Worst Chicago song

It depends also on how old you and your friend were in the late '60's and much of the '70's when the band was at its peak of creativity.

 

We Built This City

 

never liked Skin Tight

 

"Saturday In The Park"

 

That was the best track on that album (VIII?)

 

I like the album track "Skintight" because of the Terry Kath guitar solo in the middle part of the song.

 

I haven't heard that song since the LP came out in '78.

 

Worst Chicago song? Easy.

Pick one - any one - produced after 1977.

 

The album was released in 1976 when Terry Kath was still alive.

 

There are some excellent songs from post-Kath Columbia albums from 1978-1980 but they have one thing in common.
They don't have Terry Kath's guitar and voice on them.

 

It sounds like Robert Palmer.

 

"If She Would Have Been Faithful". These wimps were the foremost practitioners (no way am I calling these geldings "masters") of Cuck Rock, and this turgid heap of bleat might be the ultimate example.

 

Can't pick one track but I believe the operation went south somewhere around the time Guercio was replaced by the "Hit King."

 

I jump off after XIV - more a hatred of Bill Champlin and David Foster than any loss of Kath. I thought Lamm (with Pankow) should've re-asserted creative responsibility after Terry's death, and not permitted Cetera and Seraphine (and Loughnane and Dacus) to democratise the band as much, let alone bring in outside writers.

So, I haven't heard any of their big 80s hits (they weren't hits on any radio I was listening to in the 80s) and when I saw them in concert (well, Lamm, Loughnane and a bunch of ringers) they made no impact if they did play any of them.

So, I'm going for the full 15 minute Elegy suite on side four of Chicago III, which fully ruins the album. Not a single worthy note in the whole piece, and the part with the pneumatic drill being the most obnoxious. I'd sooner hear You Get It Up or Birthday Boy or Harry Truman than that thing ever again.

 

Interestingly, what this thread has shown me, is the large number of Chicago Transit Authority and Chicago (with Kath) fans that are extremely disappointed with later incarnations of the band.
(Very understated, I know.)

Almost to the point of feeling betrayed.

Genesis fans seem docile and mild by comparison...

 

I stop after the first Chicago album with Jason Scheff.

 

Your welcome.

 

Almost everything from IV to XXXVIII. Imho

 

For everyone's enjoyment. More like everyone's envomit.

 

Doesn't the suite end with the sound of a toilet flush? I'm thinkng all the David Foster albums should have ended with the same sound.

 

I don't mind the 80s ballads that much - I mean they hold their own with 80s ballads by, say, Heart or Foreigner. The only real pity is that they were released under the same name as the 70s stuff. It causes us to make comparisons between two entirely different beasts.

Having said that, with very limited experience of the early years, I'd have to agree with "Free Form Guitar", but "Fancy Colours" on II is pretty unpleasant as well.

 

I love Chicago III's Side Four specially the third movement called "Once Upon A Time". It has a lovely melody. It started softly with flute and build into a climax starting with the sound of the trombone at 1:56.

 

I should have said the first time that I heard the LP.

 

I actually like the 80s ballads, whether they were sung by Bill, Peter or Jason.

The thing with bands with a relatively long history such as Chicago (or Heart, or Genesis, or Foreigner, or Journey, etc.) is that once they have reach the top of the charts, they are under pressure by the record companies to match that success. Yes, Pankow and Lamm could've took reign of the band after Kath's passing, and maybe even coming back to the sound that members of this forum preferred, but I seriously doubt the band would've achieve any commercial success in the changing music soundscape of the 80s. In fact, if Chicago went back to their 70s sound, the band would've faded faster into obscurity much faster.

Foster may be a jerk and his comment of his "16 Grammys" in that CNN documentary solidified my opinion of him as such. But he did have that "magic touch" at that moment in time. It's always a fine line balancing with artistic ambitions vs. commercial successes. But it's called "music business" for a reason.

Worst song? Peter Cetera's "Glory of Love". Could've been a 80s Chicago ballad....I'm thankful it wasn't.

 

LOL@All of that. "Geldings..."