In 1964, Elektra Records produced a compilation album of various artists entitled The Blues Project which featured several white musicians from the Greenwich Village area who played acoustic blues music in the style of black musicians. One of the featured artists on the album was a young guitarist named Danny Kalb, who was paid $75 for his two songs. Not long after the album's release, however, Kalb gave up his acoustic guitar for an electric one. The Beatles' arrival in America earlier in the year signified the end of the folk and acoustic blues movement that had swept young America in the early 1960s. The ensuing British Invasion was the nail in the coffin. Seeing the writing on the wall, Kalb gave up acoustic blues and switched to rock and roll, as did many other aspiring American musicians during this period.
Danny Kalb's first rock and roll band was formed in the spring of 1965, playing under various names at first, until finally settling on the Blues Project moniker as an allusion to Kalb's first foray on record. After a brief hiatus in the summer months of 1965 during which Kalb was visiting Europe, the band reformed in September 1965 and were almost immediately a top draw in Greenwich Village. By this time, the band included Danny Kalb on guitar, Steve Katz (having recently departed the Even Dozen Jug Band) also on guitar, Andy Kulberg on bass and flute, Roy Blumenfeld on drums and Tommy Flanders on vocals.
The band's first big break came only a few weeks later when they auditioned for Columbia Records, and failed. The audition was a success, nevertheless, as it garnered them an organist in session musician Al Kooper. Kooper had begun his career as a session guitarist, but that summer, he began playing organ when he sneaked into the "Like a Rolling Stone" recording session on Bob Dylan's seminal album Highway 61 Revisited. In order to improve his musicianship on the new instrument, Kooper joined the Blues Project and began gigging with them almost immediately.
Soon thereafter, the Blues Project gained a record contract from Verve Records, and began recording their first album live at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village over the course of a week in November 1965. While the band was known for their lengthy interpretations of blues and traditional rock and roll songs (making them, along with the Grateful Dead, rock's first "jam band"), their first album saw them rein in these tendencies because of record company wariness as well as the time restrictions of the vinyl record.
Entitled simply Live at the Café Au Go Go, the album was finished with another week of live recordings at the cafe in January 1966. By that time, vocalist Tommy Flanders had left the band and was not replaced. As a result, Flanders appears on only a few of the songs on this album.
The album was a moderate success and the band toured America to promote it. While in San Francisco in April 1966, during the height of the city's Haight-Ashbury culture, the Blues Project played at the Fillmore Auditorium to rave reviews. Seemingly New York's answer to the Grateful Dead, even members of the Grateful Dead who saw them play were impressed with their improvisational abilities.
Returning to New York, the band recorded their second album and first studio album in the fall of 1966, and it was released in November. Arguably better than their first album, Projections was certainly more ambitious than their first album, boasting an eclectic set of songs that ran the gamut from blues, R&B, jazz, psychedelia, and folk-rock. The centerpiece of the album was an 11-and-a-half minute version of "Two Trains Running", which, along with other songs on the album, showed off their improvisational tendencies. One such song was the instrumental, "Flute Thing", written by Kooper and featuring Kulberg.
Soon after the album was completed, though, the band began to fall apart. Al Kooper quit the band in the spring of 1967, and the band without him completed a third album, Live At Town Hall. Despite the name, only one song was recorded live at Town Hall, while the rest was made up of live recordings from other venues, or of studio outtakes with overdubbed applause to feign a live sound.
The Blues Project's last hurrah was at the Monterey International Pop Festival held in Monterey, California, in June 1967. By this time, however, half the original line-up was gone and most of their early magic was, too. Al Kooper had formed his own band and played at the festival as well, but no sort of reunion was in the offing. Guitarist Steve Katz left soon thereafter, followed by founder Danny Kalb. A fourth album, 1968's Planned Obsolescence, featured only drummer Roy Blumenfeld and bassist Andy Kulberg from the original lineup. Upon the album's completion, the remaining members formed Seatrain.
