Chicago Transit Authority

How often do you (or someone else) ask "Do you know what time it is?" All the time! Right? How often does someone answer back "Does anybody really know what time it is......Does anybody care.....About Time?"
....If so, I can't imagine why!
I have testified for a long time that my earliest memories of music of my childhood were Johnny Cash on TV, my sisters listening to the Beatles, and the Jackson 5 on American Bandstand. But, recently I have added the memory of hearing Chicago playing on AM radio in the family station wagon coming home from grocery shopping.

In the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, the only album listed by the band Chicago is their debut Chicago Transit Authority. So, I will spend my time recollecting about a great band and their legacy that started with this album.
Chicago is a band I don't ever remember being introduced to. I just remember the music being around.
I’ve said earlier that I grew up with 3 older sisters listening to pop music around the house and on the radio. I don’t know which sister owned the Chicago albums. But, I do remember hearing it and then discovering it on my own.  Later, I discovered that my oldest sister Pam had a vinyl copy of the original Chicago Transit Authority.  I should probably ask her if that is indeed hers or if it belonged to my brother-in-law Steve.
In my teen years, I would go through a downstairs cupboard where my sisters would put their old albums for Mom to put on sale for her Garage Sales.  When I first started exploring new tastes for music(or old albums), I came across two albums in the “Garage Sale” cupboard.  The two albums were Chicago V and Chicago IX: Greatest Hits 69-74.  Coincidentally, Chicago (as a band) was enjoying a resurgence in popularity in the early 80’s. So, I was educating myself on an old band that was making a comeback.  By this time, original guitarist Terry Kath was gone from the band after an accidental suicide.  Bassist/vocalist Peter Cetera had slimmed down, cut his hair and beard and looked much different than in the liner notes of Chicago V and the accompanying band poster.  But, The band Chicago was always known as a “Faceless” band. People know the iconic logo of Chicago and maybe not the members of the band. But, in the MTV influenced image conscious era of the 80’s, Peter Cetera became the face for the band.
Back to the copy of Chicago V…This was really an interesting album to me. Of course, the hit that I knew off the album was Saturday in the Park.  I also would listen non-stop to the Chicago IX Greatest Hits album too. So, I became very familiar with the songs on there from 25 or 6 to 4 and Beginnings to Colour my World and Feeling Stronger Everyday. I was young enough when Chicago hit that I never understood the innovative nature of this band. It wasn't innovative to me. It was just there. I’ve watched the episode of VH1’s Behind the Music many times and the band has said that they wanted to be like the Beatles with a horn section. Looking back at the time of their early releases, They really were very inventive infusing horns and pop/rock melodies. Even in my hair-metal and hard rocking days of High School and College, I still paid attention to the music of Chicago.  Through 1984-1990, they were more power ballad oriented and seemed more appropriate for slow dancing at school dances. Even the NP Homecoming committee adopted a ballad title for our Fall Homecoming dance: “Winning: a Hard Habit to Break”.  We lost the game!
As I entered college and started discovering older music, I still seemed drawn to the music of “classic” Chicago.  It really is hard to resist the guitar riff to the original version of 25 or 6 to 4.  I remember putting on my Greatest Hits LP and realizing I knew (and Liked) every song on it. The respect of my music loving peers and partners at Dustys had grown to the point where what we liked or didn’t like just didn’t matter. We just respected what the other guy was listening to…even if we were getting tired of it.
After college, my sister-Pam got me to come out to Colorado for a weekend to see the reunited Doobie Brothers at Red Rocks. So, I started looking at these bands from that era a little more seriously. I eventually bought the Sony issued box set called Group Portrait.  It really concentrated on the early years and I was looking more for the hits. So, I got rid of it. Looking back, I would probably really enjoy it now.  In the mid 90’s, Both Chicago and the Doobie Brothers began to tour together. I thought that I really had a blast at the Doobies concert and I do like Chicago too. So, the band soon were on my “Bucket List” of bands I’d like to see. Then I began to catch about every GMA and Today show appearance the band would make. Because, they would usually play a classic tune. Then, I caught them on an episode of A&E’s Live By Request.  They played a bunch of songs from their catalog spanning from the late 60’s to the 90’s. You know what, I loved those songs and I still have that show on a VHS tape. Soon, I was a full blown fan. This was a truly great band that had gotten pigeon holed as a ballads band in the 80’s. But, I didn’t care.  They sounded great to me.
In the summer of 2002, I turned 35 years old….and so did the band Chicago(or so the press release read).  Rhino records released a double CD called The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning.  Disc one was the classic music of the 60’s and 70’s and the Disc two was some of the stuff from the late 70’s and the bulk of the hits from the 80’s and early 90’s. This was more of a Chicago sampler that I was looking for. I soon had it ripped to my computer at work and soon was listening to it daily. My boss was not a Chicago fan and I think would turn down my computer speakers when I would leave the room. The jazzy drumming of original drummer Danny Seraphine had me wrapped up. It was jazz and rock together. It had the swing of Buddy Rich and then pop songs that snared you like the Beatles.
Then, in the summer of 2008, it was announced that the band would be playing the Hall County fair in Grand Island. I was pumped and was able to get a couple of free tickets from the sales manager at my job at the TV Station.  I asked my ex-wife if she was interested in going to the concert with me. We’re actually very civil with each other and have a common love for music. But, she told me that she wasn’t a big fan of the band. So, I looked elsewhere. I contacted my college buddy Scott M who I had reconnected with shortly after my marriage had fallen apart. It was nice to have a friend in Scott who was now a Pastor.  But, Scott and I were music and classic rock fans.  So, Scott and I went to the concert and just soaked it all in.  I loved the concert and my respect for the band grew on so many levels and Scott and I walked away with a great memory for us to share as friends. I even got the setlist from the guys at the soundboard as a souvenir.
About this time, original drummer Danny Seraphine had returned to the music business after being fired by the band(or voted out of the band) in 1990.  He had put together a band called California Transit Authority or CTA.  The name of the band was in reference to the Chicago band’s original name-Chicago Transit Authority. The band had shortened the name because of legal matters from the city of Chicago.  At this time, Pepsi was including codes with their bottle caps to redeem for Amazon.com downloads. So, I drank lots of Pepsi and downloaded the CTA album – Full Circle. It probably cost me more to buy all those Pepsis that it would have to just pay for the album. But, I didn't care. The album contained new versions of old Chicago songs Introduction, South California Purples, Make Me Smile, Colour My World, I’m a Man and a live recording of 25 or 6 to 4. 

