Chicago (1970)Peter Cetera - Bass, Vocals
Terry Kath - Guitar, Vocals
Robert Lamm - Keyboards, Vocals
Lee Loughnane - Trumpet, Background Vocals
James Pankow - Trombone, Background Vocals
Walt Parazaider - Saxophone, Flute, Background Vocals
Danny Seraphine - Drums
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Movin' In
4:06 The Road
3:10 Poem for the People
5:31 In the Country
6:34 Wake Up Sunshine
2:29 Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon
12:55 Make Me Smile
So Much to Say, So Much to Give
Anxiety's Moment
West Virginia Fantasies
Colour My World
To Be Free
Now More Than Ever
Fancy Colours
5:10 25 or 6 to 4
4:50 Prelude
1:18A.M. Mourning
2:05P.M. Mourning
1:59Memories of Love
4:01It Better End Soon
10:24 1st Movement
2nd Movement
3rd Movement
4th Movement
Where Do We Go from Here?
2:53The real Chicago Transit Authority, the government-run entity which oversees mass transit in the Chicago area, threatened to sue The Chicago Transit Authority, the band. Because obviously it would be too easy to mistake a rock and roll band for a bus company and accidentally buy a record album when you meant to purchase a ticket to Wheeling. The band's manager and producer, James William Guercio, decided to just change the name of the band rather than try to fight them, since they were clearly out of their minds. He didn't think the city of Chicago would mind having a band named after it, so the band became Chicago.
This album, therefore, was the second eponymous debut album in a row by the same band, something that I'm pretty sure has never been done before or since. It is often catalogued as "Chicago II" as the band would later fall into a pattern of giving their albums Roman numeral designations, but the proper title of the album is
Chicago.
The first album had some long songs, some with atypical structures. This album pushed things in a different direction. After the first side, which consists of four "regular" songs, each of the remaining sides is dominated by a suite of songs, each written by one of the band's main composers. In the LP days, an album was naturally divided into two (or four) "sets". It sometimes presented logistical challenges, but also opportunities to sequence and arrange the songs for maximum effect
"Movin' In" is a James Pankow song, yet another "introduction" to the band. We've gotten one from each of the three main writers. Sung by Terry Kath, it explains that this is what they've chosen to do, as hard as that may be to understand. Not a bad song, and the break features jazz solos from the saxophone, trumpet, and trombone.
"The Road" is a Terry Kath composition, sung by Peter Cetera. I mentioned in the CTA writeup that Terry didn't write many songs, but they were often unusual and, to me, interesting because his approach is so unconventional. His choice of chords and cadences is often way outside the box. The song is in 4/4, but it has an odd cadence, and each verse ends with a quick horn break with bars of 6/4 and 5/4.
"Poem for the People" is written and sung by Robert Lamm, and brings back one of his favorite themes: concern for the future, based on what he sees happening in the present. It's a quiet, sad song, but features two horn breaks, both fully composed, which are uptempo and provide some nice contrast.
"In the Country" is another Terry Kath song, this time sung by Terry, with Peter taking a few lines here and there for contrast. Once again, we get some interesting changes. My favorite comes at the end of the break where, after a few modulations, they end up singing an A-flat sus4 chord, with Terry on the 4th (D-flat), and he holds the note while the chord changes to A, and now it's the 3rd (and thus is technically a C-sharp) and we've recapitulated back to the original key, all while he's holding the same note. It's a brilliant, masterful key change.
"Wake Up Sunshine", a nice little song by Lamm, opens Side Two. He sings the verses and Cetera sings the break. Chicago completely exploited the fact that they had three lead vocalists. The contrast between the voices accompanies changes in the music quite naturally and often very effectively. Anyway, "Wake Up Sunshine" almost feels like a intro to the rather famous suite which follows it and rounds out the side.
The original title was "Ballet for a Girl in Buckhannon" because James Pankow's girlfriend lived and went to school in Buckhannon, West Virginia. It was mispelled on the album and has been known forever after as the "Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon", but the band insists that it at least be pronounced properly ("buck-hannon"). It's a suite in seven movements, and spawned two of the three singles from
Chicago (the third being "25 or 6 to 4").
The suite opens with an amazing extended fanfare by the horns which leads into the first song, "Make Me Smile". After two verses, a horn break, and a guitar solo, it segues directly into "So Much to Say, So Much to Give", a slow, angst-filled song expressing the frustration of living apart from the one you love. It changes halfway through, becoming a bit more optimistic, then gets darker again before moving into the next piece, "Anxiety's Moment". "Anxiety's Moment" is an instrumental, a trumpet solo by Lee Loughnane, which goes directly into the next movement.
