January 26 – Windy City Faves Were In Transit To Superstardom

Rock is often considered sexy and about sex, but seldom have bands been as “horny” as Chicago in their early days. Of course, we mean that literally – they along with Blood, Sweat and Tears were the leaders in a move to bring horn sections into rock at the end of the ’60s. We hear that clearly on their sophomore album, now nicknamed “Chicago II” which came out 50 years ago, on this day in 1970.

We say “nicknamed” because technically the album was simply entitled Chicago. Their debut, released eight months earlier had been called Chicago Transit Authority but they’d dropped the last two words after being threatened with a lawsuit by the Windy City commuter bus and train system of the same name.

If the band lost a couple of words from their name, they gained some strong musical direction… and one of music’s best-known visuals, their curly logo which first showed up on this record. They got the idea for the logo which has appeared on all their albums since, from Coca-Cola’s cursive emblem.

Chicago at the time was a seven-man ensemble many consider the “classic” lineup for the band which has seen members come and go rather regularly through its nearly 55 year run to date. Bassist Peter Cetera and guitarist Terry Kath pretty much split the lead vocals while Robert Lamm played keyboards and added backing vocals and their was James Pankow on trombone (plus lesser-known Walter Parazaine and Lee Loughlaine on more horns plus drummer Danny Seraphine.) Of the seven, the trio of horn players plus Lamm are still in the touring version of the group. The writing was a little more widely-distributed; while Kath and Cetera wrote a large portion of it, Pankow also added significant parts including the album’s standout, “Ballet for A Girl In Bucahnnon”. That one is hardly a household name, and at 13 minutes, understandably isn’t a mainstay of radio but is typical of the album and contributed two of their best-known songs: “Make Me Smile” and “Color My World.” It is one of three lengthy pieces on the double-album which are sprawling and composed of several different, distinctive parts.

The band put the album together surprisingly quickly, inside of a month during the summer of ’69 under the guidance of their producer of choice, James Guercio. Thanks to the essentially double A-sided single “Make Me Smile” / “Color My World” and the song Billboard pick as their best (albeit not best-selling) of their career, “25 or 6 to 4”, the record shot up the chart and quickly eclipsed the first album’s sales. The album hit #4 in the U.S., #5 in Canada and #6 in the UK and went platinum at home. In Canada, it ended up triple-platinum, making it their best-seller outside of a Greatest Hits package. “Make Me Smile” was their first top 10 hit in the states, going to #9 while the next single, “25 or 6 to 4” rose to #4 (and #2 in Canada.)

And by the way, what of that song? Some thought “25 or 6 to 4” was drug slang, or maybe some weird morse code for a famous person. Writer Robert Lamm throws cold water on those conspiracy theories saying he was writing it in the middle of the night and merely jotted down the time as a working title. He began it around 3:34 or 3:35 AM, hence “25 or (twenty) six to four.” The song lives on anytime of the day not only on radio but on parade routes as well. An Omaha newspaper ranked it as the #1 Marching Band Tune of all-time.

Critics were mixed as to how they felt about it. Some saw it as new and progressive. The hometown Chicago Sun-times thought them “one of the most exciting, most original, most accomplished jazz-rocks in existence.” New York’s Village Voice only gave it a “D+”, calling it “sterile and stupid.” Eventually it probably came down to whether you thought rock was a stagnant, narrow genre or a growing sound willing to incorporate elements of other genres. Allmusic definitely goes with the latter, giving it 4.5-stars, best of the ’70s catalog and praising it for “complex jazz charges with heavy electric rock and roll that the band so brazenly forged” to create “some of the best and most effective pop music of that era.” Ultimately, we agree with them. Rock as we know it wouldn’t have gone on to what it was in the ’70s and ’80s if not for innovators willing to expand its boundaries in the early days, from The Beatles to Led Zeppelin to yes, Chicago.

April 28 – Chicago Were In Transit…Up The Charts

A big band, in every sense of the phrase, had its “Beginnings” on this day in 1969. Chicago‘s debut album, which was using the band’s original name “Chicago Transit Authority” hit the shelves 51 years ago.

Chicago (or CTA) had formed two years prior in the Windy City and much like Blood, Sweat and Tears, incorporated a liberal use of horns in their jazz-rock music. They signed to Columbia Records, home to BS&T as well, thanks largely to their producer James Guercio, who had also done the work with the other band. He lobbied hard for Chicago, and eventually Clive Davis agreed saying later it was an obvious fit for the label who enjoyed the “blending elements of jazz, pop and rock (which was) ground-breaking.” Others suggest he actually hesitated, thinking them too similar to his other horn band. Either way, they went with Columbia and had a rocky relationship with Davis who liked their music but not their demands for things like double-albums and posters included inside the LP which boosted the label’s costs.

