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Chicago Transit Authority | 
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| Artist: Chicago
Label: Rhino / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $7.98
Buy New: $4.21
You Save: $3.77 (47%)
New (48) Used (16) Collectible (1) from $2.92
Rating:  83 reviews
Sales Rank: 1961
Format: Original Recording Reissued, Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 76171
UPC: 766481815723
EAN: 0081227617127
ASIN: B000069KGM
Release Date: July 16, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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| Tracks:
| • | Introduction | | • | Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? | | • | Beginnings | | • | Questions 67 And 68 | | • | Listen | | • | Poem 58 | | • | Free Form Guitar | | • | South California Purples | | • | I'm A Man | | • | Prologue, August 29, 1968 | | • | Someday (August 29, 1968) | | • | Liberation |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Having morphed--some would argue devolved--into a predictable ballad machine by the '80s, it's good to be reminded of Chicago's original artistic ethos and vibrant promise. And what better place to start than their spectacular 1969 debut? This digitally remastered edition compiles the double album on a single disc that retains the original LP artwork and features a 16-page booklet with a retrospective essay (based on new band member interviews) by David Wild. Chicago weren't yet the '70s hit-singles factory they would shortly become, and CTA showcases a band whose muscular musicianship and creative restlessness fostered two LPs worth of music that was as aggressive and far-ranging as its singles were friendly and inviting. Tellingly, the hits showcased here--"Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?" "Beginnings," "Questions 67 and 68," and their rhythmically pumped cover of the Spencer Davis Group's "I'm a Man"--were often edited down from the original collection's suite-heavy structure. But those familiar cuts belie the downright progressive and angular nature of much of the rest, which fuses Terry Kath's neo-psychedelic guitar (which careens to noisy, feedback-laden Hendrixesque extremes on "Free Form Guitar") to one of rock's pioneering horn sections with enough experimentalism ("Poem 58") that it frequently overwhelms their undeniable genius with a pop song. Chicago would seldom sound so adventurous after this, one of rock's greatest debut albums. --Jerry McCulley
Album Description
Remastered and repackaged edition of their 1969 album. Features 'Beginnings', 'Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is', 'Questions 67 And 68', 'I'm A Man', 'South California Purples' and more. Digipak in a slipcase with a 16-page booklet featuring complete lyrics and detailed liner notes by Rolling Stone contributing editor David Wild. 2002.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Rock Music at its Peak? October 29, 2008
Edwardo (Parts Unknown)
Listen to this and you will understand how powerfully creative rock music was in its true heyday. Anything was possible, and this record is one of the best examples of the combination of artistry, musicianship and, of course, commercial potential. Unfortunately the latter ultimately was pursued to its fullest by this group, but that says as much about the changing landscape as it does about the direction they took. Here -- and in subsequent albums up to "Live at Carnegie Hall" -- they went for it lock, stock and the smoking axe of one Terry Kath. Three lead singers, a bunch of virtuoso players, a great band. And the drummer was a monster, always a prerequisite.
Chicago shown to the nation August 13, 2008
Larry VanDeSande (Mason, Michigan United States)
I don't know if Chicago has a transit authority or if the band that became Chicago borrowed that name from the organization, but I know what this group meant when it first arrived in 1969 -- a new voice for Chicago, which many of its fans had subsitituted a swastika for the "hi" in the city's name a year earlier during the events of August 1968.
No reviewer here has commented on track 10, Prologue, August 29, 1968, which is an actual slice of real speech given that night before a march at the Democratic National Convention in the city. The 10,000 Vietnam war protesters in town that week regularly tangled with a 30,000-strong of the city's police force, National Guard and Army troops stationed there to quell any disturbance. This track is a piece of that history, now apparently forgotten by Chicago fans. That history led to repression and bloodshed in the streets of the city that was apparent to anyone watching the convention on television. Thus the slogan, "The whole world watches!"
