Chicago's authority
Now listening to a great FM recording of a great Chicago live gig from 1977 in Uniondale, New York. And there are obviously performances from their first brilliant album: 'Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?'; 'Beginnings'; 'Questions 67 and 68', and their funky version of Winwood's pounding 'I'm A Man'.
Chicago vs Blood Sweat & Tears. There's no contest: they're both brilliant and spawned a generation of jazz rock, some that palled by comparison, and much that added positively to the genre.
Forget the later more commercial Chicago - which isn't all bad; in fact not bad at all. But the early albums, double discs, merged rock and jazz-band orchestration superbly, and these guys could play. There was also a political edge to the first album that, coupled with the mad psychedelia of 'Free Form Guitar', made an impression on an impressionable teenage aural sponge, so this album will always retain its significance - but it does so musically without any question.
OK, as I was writing that last line, 'If You Leave Me Now' has just started and this detracts from those heady early days of rock and revolution, but rich tapestry and other eclectic sensibilities try to accommodate.....
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