Chicago III (1971)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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Sing a Mean Tune Kid
9:18 Loneliness is Just a Word
2:38 What Else Can I Say
3:13 I Don't Want Your Money
4:47 Travel Suite
Flight 602
2:44 Motorboat to Mars
1:30 Free
2:15 Free Country
5:46 At The Sunrise
2:48 Happy 'Cause I'm Going Home
7:28Mother
4:31 Lowdown
3:36 An Hour in the Shower
5:30 A Hard Risin' Morning Without Breakfast
Off to Work
Fallin' Out
Dreamin' Home
Morning Blues Again
Elegy
When All the Laughter Dies in Sorrow
1:03 Canon
1:05 Once Upon a Time...
2:34 Progress?
2:34 The Approaching Storm
6:26 Man vs. Man: The End
1:33As I mentioned upthread, the first two albums were each, in a way, eponymous. Naming this one
Chicago III made a lot of sense, as it was of course their third album, even if it was only their second since changing the name of the band to Chicago.
They also continued the concept of placing only the band logo on the cover, and letting the music speak for itself. And it continued to speak. The third double LP in a row, it follows a similar mold to the second album, with Side One being four "regular" songs, and each of the remaining sides dominated by multi-song suites. The difference this time is that two of the three remaining sides were taken
entirely by these suites.
"Sing a Mean Tune Kid", written by Robert Lamm and sung by Peter Cetera, starts things off and is the longest track on the album. Four verses, with a couple of smoking horn breaks in between the third and fourth, going directly into a five-minute guitar solo. That may not sound like much (or perhaps it does), but five minutes is a long time for a guitar solo on a studio track. In 1971, that was still longer than most
songs. But Chicago had already shown on the first album that they could, and would, do this from time to time.
It is followed by the shortest song (of those not part of a suite), "Loneliness is Just a Word", another Lamm composition, sung by Terry Kath. A jazz waltz featuring some tight horn work and an inspired organ solo, it seems longer than two and a half minutes. That's a good thing, by the way. It packs a lot of music into its length, and doesn't overstay its welcome.
"What Else Can I Say" is one of two Peter Cetera songs on the album, and has something of a country-rock feel due to the use of pedal steel guitar. I have to admit, this is not one of my favorite Chicago songs from the early days. The lyrics are pretty weak, and the horns are absent, as they were on Cetera's sole previous contribution, from
Chicago. It wasn't so noticeable last time, as it was a mellow song to close out the album. Here, it seems to stand out more. As time went on, we would see that Peter Cetera's musical leanings often went in a different direction from the rest of the band. And it's probably petty, but it always bothered me that there's no question mark in the title.
"I Don't Want Your Money" is a rare Kath/Lamm collaboration, with music by Kath and words by Lamm. It's another rocker, starting off with Terry mercilessly bending the strings on some minor seventh chords, and two breaks featuring guitar solos while the horns play a backdrop.
Robert Lamm's "Travel Suite" takes up all of Side Two. It's really a collection of songs with a common theme, with a bit of musical experimentation. "Flight 602" takes us on the road and into the mind of the traveling rock musician. On a plane, sitting alone in a hotel room, thinking about who you are and who you're supposed to be on stage in a few hours. An acoustic song with steel guitar and no horns, this one somehow doesn't bother me the way Cetera's song from Side One does.
In another of Chicago's rather bold moves, "Motorboat to Mars" is a drum solo by Danny Seraphine. The entire track. It segues directly into "Free", the only real rocker in the suite. A driving beat, a smoking horn break, but with only a single verse and a second chorus after the break, it's over far too soon (and in fact is extended quite a bit on the live version).
"Free" segues into "Free Country", another experimental piece. It's Lamm on piano, Parazaider on flute, and Kath on various percussion, doing some free form jazz for six minutes. They fall into some grooves from time to time, but overall it's completely unstructured. Interesting the first few times, but honestly, I usually skip this one.
"At the Sunrise" is a standalone song about missing her, whoever she is. It's a nice little song, with a horn break and a constrasting B section sung by Cetera (the main vocals are by Lamm), but overall feels like filler. She's gone, or at least she's not here right now, so this fits into the Travel Suite.
"Happy 'Cause I'm Going Home" is yet another interesting, unusual piece. It has no words, but two verses of very happy-sounding scat in two-part harmony (Lamm and Cetera) leading into a five-minute jazz flute solo. It and "Sing a Mean Tune Kid" are the two longest tracks on the album, bookend the first disk, and have the extended solo in common, but IMO also have the same weakness: these magnificent solos ultimately fade out. As we'll learn on the next album,
Chicago at Carnegie Hall, the band had no problem with extended jams, and no problem ending them. Fading them out in the studio always leaves me feeling less than satisfied (probably because I knew the live versions first).
