Robert Lamm - Subtlety & Passion (2003)

The fourth time was the charm for Robert Lamm.  While he'd had success as a member of Chicago, writing hits and fan favorites like Beginnings, Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?, 25 or 6 to 4, and Saturday In the Park; his solo material was rather uneven. 

His debut, Skinny Boy, was overly self-indulgent and generally pretentious.  The only tracks worth listening to at all, let alone repeat listens were the title track which was also found on Chicago VII and Fireplace & Ivy.  And with his solo version of Skinny Boy the horn chart had been removed making it somewhat lacking compared to the Chicago version.

The material on Life Is Good In My Neighbourhood was a substantial improvement.  The lyrics were what his fans had come to expect given the material he had composed for Chicago.  However, due to an over-reliance on synthesizers the album ended up sounding more like a collection of demos than a finished product. 

In My Head saw 3 duets with Phoebe Snow.  Now Ms. Snow is a fine singer and her voice complements Mr. Lamm's quite nicely.  However including 3 duets with her on one album was a bit of overkill.  Not all was lost as there is some strong material on the album; Watching the Time Go By featuring Gerry Beckley from America and the late Carl Wilson from the Beach Boys is at least as good as the version included on the 2000 Beckley/Lamm/Wilson trio project, Like a Brother a year later, Love of My Life features some of Robert's best vocals since he was in his vocal prime in the late 60s/early 70s and the alternate arrangement Robert includes on Sleeping In the Middle of the Bed Again from the then unreleased Stone of Sisyphus album, while not as good as the Chicago version, is certainly still worth listening to. 

But finally with Subtlety & Passion Robert was firing on all cylinders.  This is the solo album his fans have been waiting for for years.  Considering that all of the then current members of Chicago performed on this album in some capacity or another and Lamm even wrote a song around an unreleased guitar solo by the late Terry Kath (Intensity) it could be argued that Subtlety & Passion was much more a Chicago album than Chicago XXX ended up being a few years later with its over-reliance on session cats standing in for members of the band. 

Most of the songs feature horns and most of the horn parts are played by Chicago's horn section giving even greater credence to this being more of a Chicago album than Chicago had recorded in a long time.  And what makes the songs so enjoyable is that they sound like Chicago SHOULD have sounded in the years since the passing of Terry Kath and departure of Peter Cetera.  There's an easy-going and likable familiarity to the material which makes it reminiscent of Chicago's long string of hits throughout the seventies.

Some of the standout tracks include the I Could Tell You Secrets, Another Sunday, Gimme Gimme, The Mystery of Moonlight, and the aforementioned Intensity.  The album, from start to finish, is a bit of a return to form for Lamm whose material in the eighties left a bit to be desired-- especially when compared to the brilliance of Chicago's early years when he was largely the band's principal songwriter. 

This, not Chicago XXX, is the Chicago album that their fans had been waiting for for years.  And unlike XXX, most of Chicago actually performed on the album and it wasn't over-produced to the point of sounding completely sterile.  If you are or were a fan of Chicago, skip Chicago XXX and pick up Subtlety & Passion.  The former will leave you scratching your head wondering what happened to this once great band, the latter will put a smile on your face and make you believe that they've still got it... well at least one of them does.

Related Links & Media
Somewhere Girl live

Another Sunday live

I Could Tell You Secrets live

Intensity live

Gimme Gimme live

The Mystery of Moonlight live

Robert Lamm (Blue Infinity)
Robert Lamm (wikipedia)

Chicago V (1972)

After a string of double-LP releases and the arguably over-ambitious quadruple-LP live album, Live at Carnegie Hall, Chicago released their first regular length album. What arguably sets V apart from many of Chicago’s subsequent albums, the band crams as much creativity and talent into this single-player as they had into Chicago III, which had its moments but also could have benefitted from a bit of editing.

The album opens with the Lamm penned A Hit by Varèse. An enjoyable musical excursion that shows a band firing on all cylinders musically and lyrically laments Lamm’s boredom with the music of the day and his thirst for something more adventurous… and that something more adventurous is exactly what the band delivers on this track.

The band changes gears slightly on All Is Well which features a sublime horn chart and a thoroughly enjoyable melody and some of Chicago’s tighter vocal harmonies in an era in which they were arguably known far more for their musicianship, musical adventurousness, and instrumental prowess than their vocal harmonizing capabilities.

Why Now That You’ve Gone was never released as a single is beyond me. It’s easily one of Chicago’s best album cuts ever, bar none. Starting with some solid and infectious drumming by Danny Seraphine, Robert Lamm’s organ and Terry Kath’s rhythm guitar follow shortly thereafter, followed by the horns, and Terry’s vocals. The rhythm grabs you by the short and curlies, the horns get a death grip on your soul, and Terry’s souful vocal guides you through this catchy musical journey. If this had been released as a single it would have been a nice counter balance to their later string of soft-rock saccharine-driven tight melodic late seventies and early eighties soft rock staples.

Lamm’s socially conscious Dialogue Pts. 1&2 follows. The song is a conversation between a socially conscious ideologue (sung by Terry Kath) and an out of touch student who is just going with the flow (sung by Peter Cetera). While the horns are present on Dialoge Pt. 1, it’s much more notable for the tight rhythmic chemistry between Kath, Cetera, and Seraphine and features some of Peter’s finest bass playing. In later years Peter of course became much more known for his vocals, but throughout Chicago and predominantly on this and songs like State of the Union, Peter’s melodic style and bass-playing chops are quite evident. Dialogue Pt. 2 is more of an instrumental showcase than vocal showcase but also features some tight vocal harmonies from both Terry and Peter.

The album does not let up on While the City Sleeps featuring Robert trading his lead vocals with a tight harmony vocal led by Peter Cetera. The song also features what might be an otherwise overlooked Terry Kath guitar solo with the horns offering a soft musical carpet to layer his guitar over. The juxtaposition of Terry’s raw guitar against the smooth horns draws greater attention to both the horn chart and to Terry’s solo. The only complaint one might have of this song is that the ending is somewhat abrupt and anti-climatic.

Saturday In the Park was the opener on side 2 of the LP. It’s an excellent opening track and on the CD release it feels somewhat lost in the middle, sandwiched between While the City Sleeps and State of the Union. It’s success as a single is a testament to its popularity. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable and un-offensive track about spending a Saturday in Central Park that happened to fall on the fourth of July (which would insinuate the song was written in 1970, the most recent Saturday to have fallen on the fourth of July at the time of the song’s release).

State of the Union is one of Lamm’s socio-political gems. Musically speaking it’s an excellent song, Peter shines both on vocals and on bass. The horn chart is one of the best on the album (although, in all fairness, I’d argue there’s not a weak horn chart on the album). Terry’s rhythm playing is also enjoyable but (at least on the Rhino re-release) has been pushed more to the back of the mix in favor of bringing Peter’s bass and the horns closer to the front of the mix and making them considerably more noticeable.