I had no recollection of hearing Introduction or South California Purples.  But, I was definitely becoming a big fan. That album is still one of my favorites.
When I started looking through the 1001 Albums book, I started looking at the songs on the album and then downloaded the album to realize that I already knew the majority of this album.  What a great debut this album is from the soulful guitar and vocals of Terry Kath to the biting horns of Lee Loughnane, Walt Parazaider and James Pankow. 
It starts with Introduction. Then, into an extended version of Does Anybody Really Know What Time it is? Track 3 is the great song by keyboardist Robert Lamm known as Beginnings.  Question 67 and 68 is next featuring the fantastic high tenor voice of Peter Cetera who many have forgotten was also a world class bassist too. Also featured is the original version of South California Purples and a cover of the Spencer Davis group’s I’m a Man written by Steve Winwood.
Definitely a great debut by a great band!  My observations of this band is that (in the beginning) the band would line up on stage together as if they were a cohesive team working together for the music and the brotherhood of the band.  The current lineup of the band only includes 3 original members…Keyboardist/vocalist Robert Lamm and the horn trio of Parazaider, Loughnane and Pankow.  Terry Kath on Guitar killed himself.  Peter Cetera struck out on a solo career after the success of Chicago 17 and drummer Danny Seraphine was voted out of the band in 1990.  The band is still great. But, I’m just a little nostalgic for the original lineup.
By the way, at my former job I used to ask my co-worker and college buddy Scott(aka Scooter) “Does anybody know what time it is?”  He would almost always respond singing “Does anybody really care…..(high falsetto) ABOUT TIME!” So, Yes..that actually happened and on a daily basis too.