"Mother" is Mother Earth, who has given us life and nurtured us, and in return we've thrown our garbage on the ground, cut down her trees and built concrete jungles. "Our mother has been raped, and left to die in disgrace." It's not hard to discern the message here. The break is a bizarre trombone duet in 5/8, and it ends with a quiet, sad trombone solo. This Robert Lamm song is unsettling, and it's meant to be.
"Lowdown" is the other Peter Cetera song, but this one's a rocker. It's a sibling to "Mother" with a similar message, but this time with a blazing Kath guitar solo and a killer horn break.
Terry Kath's "An Hour in the Shower" rounds out Side Three. As I said in Big Hath's "Chicago: Top Songs Thread", at five and a half minutes total time, it's really just a slightly longer-than-usual song with some changes to it rather than an epic in five parts, but what the heck. Terry had a great suite on the previous album but didn't label it as such, while Robert and Jimmy did theirs, so I guess I can't blame him for wanting to get in on the action. It's almost a shame, because it's the only suite of the three that's actually a cohesive work, as the other two are clearly composed of shorter pieces with the same theme put together. Chicago was a little "suite happy" during this period.
Side Four of the original LP was James Pankow's "Elegy". It opens with a piece by poet Kendrew Lascelles titled "When All the Laughter Dies in Sorrow" read by Robert Lamm, and is all instrumental after that. Kendrew Lascelles was a poet known for his environmental messages in the 70's. John Denver recorded his piece "The Box" on his album
Poems, Prayers & Promises, also from 1971. (Don't look at me like that. John Denver was awesome.)
"Canon" is performed by just the three horns. A quiet, slow piece, it features some excellent arranging by Pankow that makes it sound very full and evokes a brass choir, but no, it's just the three of them.
"Once Upon a Time..." starts with a pastoral flute solo, accompanied by piano. The trombone comes in at the break, accompanied by the other horns and the rhythm section, and it builds as it segues into "Progress?" The two pieces together represent the natural state of the earth at first, and what man has slowly done to it. "Progress?" has the horns trailing off into chaos and entropy, as various sound effects gradually come in, the sounds of the city. Traffic, pneumatic drills, horns honking, police whistles.
"The Approaching Storm" is something of the centerpiece of the suite. After the main theme is introduced by the horns, we get a round of solos, jazz style with horn breaks between each, by the trumpet, organ, sax, guitar, and trombone. The horn section reprises the main theme, then leads into the finale, "Man vs. Man: The End" which represents increasing tensions and issues, and finally the end.
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Of the early albums,
Chicago III to me is the most uneven. The band toured extensively for the first two albums, and were very tired when they went into the studio to make this album. The "behind the scenes" studio banter which opens and closes Side One and the ad-lib (?) screams, shouts, and other vocals during some of the more upbeat tracks almost sound like the band was trying to convince itself that it was vibrant and energetic. I have to admit, though, that I'm almost certainly prejudiced against this album, having owned the follow-up, the live
Chicago at Carnegie Hall for years before buying this one. The live album has a lot of songs from all three albums, but it's the songs from
Chicago III which are changed the most, even though they'd been playing them for a shorter amount of time. Some are slowed down a bit, giving them more depth and gravitas. Some have the original idea expressed in a few minutes fleshed out much more fully. This to me indicates that the band perhaps rushed this album, and the live versions represent the "final form" of some of the songs.
This album also continued the odd phenomenon of succeeding without hit singles to boost its sales. Initially outselling each of the first two albums, it only had "Free" (which peaked at #20) and "Lowdown" (which made it to #45) as singles. But Chicago was an unusual band in many ways, and this might be explained by the choice of singles released. "Beginnings" (from the first album), "Colour My World" (from
Chicago), and "Questions 67 and 68" the second time (from the first album) were all released as singles, and were all hits
after Chicago III was out. It's possible, actually quite probable, that a lot of people heard these Chicago hits on the radio and bought the latest album, assuming that that was the album they were from. With only the band logo on both the front and back covers, and no track listings, it was impossible to tell. I'm not cynical enough to suggest that this was by design, since the covers are great and the idea was to let the music speak for itself, but it probably did contribute to the confusion.
I'm already planning a separate post that gets into the whole mess surrounding the early Chicago singles, so stay tuned for that.
In the meantime... discuss!