Goodbye is another example of a band firing on all cylinders and all the pieces coming into place just right. The song is a look back on the previous few years of the band’s existence and a farewell of sorts to Los Angeles (Chicago V was recorded largely in NY and the next several albums would be recorded at producer, James William Guercio’s Caribou Ranch in the Colorado Rockies). The song is good throughout but really hits its stride at about the 3:37 mark (“Feels so good to be soaring, ‘Cause LA was so boring, Goodbye”) and then again at about the 4:06 mark a musical reprise of sorts (“There must be room for growing, somewhere else, and I’m going, Goodbye”). Between this and the aforementioned A Hit by Varèse, there’s a definite vibe a band that’s creatively restless and hungering for a change of scenery both literal and figurative to re-fill their creative juices.

The LP closed with Alma Mater, a somewhat more elegiac and mournful look at the previous few years. The vocal harmonies are tighter on this song than perhaps any other. From start to finish Chicago V, in addition to being a creative triumph is possibly the band’s most consistently lyrically autobiographical album. Alma Mater is also a look to the future—“We must set new goals, we must not lose control of the possibility, of finding the discovery, that would let everybody see, that we were just meant to be”).

The 2002 Rhino re-release continues the musical journey with an instrumental version of A Song For Richard and His Friends, a song that had previously only appeared on Chicago Live @ Carnegie Hall release. It was and perhaps remains Lamm’s most outspoken middle finger at the establishment song ever. A song whose somewhat prophetic lyrics begged for Richard Nixon to quit… In 1971, over three years before he actually did. The instrumental version includes a heavily distorted Terry Kath guitar solo. Stripping away the lyrics the song does get a bit of new life as it allows the listener to focus more on the music and less on Lamm’s politics. The horns are slightly out of tune, on purpose (I’m guessing) as a reflection of the discord (or would it be dis-“chord”) felt at the time in which the song was written. While the instrumental does certainly have its moments, chances are it would largely be skipped over by the casual listener and only the more devoted of the fans would take the time to give it a fair listen. Trying to be objective, the inclusion on the re-release neither adds to nor subtracts from the album with its inclusion.

The re-release also features an early arrangement Mississippi Delta City Blues a song that the band had played in their early days on the Chicago club circuit before relocating to L.A. and would later appear with a somewhat different (and arguably better) arrangement on Chicago XI, Terry Kath’s final album with the band.

The last cookie that Rhino tossed the fans on the re-release was the single-edit of Dialogue Pts. 1 & 2. Its inclusion is somewhat unnecessary as a sizable chunk of the song was removed for the single edit (over two minutes).

Between 1969 and 1972, Chicago released 3 double LPs, a quadruple LP live album (Live at Carnegie Hall), a double LP live album (Live in Japan), and this album. In hindsight one might argue that the band essentially “blew their load” on these releases. And certainly an argument could have been made for them to have better paced themselves as subsequent albums displayed a noticeable drop in quality and a shift in direction from being musically adventurous to being more pop-friendly. With that in mind, Chicago V marks the end of an era. There would still be occasional flashes of the creativity and adventurousness displayed in this era, but as time progressed those flashes of creativity and adventurousness grew increasingly fewer and farther between.

Related Links

Now That You’ve Gone (Live)

Saturday In the Park (Live)

Dialogue Pts. 1 & 2 (Live)

Chicago V (Wikipedia)

Chicago V (AllMusic)

Chicago (official site)

Chicago (Wikipedia)

Chicago III

How many bands do you know of that have released three consecutive double albums within the space of two years? Between 1969 and 1971 Chicago released 3 double LP studio albums and a quadruple LP live album. That's the equivalent of 10 albums worth of material in less than 3 years! It's a staggering musical statement by any estimation.

And while later albums certainly displayed glimpses of the creativity and musical talent of this period in the band’s tenure, none of them quite matched the consistently high quality of the first three albums.

Chicago III starts with Sing a Mean Tune Kid, a musical tribute of sorts to those which came before them and paved their way. It features a blistering guitar solo by Terry Kath, not to mention it exhibits a strong musical chemistry between Kath’s guitar and the keyboard/organ playing of Robert Lamm.

As Sing a Mean Tune Kid fades out it’s replaced by Loneliness Is Just A Word, a song the band had been playing since their days paying their dues on the Chicago club scene prior to their move to Los Angeles. The Chicago III version is of course considerably more polished and well rounded than the earlier version, thanks largely to the superlative production of James William Guercio.

Perhaps what sets Chicago III apart from their debut or Chicago II are the occasional country-influenced flourishes on songs like What Else Can I Say or Flight 602, perhaps giving the clearest example of the direction Peter would inevitably steer his career following his departure from Chicago. Terry’s guitar also shines front and center a few tracks later on I Don’t Want Your Money.

On the remastered 2002 Rhino re-release, Peter Cetera’s bass playing is particularly audible (incidentally, Rhino did an excellent job on bringing Peter’s bass-playing closer to the front of the mix on all of their Chicago re-issues).

Much like on Chicago II which featured the multi-part It Better End Soon anti-Vietnam anthem and the Ballet For a Girl in Buchannon (the latter of which spawned two of Chicago’s more memorable hits, Make Me Smile and Colour My World), Chicago III features the multi-part Travel Suite, An Hour In the Shower, and Elegy. All three pieces have their moments, Travel Suite features a fast-paced Danny Seraphine drum solo, Motorboat to Mars, the aforementioned country-tinged Flight 602, the live staple Free, At the Sunrise would not have sounded out of place on a latter day Beatles album with the McCartney/Lennon-esque vocal chemistry of Robert Lamm and Peter Cetera being the hallmark of the piece. But perhaps the strongest part of the Travel Suite is the underrated instrumental gem, Happy Cause I’m Going Home which features some of Terry Kath’s better acoustic guitar playing marked a soft counterpoint to his heavier electric guitar work on other tracks and truly displayed his versatility. Add to that there’s enough cowbell to make even Christopher Walken happy. The band was truly exploring and utilizing the studio space with the cowbell. To this day Happy Cause I’m Going Home remains one of my favorite Chicago album cuts. The song starts with the trademark layered approach that had become a staple of many of Chicago’s earlier songs, Terry counting them in, starting with his acoustic guitar, followed shortly by Peter’s bass, and shortly after Peter comes in, Danny’s drums before the rest of the band joins the rhythm section. There’s a scat vocal throughout that dances around the instruments and is an instrument in and of itself. And despite not being as well known as his solos on Colour My World or Just You & Me, Happy Cause I’m Going Home has perhaps the best flute solo Walt Parazaider ever recorded (although his solo on the Live At Carnegie Hall version of It Better End Soon would also be in the running for that honor). His solo is syncopated with more cowbell, some solid drum fills by Danny Seraphine, and some of the most melodic bass playing that Peter ever laid down.

The band takes a brief break with Mother and Lowdown before launching into An Hour In the Shower. Both songs are enjoyable, Lowdown has some decent guitar work by Terry even if he didn’t personally care for the song, he still put his heart into it.

