How do you feel about the band Chicago?

Out of curiosity.

They were big before my time and the stuff I've heard from them hasn't made me want to explore their discography further.

I think they :headbang:

...but the band should have died when Terry Kath did. They became a top 40 cheese factory without him. And were even worse than that when Cetera left. I think the horn players are the only original members left now.

If you want to know what made Chicago a great band, put on "I'm a Man" from their first album. The horn section is way down in the mix and what you hear is a great three piece rock trio (Kath-guitar/Cetera-bass/Danny Seraphine-drums) that rival Cream or the Jimi Hendrix Experience of the same era. Hendrix himself said that Terry Kath was a better guitarist than him. I don't neccessarily agree, but what an endorsement.

on the local "classic rock station" KZOK. They pretty much only play stuff from the first couple albums though.

I should explore the broadcasts a little.

get sloppy drunk, call an ex-boyfriend (who I can't stand when I'm sober), and then when I sober up, they make me feel like kicking my own ass!

But I liked a lot of their earlier stuff.

Which the lyrics even refer to ("Should I try to do some more....?")

and since the lack of sleep is mentioned, I'm thinking an extended acid trip. It all makes the fact that they did a remake of the song after it's author (Cetera) left the band that much more pathetic.

I must have been really stoned.

"More drugs, or a prostitute?" is the question he seems to be asking.

Styx.

...turned into REO Speedwagon. So I don't think much about them anymore.

and keep riding the storm out.

...it got a little to candy-ass for my taste.

candy and a$$es.
Life is sweet as long as you are not as gooshy as Bryan White or some of Tim McGraw's ballads.
Without an occasional spoonful of sugar, life is far too bitter.

...I was just talking about their candy-ass music. Thats a whole different catagory.

I like the city a lot better. Hope that's the right answer. If not, hmmm...well, I still like the city a lot better.

Oh, wait a minute, the band Chicago was the original ska band, wasn't it?

Good in the olden days. Bleh after that...

Whine, whine, whine.

and damn, Terry has always been underrated as a guitarist - he was really quite extraordinary

Are they still recording? I haven't heard much about them lately.

Questions 67 & 68 is a really good song from that album that never recieved any airplay.

Kinda dropped off for me after that. They were the first Band I would go see often, from about age 11 through 15, about a dozen times I think.

Peter Cetera annoyed me when he went out on his own.

How are you today?
:hug:
debbi

:hug:

PM me if you need to talk.

Deb

that had one of the greatest guitar solos ever put to vinyl?

live at carnegie hall is there best album....

Some good and some not so good.

Loved their songwriting and the fact that they had a horn section.Them and Blood,Sweat,and Tears offered an interesting alternative to the guitar heavy rock of the 60s and 70s (which I also liked)The stuff from the 80s and on was sappy.Id be surprised if there are any original members left in the band today.Its more of a brand name now than anything.

Hate their old stuff, hate their new stuff, hate everything. Not my cup of tea.

...but I really hated the singing. My ears!!!!

They started to go downhill after Terry Kath died. Peter Cetera was ok until they started all those sappy love songs. My favorite oldies are Question 67&68 and Wake Up Sunshine.

Not bad,either.:woohoo:

"Question" rocks!

Funny you brought this up, I dreamed last night I was having a conversation with someone saying I hoped that BRASS would come back big - the way they were with Chicago and Earth Wind & Fire...

(I'm an old trumpet player, can you tell?)

Also, my memories of Chicago's "double album" does NOT refer to the music/records inside - if you catch my drift...... :hippie:

I heard a group about 8 years ago at the beach....... but I'm not sure if I've ever heard them on the radio.

There's a song out that I really like - but I've NEVER EVER heard the name of it or who does it - (timing is everything) - I only know that it has some kick@ss cymbals - it's sounds garage-band-y and they say na-na-na-na in it. :)

(Can you name that tune in no notes?) :rofl:

They say na na na na a lot- The song with the most na na na's and kickass cymbals is "We Are the Few". Check that song out and tell me if I'm right!


Ska is a genre, not a band, if you were confused. It came before reggae- it has horns.

of that song....

I'm pretty sure this is the song you are talking about, and Streetlight Manifesto is pretty big for a ska band. They should be there.

I have musicmatch Jukebox... found the group you were talking about but no "freebie downloads" available (ok so I should spring for the enhanced version of jukebox.....)