As others around here have noted, the music on this album is magnificent, a then-new combination of big band, jazz-infused rock. All it lacked was a tenor lead singer, which the band picked up by its seocnd album. It's hard to believe in the digital era that this once took two two full price 12-inch LPs to convey, with the second LP containing the group's messaging about what happened at the Democratic National Convention the summer before. Coming two years before the much more well-known killings at Kent State Univeristy in 1970, this was the linchpin event that helped historians decide 1968 -- the same year presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther Kind were assassinated -- was the beginning of the second American revolution.
What does this have to do with Chicago and CTA? A lot. This was the backdrop for the group's original album you're considering buying now. In the days following release of this music, and before the group shortened its name and went completely commercial with its more popular and better-selling second album, Chicago Transit Authority and a lesser local group named Illinois Speed Press went around the country playing these songs and embellishing on the events of August 1968 that established Chicago as the American 1968 equivalent of Nazi Germany's Munich.
None of this apparently survives any longer and all we are left with is the music and memories of a great group now so mangled and changed that its nineteenth album is hated by most of its fans. Here is a moment when we can remember what this group was about in the beginning, when it had a social message to go along with its music. That compliant about "Free Form Guitar" shows no ones remembers this album was as much about the mayhem that took place in then America's second-largest city as it was about a new form of big band rock music infused with a jass touch.
It's sad to think today this is completely lost. To relive and understand some of the history that helped create this album, read the book "No One Was Killed" (http://www.amazon.com/One-Was-Killed-Documentation-Chicago-August/dp/0966755715/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218629850&sr=1-1) or watch the film "Medium Cool", (http://www.amazon.com/Medium-Cool-Christine-Bergstrom/dp/B00005QTAT/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1218629967&sr=1-1), both of which deal with the events of that turbulent time in Chicago.
The Spirit of the Times Captured on Tape August 11, 2008
Scott D. Parker (Houston, TX)
First albums can be tricky and they usually come in one of two forms: fully-formed or the first step to something else. Take Bruce Springsteen, one of my favorite rockers. While his first two records (Greetings from Asbury Park and The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle) are good records for what they are, you could argue that it was only with his third record, Born to Run, that Bruce arrived. That is, he got on record what all the fuss about his live shows was all about. The same holds true for David Bowie, Genesis, Peter Gabriel (solo), and other rock acts throughout the years.
In the former category, certain acts spring from the speakers fully formed. The Beatles come to mind. Hendrix of course. The Doors, the Police. The first records by these bands grab you by the collar and force you to reckon with them. This is what we are. We hope enjoy it. But if you don't, get out of the way because someone else behind you does.
This attitude is what is brimming over during the 12-song sequence that is Chicago Transit Authority (1969). Regardless of all the changes that have occurred in the past forty years, the eponymous Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) was, and still is, a force to be reckoned with. Some long-time listeners hear CTA now and lament the loss of one of the tightest bands in rock history. The seven members of Chicago, all in their early twenties, excelled at their instruments but, combined, created something greater than the sum of its parts. It created something magical. And it's all there for the listening.
When one thinks of Chicago, the one differentiator is the horn section. When the seven guys met, they had one mission: create a rock band with horns. Sure, other bands had horn sections but they were usually relegated to playing riffs in the background. Not so the trio of Walter Parazaider (saxes), Lee Loughnane (trumpet), and James Pankow (trombone). Together, they made up the fourth "voice" of Chicago, alongside Terry Kath's soulful cry, Robert Lamm's smooth-as-silk voice, and Peter Cetera's clear-as-day tenor. Together on CTA, these four voices take you on a whirlwind tour of what is possible in music. And it all starts with an introduction.
