A Double Dose Of CTA

Alright easy trivia name a band that had three consecutive studio albums that were double records.  It's obviously Chicago right?  Yes, it is Chicago and boy they came in like the city, large and ready to blow the doors off anybody who came near them.  Chicago was a band in their early years blurred the genres of Jazz and Rock.  They even topped the charts with much success.  I loved putting on their albums in the house because they were full of high energy.  They were also my dad's favorite band. My dad was a horn player in high school and this is was "his" music.  The greatness of the horn players is what my dad dug.  I loved all that and loved the guitar playing and lead vocals of Terry Kath.

Everything about the music Chicago did in their early years was some of the most creative stuff recorded.  I remember going through my dad's collection of records and always gravitating to the Chicago records.  He had the first six including the massive four LP set of Chicago Live at Carnegie Hall.  These shows recorded in April of 1971 (before I was born) and were full of amazing versions of the studio songs I liked to listen to.  My dad also mentioned that he saw two of those Carnegie Hall shows and you can hear him cheer in the crowd.

It is hard to pick one early Chicago album over another because of how much music they about three and half hours of music.  There was not a bad one in the lot of those three and they had tons of great songs on it.  I'm curious what music they did not release or omit, and did any of these songs go on to the next album or did they get left off all together.  There was so much to digest on their albums.  I can only imagine what my dad thought when he listened to this. My brain was overloaded even at first listen and even with repeated listenings.

At 77 minutes and 43 seconds Chicago Transit Authority is the longest of the first three albums.  Looking at the album when I first listened to it I noticed that this album was not underplayed.  Every time I played it in the house I can hear my dad sing along to the music.  One moment with my dad was I had put it on and put my headsets on and he came in the room while I was bopping around and he unplugged the headset.  He told me the music was much better without it.

When I went back to college for the first time in about five years I wanted to do a radio show.  After a few shows to qualify for a specialty show I got my wish to do one of the Progressive Rock, Psychedelic, and such.  I would always make the statement to the listener early what way we were going, either something catchy or something that was left of center.  One such opening included a Chicago tune.  I played "Free Form Guitar" and cranked it up in the studio.  Just as it gathered steam I had a fellow DJ come in and make a joke saying this what Sonic You sounds like to non Sonic Youth people right?  I had to tell him this was no Sonic Youth, but Chicago Transit Authority. He and I loved it.  What was more interesting was the listeners thought I was playing an album of noise to start the show.  No noise here, but the gifted and very underrated Terry Kath.  Terry's vocals and guitar player were some of the best.

Terry Kath was the best part of Chicago for about a decade and his untimely death signals a very different Chicago.  It also changes my listening of them and at that point in 1978 my Chicago listening ends.   They were a tight unit their songwriting and musicianship was some of the best stuff of the late 60's and early to mid 1970's.  I remember my dad hearing a Chicago tune from the 80's on the radio and was dumbfounded that this was the same band he enjoyed a decade earlier.  We looked at each other and were at a loss.

So if your looking for an album of great brass and awesome musicianship start with the first Chicago Transit Authority.  The second is just as good and better in some spots.  I recently got a new reissue of the second album simply titled Chicago and one can only hope that when Steven Wilson remixed this one he does the same for CTA.  Such a great band, a great time and such awesome music.  You should check it out.  In memory of my dad.  He loved this band when we saw them live twice he was like that kid (me) when I heard them for the first time and was blown away.