APRIL 6 • 2023 | 53

ARTS&LIFE
FILM
B

lood, Sweat & Tears’ controversial mid-
1970 concert tour behind the old Iron 
Curtain resonated differently for each of 
the nine members of the band.
But the trip — the subject of the new documen-
tary What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears 
— was certainly poignant for a group comprised 
primarily of young Jewish men. 
“Yeah, I was apprehensive,” says Steve Katz, the 
group’s founding guitarist. “Just before we came 
to Poland, for instance, they fired three directors 
who were Jewish, including (Roman) Polanski. It 
was scary being in Poland and knowing what hap-
pened there,” including during World War II.
That said, neither Katz nor drummer Bobby 
Colomby felt any kind of antisemitism when the 
group made its U.S. State Department-sponsored 
run through Yugoslavia, Romania and Poland. 
“Being Jewish or not Jewish never entered into 
our thoughts, and there were no incidents at all,” 
notes Colomby, 78. “
And, y’know, we didn’t see a 
black person in those places, for sure. Our take at 
the time was it was America that was the site of 
antisemitism and real racism.”
Katz, 77, adds, “We were very, very closely 
guarded by the authorities in all three countries. If 
anything like that would’ve happened, it would’ve 
looked so bad for those countries and the State 
Department. Maybe it was kept from us, I don’t 
know.
“It wasn’t until years later, when I watched Shoah 
and stuff like that, that I realized just how bad the 
post-war attitude was that the Poles had toward 
Jews. Of course, the Yugoslavs had problems with 
each other — and forget about Romania, just write 
it off. But there were really some horrible things 
that happened in Poland.”
Directed by John Scheinfeld (The U.S. vs. John 
Lennon, Chasing Trane, Who is Harry Nilsson...?), 
What the Hell... tells the largely untold story about 
the tour, which stretched from June 
17 to July 7 and visited six cities in 
Eastern Europe. Blood, Sweat & Tears 
was one of the top bands in the world 
at the time, hot off its multi-plati-
num self-titled second album, which 
launched three Top 5 hits (“You’ve 
Made Me So Very Happy,
” “Spinning 
Wheel” and “
And When I Die”) and 
beat the Beatles, Johnny Cash, the Fifth Dimension 
and Crosby, Stills & Nash for the Grammy Award 
for Album of the Year. With its brass-fueled attack 
and unique straddling of rock and jazz templates, it 

TOP: Steve Katz on stage in 
Belgrade. BOTTOM, LEFT TO 
RIGHT: Bobby Colomby on 
the drums. The band plays in 
Ljubljana. A crowd waits for the 
concert in Bucharest.

Blood, Sweat & 
Tears documentary 
follows the band’s 
controversial 
mid-1970s tour.

Behind Curtain

continued on page 54

GARY GRAFF CONTRIBUTING WRITER

the 
Iron

John 
Scheinfeld

details 
What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & 
Tears screens Thursday and Friday, April 7-8, at 
the Farmington Civic Theater, 33332 Grand River 
Ave., Farmington, 248-475-1951 or theFCT.com. 
Also April 19 at Cinema Detroit, 4126 Third St., 
Detroit, 313-482-9028 or cinemadetroit.com. For 
tickets, visit bstdoc.com.

