Chicago - Chicago Transit Authority
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Free Music Notes for Chicago Transit Authority
Free Music Review: Chicago rules
Hit: 5 Stars
Listening to the very first Chicago album, it's hard to believe just how different they used to be back in the early days.
This album focuses on the raw, intense, dirty rock and roll style that was popular at the time. It's much closer to something a band like CCR, Steppenwolf or the Rolling Stones were doing, in terms of raw intensity (but with brass instruments thrown in to make the band sound distinct).
I NEVER thought "Question 67 and 68" was a prom dance hit. To me it's just a very beautiful and extremely difficult to sing along to POP song that's caught between a ballad and a pop hit.
"Liberation" almost features the same intensity and similarity to that of Frank Zappa's "Willie the Pimp". The guitar playing is quite similar in both songs.
"Beginnings" was probably the biggest hit from the album, and features an atmosphere that can best be described as captivating. The ending you wish would never end, it's THAT good.
How can you ignore what this awesome band was doing on the debut? Oh sure, the next two Chicago albums are a bit better, but what a mighty fine beginning for an extraordinary rock band this one is.
Free Music Review: "...ONLY THE BEGINNING !" (before they changed their name, Chicago Transit Authority released their best album)
Hit: 5 Stars
Chicago Transit Authority (1969) has always been the epitome of "hip". The band's debut had credibility on every front. Songwriting, musicianship, production, authenticity, and political relevance. Incorporating a jazz horn section with acid rock and pop music was not only innovative in 1969, but a symbol of the societal changes that they aspired America to embrace at that tumultuous time.
Does Anybody really Know What Time It Is?, Beginnings, and Questions 67 And 68 were the hit singles, and are still three of Chicago's most famous and popular songs. Real classics. It's just not everyday you find lines like these:
Only the beginning, only just the start
Only the beginning of what I want to feel forever
Or:
Does anybody really know what time it is?
Does anybody really care?
Their rocking take on the Spencer Davis Group's I'm A Man is a classic rock radio staple, and is still my favorite version of the song. Free Form Guitar, Terry Kath's seven minute guitar feedback experiment is an acid rock electric symphony, and South California Purples features trippy blues-rock-jazz with a killer guitar solo and a Beatles quote, "I am he, as you are me, and we are all together". Prologue, August 29, 1968 includes an actual recording from the controversial Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968. Liberation is a heavy jazz-acid rock fusion piece that closes the album, and jams for over fourteen minutes. This stuff is great!
The Chicago Transit Authority album was a landmark in rock music, and the bold beginning of a great career in music for a great band. The music here is energetic, passionate, intelligent, and exciting. This isn't the Chicago (even though it's the same band) of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s who produced dozens of great soft rock Top 40 hits. This is Chicago Transit Authority!
Free Music Review: The First And Still The Best
Hit: 5 Stars
CTA is the definitive album of not only Chicago's fabled career, but of the whole "jazz-rock" genre. I won't repeat what's already been highlighted about this masterpiece, but I just want to add that, along with Santana's first album and Montrose, I don't think there is a better debut album out there. The opening salvo of "Introduction," "Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is," "Beginnings" and "Questions 67 & 68" is just incredible. And if you want to ponder the unexplainable, listen to Danny Seraphine's drumming on "I'm A Man" and ask yourself why he was later fired???
This is a MUST-HAVE album for not only Chicago fans, but aficiados of great music in general.
Free Music Review: What More is There.....
Hit: 5 Stars
I am so pleased that all the reviews here do justice to this truly great rock album. I was listening nearly 40 years ago and Kath's guitar still does it.Free Music Review: Memories
Hit: 5 Stars
We were dating when this album came out and every bar we went into was playing it on their jukebox (yes, jukebox) or in a more sophisticated bar, on their "sound system". All the songs bring back so many memories. Fast forward to the next year when we did get married and frequented a place called Mulligan's in the Allentown section of Buffalo, NY - more wonderful memories of this playing in the background while we drank with hustlers, hookers, "little people" and whatnot. In love, newly married, no longer living at home and out until 3 a.m. -- those were the days. This CD, which replaces our old vinyl record (yes, a record) just floods me with a reminder how much fun we had back then. We're still married but sadly our days of being out at 3 a.m. drunk and eating hot ears of buttered corn on the cob at Jimmy Oates Goodfellows Club next to Mulligan's are well over, but this music, and the unique stlye of it, will live on forever.