Chicago QuadioIn the 1970's, Chicago was Columbia Records' flagship act, and Columbia Records was also one of the labels which ventured into "quadraphonic" sound. Every studio album up through
Chicago X had both a stereo and quad mix, and if you had the right equipment, you could play the album in glorious four-channel sound. My friend Jai (pronounced "Jay") had a quad setup, turntable with built-in four-channel amp and four speakers, but I don't remember if he ever got any quad albums. This was in junior high, when we were all learning about music and what there was, and what we liked. (Bonus Trivia: Jai's mom was a Chicago fan and had the second album on LP, and that was my introduction to the band. She was also a stunning, beautiful woman. My first "friend's hot mom" crush. Literally where the term MILF comes from.)
Rhino has gotten ahold of all the original quad master tapes and repackaged them on Blu-ray disc. Blu-ray supports up to 5.1 discrete high-def channels, and the quad mixes are lossless 4.0. It sounds absolutely fantastic. Quadraphonic, ancestor of Surround Sound, was just too far ahead of its time, but we can do it justice now.
I got a bonus at work for doing something someone thought was amazing, so I spent some of it and finally got this. I can heartily recommend this boxed set to any Chicago fan, or anyone who loves good music.
Each album comes in its own cardboard jacket, each a perfect replica of the original LP jacket. Only the studio albums were done in quad, so the amazing
Chicago at Carnegie Hall (unofficially "
Chicago IV") is not here. (
Chicago IX: Chicago's Greatest Hits is here.)
Lyrics on the sleeve, with Beverly Scott's distinctive script looking exactly as it did over 40 years ago. The poster-photo foldout is also here, in CD size. The disc looks like the original LP if all the music was on one side.
These were twice as big originally, but with seven guys in the band, it's still a lot of paper. Kudos to Rhino for faithfully reproducing original posters and everything. They're all like this. All the posters, every detail. Even the iron-on patch that came with
Chicago VIII is here. The jackets that originally "opened up" open up.
The only video content you need is the menu, which also keeps track of which song you're on. The Blu-ray disc is set up to start playing automatically when you put it in, just as a CD would.
I listened to
Chicago V today and was in pure musical bliss for 45 minutes.
I set a chair in the middle of the room (back to the TV) and just disappeared into the music. Horns are over there, one guitar is over there, one's in that corner, there's a piano along that wall and the organ's over there, you're sitting in the middle of the drum kit, the bass is right next to you, vocals are all around you, it's fucking amazing. Then the next song, some things are different, some things move around. Horns are spread out now, trumpet over there, sax over there, trombone in that corner. I have been listening to this album for over 40 years, and I heard new stuff, new licks I hadn't heard before, or heard them now more clearly. I love that!
If spreading the music along the X-axis (left-right) separates things and lets you hear stuff more clearly, imagine when it's spread out in two dimensions, X and Y, spread
throughout the room. I have a decent surround system in my living room (I would have it no other way) and this is what it's for.
I already had
The Chicago Transit Authority Quadio disc, which was released a few years back, and it's amazing. I'm sure the response to that release was why they felt they could go ahead and do them all. I listened to
Chicago the other day. That was interesting because
some of the tracks -- that is to say, some specific tracks on certain songs -- were slightly different takes. The single version of "Wake Up, Sunshine" (the one you hear on the radio sometimes) is here rather than the original studio version. Exactly the same except for that one vocal line. You know which one I mean. A few lines here and there during "The Ballet for a Girl in Buckhannon" are different. You know what? I like it! I like hearing new and different things. Kinda like how the Steven Wilson remixes bring out just a few gems here and there. So far, it's been much more enhancing than distracting, and my response has been positive every time. Maybe eventually something I really liked which I thought was critical to the song will be changed, but it hasn't happened yet.