Chicago Transit Authority (later nicknamed “Chicago I”) was audacious as a debut. It was indeed a double-LP, with nearly 78 minutes of music over 12 songs, only two of which were under 4” in length. The final track, “Liberation” ran over 14 minutes. While the band boasted several singers, several writers and an unusual (for rock) trio of horn players – Walter Parazaider, James Pankow (who also handled the cowbell) and Lee Loughlane – at this point in time, Robert Lamm, the keyboardist, was clearly in charge. He wrote most of the tracks and sang lead on over half of the songs including the appropriate for a debut “Beginnings.” Peter Cetera, later to take a more prominent role, shared vocal duties on “Questions 67 & 68” and did a bit of the writing.

Remarkably the seven-man outfit recorded the entire body of work in five days in New York City, with the final mixing taking another five. The six-minute plus “Free Form Guitar”, guitarist Terry Kath’s homage to his friend Jimi Hendrix, was recorded all in one take. The album however, sounded anything but raw or unplanned.

While it contains a trio of songs now considered not only among the band’s best but among Oldies Radio’s mainstays, it wasn’t an overnight success. The first single, “Questions 67 & 68” barely charted at first, and “Beginnings” didn’t at all. And the album languished in the low parts of the Billboard charts. However, their fanbase grew and the release of their second album made them popular, at which point this record rose up the charts, eventually to #17 in the U.S. and #10 in Canada. It stayed on the charts for 171 weeks, setting a record for longevity in 1974 (although at the time there was another album on there which would eclipse that mark soon – Dark Side of The Moon.) After being sued by the commuter transportation company and having to lose the “transit authority” off their name, and having success with Chicago II, Columbia wisely re-released singles off the debut in 1971… to much better reception. “Beginnings” would rise to #7 and “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” did as well, and hit #2 in Canada in 1971. The album eventually earned them a double-platinum award and a nomination for the Best New Group at the Grammys. They lost that one to Crosby, Stills & Nash… as did Led Zeppelin.

Allmusic rate the record as a 4-star effort, saying “few debut albums can boast as consistently solid an effort.” Classic Rock Reviews agrees, saying that they “fused brass, jazz, soul and blues-based rock & roll, and with three lead vocalists and composers, the group’s sound was as diverse as their influences” and thinking that on some of the songs, especially “Does Anybody…”, the entire group brought along their “A-game.”

Apparently we agreed, as the record began a streak of 12-straight albums from them which hit the American top 20.

January 26 – More Than Just A Windy City…

Rock is often considered sexy and about sex, but seldom have bands been as “horny” as Chicago in their early days. Of course, we mean that literally – they along with Blood, Sweat and Tears were the leaders in a move to bring horn sections into rock at the end of the ’60s. We hear that clearly on their sophomore album, now nicknamed “Chicago II” which came out 50 years ago, on this day in 1970.

We say “nicknamed” because technically the album was simply entitled Chicago. Their debut, released eight months earlier had been called Chicago Transit Authority but they’d dropped the last two words after being threatened with a lawsuit by the Windy City commuter bus and train system of the same name.

If the band lost a couple of words from their name, they gained some strong musical direction… and one of music’s best-known visuals, their curly logo which first showed up on this record. They got the idea for the logo which has appeared on all their albums since, from Coca-Cola’s cursive emblem.

Chicago at the time was a seven-man ensemble many consider the “classic” lineup for the band which has seen members come and go rather regularly through its nearly 55 year run to date. Bassist Peter Cetera and guitarist Terry Kath pretty much split the lead vocals while Robert Lamm played keyboards and added backing vocals and their was James Pankow on trombone (plus lesser-known Walter Parazaine and Lee Loughlaine on more horns plus drummer Danny Seraphine.) Of the seven, the trio of horn players plus Lamm are still in the touring version of the group. The writing was a little more widely-distributed; while Kath and Cetera wrote a large portion of it, Pankow also added significant parts including the album’s standout, “Ballet for A Girl In Bucahnnon”. That one is hardly a household name, and at 13 minutes, understandably isn’t a mainstay of radio but is typical of the album and contributed two of their best-known songs: “Make Me smile” and “Color My World.” It is one of three lengthy pieces on the double-album which are sprawling and composed of several different, distinctive parts.