An Hour In the Shower is perhaps the most unusual song ever recorded by Chicago. Instrumentally it’s as good as anything else on III (or II or their debut for that matter), but paying attention to the lyrics one might be left scratching one’s head. The song is by and large an ode to a morning routine (“Now I usually have my breakfast which consists of tasty Spam, Yeah, I could eat it all day long, But I only love one brand, and I can’t find it way out here, So I’ll have to take a pass, settle for some hash, what a drag, you’re not here, Oh sweet sweet Spam”), masturbation (“Now I lay me down to sleep, and I dream of my treasure map, it shows me where my maypole’s buried at, and I dream of all the fun I have when my maypole comes out to play” and later “Just reach underneath your bed, and turn on your electric friend, yeah, and turn your thoughts to me, cause you know where I’ll be, and you can join me in my hour in the shower”), and environmentally unfriendly water consumption (Terry sings of both starting and ending his day with hour long showers—2 hours in the shower a day!)

Following the perpetually amusing Hour In the Shower the album takes a decidedly pretentious turn with Robert Lamm reciting the Kendrew Laschelles poem, When All the Laughter Dies in Sorrow which opens the third and final multiple part musical piece on the album. Once Upon a Time features another thoroughly enjoyable flute solo by Walt Parazaider before James Pankow offers an equally enjoyable trombone solo before both Walt and trumpeter Lee Loughnane come in. The horns eventually blend into a cacophony of noise that fades out as the sound of car horns fade in along with the sound of jackhammers and other unpleasant reminders of modern life. The car horns and jackhammers crescendo into a toilet flush and the piece ends with the instrumentals The Approaching Storm and Man vs. Man: The End.

While not as consistently strong as their debut nor as polished as Chicago II, Chicago III was then and remains today a thoroughly enjoyable album. It remains one of the most creative albums in their rather extensive catalogs and while, Elegy may have been a bit of a “miss” for me, credit has to be given for having the stones (of Sisyphus?) to try something so outside the norm. And, Elegy, to me, is the lone “miss” on an otherwise excellent album.

Related Links

Chicago Lowdown (1972 live video)

Chicago (official website)
Chicago III (Wikipedia)

Chicago III (allmusic.com)

Chicago (wikipedia)

Chicago Transit Authority - Live at the Itchy Foot Moose Sept. 1, 1968

Imagine, if you will, getting to hear your favorite band before they hit it big. Chicago Transit Authority (originally "The Big Thing" and later just "Chicago") was formed by a gentleman's agreement in woodwind player, Walt Parazaider's apartment in February 1967. The original six members Terry Kath, Danny Seraphine, Robert Lamm, Walt Parazaider, James Pankow, and Lee Loughnane were augmented a few months later by tenor vocalist/bass player, Peter Cetera who left the group he'd been with, the Exceptions, to join The Big Thing.

Through the rather fortuitous friendship of James William Guercio and Walt Parazaider, The Big Thing were pitched to Columbia Records. One of Guercio's first steps as producer/manager of the band was to change their name to Chicago Transit Authority, after the public transportation he'd grown up riding and held a special nostalgia for.

This bootleg is a snapshot of that era, before Chicago became Chicago, before their 3 worldwide #1 hits, before becoming only second to the Beach Boys in record sales by an American band-- the band playing on this bootleg is a younger, hungrier, and much more raw band than what they'd later turn into.

The Setlist
1. It Better End Soon (later released on Chicago II)
2. Girl (later released as Someday on Chicago Transit Authority with completely different lyrics referencing the '68 Democratic Convention in Chicago)
3. Once Upon a Life (never released)
4. Terry's Blues (cut ending)
5. Terry's Blues (one hell of a showcase of guitarist Terry Kath's talents, at the end of the song he refers to the song as Toe Jam)
6. Questions 67 & 68 (later released on Chicago Transit Authority)
7. Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry cover, sung by Terry Kath with interesting "new" lyrics interespersed with the Chuck Berry lyrics making reference to marijuana)
8. Rock Around the Clock (Bill Haley & His Comets cover sung by Peter Cetera)
9. Gimme Some Lovin' (Spencer Davis Group cover sung by Robert Lamm, I have a bootleg from the 80s that features Peter Cetera singing this instead of Robert Lamm)
10. Listen (later released on Chicago Transit Authority)
11. Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? (later released on Chicago Transit Authority)
12. Mississippi Delta City Blues (later released on Live in Japan in 1972with a new arrangement, and on Chicago XI in 1978 with yet a different arrangement)
13. Got to Get You Into My Life (Beatles cover sung by Peter Cetera)
14. It's Not Unusual (Tom Jones cover sung by Terry Kath)
15. Poem 58 (later released on Chicago Transit Authority)
16. I'll Be Back Again (Beatles cover sung by Robert Lamm & Peter Cetera)
17. Dedicated to Girl Number One (unreleased, this is the song Chicago recorded as their demo. The demo is apparently lost forever somewhere in the Sony vaults. This is one of two live versions I know of, sung by Robert Lamm)
18. Liberation (later released on Chicago Transit Authority)

The sound quality is uneven. On some songs its surprisingly good but on all tracks, despite a few flubs here and there, it's very listenable. This is one of three Chicago bootlegs from 1968 known to be floating around fan collector circles. Of the three, this one has the best sound quality although one of the other two bootlegs (both recorded at Barnaby's) have arguably a superior song selection with covers of Hendrix (Hey Joe, Foxy Lady, & Purple Haze), Cream (Sunshine of Your Love), the Beach Boys (Darlin'), the Beatles (Lady Madonna, Sgt. Peppers, With a Little Help From My Friends), Marvin Gaye (One More Heartache), Martha & the Vandellas (Dancing in the Streets), Brenda Lee (Losing You), and Wilson Pickett (99 and a Half Just Won't Do).

Hearing the band at this stage in their careers is quite refreshing considering what the band has turned into in more recent years. Members have come and gone and the hunger has been replaced by greed. There's a love for the music they're performing-- both the covers and the original material that is, arguably, lacking in the current incarnation of the band's performances.

But all in all this is how Chicago should be heard, young and hungry. Full of energy, a balls-on horntastic blast of music.

Related Links
Chicago (Official Site)
Chicago (wikipedia)
Peter Cetera (Official Site)
Peter Cetera (wikipedia)
Terry Kath (Official Site)
Terry Kath (wikipedia)
Danny Seraphine (wikipedia)
James Pankow (wikipedia)
Walt Parazaider (wikipedia)
Lee Loughnane (wikipedia)
Robert Lamm (Official Site)
Robert Lamm (wikipedia)

Beckley Lamm Wilson - Like a Brother (2000)

Supergroups come and go with varying degrees of success. One would think that combining the vocal talents of Gerry Beckley (America), Robert Lamm (Chicago), and Carl Wilson (the Beach Boys) would be a recipe for success. And at times it is. This particular endeavour is largely hit or miss.

There aren't any songs on the album that could be considered "bad." There are a handful of good tracks mixed in with a handful that one would struggle to use superlative adjectives to describe. The best that can be said for much of this album is that it's pleasant and unoffensive.

In all fairness to Gerry, Robert, & Carl given the rigorous touring schedules of their respective bands finding the time to get together to record this album proved rather prohibitive. Add to that Carl Wilson's cancer and subsequent passing there were certainly plenty of obstacles which likely played a part in preventing this album from being far better than it actually ended up being.

