there throughout the summer of '65, outdoing its originator and namesake, Danny Dean.
Their next album and single followed later that same year. "Churn! Churn! Churn!" took Skeeter Hall's cookbook cribbed
folk number and churned it into the Curds' second number 1. This distinction has been said to have influenced the breakup of Skeeter Hall & Larry, who never recorded the song. "Imagine the chicks we'd get!" Larry is alleged to have pleaded.
Then came the separation of the Curds, when their primary original songwriter and guitarist extraordinaire, Roy Clark, decided to pursue a career in the emerging brand of Hillbilly TV. The next Rolling Stone cover would quip Does This Bury The Curds?
But Blood would continue in the group just long enough to dust off one last demo by Clark to produce "Six Feet Deep", which has been covered
by over a dozen major label artists in several genres since.
Stevie Sweat co-founded Rusting Tractor:
He wrote and sang & played lead vocals & guitar on over half of Tractor's self-named debut album in 1966, including their biggest hit, "What do I know?", which was added to a re-release the year after. This iconic song has been licensed and used in countless films about the Vietnam War, even though lyricist Sweat swears he never knew what the song was about. Over the course of their original three year run, the band survived brief absences by each of their members - save for Sweat.
Willie Tears Graham co-founded the Buddies:
Out of all the previous bands, this is the hit machine, albeit primarily in Tears' native UK. Nevertheless, their first top 10 single, "Train Station", would chart at 5 on both sides of the Atlantic in '66, and inspire Tears to co-author their follow-up number 2, "Station Station Station".
Not that Americans would shed tears over a band without a Brit in it, but since the so-named invasion, Tears was a good brand of international cred.
McNeil Urine co-founded Rusting Tractor:
Urine is the most distinct of the group. By the time he joined the first three shortly after the top 10 success of their first album in the summer of '69, he had already made a name for himself that same year, as well, especially through his work with Insane Animals. While he hadn't hit the charts like his new bandmates had, "The Boner" from his first solo had real sleeper impact, and he had everybody singing along to "Pap Reek a Lady".
Probably Blood, Sweat & Tears were a supergroup already. Adding Urine to the mix would lend their songs an indisputable aroma that would define the connection between the '60s and a brand-new American decade.
Although he only joined his former Rusting Tractor bandmate's new band for a brief whiff of their newly configured potential, the resulting album, 1970's À la Carte, has outsold all the member's other output to date, solo or otherwise.
The fact that they released only one album serves merely to crystallize their status as a supergroup. Ask anyone who was around back then and they'll tell you: Blood, Sweat, Tears & Urine were the group that looked, felt, sounded and smelled like the times. Man.