The band put the album together surprisingly quickly, inside of a month during the summer of ’69 under the guidance of their producer of choice, James Guercio, who also worked with BS&T. Thanks to the essentially double A-sided single “Make Me Smile” / “Color My World” and the song Billboard pick as their best (albeit not best-selling) of their career, “25 or 6 to 4”, the record shot up the chart and quickly eclipsed the first album’s sales. The album hit #4 in the U.S., #5 in Canada and #6 in the UK and went platinum at home.

July 4 – It’s Independence Day

Since it’s Indpendence Day today in the U.S.A., you might want to listen to some appropriate songs for the day on your way out to the beach, weinie roast or fireworks. Of course, you could listen to a playlist of band’s and artists with American names (Kansas, John Denver, Georgia Satellites, Miami sound Machine, Atlanta Rhythm Section etc.) or songs about parts of the red, white and blue (“New York State of Mind”, “Philadelphia Freedom”, “Atlantic City”, “Midnight Train to Georgia”, “Walking in Memphis”, “Ohio”, “Galveston”, “”California Dreaming”… the list is nearly endless!) or you could focus on the day itself.

You could begin with the song “Independence Day” by Britain’s Comsat Angels. The band (which at times went by the name CS Angels instead) was one of the better post-punk acts that spanned the ’80s despite lacking a major label contract or massive sales. The song was from their 1980 debut Waiting for A Miracle and was one of their most popular, as allmusic would point out “wrapping all the band’s strengths in one concise package…brilliantly paced shifts between the sparse and the dense.” The song seems to be about… well, we’re not quite sure but probably not about July 4! But it’s a good listen and a good way to initiate a round of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. The bassist for the Comsat Angels was Kevin Bacon. Just not that Kevin Bacon.

So closer to home, you might turn to the other 1980 song of the same name, this one from “The Boss” – Bruce Springsteen. One of his finest and lesser-played songs finished up Side 1 of his double album The River and has been picked by Bruce as one of his four favorite songs on the album that kick-started his run up to superstardom (being his first #1 album in North America.) Allmusic accurately depict the tune as a highlight of the record and “unusually sad, beautiful and private.”

Although his “Independence Day” could have been July 4, it clearly has a different meaning in the song. It tells of a son deciding its time to move out of the family home to get away from his father. Springsteen would later say about it “I could never talk to my old man and he could never talk to me…I was glad when I finally got old enough and I started to live alone,” although he added “I started thinking about all the things I wanted to say to him and never (did.)” Great song, but not one to necessarily cheer up the celebrations!

So last but not least, let’s give an ear to a band named for one of the country’s great cities – Chicago! Although the title shows no tie-in to the day, “Saturday In the Park” is clearly the song that is about, and captures the fun of, July 4. Indeed, Robert Lamm (who co-sang it) wrote the song after spending a July 4th in Central Park, and more or less transcribed all the little bits of Americana and Independence Day that he witnessed, from a man selling ice cream, to “people dancing, people laughing” to a man singing Italian songs. And no, the bit following that line isn’t real Italian… having no knowledge of the language he just made up sounds that seemed right to him.

Real Italian lyrics or not, the public loved the song almost as much as a national holiday. It earned them their first gold single in 1972 and rose to #3 on the charts. Curiously, it got to #2 in Canada… but failed to make any impression across the sea in the UK.

Whether in the park or elsewhere, here’s hoping your Independence Day is as much fun as that song.

March 24 – Fans Wondered If ‘8’ Was Worth The Wait

People like things they can depend on. And in the 1970’s, you could depend on the jazz-rock combo Chicago for a couple of things – putting out an album per year and being able to know which album it was in their discography, since each was titled for the number of release it was. So, predictably on this day in 1975, a year and two weeks after their VII album, they were back with Chicago VIII. Some have suggested maybe being less predictable might have helped…as might a little more time, since as allmusic put it, on this one they sounded “road-weary and running low on steam.”

While the previous album was somewhat daring, being a double album with much of the first disc being instrumental jazz, for this one they decided to put out a much more straight-forward set. Ten songs, just under 40 minutes, pretty much consistently pop/soft rock tunes. The most surprising thing about it may have been the packaging. The cover had the usual band logo, but set against an “embroidered” bird image, which looks a great deal like the symbol for the St. Louis Cardinals (the arch-rival team of Chicago’s favorite sons, the Cubs). As well, the original LP included a poster and T-shirt iron-on of the band for added value.

