Post by foreign object on Jan 26, 2014 9:53:11 GMT -5
Seeing that they will be performing a the Grammys tonight ( with Robin Thicke..ugh), I've got a few thoughts. This year their debut album "Chicago Transit authority" made it to the Grammy HOF. Being honored like this is long overdue.
Why they have been snubbed by the Rock n Roll HOF is beyond me. There are a ton of less deserving acts that reside there. I think there is a bias to a band that, not too far into their career were classified as MOR. People forget, or don't know, that Chicago's first three albums were anything but MOR.
Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago II and Chicago III brought us classics like Beginnings, Questions 67 & 68, I'm A Man , Make Me Smile, 25 or 6 to 4, and Free and album cuts featuring soulful great Jazz-Rock explorations that, from Chicago V on, was left by the wayside. I was still a fan of the band as although they indeed went to shorter more commercial material, there were still flashes of brilliance on each album. The end came for the original Chicago in January 1978 when Terry Kath, the heart and soul of the band, accidentally killed himself. To a 16 year old guitar player like me , Terry was THE man and his death was hard to swallow. Jimi Hendrix once told Walt Parazaider, the sax player, that "your guitar player is better than me."
After Terry died Chicago really went off the rails losing the soul that he provided. Maybe people (and the RnR HOF) tend to remember Chicago more for the stuff they did in the 80's and forget how truly good they were.
So for those of you that think of Chicago as the band that charted with "Love Me Tomorrow" and "Hard Habit To Break" in the 80's I present the wonderful Chicago of old featuring the incomparable Terry Kath:
Why they have been snubbed by the Rock n Roll HOF is beyond me. There are a ton of less deserving acts that reside there. I think there is a bias to a band that, not too far into their career were classified as MOR. People forget, or don't know, that Chicago's first three albums were anything but MOR.
Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago II and Chicago III brought us classics like Beginnings, Questions 67 & 68, I'm A Man , Make Me Smile, 25 or 6 to 4, and Free and album cuts featuring soulful great Jazz-Rock explorations that, from Chicago V on, was left by the wayside. I was still a fan of the band as although they indeed went to shorter more commercial material, there were still flashes of brilliance on each album. The end came for the original Chicago in January 1978 when Terry Kath, the heart and soul of the band, accidentally killed himself. To a 16 year old guitar player like me , Terry was THE man and his death was hard to swallow. Jimi Hendrix once told Walt Parazaider, the sax player, that "your guitar player is better than me."
After Terry died Chicago really went off the rails losing the soul that he provided. Maybe people (and the RnR HOF) tend to remember Chicago more for the stuff they did in the 80's and forget how truly good they were.
So for those of you that think of Chicago as the band that charted with "Love Me Tomorrow" and "Hard Habit To Break" in the 80's I present the wonderful Chicago of old featuring the incomparable Terry Kath: