And When I Die

Album

Blood, Sweat & Tears

Label

Columbia Records

Genre

Jazz fusion

Composer(s)

Laura Nyro

Entered Chart

Oct 18, 1969

Peak Date

Nov 29, 1969

Released

30 September 1969

Recorded

1968

Catalog #

Columbia 4-45008

B-Side

Sometimes In Winter

This was one of the first songs written by Laura Nyro, who was 17 when she wrote it. The song was first recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary in 1966. Nyro included it on her first album in 1967, More Than A New Discovery. Blood, Sweat & Tears, a nine-man group with a prominent horn section, covered it in 1969, and their version was the hit. Nyro never had much success recording her own songs, but wrote several hits for other artists, including "Eli's Coming" for Three Dog Night and "Sweet Blindness" for The 5th Dimension. She died of cancer in 1997. This song is about death, but also about living, reflecting on our limited time on Earth and the futility in wasting that time worrying about what comes next. And when we die, another will be born to replace us. The Laura Nyro connection to Blood, Sweat & Tears: she was dating their bass player Jimmy Fielder. In our interview with David Clayton-Thomas, who was the group's lead singer, he explained: "Laura used to come to our rehearsals and hang out. Sometimes she'd bring a pizza to the rehearsal place - we were just all pals, and we knew Laura's songs. Even before she got her recording career launched, she was one of the inner circle of people we hung out with." This song hit #2 US on November 29, 1969. That week, two other songs written by Laura Nyro were also in the Top 10: "Wedding Bell Blues" by 5th Dimension (#3) and "Eli's Coming" by Three Dog Night (#10). "And When I Die" was the third consecutive BS&T song to stall at #2 in the US. None of their songs ever hit the top spot, but they're in good company: Creedence Clearwater Revival had five #2 hits without a chart-topper. Structurally, this is a very unusual song with no real chorus. The title is the first line in the song and also shows up at the end, but makes just these two appearances. By starting the song with the word "and," it implies picking up a conversation - probably a good one. Alan Merrill, who with his group The Arrows wrote the hit "I Love Rock And Roll," was very close to Laura Nyro - his aunt married Laura's uncle. Merrill recalls: "I was in the room when Laura wrote that song and I told her to trash it. I told her it was 'morbid.' I was 15. Death was very distant and scary at the time. It was her first chart hit song, for Peter Paul & Mary. What did I know?"

I'm not scared of dying
And I don't really care
If it's peace you find in dying
Well, then let the time be near

If it's peace you find in dying
And if dying time is near
Just bundle up my coffin cause
It's cold way down there
I hear that's it's cold way down there
Yeah, crazy cold way down there

And when I die and when I'm gone
There'll be one child born
In this world, carry on, to carry on

Now troubles are many
They're as deep as a well
I can swear there ain't no heaven
But I pray there ain't no hell

Swear there ain't no heaven
And I pray there ain't no hell
But I'll never know by living
Only by dying will tell
Yes, only by dying will tell, yeah
Only my dying will tell

And when I die and when I'm gone
There'll be one child born
In this world to carry on, to carry on

Give me my freedom for as long as I be
All I ask of the living is to have no chains on me

All I ask of living is to have no chains on me
And all I ask of dying is to go naturally
Only want to go naturally

Here I go, ah
Hey, hey

Here comes the devil, right behind
Look out children, here he come
Here he come
Hey

Don't want to go by the devil
Don't want to go by the demon
Don't want to go by Satan
Don't want to die uneasy
Just let me go naturally

And when I die and when I'm dead, dead and gone
There'll be one child born
In our world to carry on, to carry on, yeah, yeah