In 1968, Al Kooper and Steve Katz joined forces once again to fulfill a desire of Al Kooper's to form a rock band with a horn section. The resulting band was Blood, Sweat & Tears. While Kooper led the band on its first album, Child Is Father to the Man, he did not stick around for any subsequent releases. Katz, on the other hand, remained with the band into the 1970s.
The Blues Project, with a modified lineup, reformed briefly in the early 1970s, releasing three further albums: 1971's Lazarus, 1972's The Blues Project, and 1973's Original Blues Project Reunion In Central Park (which featured Al Kooper but not Tommy Flanders). These albums did little to excite the public, however. Since then, the group's activity has been confined to a few sporadic reunion concerts.
Fly Away
The Blues Project Lyrics
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Deep within your heart you're sick
The feelin's gone - the road's too slick
Your face has changed - it's rearranged
There's no way out you cry
But I know better than ya do
About your trips through paper clips
You're hung up on the sky
Oh and though it's not for me to say
About the thoughts you thought today
I can only promise you that everything I said is true
There's nothin left for you to do but fly....
Fly away and hope the sky enfolds you
Fly away don't say I never told you
The clothes you wore you've burned them all
And naked now it's hard to crawl
To find relief from pseudo-grief
The table's turnin' fast
While tears of joy have turned to blood
You're sinkin deeper in the mud
And the more ya scream it's just a dream
The darkness comes at last
Oh and though it's not for me to say
About the thoughts you thought today
I can only promise you that everything I said is true
There's nothin left for you to do but fly....
Fly away and hope the sky enfolds you
Fly away don't say I never told you
The lyrics of The Blues Project's "Fly Away" talk about somebody who's in a very dark place. They recognize that they're feeling lost and alone, but they can't seem to break out of the cycle. The singer acknowledges the pain in their voice but also sees through their lies. He realizes that they're stuck in a world of their own making - one where they're trapped by their addictions and the false sense of relief they bring. Despite the pain he feels for them, he knows that the only way out of this darkness is by letting go and flying away from it all.
The verses paint a picture of somebody desperately struggling to find some control in their life. They have burned all their clothes and are now naked, trying to crawl their way out of this hole. But everything they do just seems to make things worse, and the tears of joy have turned to blood, symbolizing a sense of futility and hopelessness. It's clear that their mind is not in a good place, and they're screaming for help, but nobody seems to hear or understand. Ultimately, the singer tells them that the best thing they can do is to fly away and let the sky enfold them. It's a powerful call to action that paints a vivid picture of the hope that can be found even in the darkest of places.
Line by Line Meaning
Deep within your heart you're sick
You are not feeling well internally.
The feelin's gone - the road's too slick
You have lost your emotions and the path you're on is getting increasingly difficult.
Your face has changed - it's rearranged
Your appearance has altered and become unrecognizable.
There's no way out you cry
You feel trapped with no escape.
But I know better than ya do
I understand your situation better than you do.
The lies ya tell - they all are true
Your deceptive words are in fact truthful.
About your trips through paper clips
Your drug use has intensified.
You're hung up on the sky
You are fixated on the idea of flying or leaving your current situation.
Oh and though it's not for me to say
It's not my place to judge or comment.
About the thoughts you thought today
I have no insight into what you were thinking.
I can only promise you that everything I said is true
My words are truthful and sincere.
There's nothin left for you to do but fly....
Your only option is to escape, to leave everything behind.
Fly away and hope the sky enfolds you
Take to the skies and pray that you are accepted by the heavens.
Fly away don't say I never told you
Depart, and don't claim that I didn't warn you.
The clothes you wore you've burned them all
You have discarded all evidence of your past self.
And naked now it's hard to crawl
You are exposed and vulnerable, making it difficult to continue forward.
To find relief from pseudo-grief
Searching for solace from manufactured pain and sorrow.
The table's turnin' fast
The situation is quickly changing and deteriorating.
While tears of joy have turned to blood
Once happy tears have become tears of pain.
You're sinkin deeper in the mud
Your struggles are deepening and you are trapped.
And the more ya scream it's just a dream
The harder you deny the reality of the situation.
The darkness comes at last
The end is near, and despair is closing in.
Contributed by Natalie I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.