"Introduction" is my favorite Chicago song. Period. End of story. And it's the first track on side one of CTA. It's a biography song, sung by Terry Kath, that lets the listener know who Chicago is and what they are all about. This one song almost has it all (the only things missing are Lamm's and Cetera's vocals). After two verses, you get this great syncopated rhythmic bridge by the horns over Danny Seraphine's wildly improvisational drumming. After a short break, the song segues into a nice ballad with the lead "vocal" handled by Pankow and his trombone. Loughnane's trumpet picks up where Pankow ends, melodiously taking the listener through an imagined summer landscape. And, lest you think Cetera is only a good singer of ballads, just listen to his moving and melodic bass lines throughout this slow section. All of this is merely prelude to Chicago's ace in the hold: Terry Kath's frenetic guitar work. This is where words like blistering and scorching come to mind as Kath gives the listener merely a taste of what's to come on the rest of the record. The rest of the song returns to a last chorus and then, the coup de grace: all seven instruments (including keyboards) join in on a final chord. The essence of Chicago is really all there, in one song. The cool thing is Chicago gave you 11 more `bonus' tracks.
Lamm's piano skills are featured in the intro to "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?", a concert staple since the 60s and one of the most fun songs Chicago has ever recorded. "Beginnings" is next, with Lamm's silky vocals hovering over Kath's 12-string guitar strumming. Beautiful as a California beach. "Questions 67 and 68" establishes Cetera's tenor as a counter to Lamm and Kath and demonstrates, again, how the horns form the fourth voice.
The twofer of "Poem 58" and "Free Form Guitar" are a one-two punch in the gut at the brilliance of Terry Kath's guitar playing. "Poem 58" is a ten-minute guitar jam surrounding a Lamm-sung love song. The background vocals of "I Do Love You" stayed in their subconscious, reemerging on the next record in "In the Country." "Free Form Guitar." What can you say about that? It's six minutes of Kath, a guitar, and amp, and noise. It's a shot over the bow at the rock world saying that Hendrix and Jimmy Page, as brilliant as they were, were not the only guitar gods out there.
"South California Purples" is a straight-ahead blues jam, here featuring Lamm's improve skills on the electric organ. After you have listened to the album version for awhile, check out the 15-minute versions on the fourth album, Chicago at Carnegie Hall. Back in 2003 when they remastered the Carnegie album, Chicago added a fourth disc of bonus material. There's a second version of "South California Purples," also clocking in close to fifteen minutes. It's a treatise on guitar soloing and band cohesiveness. Chicago's Latin-tinged cover of Traffic's "I'm a Man"--complete with a 64-measure drum solo--shows off their ability to take someone else's song and make it their own.
The track "Someday," the second-to-last song, shows off a side of Chicago that was prominent in the early days but has gone by the wayside in the years since: political commentary. Yes, the band that sings about inspiration, hard habits to break, and big surprises used to talk about bringing down the system. Don't think so? How about this quote from the liner notes of Chicago II: "With this album, we dedicate ourselves, our futures and our energies to the people of the revolution. And the revolution in all of it's forms."
"Someday" starts with a recording of the chants outside the Democratic convention in Chicago 1968. The chants--"The whole world is watching"--has its own rhythm which seamlessly blends into the opening drum beats of the song. The chanting reemerges later in the song, giving the listener the impression that Chicago the band agrees with the spirit of the black militants outside the convention hall getting beaten by the police. Some modern listeners will be sad that spirit died in Chicago. But look around. That spirit, the spirit of openness, of change, of the belief that the young really can change the world, died everywhere, not just in a band that now frequents the adult contemporary charts rather than the college music charts. The world changed, but Chicago persevered. (The chanting reemerges in the song "All the Years," on their just-released album, Stone of Sisyphus. Here in this song, Lamm mourns the loss of that late-60s spirit and the opportunities lost.)
The last track is the coup de grace of CTA. "Liberation" is a 14-minute guitar jam. And I don't use that word "jam" lightly. If Kath's guitar work throughout the album teased at his prowess, if "Poem 58" and "Free Form Guitar" was a one-two punch, "Liberation" is the knock-out blow. Just listen. You'll hear Kath going everywhere, trying different things, and Serephine's drumming, Lamm's keyboard riffs, and Cetera's fantastic bass playing going along for the ride. The horns are mostly absent from this tour de force. But that's okay. This is Kath's time to shine and boy, does he shine brightly. As the song ends and you exhale, only then realizing you were holding your breath, read the liner notes about this song and you'll find a whole new meaning of awe: This track was recorded entirely live. The performance embodied in this recording is complete and uncut.
