Fewer bands in rock have been more unjustly maligned than Chicago. Now, I'm no fan of the David Foster years, but being responsible for some of the schlockiest pop of that era doesn't diminish the more innovative and ambitious output of the seventies, especially those first five albums. And paying the bills have allowed the band to continue touring and recording for forty years; if you want to go see a classic slice of AM radio like "Make Me Smile" performed by the original band with most of the original players, you only need to wait for them to show up in your town and buy a ticket. You can't say that about many well-known rock bands today, much less one with a three part horn section.

From the mid seventies until his departure about a decade later, bassist Peter Cetera was the focal point of the group as he increasingly took on the lead vocal role for chart topping ballads. But before then, Chicago was very much a collective, where the stars were often that horn section, unmatched in all of rock except maybe Blood, Sweat and Tears (and still intact and potent today). Vocal duties were shared by Cetera, the late, great guitarist Terry Kath and keyboardist Robert Lamm. However, behind the scenes, the main guy driving the musical direction of the band was Lamm.

Lamm's compositions comprised the bulk of Chicago's early material, and not surprisingly, the early hits. "25 or 6 To 4", "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?", "Beginnings", "Free" were all his compositions, as well as notable album cuts like "Dialogue (Pts. 1 & 2)."

After an unbelievable four double LPs in a row — made more incredible in that they all went gold and spun off eight hits — came Chicago's first single player, 1972's Chicago V. This is the album that contains Lamm's biggest hit to that point, the perennially catchy "Saturday In The Park" and his peaking songwriting skills dominates much of the album, making V one the group's very best releases of all time.

The song that kicks off V is, as noted by the title, a tribute to French-born classical composer Edgar Varèse, whose works are greatly admired by Lamm and other members of Chicago. Frank Zappa was famously a huge fan from the time he was a teenager, and he turned other open-minded rock musicians like Chicago on to Varèse. Varèse had his fans among guys like Zappa and Lamm because he was a 20th century classical composer who experimented with creating new ways to present rhythms and timbres and was one of the first to incorporate electronic instruments. In fact, he is often referred to as the "Father of Electronic Music".

In his own words (from the Chicago V liner notes), Lamm stated that Varèse's music "really kind of set us free in terms of what was possible musically. And so what I was trying to say in 'A Hit by Varèse' was 'Wouldn't it be great if music this free could actually be accepted on radio — not just by the programmers, but by the people listening?'"