That being said, there are some excellent songs on this album-- the Gerry Beckley sung Today, the Harry Nilsson cover Without Her, the wistfully nostalgic Watching the Time Go By, and the hopeful yet somber farewell from Carl Wilson to his sons: I Wish For You. Incidentally Watching the Time Go By had previously appeared on Robert Lamm's 1999 solo release, In My Head. On Robert's solo version he sings the first verse, whereas on the BL&W version, Gerry Beckley sings the first verse. Both versions are rather enjoyable and neither is really superior nor inferior to the other.

With this album being released a few years after Carl Wilson's untimely passing, the album was dedicated to his memory. Indeed, the strongest material on this album is the material that features either he or Beckley on vocals. And in light of Carl's passing his songs take on a decidedly more haunting and poignant tone, especially I Wish For You which is said to be the final song he recorded before his passing and Like a Brother which was a tribute to Carl's brother, Brian.

One is left wondering how much better this album might have been had it not been treated almost as an afterthought to Beckley, Lamm, & Wilson. If the album had been recorded over a shorter time span and all three members of the band had made a concerted effort to MAKE time to record this album rather than record and collaborate only when they were able to find the time to do so this album could and likely would have been considerably better. The talent was certainly there and the stronger material on the album does bear witness to the quality the entire album could have aspired to had it been give the time and focus it truly deserved.

Related Links

Like a Brother (wikipedia entry)

Like a Brother (Amazon.com-- mp3 download $8.99--includes 3 songs not on the original CD release!)

Gerry Beckley (wikipedia entry)

Robert Lamm (wikipedia entry)

Carl Wilson (wikipedia entry)

Gerry Beckley (official website)

Robert Lamm (official website)

Chicago - The Box (2003)

Box sets come in all shapes & sizes and are often hit or miss. Generally casual listeners aren't inclined to spend the fifty to one hundred (or more) clams to purchase a collection of music they only have a casual interest in. And die-hard fans already have most of the material included on the box sets of their favorite bands (in some cases several times over).

This is Chicago's second crack at a box set. Their first was the early-90s 4 CD Group Portrait released on the Columbia-Legacy label and thus only included material they recorded while on contract with Columbia Records (their debut-Chicago XIV-- material recorded and released between 1969 and 1980). It included a non-LP B-side (Closer to You) and an unreleased track recorded during the Chicago XIV sessions (Doin' Business) and a 52 page booklet written by the AllMusicGuide's William Ruhlmann.

Luckily for Chicago, apparently someone at Columbia Records wasn't paying attention when Chicago's contract was written up. A few years after the Group Portrait box set was released all of the rights to Chicago's Columbia Records catalog reverted to the band (generally record labels aren't quite that generous). After a short and ill-fated attempt at their own record label (Chicago Records), the release rights to Chicago's Columbia era material was sold by Chicago to Rhino Records. Luckily for Rhino Records they are a branch of Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers owned Chicago's latter day catalog (Chicago 16-the then unreleased Stone of Sisyphus album as well as the bonus tracks that had been included in a couple of late 90s compilation CDs).

This chain of events has allowed Rhino to release a considerably more complete box set-- adding a 5th disc and a DVD of rare footage of the band. And therein lies the bait for all of those die-hard fans who already had/have multiple copies of much of the material on the CDs. In addition to material from their studio albums spanning their entire career this set includes Good For Nothing (a song recorded for the We Are the World album), Hearts in Trouble (from the Days of Thunder soundtrack), the 4 bonus tracks from the two Heart of Chicago collections from the late nineties, three tracks from the then ureleased Stone of Sisyphus album (Stone of Sisyphus was finally released in 2008), and a handful of alternate edits and single edits of various songs.

Addition by Subtraction

There are a handful of songs that were included that are real head-scratchers. Other than an abysmally bad performance of You Come to My Senses on the Arsenio Hall show in the early 90s Chicago has never performed any material from their twenty-first album live. So the inclusion of three songs from that album is rather surprising. Another regrettable inclusion is Song For You from Chicago XIV a rather bland and uninspired Cetera ballad. Overnight Cafe or Hold On would have been superior selections to represent XIV, one of Chicago's weakest albums.

Chicago X suffered from a "too many hands in the cookie jar" (and the white stuff in the "cookies" at that point in time wasn't sugar, if you get my drift) yet there were SIX songs from that album included in this set... and despite including six songs from Chicago X, they still managed to leave off the two best tracks from that album-- Once or Twice and Scrapbook!

Conspicuous Absences


Initially, it was surprising that the 2 non-LP tracks that had been included in the Group Portrait (Doin' Business and Closer to You) had been left off this set, however Rhino included those songs as bonus tracks on their re-releases of Chicago XIV and XIII respectively.

However, what is glaringly absent from this collection are any live tracks from either the Live at Carnegie Hall or Live in Japan albums. A live track or two from each would have been welcome additions as both albums feature some truly scorching Terry Kath guitar solos.

Terry Kath's haunting tribute to Jimi Hendrix, Oh Thank You Great Spirit from Chicago VIII would also have been a nice fit. The Robert Lamm penned When Will the World Be Like Lovers which was recorded for Chicago 18 but was cut in favor of the Jason Scheff penned Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now would also have been a welcome addition to this set.

When Chicago VII was being recorded the band couldn't decide between a pop/rock album or a more experimental jazz-influenced album. So they compromised and released it as a double album-- one LP of more pop-friendly mainstream material and one LP of more experimental jazz influenced material. While this set does include a handful of tracks from the more pop-friendly LP, it's conspicuously lacking any material from the more jazz-oriented LP (much to this listener's chagrin).

The collection could have been tremendously improved by dropping two songs each from XIV, Twenty-1, and X and including some of the stronger material from some of their other albums (In The Country from II, Sing a Mean Tune Kid and Happy Cause I'm Goin' Home from III, and Prelude to Aire & Aire from VII for example).

Bonus Points

Rhino deserves credit where it's due and they did include some excellent pieces from the Columbia era that were conspicuously absent from the Group Portrait. Chicago's anti-Vietnam epic-- It Better End Soon, Terry Kath's ode to breakfast food and self-love-- An Hour In the Shower, and the aforementioned Good For Nothing and Hearts in Trouble are all quite welcome inclusions.

The DVD

The DVD is a nice addition for both hardcore fans and the more casual listeners. The concert footage from Arie Crown Theater shows the band when they were still creative and adventurous with a bit of fire and youthful enthusiasm. It features Devil's Sweet, one of the aforementioned more jazz-tinged pieces from Chicago VII, as well as Now That You've Gone, Dialogue & Saturday In the Park from Chicago V.

The promo footage for Chicago XIII is an amusing addition for the more die-hard fans. But considering how laughably bad that album is (another instance of too many hands in the cookie jar and too much of the "other" white powder in those cookies) this footage is more of a novelty and will likely not generate enough interest to warrant repeated viewings even by the most die-hard of fans.

Closing arguments

One wonders what the rationale and/or motivation was behind some of the song selections for this collection. Some of the material is quite strong, but a lot of weaker material also made it onto this collection. Was the song selection based more on personal preferences of the members of the band and the staff at Rhino who compiled the box, on the perceived preferences of the target demographic, or on which collection of songs would generate the most songwriting royalties to the various members of the band?

