Introduction/Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is/Beginnings/Questions 67 & 68/Listen/Poem 58/Free Form Guitar/South California Purples/I’m A Man/Prologue August 29, 1968/Someday August 29, 1968/Liberation
Contrasting debut double album from the seven man jazz-rock ensemble Chicago. The dynamic opening tracks are subverted by the unlistenable Free Form Guitar and the tedious Democratic convention diatribe. Chicago Transit Authority includes the US No. 7 singles Does Anybody Know What Time It Is and Beginnings. (US:17)
"This album still holds up magnificently well, presenting Chicago in all of their musical glory, as the band weaves jazz, rock, experimental prog-rock and pop into a great, cooking confection, and it shows just how musically diverse Chicago were all those years ago. Great songs, including the classic hits Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is and the gorgeous Beginnings, as well as other 'rock-band-with-hornsection' gems. The band sound like a pumped-up, well-oiled machine, and their musicianship and vocal prowess is stunning. The only debit to the album, in my opinion, is Free Form Guitar."
"The whole first record is great with three classic singles, and even the album tracks generally work. It's the second part where it goes off the rails. Yes, Terry Kath was a decent guitar player. Is that really an excuse for almost seven minutes of unlistenable feedback? Happily, South California Purples isn't bad and their cover of I'm A Man is excellent. Unfortunately, the last side is an absolutely unlistenable pastiche of songs about the riots at the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968. It's hard for instrumental tracks to be self-righteous, but they somehow manage it."
"As much as this album is powered by excellent vocals from Robert Lamm throughout, and Terry Kath laying down some of the most solid guitar playing, the real strength and glue of the band is the horn section which is nearly omni-present and simply put fantastic."
"Few bands have produced a greater quantity of banal pop music than Chicago, so it's always a shock to play this album and remember just how cutting edge they were, how confident, brash and aggressive they sounded, in their first release."
"What would Chicago be without the signature horn section dynamics which they do with such power and style."
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