One note on the recording itself. I don't know recording technology at all but the sound quality is such that you get the impression all seven guys were in the same room at the same time recording these songs. It's a quality that isn't there starting with Chicago II and onward and it certainly isn't there in modern music. You get the organic listening experience with CTA. It's one to cherish.
If you have one Chicago CD in your collection, don't let it be a greatest hits compilation. You can hear all of those songs on the radio. Buy Chicago Transit Authority. Buy it for the great songs, the great vocals, the soaring horn charts, the frenetic guitar work. Buy it for the spirit of the times that wrapped up seven guys and made something special.
I have attempted to write my impressions of CTA but, honestly, the liner notes of their producer, James William Guercio, do a much better job of it. I'll end with his quote:
The purpose of this commentary, however, is an attempt at documenting the complete rejection of any name label, title or verbal reference relative to the performance contained herein. Corporately as well as individually, this artist endeavors to be judged in terms of contribution alone rather than through the tag affixed upon it. The printed word can never aspire to document a truly musical experience, so if you must call them something, speak of the city where all save one were born; where all of them were schooled and bred, and where all of this incredible music went down barely noticed; call them CHICAGO.
(excerpted from http://scottdparker.blogspot.com)
 all but one !!!!! July 30, 2008
Jacquelyn Langetieg (wisconsin)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
this album is phenominal - except for one song if you want to call it that. i don't care if it was 1969 or 'hendrixesque' sounding, 'free form guitar' was the worst, most offensive sounding ear splitting and shattering piece of $%&*+!@ i have ever heard !!!!
Chicago should be in the hall of fame by leaps and bounds - but 'free form guitar' could easily replace waterboarding in getting terrorists or other prisoners to break and spill their guts, almost literally !!!!!!!!!!!
A wild debut by Chicago July 21, 2008
Jeffrey J.Park (Massachusetts, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a high energy debut by Chicago (1969) that features a nice blending of "big band" type arrangements, hard rock and the (then) nascent jazz rock style. Aspects of the music that I always enjoyed were the fine vocal harmonies, the sophisticated ensemble playing and the arrangements for the brass instruments and woodwinds - these guys were exceptionally talented and forward-thinking (progressive) musicians.
All of the band members are first chair players and there was obviously some interest in at least nodding in the direction of some of the avant-garde composers of the time (Edgar Varese for example). There is also a clear indication that some of the band members were interested in the heavier, harder edged sound of groups like the Jimi Hendrix Experience, which lends this music a certain..."wildness". This is brought to its fullest expression on Terry Kath's track Free Form Guitar, which consists of nothing but feedback on a heavily distorted electric guitar. At nearly seven minutes in length, I have never completely warmed up to this track, but then again I have always been a real stick in the mud.
On the other side of the equation however, are classic Chicago compositions that feature the sophisticated ensemble work that characterized the best moments of their output from 1969-1972. Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is, Introduction, Beginnings, Poem 58 and the lengthy closing track Liberation are all fantastic original compositions although I also enjoyed their cover of I'm a Man, which features some great bass playing by Peter Cetera (a very underrated bassist in my opinion). Unfortunately, while Danny Seraphine is an excellent drummer, I could have done without the drum solo on I'm a Man - again, I am a real stick in the mud.
This remastered version by Rhino is fantastic and really brought back some nice memories of my old (and long-gone) LP. Speaking of which, it is pretty cool that they were able to squeeze the entire "double album" onto one CD. The CD booklet is quite nice and the sound quality is very good.
In spite of my griping about the solos here and there, this is a good debut by the band. I have always considered Chicago the finest of those rock bands that blended big band type arrangements with rock (Lighthouse; Blood, Sweat and Tears etc) and this debut certainly demonstrates exactly why. Highly recommended along with Chicago (a.k.a. Chicago II) (1970), Chicago III (1971), IV (live) (1971) and V (1972).
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