Regardless of the motivations behind the song selections, in all fairness to those making such decisions it must be conceded that you can't please everyone. With that in mind, this box set was a valiant effort at accomplishing just that-- even if it did come up short for some fans it likely succeded in spades for others.

If you're new to Chicago with a thirst for deeper than all of the "greatest hits" and "best of" compilations and have the disposable income to do so-- purchasing this set is a considerably more economical way to get a broader view of Chicago than purchasing their entire back catalog. It offers a considerably deeper and more comprehensive snapshot of the band's history than any of the 1 or 2 disc compilations offered to date. If however you're merely a casual listener just interested in the hits, stick with the 2CD Only the Beginning: The Very Best of Chicago set.

Related Links
Chicago "The Box" (Rhino Records)
Chicago "The Box" (Amazon.com)
Chicago "The Box" (Wikipedia)
Chicago (Official Website)
Chicago (Wikipedia)
Chicago Music & More (Chicago Message Board)
Other Chicago related reviews, interviews, & etc.

Chicago XIV (1980)

By 1980 Chicago's fortunes had taken a turn, and not for the better. After the death of guitarist, Terry Kath, the departure of Brazilian percussionist Laudir de Oliveira, and the unsuccessful initial attempt at replacing Terry Kath with Donnie Dacus Chicago found themselves in the studio with producer Tom Dowd and new guitarist, Chris Pinnick.

Where Dacus style had been a departure and a completely new direction for the band, Pinnick's fiery rhythm and lead guitar work was considerably more reminiscent of Terry's. Even so, Chicago XIV is a capsule of a band that seemed lost and still struggling to find their way after Kath's death.

The most noticeable change in the band was the absence of a third lead vocalist. Where Dacus both sang and played guitar. Pinnick was no singer-- leaving the band with only Cetera and Lamm on lead vocals. The absence of that third lead vocalist was quite conspicuous and left this album sounding rather uneven, even in comparison to their 2 albums with Dacus augmenting their sound.

That being said, the material on XIV is considerably stronger than that on XIII (arguably the band's weakest album). The band was sticking their toes in different styles of music and sticking their finger in the air to determine which direction the musical winds were blowing so they could change their style to fit the changing times.

Some of the songs work, and work well-- Manipulation is catchy and driven, Overnight Cafe has a thick driving bass line that really showcases Cetera's oft-overlooked talents on the bass. But the songs featuring Cetera also give the feel of a man with one foot out the door. The musical style of the songs co-written by or featuring Peter's vocals sound rather similar to the material on Peter's 1981 self-titled debut album-- giving fans at the time shades of the music to come the following year and inching Peter that much closer to his 1985 departure.

Lamm's material, as in the past, has a socio-political bent to it that reflects the general pessimism and "malaise" (in Carter's words) of the country coming out of the seventies. While sharp and biting as much of his material in the past had been, his vocals on this album don't show quite the depth of conviction that his similarly biting songs from previous albums had.... But then again, even Robert Lamm at his worst is considerably better than many songwriters at their best.

Overall, this album would probably be of little interest to anyone but the most die-hard of Chicago fans as it marks a low-point in the band's otherwise rather stellar tenure in the rock and roll canon of America.

Recommended Downloads: Overnight Cafe, Manipulation, Hold On

Chicago 18

There are good ideas and then there’s an eighties remake of 25 or 6 to 4 complete with drum machines and other typical eighties synthesized sounds. In Chicago’s rather vast song catalog there are a lot of diamonds—the favorites like Make Me Smile, Just You and Me, If You Leave Me Now, Old Days, and Color My World; the fan favorites like Beginnings, Questions 67 & 68, Now That You’ve Gone, and Scrapbook… then in 1986 producer David Foster had what may have been the largest lapse in judgement in his career as a producer—he convinced Chicago to do an updated version of 25 or 6 to 4.

There’s that old adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” It wasn’t broke, and the remake totally fell flat. With all the synthesizers and drum machines the fire of the original was gone. And while Steve Lukather’s guitar solo might have given it a little more credence, a little more “polish” if you will—a polished turd is still a turd.

The rest of Chicago 18 is a valiant effort, but it’s missing something—and by something I don’t just mean the departed Peter Cetera who had left to seek the “greener pastures” of a solo career after the multi-platinum success of Chicago 17. Jason Scheff does a respectable job and has a pleasant but unremarkable tenor voice. Part of what made Chicago sound so Chicago wasn’t so much that Peter Cetera was a good singer, but more that his tenor vocals were so distinct. He had one of those voices that could have easily have been picked out of a police line-up. And while Jason Scheff could (and still can) certainly sing the songs and sing them well, there’s nothing about his vocals that make those songs stand out the way Peter’s voice once did.

But even if Jason did have that “distinct” voice, there’s still something else missing. A certain fire under the toes. With Chicago 16, the band was in dire straits (and I don’t mean they were bandmates of Mark Knopfler and Midge Ure). They’d been dropped by Columbia Records and while they’d had moderate success after the death of Terry Kath, they hadn’t matched the success they’d had with their first eleven albums. Chicago XIV had gone toilet paper (2-ply) or maybe—if you’re being generous it went plywood. Chicago 16 was make or break. The band knew it, David Foster knew it and you could hear it in the music. There was a fire in the music, desperation to it. And even as polished as it was you could still hear that fire—that energy. Following the success of 17 and despite the departure of Peter Cetera, the band seemed to be wresting on their laurels—merely going through the motions on Chicago 18. It’s not that the songs were of sub-par quality, if anything they had good material to work with (arguably, better than the material on Chicago 17). It’s that the performances were generally unconvincing and flat, a glaring contrast to both Chicago 16 and 17.

Related Media

It's Alright

Will You Still Love Me


25 or 6 to 4 (1986 remake)


Other Chicago related articles

Chicago - Live at the Fillmore August 1969

Before the hits, before Peter Cetera made his name nearly synonymous with "prom ballad"-- before Chicago was even "Chicago" they were the Chicago Transit Authority.

After relocating from the Windy City to LA and becoming the house band at the Whiskey, the CTA started making a name for themselves opening for and touring with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and a handful of other big names of the era.

In August 1969 someone had the foresight to lay down tape and capture directly from the soundboard, one of the CTA's shows at Bill Graham's famed Fillmore West.*

This is one of the earliest known soundboard live recordings of this band-- a band that was still young & hungry. They were still very much a hard rock band with horns and not the pop band they would later become.

The mix is imperfect, as are the performances but that's what makes them so enjoyable. Chicago's debut album had a raw energy to it that producer Jimmy Guercio would seemingly "polish" out of them on their later recordings.

This live bootleg captures that rawness and energy. On the guitar heavy tracks like Poem 58, Liberation, and It Better End Soon Terry Kath's guitar is pushed to the front of the mix. On songs like Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? Robert Lamm and Peter Cetera's vocals are pushed closer to the front of the mix.

If anything, when compared to live bootlegs from recent years, this set speaks volumes of the change in direction this band has taken over the years. Chicago Transit Authority in 1969 was a band that had something to say and wanted to make sure their message was heard whether it was the anti-Vietnam message of It Better End Soon or the historically significant Someday which chronicled the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. In this music can be heard a band that was trying to make a difference and still had the youthful idealism to believe they could effect that change or at least play some part in changing the world... The Chicago of 2006 is a band wresting on their laurels sleepwalking through sets weighed down by insipid saccharine ballads and their various hits over the years.

