Chicago XXXII: Stone of Sisyphus (2008)
Stone Of Sisyphus (Bailey, Loughnane) – 4:11
Bigger Than Elvis (Scheff, Wolf, Wolf) – 4:31
All The Years (Lamm, Gaitsch) – 4:16
Mah-Jong (Scheff, Walsh, Zigman) – 4:42
Sleeping In The Middle Of The Bed (Lamm, McCurry) – 4:45
Let's Take A Lifetime (Scheff, Walsh, Zigman) – 4:56
The Pull (Lamm, Scheff, Wolf) – 4:17
Here With Me (A Candle For The Dark) (Pankow, Lamm, O'Connor) – 4:11
Plaid (Champlin, Lamm, Mathieson) – 4:59
Cry For The Lost (Champlin, Matkowsky) – 5:18
The Show Must Go On (Champlin, Gaitsch) – 5:25
Bonus Tracks
Love Is Forever (Demo) (Pankow, Lamm) – 4:14
Mah-Jong (Demo) (Scheff, Walsh, Zigman) – 4:59
Let's Take A Lifetime (Demo) (Scheff, Walsh, Zigman) – 4:15
Stone Of Sisyphus (No Rhythm Loop) (Bailey, Loughnane) – 4:35
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Dawayne Bailey — Guitar, Vocals
Bill Champlin — Keyboards, Guitar, Vocals
Tris Imboden — Drums, Percussion, Harmonica
Robert Lamm — Keyboards, Vocals
Lee Loughnane — Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Backing Vocals
Walter Parazaider — Woodwinds, Backing Vocals
James Pankow — Trombone, Backing Vocals
Jason Scheff — Bass, Vocals
Additional Musicians
Bruce Gaitsch — Guitar
The Jordanaires — Backing Vocals on "Bigger Than Elvis"
Sheldon Reynolds — Guitar
Jerry Scheff — Bass Guitar on "Bigger Than Elvis"
Joseph Williams — Backing Vocals on "Let's Take a Lifetime"
Peter Wolf — Arranger, Keyboards
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On June 17, 2008, they finally did it. Chicago released their "lost" album, originally titled simply
Stone of Sisyphus. Recorded in 1993, it was to be only their second studio album to have a title and not just a Roman numeral, to emphasize the uniqueness of the album. As referenced upthread, the album was produced by Peter Wolf, former keyboard player with Frank Zappa, who encouraged the band to make this album exactly how they wanted to make it. Write songs from the heart, with no thought of commercial viability. Forget everything that had been forced upon them in the past decade or more about what people expect Chicago to sound like, and just make the music they want to make. Be experimental, take chances.
Once they'd completed rough versions of three songs, Peter took them to the suits at Warner Bros., who loved them. Chicago disappeared into the studio and finished the album with a renewed vigor, and without any involvement of any kind from the suits. During this time, however, the upper levels of Warner Bros. had gone through a complete shakeup; all new suits were at the top, and they didn't like that they had no input to the music, and they didn't like the music. They saw no commercial viability, and said that they would release the album, but would not promote it.
Chicago chose to shelf the album rather than watch it go out and die due to lack of promotion. They eventually made
Night and Day - Big Band to complete their contract with Warner Bros., and formed Chicago Records with the specific purpose of acquiring and owning the rights to all Chicago music, from the Columbia and Warner Bros. catalogues, and any future music as well. They then entered into a long-term agreement with Rhino Records to distribute it. Now, 15 years later, it was time to release the album of which they were more proud than anything they'd done since the 70's.
On the spine, it says
Chicago XXXII: Stone of Sisyphus. On the front, back, and on the CD itself, it says
Chicago Stone of Sisyphus. They've downplayed the
XXXII, but it is apparently part of the title now (I always think of what's on the spine as the "official" title).