"West Virginia Fantasies" is a brilliant instrumental in 3/4. It starts as a trumpet solo, with the trumpet soon joined by a flute. The two continue as a duet with the parts weaving around each other, then the key changes and we get a contrasting duet by the guitar and organ. Another change, and the trumpet, sax, and trumpet play a trio that builds and builds, then slows down to a C7, leading us into the next movement, "Colour My World". "Colour My World' was released as a single, but it's a very unusual song in terms of structure. The piano intro takes us through an entire verse, then there is one sung verse, then a flute solo for a verse, and then the song ends. It's the only full stop in the suite. (Technically the C7 leading into "Colour My World" is a stop, but it doesn't resolve. The end of "Colour My World" resolves.)
Things break loose again with "To Be Free", an uptempo instrumental that leads us into the closing section, "Now More Than Ever". The suite closes with another amazing horn break, and of course "a big C". When I saw Chicago in 1996, Robert Lamm introduced the "ballet" by saying (paraphrased but very close): "Here's a song that Jimmy wrote that we didn't have room for on the first album, and by time we recorded the second album, he'd written this entire piece of music around it." I found that interesting, because "Make Me Smile" and "Now More Than Ever" are the bookends and clearly form the basis of the suite. I've also heard the story of how "Jimmy" wrote "Colour My World" after hearing a Mozart piano piece, and now I wonder if it came first, and he literally wrote the ballet "around" it, or if Robert was just using an expression and "Make Me Smile" really was first, and the other bits filled things in, and led us into and out of "Colour My World". If I ever meet Robert Lamm or James Pankow, I will certainly ask them.
"Make Me Smile" was released as a single, creatively edited from the ballet, with "Now More Than Ever" serving as its third verse (which it is). In the original edit, the horn fanfare at the beginning is omitted, as is the break at the end. It skips the guitar solo from "Make Me Smile" and jumps immediately to the recap leading into "Now More Than Ever". I've also heard a longer edit which keeps both the intro and outro, and the guitar solo. With three horn breaks and a guiter solo, it's a much more satisfying edit, and of course songs are allowed to be a bit longer nowadays.
Supposedly, Frank Sinatra really loved the song "Colour My World" and wanted to record it, but it only has the one verse. He asked Pankow to write a second verse, but Pankow wasn't interested. A lot of writers would've jumped at the chance to have Old Blues Eyes sing one of their songs, but the song is what it is.
"Fancy Colours" open Side Three of the original LP, with the sounds of wind chimes in each speaker. A Robert Lamm composition, it's a neat song, a bit psychedelic I suppose, with some clever wordplay in the lyrics and some great flute playing courtesy of Walt Parazaider. It has the "fake-out" ending which we discussed in Big Hath's "Chicago: Top Songs Thread".
As the story goes, Robert Lamm was up late, well into the early morning hours. He couldn't sleep, so he wondered if he should try to do some more writing. He kept hearing this riff in his head, over and over. (Perhaps he'd recently caught Led Zeppelin's "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" or Procol Harum's "Simple Sister" -- both of which have very similar riffs -- on the radio.) Outside on the street below, a police car goes by, without the siren on, but he can see the lights reflecting against the low clouds. He looks at the clock through blurry eyes, and it's 25, no, 26 minutes to 4. Whatever. It's "25 or 6 to 4"
The next four tracks, which round out Side Three, form a suite, but they aren't indicated as such anywhere on the album. There's no question that they go together, however, since they segue, and they were all written by Terry Kath, with some orchestration help from his buddy Peter Matz. "Prelude" is a theme and variations on the melody from the main song, "Memories of Love". It's introduced on the flute, later joined by strings, reeds and brass. "A.M. Mourning" brings some development, "P.M. Mourning" has a beautiful trombone solo, a few more changes and more development, eventually leading into "Memories of Love". It's a nice little suite, a bit of chamber music really, and very different from anything Chicago would do until
Chicago XI, when drummer Danny Seraphine would put together a similar suite based on "Little One", a song written for his daughter (and sung by Terry).
Side Four is dominated by a Robert Lamm composition entitled "It Better End Soon". Written about the Viet Nam war, its themes are universal, as war tends to always create the same issues. People die. Some are for it, some are against it, some have no idea why it's going on, and some are sure they know exactly what's going on, but still it continues. The 1st and 4th Movements open and close the song, while the 2nd Movement is a flute solo, and the 3rd Movement is a "preach", spoken-sung by Terry, about the war, and what we, the people, should do about it. Robert Lamm's protest music again.
The album closes with Peter Cetera's sole contribution, "Where Do We Go From Here?" After seeing the Apollo 11 moon landing, many thought we'd done pretty much everything man could do. So where do we go from here? The answer, of course, is right here. How about working on solving problems here at home?
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Wow, there's so much music here, and I've been listening to these albums for so long, that this could easily be two or three times as long. And it would be, if I hadn't forced myself to be pretty ruthless with the editing. Believe me, for every sentence here, I think I've written and cut at least one or two. But I'll stop for now. Discuss!