If Chicago were remembered for what they once were-- the band that played a kick ass ballsy concert at the Fillmore back in 1969 and not the tired old nostalgia act they've become, they'd surely be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame today. Instead after fourteen years of elgibility they've not even so much as been nominated for a place in the famed hall.

*the image is the handbill from the exact concert this bootleg was recorded at (thanks Google)

Related Links
mp3s
Poem 58 (15MB) (temporary link)
It Better End Soon (12MB) (temporary link)
25 or 6 to 4 (10MB) (temporary link)

Articles and Reviews
Chicago Transit Authority (wikipedia)
Chicago Transit Authority (AllMusicGuide)
Chicago Transit Authority (Review Revue #1)
Chicago Transit Authority "Multiple Aurgasms" (Review Revue #2)
Chicago II (Wikipedia)
Chicago II (AllMusicGuide)
Chicago II (Review Revue)

Robert Lamm - Live at the Knitting Factory 4-23-05

In his 39 years with Chicago Robert Lamm has proven himself to be an accomplished songwriter with such classics as Beginnings, Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?, 25 or 6 to 4, and Saturday In the Park to name just a handful of his more recognizable songs.

Those outside Chicago's cadre of die-hard fans may not be aware that Lamm has also released a handful of solo albums including 1973's Skinny Boy, 1993's Life Is Good In My Neighbourhood, 1997's In My Head, and 2003's Subtlety and Passion not to mention a trio project he recorded with Gerry Beckley (of America) and the late Carl Wilson (of the Beach Boys) in the years leading up to Carl Wilson's death in 1997 (the trio album, Like a Brother, was released posthumously in the summer of 2000).

Despite his outside efforts, Lamm's live performances as a solo artist can be counted on a single hand, his performances on US soil can be counted with a single index finger. And this live bootleg is that index finger (or, if you prefer, middle finger).

This small and intimate live performance was given to celebrate the release of Lamm's Leap of Faith: Live in New Zealand CD. Opening for Lamm and the small band he put together was the Howland-Imboden Project a small jazz side-project of Chicago guitarist Keith Howland and drummer Tris Imboden (with special guest bassist, Jason Scheff).

To lend a certain air of familiarity to the Chicago material, Lamm's performance was augmented by a 3 piece horn section led by Chicago trumpeter, Lee Loughnane. Jason Scheff lent his voice and bass chops to Lamm for some excellent background vocals (particularly on Watching the Time Go By-- while Scheff is no Carl Wilson, he did handle the Wilson b/g vocal parts respectably).

The set focused heavily on a mix of material from Lamm's most recent solo album, Subtlety and Passion and some of Lamm's better known Chicago material (including Beginnings, Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is, Saturday In the Park, and 25 or 6 to 4) with a small smattering of tracks from his Life Is Good In My Neighbourhood and In My Head albums.

Perhaps the biggest treats were 25 or 6 to 4 which Lamm sang lead on, possibly for the first time since he recorded the demo back in 1969. In addition to Lamm's vocals there's some fiery guitar work shared by Hank Lindenman and Chicago's own Keith Howland. The other "treat" is All the Years which not only appeared on Lamm's Life Is Good In My Neighbourhood album but also would have been the opening track on Chicago's ill-fated unreleased Stone of Sisyphus album.

The bootleg also includes what I believe were the songs Lamm performed during his sound check, another take of All the Years as well as When Will the World Be Like Lovers which was initially recorded by Chicago for Chicago 18 but ended up not making it onto the album. It did however later appear on Lamm's Life Is Good In My Neighbourhood album.

Perhaps what makes this live set so enjoyable is that it hearkens back to Chicago's much more creative period in the seventies and shows that Lamm still has the songwriting chops which made him the premier songwriter for Chicago in their seventies heyday.

(see also Michael Fortes review on the Rasputin Manifesto)

Chicago - XXX (2006)

This isn't your parents' Chicago, and while this album may sound it, upon looking at the calendar this is 2006, not 1992. On first listen I was underwhelmed.. perhaps even disappointed. But this album is a grower-- it may not grab you on first listen, but you'll reap the rewards on future listens.

In 1991 Chicago released Twenty-1 their last album of completely new and original material. In the years since they've released Night & Day, an album of "Chicago-ized" arrangements of Big Band classics like In the Mood and Take the "A" Train, a Christmas album, and an abysmal live album (XXVI) that was so vapid and doctored that it sounded more like a studio album with canned applause.

This album picks up where Twenty-1 left off and kicks it up a notch. If your teeth cut their first cavities on Chicago's sugary power ballads of the eighties you (and, incidentally, your dentist) will delight in the early offerings of Chicago XXX.

The album opens with the recently released single Feel. The biggest surprise about Feel is that it's a Robert Lamm sung single. The last time Chicago released a single featuring Lamm's lead vocals Terry Kath was still alive and Peter Cetera was still in the band. Lamm's voice has deepened and thickened a bit with age. And while it doesn't have quite the same raspy punch that it did on songs such as Skinny Boy it's still quite pleasant to listen to.

The King of Might Have Been is the first in a series of saccharine ballads (Caroline, Why Can't We, Love Will Come Back, and Long Lost Friend). And speaking of friends, producer Jay DeMarcus called in his pals from his band, Rascal Flatts and his country contemporary Shelly Fairchild to lend a few assists. Some other interesting assists come from Toto alum, Joseph Williams contributing background vocals to King of Might Have Been and current Toto vocalist, Bobby Kimball contributing some background vocals to Caroline.

A live version of Caroline leaked out to fans last fall and that version was nails on a blackboard-- there was plenty of room for improvement and the studio version is infinitely better than the obnoxiously cloying live version which was making the rounds prior to the album release.

Why Can't We is a duet featuring Chicago's Bill Champlin and country vocalist Shelly Fairchild (apparently Chicago has been taking notes from their expatriate bandmate Peter Cetera who has had some luck with duets since leaving Chicago). The duet is pleasant enough and it does have something that many of Chicago's popular ballads of the eighties lacked-- HORNS!

Not to be outdone by the vocal stylings of Bill Champlin and Shelly Fairchild, Jason Scheff and Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus, and Joe Don Rooney offer a ballad of their own with Love Will Come Back.

After the rather bland Long Lost Friend luckily, the final foray this album offers into the world of power ballads, the band seemingly grows a pair. The album picks up significantly on 90 Degrees and Freezing. It has a rather catchy (albeit repetitive) guitar riff. And unlike much of Chicago's uptempo material of the eighties, where the horns were hidden in the back of the mix, the horns are mixed a bit more in front and are much more a focal point on 90 Degrees and Freezing.

Where Were You has rather bland lyrics, but the lyrics are forgivable due to the vocals of Bill Champlin (who could sing the phone book and make it sound magical) on the verses and the soaring tenor of Jason Scheff on the choruses. The horn chart is also quite infectious and offers an excellent balance and counterpoint to the vocals.