The album has also gone through some changes along the way. Some songs have been remixed. One song was dropped. But it overall is pretty much the same as it was in 1993. And listening to it now, it's pretty obvious why the suits at Warner Bros. had trouble with it. I've been listening to it since it came out, including the past two weeks solid, and some of it still throws me. Some of it is really out-there, very "un-Chicago-like", which I'm sure was the idea. But it's a daring, challenging album which rewards any listener willing to give it time to work.
This isn't a concept album, and the title track, "Stone Of Sisyphus" doesn't actually have much to do with the Greek Myth of Sisyphus. Originally "Twenty Years on the Sufferbus", the music and lyrics went through a lot of changes, and "Sufferbus" eventually became "Sisyphus" when they noticed parallels between their own situation regarding the music business and the tragic character Sisyphus, doomed to forever push a huge stone up a hill, only to watch it roll back down every time he neared the peak. This song comes blasting out of the gate, with the horns blaring. You can just imagine the jaws hitting the table in the Warner Bros. conference room listening to this one.
"Bigger Than Elvis" is a very personal song by Jason Scheff. Jason's father of course is Jerry Scheff, bassist for Elvis Presley's band. The song is about how young Jason would watch Elvis on TV, and while everybody else was watching Elvis, Jason was always trying to catch a glimpse of his dad, who, in his eyes, was much bigger than Elvis. Jason "tricked" Jerry into playing on the track (they muted the vocals), and they even got The Jordanaires to sing backing vocals, as they had on so many Elvis Presley records. That Christmas, Jason played the finished track for Jerry, who was moved to tears when he heard it.
"All The Years" makes me rethink what I said about this not being a concept album. Robert Lamm talks about "all the years we've wasted" and he admits that he's talking about his band Chicago and what they'd been doing recently, although the lyrics ultimately expand to talk about politics and the world in general. That's the Robert Lamm we've missed. The idealist, guy with the world view. There's a breakdown in the middle with some sound bites, including "the whole world's watching" chant which also appeared in "Prologue, August 29, 1968" from the first album. Nice tie-in there, from the first album to what will likely be the last studio album.
Mah-Jong is the Chinese mother of all card games which is poker, bridge, and rummy all rolled into one; not the silly tile-matching game that Internet gamemongers would have you believe it is. And "Mah-Jong" is a song that only a bassist could write. Funky, rhythmic, and with a catchy chorus that's very hard to shake. Minor quibble: according to the lyrics, she lives one block east of Chinatown. One block east of Chinatown is a freeway. All the apartments and houses are west of Chinatown. Must not be Chicago Chinatown he's talking about.
Lamm had the music for "Sleeping In The Middle Of The Bed" and knew how he wanted the chorus to work, but couldn't come up with a melody. He had a rhythm, though, so he rapped it to his co-writer John McCurry, who thought it was great just like that. So rap appears on a Chicago album. Yeah, more jaws hitting tables.
"Let's Take A Lifetime" is another Jason Scheff song, another mellow one (like "Bigger Than Elvis") but it's not a bad song. I'm not a good judge of this kind of music, though.
"The Pull" is another Robert Lamm song (this album has the highest Lamm percentage of any album since the 70's), a very personal song about being pulled in too many directions at once. Well, two, which is one too many when you're playing in a band and you have a wife at home who needs you. Jason sings it and tweaked some of the lyrics, and Peter Wolf messed with the arrangement, so they get co-credit, but it's a Lamm song. And it's another one with a weird beat, a weird sound that says "not commercially viable". Jaws, tables, head shaking, face palming. I think it's a great song, but there's no way you'd hear it on the radio.
A rare Lamm-Pankow collaboration, even the title of "Here With Me (A Candle For The Dark)" reflects its dual nature. Jimmy wrote the chorus and most of the music, and wanted to call it "Here With Me". Robert wrote the verses and wanted to call it "A Candle For The Dark". Robert's songs almost never have the repeated line from the chorus as the title. The awkward dual title is the result of their "compromise". The break has a cool, pseudo-baroque section to it that I always love hearing.