But they weren't the group I was thinking of.... the song I was thinking of was E-Pro by Beck. (The dj was cracking up :rofl: at me trying to sing the na na na na na na na part when I called to try and figure out who it was. ps - DON't tell my boyos I actually called and "sang" on the radio - they'd be moritifed! :blush:

They reminded me of Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. When Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix were pushing the envelope, Chicago was sanatized music that your parents wouldn't hate.

Chicago was neither my favorite band nor one I just couldn't stand.

I'd rather listen to the Beatles or th Stones, but at the same time they beat Tony Orlando and Dawn.

I saw them at the filmore East. They just carbon copied their recordings, solos verbatim. Sure sign of a loser band.

B,S & T, at least in their early Al Kooper, Randy Brecker days was of a much higher order.

--IMM

about the third album. It became burdensome to come up with a catchy way to present the same old logo.... They'd have done better if the band and the logo had grown some from album to album...

I assume he had some sort of pull, because they were at their peak in '73.

The next day in school, all the cool kids were wearing black t-shirts that said "Danny Stein's bar mitzvah" and the date, under the Chicago logo. If you weren't wearing one, it was clear you hadn't been cool enough to be invited.

Lilyhoney (205 posts) Fri Jul-08-05 04:33 PM
Response to Original message
52. Chicago
I saw them last summer at the Santa Barbara Bowl. I never would have bought tickets, someone invited us the day before, tickets on them. So my husband and I went and I cried thru the first 3 songs. It was very emotionally overwhelming. It took me back to being a 10 year old girl hanging out with my 3 best friends listening to Chicago on the record player, dreaming of future loves and losses.

So here I am over 20 years later listening to Chicago in person, holding the hand of the love of my life.

But, beyond the sentiment, the band ROCKED!

Chicago was one of my favorite bands when i was ten ( many, many moons ago.) My first crush - I should NOT admit this - was on Danny Seraphine, the drummer.

I was taking piano so I loved the keyboards, loved Colour My World, but I also appreciated "I'm a Man" and "25 or 6 to Four."

I was also into Creedence, the Beatles, Mozart, Hank Williams, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly and the Who, so I had a lot of strange intermingling influences.

And I was in one for a little while, and the horn players could never play that stuff in key (high school days).
Bands like that always seemed to be favored by the jocks.
I thought 25 or 6 to 4 was referring to how early in the morning the narrator is up, which seems to make sense in the context of the song about staying up late, i.e., it's 25 or 26 minutes of 4 a.m. I read that in some interview.

was the song that I heard that made me realize that I wanted to ask my then girlfriend to marry me. Eleven years and 5 1/2 kids later, she is still my inspiration.

but I recently heard a CD of theirs and was not impressed at all.

The one's that I was old enough to remember.:)

Because they suck.

along with Santana and War.

:yourock: enjoyed them all:headbang: Immensely.

All their really good stuff came out before my time (born in 1980), but I think it's some of the best pop/rock of the 70s. I'm also a sucker for mainstream 80s pop, and Chicago did that well, too (I admit it, I do enjoy some sap in my music). I think my favorite of theirs has to be "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" off of their first album, which of course, is one of the classic albums (a double album, no less) of the late 60s/early 70s. I like their rockin' stuff, and since I like a lot of soft rock stuff, their later stuff appeals to me as well.

Chicago II is one of my ten or so favourite albums. Sure, it's anchored by a few really good tracks, but the remainder of the album is a very strong series of suites which put out a sound that I've never really seen successfully duplicated in rock music. After that, they pretty much declined into a singles band. Great singles through the 1970's, which they reconsituted in the mid-80's (16 and 17) but a singles pop band nevertheless. I own a number of the later albums, but I wouldn't recommend buying them in hopes of getting something you wouldn't by getting a two-volume best-of (see The Very Best Of Chicago: Only the Beginning) in addition to CTA (I) and II, or by getting II as well as that bootleg CTA in Toronto album, which has the 17 minute-long mind-blowing "Liberation" jam.

They were good musicians and I'm not going to trash them. But I think their particular take on jazz-rock lacked the finesse of jazz or the bite of rock and was the worst of both worlds. It was actually a kind of jazzy pop music but not really either jazz or rock or even a real attempt at fusion of the two, but more of a watering down of the two. Regarding bands with horns of that era, I preferred the funkier or bluesier sounds of such groups as Electric Flag or Tower Of Power.

Karate Kid" now in my mind...