Already Gone, Lovin' Chains, and Better all sound as if they could just as easily have been recorded by the Sons of Champlin. All 3 of the tracks are quite reminiscent of the material on SOC's 2005 Hip Li'l Dreams album, although the horn charts are distinctly Chicago. It's the vocal arrangements, and the mere presence of horns (although SOC's horn section does have a different style than Chicago's) that gives Already Gone that SOC feel. The song is augmented by a brief muted trumpet and brief flute solo (all too brief, but certainly something the band can extrapolate on if they ever add this song to their live sets).

Come to Me, Do is quickly becoming one of my favorite songs on the CD. And with the lyric "I will refresh you" I could easily hear Coca-Cola using this song in their commercials. It's easily one of Robert Lamm's better vocal contributions to Chicago in the post Peter Cetera era.

The album closes as it opens, with the song Feel, the closing version has reinserted the brass punch which was left out of the single version. Both versions have their strong points. The brass-less version, may lack the horns, but the lack of horns allows the listener to focus on Lamm's strong vocals. At the same time there's nothing about the single version that really distinguishes it-- any other band could just as easily have recorded it. The horn mix gives the song that distinctive "this is Chicago" stamp which sets this band apart from their contemporaries.

While this album lacks the musical adventurousness of Chicago's seventies material, it is far more faithful to the "Chicago sound" than Chicago's handful of late eighties and early nineties albums which often had songs which lacked horns or had horns pushed so far to the back of the mix you'd easily miss them if you weren't listening closely enough. That being said, this is easily Chicago's strongest material since the departure of Peter Cetera in 1985.

Chicago - Stone of Sisyphus (1994)

On March 22, 1994 Chicago's twenty-second album, Stone of Sisyphus was scheduled for release. The band was forgoing their usual numerical titles. This album was to be a reinvention of sorts.

March 22nd became April 12th. April 12th turned into April 26th. And then April 26th became "September." At some point in this chronology, a decision was made to shelve this album. It was never "officially" to see the light of day.

To this day, while bits and pieces, the occassional song here and there have been released as bonus tracks on various greatest hits compilations. Alternate "solo" versions of certain songs were released by various band members on outside projects. But, truth be told, this album in its original format, has it was originally intended to be released has never "officially" seen the light of day.

But fans remained undeterred. Throughout the mid and late nineties the album did find its way into the hands of the loyal fans who had not forgotten of this band. The more generous of fans rated this the best album Chicago had recorded since the untimely death of guitarist, Terry Kath, in 1978. But even those who were less complimentary went so far as to say it was the best album since the 1985 departure of bassist/vocalist Peter Cetera.

Indeed. If this album had been released on that original Tuesday in late March 1994, the album would have been incredibly well received by the legions of fans who remained disappointed after the overly saccharine Chicago 19 and the rather pedestrian Twenty-1. It had punch, it had balls, and it had that wall of brass that had been so conspicuously absent on the band's eighties albums.

The album opens with All the Years, a Robert Lamm penned tune hearkening back to the political sensibilities he'd injected into Chicago's material of the late sixties and early seventies. A horn-less version had already appeared on Lamm's 1993 solo album, Life Is Good In My Neighbourhood.

The title track is possibly one of the best surprises the band has offered in years. Written by then-guitarist, Dawayne Bailey. Stone of Sisyphus features Lamm and Bailey trading off on the lead vocals with Lamm handling the verses and Bailey handling the choruses and bridge. Bailey's unique sense of humor is present in the lyrics:

Blood sweat and tears turn faith into will

A subtle nod to Chicago's sixties horn-rock contemporaries of years past.

One of the few ballads on the album, Bigger Than Elvis, is bass player Jason Scheff's tribute to his father, Jerry, who once upon a time played bass for Elvis. It's a stirring and shining example of a son's paternal love.

Sleeping In the Middle of the Bed Again, another Lamm penned tune even, at one point, features an attempt at rap. Lamm would later include an alternate and much different arrangement of this song on his 1997 solo release, In My Head. The newer version would lack the infectious groove and the brass punch of the Chicago song.

Mah Jongg, is catchy and laidback with a gentle groove. After being conspicuously absent on the first four tracks, we finally hear Bill Champlin's gritty and soulful vocals. An alternate version of this with Brandon Fields on sax and vocalist Jason Scheff handling vocals ended up on Scheff's obscure solo album, Chauncy a few years later.

Unfortunately, try as they may, Chicago could not completely abandon the insipid or saccharine ballads that had turned their music into prom fodder just ten years earlier. Let's Take a Lifetime is everything long-time fans of this band love to hate about the worst this band has given them over their long tenure.

During the 1993 summer tour, in anticipation of this album's impending release, Chicago performed The Pull. This song has one of the better horn charts I've heard on any of their material in awhile. No longer relegated to the background with the intermittent blats to remind the fans that horns were still part of the band-- as they'd had to resort to in the eighties, the horns remain an integral part of the song from start to finish... Acting almost as another "vocalist" as they had in the band's heyday in the seventies.

While Chicago was not done giving their fans ballads, Candle For the Dark (Here With Me) is much less offensive and considerably less saccharine than Let's Take a Lifetime. It features Robert Lamm, Jason Scheff, and Bill Champlin all taking turns on lead vocals and rather than a synthesized sax solo like in Let's Take a Lifetime the horns actually play throughout the entire song-- if Chicago truly must play the occassional ballad it's nice to see that they remembered to give their horn section something to do, other than just reading the newspaper or "playing" a redundant third or fourth keyboard.

With Twenty-1 Chicago had given the executives at Warner Brothers/Reprise just what they wanted. A rather pedestrian album with a few catchy ballads to be released as singles. That album tanked so bad that only one song from it has ever been performed live. Plaid was Chicago's giant middle fingers to the executives for inflicting the damage of Twenty-1 on the masses. Incidentally, the song probably didn't help convince those same executives to release Stone of Sisyphus.

Proving that Robert Lamm isn't the only one in the band who knows how to write songs with a message, Bill Champlin contributed Cry For the Lost. In 1995 Champlin would release a considerably different version with alternate lyrics titled Proud of Our Blindness on his Through It All solo album. Both versions are interesting, but given Champlin's distinguished grammy-winning songwriting career they are, by comparison, rather forgettable.

In what is probably the most lyrically unusual song in Chicago's canon, Get On This, features hard driving guitars, soaring vocals and lyrics that detail a strange dream. One could almost say that while Robert Lamm stays up until "25 or 6 to 4" trying to write songs, Dawayne Bailey instead waits till morning and tells of the dreams had the night before. Bailey has indicated that many of the lyrics were inspired by the poetry of his then girlfriend, Felicia Parazaider. Trombonist, James Pankow added an assist and the end result is the type of song Chicago had never done before and will, more than likely, never do again.

The album closes with The Show Must Go On an autobiographical song co-penned by Bill Champlin. A very different version of this song with a completely different set of lyrics had appeared on the Fixx album, Ink, a few years before. The Fixx version was titled Falling In Love. Musically, however, it's obvious the two songs were cut from the same cloth.

