CONSUMER ALERT: Coming on the heels of...

CONSUMER ALERT: Coming on the heels of its cheesy Rock Artifacts series, Sony Music’s Columbia Legacy label reaches a new low with its bedraggled “Blood, Sweat & Tears: Live and Improvised” two-CD set (and not just because it stre-e-e-etches 13 songs across 2 CDs). If you were a Blood, Sweat & Tears fan, wouldn’t you want to know--is this music from the band’s late-’60s heyday? Or from its cobwebby final days? Well, don’t expect any help from Columbia. The outside of the package doesn’t say when the recordings were made. And even when you turn to the liner notes’ list of recording dates, all you get is the month and day--but no year! You have to plow through the notes’ lengthy history of the band before uncovering a mention of the recording date: 1975. Geez, could Columbia really be this sloppy? Or is it possible the label didn’t want us to know these concerts were recorded long after the band’s prime?