The added value might have been needed as VIII is seldom noted as being one of the band’s better works, despite having one of their best and most-enduring singles in “Old Days.” Almost everyone likes that nostalgic look back at things like Howdy Doody and drive-in movies written by their trumpeter James Pankow (although Pankow wasn’t a primary writer for Chicago, he did manage to write a good percentage of their best-loved songs including “Color My World” and “Searching So Long”). The rest of the songs were not as memorable. The first single, “Harry Truman”, was described as “depression-era jazz” like “Old Days” looking back nostalgically. On this single though they were pining for a president they could get behind, like Truman, rather than “lies from men who’d sell us out.” The frustration is understandable given that the album was recorded in summer ’74, with a backdrop of Watergate and Nixon’s resignation. The recording was done at Caribou Ranch again, with their favorite producer of the era, James Guercio being helped out by another famous producer, Phil Ramone, doing the mixing.

Guercio and Ramone combined couldn’t help make the material sound terribly exciting though. Allmusic later rated it only 2-stars,lowest of the band’s first dozen albums and suggesting that only “Old Days” and the mildly-adventurous, 7-minute “Thank You Great Spirit” were notable, suggesting too that Peter Cetera, singer on six of the tracks seemed “lazy.”

The public may have agreed. Although the album did hit #1 in the U.S. – their 4th straight – and #3 in Canada, and again went platinum in the States, it spent fewer weeks on the chart than any of the predecessors had, facilitating Chicago IX , a greatest hits compilation, only 6 months later. Remarkably, given how seldom it gets played on oldies radio, “Harry Truman” was a top 20 hit for them, and “Old Days” made it to #5. That made it their 14th top 20 hit of the decade, a number at the time equaling another famous utilizer of Caribou Ranch… Elton John.

March 11 – Seven Hit Albums, Seven Members, No Household Names…

A big city, a big band. It was a good day for soft rock or easy-listening music 45 years back. Chicago put out their 7th overall album (6th studio plus one live album), appropriately enough called Chicago VII on this day in 1974. It continued their path to being one of the biggest pop/rock bands of the decade and to see them evolve in several ways.

As Rolling Stone pointed out, Chicago “derives its sound from Stan Getz, cool jazz, big, brassy dance bands” and was unusual in the rock genre in their early days (of the late-’60s and beginning of the ’70s) for having upbeat numbers with a prominence of horns. Songs like “Beginnings” and “25 or 6 to 4” made them known, but by the mid-’70s they were getting mellow and smoother, with songs like “Just You And Me” from VI. VII managed to look back, and forward simultaneously.

It was a double album, and in effect, two records in one stemming from differing ideas within the then seven-man band. Some of them felt the group had veered away too far from its roots and wanted to go back and put out a pure, jazz-themed album. Others, like Peter Cetera who was increasingly becoming the dominant member, felt they needed to continue on their arc towards being creators of studio-perfect, pop songs. The result was a compromise – a 15-piece, 72 minute double album. All of side one and much of side two was instrumental and very jazzy, fully utilizing the horns; while the second record contained a variety of more typical pop songs. Little coincidence that all 3 singles came from the pop tail-end of the record: “Searching So Long”, “Wishing You Were Here” and “Call on Me.” The three sounded both unified but different, with different members writing each of the songs but Cetera doing the bulk of the lead vocals on all. The most upbeat of them, “Call on Me” used a few of the horns the band was known for and also showcased the tropical percussions of Laudir de Oliviera, who’d go on to join the group full-time for their next album. The lush “Wishing You Were Here” was unusual for a couple of reasons. Cetera and Terry Kath switched instruments on it, with Cetera playing guitar and Kath bass. And the great single had a distinctly Beach Boys vibe to it, in part because Carl and Dennis Wilson and Carl Jardine of that band doing backing vocals. The Beach boys happened to be at the Caribou Ranch studios Chicago was using (a studio made famous months later by Elton John who recorded there frequently and named one of his albums Caribou for it) at the same time. The two bands hit it off and toured together the following year.

It’s probably fair to say that a number of fans were surprised by the first disc when they got the album home, and may not have listened to it that much. But the singles, and some of the other “pop” album cuts (like keyboardist Robert Lamm’s “Skinny boy” with the Pointer Sisters doing backing vocals on it) pleased and the album would go to #1 in the U.S., their third in a row, and earn them a gold record after only one week. About a decade later, it would become one of their 18 platinum albums to date. “Call on Me” became their 10th top 10 single at home; they’d have to wait a couple more years before they’d get a #1 song with “If You Leave Me Now.”

An interesting thing about Chicago was that their members names were not well known and their faces anonymous but their albums were among the most-recognizable on the shelves. Typically they all used their Coca-Cola inspired logo prominently displayed on the cover (Rolling Stone were derisive of them but did call that script-written name “perhaps the best artist-marketing device in rock”) , but done in different ways. VII was the “leather” album, with the name looking like it was embossed into leather.