CD Review: Chicago XI
Published March 25, 2006
Lamm's lush vocals return on the song that accurately represents Chicago XI much better than "Baby, ..." did. "Take Me Back To Chicago," much like "Till the End of Time," starts out one way and ends completely differently, but it is a more cohesive song. The song was written for, but not by the band, and was written for a deceased friend of the band, and speaks of his desire to, in his afterlife, return to the Chicago of his youth. Chaka Khan makes a guest appearance on this song, turning in some gospel-like vocals during the song's final reprise. But, in retrospect, the song comes off sounding like something that could very well have been written for poor Terry Kath!
Side Two of the album kicks off with Lamm's second writing credit, the blisteringly sarcastic but very amusing "Vote For Me." After Bobby's funky church organ intro, and some uplifting horn work, Lamm implores us to give him a chance for the Presidential nomination. And what does he propose? He'll cut our taxes in half, give us trains that run from Waikiki to Delaware (the presence of the Pacific Ocean apparently won't be a problem!), make our cars run on beer, and institute solar power everywhere! Then, he admits, this is not something he can do himself and needs the help of every American. Yes, he's a winner, but guess what? He cannot do it without money and wants to see lots of checks in the mail! This song screams "1976" (even though it appeared in '77) because it was around the time that Ford and Carter really weren't distinguishing themselves from each other and both promised everything under the sun. I can tell Lamm wrote this one during the '76 election!
The grim "(Takin' it On) Uptown" follows — and grim it is. Chicago suddenly becomes a trio on this song: Robert, James, Walter, and Lee all stepped out for coffee, leaving only Terry, Peter, and drummer Danny Seraphine behind. And this song is all Terry: he puts in some fantastic blues guitar that sometimes borders on metal and, if you failed to miss it from his guitar work, his vocals indicate how frustrated and fed-up his song's character is. Terry growls his anguish. He doesn't deserve the degradation, can't put up with the aggravation, and is heading uptown on the #86. But why? The song is another point among several on the album where your skin crawls. Although I do not believe, along with the great majority of Kath/Chicago fans, that he deliberately killed himself, the song's references to suicide are prophetic nonetheless, regardless of whether it was unintentional or not.
Mark Edward Manning grew up in Boston, MA and now lives in London, England. He wrote commentaries for The Boston Herald in the mid 1990s.
- CD Review: Chicago XI
- Published: March 25, 2006
- Type: Review
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Blues, Music: Pop, Music: Rock
- Writer: Mark Edward Manning
- Mark Edward Manning's BC Writer page
- Mark Edward Manning's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
Thanks, Mark. Hot Streets did mark quite a departure for the band, though not so much in sound - that wouldn't become evident until 1982 with the release of Chicago 16. In a way, Hot Streets made a powerful statement, best expressed in the song "Alive Again." "No Tell Lover" also preserved some of Chicago's old sound. But, considering they'd lost Kath, getting used to a new guitarist in the process (Donnie Dacus), and jettisoning Guercio as their manager - that, for me, was the start of their second phase. (Phase 3 started once Cetera left.) Also, it was the first time since their debut album that they did not use a number. Naming the album something like "Hot Streets" was quite surprising for them, at the time. It was definitely the end of Chicago as the world knew them from '69-'77.
I'd almost forgotten about this album until I landed on this page by accident during a search for reviews of Chicago XXX. I grew up listening to Chicago. The 70's were all of my adolescence and Chicago was it as far as I was concerned. I bought all of their records on the day of release (well starting with Chicago VI, that is. I bought the earlier ones not long after that).
I personally felt the band made a number of mistakes (or their management/record label did) with regard to choices for what songs would be singles. Some of their best work was probably never heard by a lot of people who weren't getting into what they were hearing on the radio.
Chicago VIII and X were good examples of this. The weakest songs were the singles and the best were not.
VIII didn't do that well, but X was a huge hit thanks to that schlock known as "If You Leave Me Now".
I loved virtually everything about X except that one song.....
Fortunately though it did help the album do pretty well sales-wise. I'm sure the award-winning cover art (The Chocolate Bar) didn't hurt, either.
Then comes XI, followed not long after by Terry Kath's death. It was almost haunting hearing him on that record. But tragedy aside, I didn't think Chicago could top X but they did with XI. They experimented a bit (something they hadn't been noted for in several years) and I think it paid off.
My favorite song is still "Take Me Back to Chicago", with the awesome background vocals by Chaka Kahn.
Anyhow thanks for the memory trip. Now I'm off to find reviews of XXX which I'm sure will suck.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/45492)
nice review mark.
so was there a big transformation between this record and Hot Streets? i don't remember reading any reveiws of that one. i do like the song "Alive Again" but can't say that i can place anything else on it.
oh, and i love it when the words "Side Two" come up in a review. nostagia maybe, but so what?!