Plaid, as a fabric style, consists of horizontal and vertical stripes, some wide, some thin, some solid, some cross-hatched, in colors that you might not normally use together, yet somehow it all works and the overall pattern has a texture that transcends its components. The song "Plaid"
sounds like plaid looks. Every time I hear the song, I'm amazed. All the different rhythms, the weird sounds, the horns, guitars, and keys, the mix of smooth and harsh lead and background vocals, all weave around and through each other, and somehow it all works. It's a musical plaid. I have no idea what the song is about, but it sounds amazing. And again, you could never play this on the radio.
"Cry For The Lost" is Bill Champlin taking it as far as he can go. Peter Wolf challenged him to write a commercial song, so commercial that it goes beyond commercial. I don't even know what that means, but I like the song. On an album that intentionally tries to push boundaries and just plain get weird sometimes, this song and Jason's ballads actually do help keep things grounded.
Now, if you have a song called "The Show Must Go On" you already know it has to be the last song on the album. It just sounds like the title of a song which would be last. The lyrics, however, are another story. According to Bill Champlin, it's "pretty much pointing the finger at management types. Do you think the suits at the label are going to get behind a record that calls them assholes?" So there you have it. Chicago wanted the show to go on, but were continuously stifled.
After being given free reign to write and record whatever they wanted, saying what they wanted to say, including a few choice words about the music business itself, it's not surprising at all that the new management at Warner Bros. listened to this album and hated it.
This is not Chicago. What in the hell is this?But if you ask the band, this is definitely Chicago. It is more Chicago than Chicago had been in 15 years, since "If You Leave Me Now" became so huge that suddenly it was what people expected them to be. Radio was becoming programmed and formatted, and that was the format that someone decided Chicago fit into.
Okay, full disclosure. I remember buying this, taking it home, playing it, and being disappointed overall. All this talk about how it was what they wanted to do had me expecting, if not another
Chicago, at least another
Chicago V. I would've settled for another
Chicago VIII. Those are each great albums in their own way, even if they each emphasize different strengths of the band. This wasn't like any of them. It still sounded like "new Chicago" to me.
But after listening through every studio album and everything they've done, and getting to this point, I can hear now how it is, and was, a definite step back for them. A good step back. A step back to a time when they wrote what they wanted to write, played what they wanted to play, and didn't give a damn about what they were "supposed" to sound like. The horns sound like they did in the old days. Still warm and smooth and full, but not glossy and shiny like 80's or 90's production; raw yet rich like 70's production. The Latin percussion is back! Several cuts have prominent Latin percussion and complex rhythms throughout. Songs like "The Pull" and "Plaid" and "Sleeping In The Middle Of The Bed" are boundary-breaking tracks. They're like nothing Chicago has ever done before or since.
There are four "Bonus Tracks", and it's a little weird what they've included. Four demos, including a song that's not on the album called "Love Is Forever". It's a nice enough song, a Pankow-Lamm collaboration sung by Jason Scheff. And it's a bit more than a demo. I mean, it sounds pretty finished to me. Full background vocals, horns, everyone plays. It's not like it's just a voice and piano or something. All of the "demos" are finished or nearly finished versions.
The weird part is that there's a song missing. It's called "Get On This" by guitarist Dawayne Bailey, and it is a rocker. It rocks harder than anything else on the album. The only way anyone knows about this song is if they have the original leaked version of the album from 1993, and I'm fortunate enough to have it. Dawayne Bailey took it particularly hard when the album was rejected by the label. Besides writing the title track, he wrote"Get On This" with James Pankow and Walt Parazaider's daughter Felicia, with whom he was in a relationship at the time.
I think the inclusion of "Get On This" would have made the album even stronger, even more rocking, even more "non-Chicago yet Chicago". But Dawayne was no longer in the band, and while they kinduv had to keep the title track, I couldn't find anything about the status of his relationship with Walt's daughter. There has never been any official statement regarding the departure of Dawayne Bailey from the band, or why "Get On This" was dropped from the final version of the album, and doesn't even appear as a demo. But we can guess.
Topic: The Chicago Discography (Read 62227 times)
