 |
A must for fans of Chicago, especially if you like their early stuff, but probably not the best place to start your Chicago collection (I would suggest starting with Chicago II). I am a big fan of Chicago's early music, from 1969 to around 1975/76 (roughly their first seven or eight albums). These were their years of great innovation and blending together rock, jazz and classical elements. There are no big hit singles off this album; the album before (Chicago II) has "25 or 6 to 4" and "Make Me Smile", while the one after, Chicago V (Chicago IV was a live album), has "Saturday In the Park". But there is a lot of good music on Chicago III. Like most of their early albums it was a double LP (now available on one CD). It gets off to a bit of slow start with the nine-minute "Sing a Mean Tune Kid", but gets better as the album prgresses. One of the hallmarks of early Chicago is their use of suites of songs--a collection of related tunes usually flowing one right into another. Chicago III has three of these suites (as did II), one each by their three main songwriters: Robert Lamm, James Pankow, and Terry Kath. Lamm's "Travel Suite" is probably the strongest and contains the only hit song ("Free"). It also has some nice improv and instrumental pieces. Kath's "An Hour In the Shower" is amuzing and makes good use of his blues-styled vocals. The most intriguing suite is Pankow's "Elegy", an entirely instrumental (apart from a spoken word poem that begins it which I could live without) commentary on modern life. It begins (after the poem) with a classical-style "Canon", then moves into a soft, pleasant flute piece called "Once Upon a Time..." Modern sounds (car horns, jack hammers, traffic noise) gradually intrude as the piece moves into "Progress?". The bulk of the suite is the jazz piece "The Approaching Storm", with a catchy melody and several improvizational solos. It comes to a rousing finish with "Man Vs. Man: The End". So if you like Chicago but maybe stayed away from III because you didn't recognize any songs titles (except possibly "Free"), I would highly recommend it. It's not their best of the early albums, but it is still good. If you only know Chicago through one of their many Greatest Hits collections, you don't really know Chicago. Chicago III is a place to go deeper. Enjoy.Read full review
Although not the best of the early Chicago albums (it didn't really have any Top Ten hits -- with or without the radio editing that went on to cut their early singles down to a manageable size), it is, nevertheless, a good example of what early Chicago was about, with each member of the band (there were 7 of them!) contributing to the sound, although they didn't all get song credits. There is some fine "jam" work here, especially from the late Terry Kath, the guitarist whose death caused the decline of the "old Chicago" in favour of the later Peter Cetera Las Vegas lounge act. If you don't have this one, it is worth picking up just to show you that this band wasn't only about the single that got airplay on the radio.
Recorded when the band was near exhaustion from constant touring, this is one of Chicago's most underrated, yet most satisfying, recordings. It also prefigured the Chicago band more concerned with singles than art. After this, it was merely product (and Chicago remains one of the most successful American acts in music history). Finally, while Terry Kath recorded a few more albums with the band before his tragic death, he is never more electric than on this record.
Great music from a great band
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
Great music. Great packaging.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in CDs
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on CDs
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- You may also like
