Sunday, 07 December 2014 19:52

Chicago on a Sunday - Chicago III

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In this edition of Chicago on a Sunday we have come to Chicago`s third album, and the first from start to get Roman numeral numbering.

Chicago III was recorded in 1970 in between a very dense lingering concert period. The album was released in 1971, the same year as the big concert week in Carnegie Hall, which gave rise to a live album in the form of a 4-LP box.

Chicago III continues the development from Chicago II with several suites, and has at least as great musical span. We can still sense a lateral displacement where there is a tad less happy-Chicago

We find two of my favorites on the original LP page 1. Both Sing A Mean Tune Kid and I Don`t Want Your Money belong to the very best of rock songs from Chicago.

There are three suites in Chicago III, but of variable length. Both Travel Suite and Elegy covers each LP side, while Terry Kath's An hour in the shower more emerging as a single song, whereyou must follow the grooves on the LP - or the display on the CD player or PC - to perceive that there are various tracks with length of around a minute.

Travel Suite is written by Robert Lamm, Danny Seraphine, Terry Kath and Walt Parazider.

The opening track of the suite is highly Country Inspired, while drum solo Motor Boat To March head over to the rock song Free. The next track Free Country is almost tempting to categorize as contemporary music, and when the last two songs in the suite tends toward respectively naive-pop and light show inspired pop / rock, the musical spennvdden in Travel Suite formidable. And yet Chicago manage to get it to hang together as a whole.

It is otherwise difficult not to fall for An Hour in the Shower, which round out the album page 3 after the two strong pop-rock songs Mother and Lowdown. But it is perhaps partly because I have a special musical ear to Terry Kath.

The suite Elegy is the one that goes furthest in being innovative in relation to previous song material.

It covers the whole page 4, starting recitation of a poem by Kendrew Lascelles. This poem has been signed in the collection The Box, which has nothing to do with Chicago.

The tunes Canon , Once Upon a Time and Progress ? are instrumental tunes tending slightly in direction classical / contemporary music, where dense horn event In the first followed by lyrical flute games, then go over In free Urban instrumental exercise in Progress? It becomes a huge anticlimax with the strong rock song The Aproaching Storm , and finally Man vs. Man - The End . We find still a whole in the suite by James Pankow`s creator joy reflected in hefty and sometimes intricate horn arrangement.

Ranked as a whole, Chicago III together with the previous two albums are among Chicago`s strongest albums ever. It moves slightly sideways compared with Chicago II, among other things, there are few or no obvous hits in the same legue as 25 or 6 to 4 was. But it does not make Chicago III to any weaker album. It deserves an obvious space in the golden row of Chicago`s top albums.

 

The sound on Chicago III.

As a basis for this review I have listened to vinyl edition published in 1970, and to 16bit / 44.1kHz files from Chicago`s merch.sides. I do not know of any example of Chicago III released in HighRes.

Chicago III is probably the album of the first three that have the best sound. Anyway it applies to the vinlyl edition compared with vinyl edition of the first two. There is occasionally a very good stereo perspective, sometimes almost spooky. 16 / 44.1 edition sounds cleaner than the vinyl edition, but also flatter. It is suspected that a significant dynamic compression vulgarizes the sound.

 

 

Chicago nerds and other particularly interested can read details and notes to each song. Grade for the music in a scale 1-6 listed in parentheses after track name.

LP Page 1:

1. Sing a mean tune kid. (5-6).
Songwriter Robert Lamm. Vocals Peter Cetera.
Rockin. Very untypical Cetera vocals, especially when we subsequently connect him with the overly sweet ballads that almost ruined Chicago. The song dominated by TK`s guitar.

2. Loneliness is just a Word (5)
Written by Robert Lamm and Terry Kath.

3. What Else can I say (5-)
Cetera / Cetera.
Country-inspired song.

4. I do not want your money. (5-6)
Written by Terry Kath and Robert Lamm. Vocals Robert Lamm.
Atypical vocals of Robert Lamm.
Some heavy Rock. Located the ultimate Chicago has made.

LP page 2:

Travel Suite

Written by Robert Lamm, Daniel Seraphine, Terry Kath and Walt Parazider. 
Vocals by Robert Lamm, Terry Kath and Peter Cetera.

5 Flight 602 (5)
Country inspired

6. Motor Boat Thurs March (5)
Drum Solo.

7 Free (5+)
rockin

8 Free country. (5-6)
Lyrical and seeking instrumental.
Great piano.
Maybe the song where Chicago is closest to contemporary instrumental musikk.

9. At the sunrise (5-4)
Simple tune, almost a bit naive. Hint of Beatles - 10cc (the latter bedfore their time)?

10. Happy cause I`m going home. (5)
Very good audio dynamics

LP page 3:

11. Mother (5+)
Written by Robert Lamm. Vocals Robert Lamm
Great horn event. Some clear Lamm signature.

12. Lowdown (5+)
Written by Peter Cetera and Daniel Seraphine. Vocals Peter Cetera

 

Suite - An hour in the shower. (5+)

Written by Terry Kath. Terry Kath on vocals.

13. A hard risin` morning Without breakfast. (5+)

14. Off to work.

15. Fallin out.

16. Dreamin home.

17. Morning Blues Again.

 

LP page 4

Suite - Elegy
Written by James Pankow and James William Guercio. Kendrew Lascelles has written poems / Text In When all the Laughter Dies in Sorrow.

18. When all the laughter dies in sorrow.
Starting with recitation of a poem by Kendrew Lascelles

19. Canon
Instrumental - Flute

20. Once upon a time.

21. Progress.

22. The approaching storm.

23. Man vs Man - The end

 

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Karl Erik Sylthe

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