Chicago

Here is the first of two samples I submitted for the prospective Pop Legends book. I've been given no guidance what kind of voice the publisher wants - whether I'm allowed to infuse the copy with my own opinion or snarkiness. So I've done one snarky and one straight. Left to my own devices, I would probably approach the profiles somwhere along the continuum between this and the following example.

Thanks to Deb, David and BobbyMac for theie edits and encouragement.

In the late 1960s, sometimes it seemed like it wasn’t enough to be a rock n roll band. Progressive rock purveyors like The Nice and Yes were mixing classical music concepts into rock. Elsewhere, Al Kooper decided that rock needed a big band jazz element. So he concocted Blood Sweat And Tears.

It was in all these categories that Chicago Transit Authority (later just Chicago after Chicago’s public transportation system threatened to sue) plied their wares. Their debut album featured oblique jazz-rock hippie-babble hits like the Latin-tinged “Beginnings,” and “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is.”

The follow-up, Chicago II, featured “25 or 6 to 4,” which demonstrated not only a slick horn section but the prowess of guitarist Terry Kath. But it also struck paydirt with “Color My World,” the first of a string of pop ballads that stuck in your head like a steel trap clamps down on a rodent, forcing it to chew off its own limbs.

While critics pooh-poohed the band’s jazz-rock pretences, they ultimately became one of the best selling acts of all time by abandoning its experimentation and focusing on the bland but effective tenor of bassist Peter Cetera. Behind him, the band ratcheted no fewer than 13 Top 10 hits between 1970 and 1977 including “If You Leave Me Now” and “Saturday in the Park.”

The first chapter of their career came to an abrupt end in 1978 in one of the more gruesome deaths in pop history. In a drunken state, Kath, 31, was cleaning a pistol that he believed to be unloaded. When a friend warned him to be careful, he put the pistol to his head and pulled the trigger to prove the gun had no bullets. He was wrong.

After Kath’s death, the band wouldn’t have another Top 10 hit until 1982. But with Cetera as the focal point, the band would have a resurgence with three Top 10 prom themes, “Hard To Say I’m Sorry,” followed by “Hard Habit To Break,” and “You’re The Inspiration” in 1984.

Cetera went solo in 1985 and had a pair of chart-topping hits the following year: “Glory of Love (Theme From Karate Kid II)” and “The Next Time I Fall,” a duet with Amy Grant.

Without Cetera, Chicago would score five more Top 10 hits between 1986 and 1989: “Will You Still Love Me,” “I Don’t Wanna Live Without Your Love,” “Look Away,” “What Kind Of Man Would I Be,” and “You’re Not Alone.”

The band continued to record throughout the 1990s and 2000’s, prompting the question if a band continues to release albums and no one is there to hear them, does it still make a sound? Nevertheless you can still find them summer after summer playing amphitheatres with four original members to nothing less than adoring fans. Can you dig it? Yes I can.