This is one of the best "could've been" albums to ever sit gathering dust in the vaults. It was certainly better than Chicago's worst material and it was even better than much of the more mediocre half-assed efforts they'd spoonfed fans over the years. If in your Internet travels you stumble across a torrent of this, add it to your download queue. If you miss the Chicago of old, this album will not disappoint. While it has not aged well, it's still aged better than their ill-fated attempts at disco on Chicago XIII and has that brass punch that Chicago SHOULD have had in the eighties when they seemingly forgot they had a horn section.

Chicago Transit Authority (1969) - Multiple Aurgasms

So I'm listening to Chicago Transit Authority-- which has been one of my favorite albums since I was about 14 or 15. This was the first and only time Chicago recorded live in the studio as a group. I've read interviews with sound engineers and the guys in the studio saying that recording this album was a nightmare. Getting 7 guys to come together "just so" required an obscene amount of takes.

When this album was released, no one outside LA and Chicago had heard of these guys, and even those from Chicago may not have even realized it was the same group they had known as "The Big Thing."

These were wet behind the ears guys, younger then than I am now. They gave up their royalties so they could get this double LP debut released back in 1969.

They weren't popular yet, they didn't have over 100 million record sales worldwide yet, they weren't the hit machine they would become in the mid-70s and into the early-80s. They were just making this music for the love of the music and because they believed not only in themselves but in the music they were creating.

I could be wrong, but I believe this album didn't chart until after their 2nd album was released a year later.

On one of the days that this album was being recorded, most of the band was taking a break. Guitarist Terry Kath, opted to just stick around the studio and mess around on his guitar. I mean he just went totally apeshit. One of the sound engineers decided to roll tape on it and caught one of the most brilliant "love songs" ever. It's not so much a song, as it is Kath making love to his guitar in a 6+ minute free form jam that at times sounds more like a motorcycle wreck than anything resembling music. But what comes through his intense free-form jamming is a level of energy and passion for his guitar that no structured song could ever really capture.

Chicago's first 3 double LP studio albums and their 1971 4 LP (3 CD) Live at Carnegie Hall album contain some of their best, and most experimental music. It was all recorded before a concerted change in the band, a change that saw them shift from experimenting to trying to score hits. There are diamonds in the rough of some of their later albums. But Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago II, Chicago III, and Live at Carnegie Hall all have a certain magic to them... and there's just something about this debut, the start of something magical, 7 guys making music they love for the sake of the music, not for the sake of selling records.

I may have expanded my musical horizons, I may listen to a lot of other groups now-- but it never fails, I always come back to this album. Days, weeks, years may pass but I know I can always come back to this CD and experience some monstrous aurgasms!

*This post originally appeared on July 21, 2004 in my Livejournal blog.

Chicago II (1970)

Once upon a time Chicago had balls. Their music hadn't yet been neutered by the Peter Cetera power ballads of the eighties. Their lyrics hadn't yet shifted from the political nature of songs like It Better End Soon, Someday (August 29, 1968), A Song For Richard & His Friends, State of the Union and Dialogue Pts. 1&2 to the saccharine bubblegum of Look Away, You're Not Alone, and one of the worst musical atrocities they've ever inflicted on their fans and listeners-- You Come to My Sesnses.

Listening to Chicago's latter day catalogue it's easy to understand why this legendary band, which has been elgible for Hall of Fame induction since 1992 still has not even been nominated, let alone inducted. But listening to their first three albums the rationale for their omission from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is far from justified.

At the time of its release producer, James William Guercio, in the liner notes of Chicago II implored the listener to take the time to listen to the album from start to finish as 1 complete piece of music, rather than piece-meal listening only to certain songs. His advice is not to be ignored, as this album is indeed best enjoyed as a single piece of music, with several "movements" much like a symphony.

Chicago's debut, Chicago Transit Authority, was recorded with all of the musicians performing in the studio at the same time. It gave that album a rather cohesive, and more of a raw sound. After the nightmare of recording 7 musicians at once for the first album, Guercio and the band opted to take the more traditional approach of each musician recording his parts seperately. As a result, one of the first things the listener will notice is that Chicago II is considerably more "polished" than its predescessor.

The album slowly builds through Movin' In, The Road, and Poem for the People. There's a bit of a crescendo with In the Country-- one of Chicago's best, and most overlooked songs. In it you hear the soulful vocals of Terry Kath, a fantastic brass arrangement, and evidence that Peter Cetera-- besides just having a voice that moistened many a ladies' panties in the eighties with his prom and wedding fodder, was-- once upon a time-- a damn good bass player.

Wake Up Sunshine has a Beatles-esque quality to it, it would not have sounded out of place being performed by the likes John, Paul, George, & Ringo. It's a sign that this band once had the creative and stylistic potential to carry the torch left behind by the Beatles in their 1970 dissolution.

Many casual listeners are familiar with Make Me Smile and Chicago's first stab at prom-fodder, Colour My World-- what they don'y realize are that both these songs are parts of a much bigger whole, the Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon. In interviews the band has admitted to being rather annoyed with their material being chopped up for release as singles but understood it was a necessary evil of the era. The entire Ballet is approximately 15 minutes long, much of the material is instrumental in nature and shows some true musical adventurousness. It also shows the chemistry of Chicago's original rhythm section-- drummer Danny Seraphine, guitarist Terry Kath, and bassist Peter Cetera. It also serves as a reminder that Chicago's horn section once acted as an integral part of their music as opposed to just an accent to help highlight their vocals and vocal harmonies, a role the horn section reluctantly accepted in the eighties.

After the Ballet is Fancy Colours, a song that plays like a rather colorful musical acid trip. The different instruments representing various different "fancy colours." Listeners with more trained ears may even notice that when Guercio was Chicago's producer, the instruments had a considerably more "layered" sound than after the band parted ways with him. Fancy Colours is a prime example of Guercio's style of layering the instruments.

While most die-hard fans and musical trivia buffs are aware of the story behind 25 or 6 to 4's cryptic lyrics, the various theories of drug references and acid trips, etc. are made more amusing when learning that the song is simply a reference to the time of the day-- 25 or 6 minutes to 4 am. For those, in the know I apologize for reiterating this, for those not in the know this is a song about writing a song. The songwriter (Robert Lamm) was suffering from writer's block and stayed up well into the night trying to write a song. When he happened to look at the clock it changed from 3:34 to 3:35.

After 25 or 6 to 4 the focus of the album changes from hard rock with horns and a jazz influence to the more classically influenced style of Prelude, AM Mourning, PM Mourning, and Memories of Love. Musically these songs are quite beautiful-- but they're also quite somber and melancholic about losing a love before her time. As much as I enjoy these pieces of music, they are a low point of the album and seem rather out of place in the context of the album as a whole.

It Better End Soon Movements 1-4 is a plea calling for the ending of the Vietnam War. It's a rather moving reminder that in addition to being more creative and musically adventurous, Chicago was also once far more political than they are today. A couple of other highlights of It Better End Soon is Walt Parazaider's flute solo (the 2nd movement), which is arguably one of the best rock flute solos outside of Jethro Tull's Aqualung, and Terry Kath's soulful wailing preach (the 3rd Movement).

The album closes with one of Peter Cetera's few songwriting contributions of the early years of Chicago, the ponderous Where Do We Go From Here? It makes for an excellent outtro to an overall delightful album.