Chicago Transit Authority

"Hey, this is a pretty solid album so far, I'm really enjoying it. I sure hope they don't do something stupid like put in a seven-minute-long track of a single screeching, cringe-inducing guitar halfway through."

Is this the whitest album ever made? ALL SIGNS POINT TO YES.

I guess when this band got together, they were feeling a little... horny ;)

Extraordinary album. Can't believe I've never heard this before now. I thought Chicago were a soft rock group. Not on this evidence, a very different well crafted album.

might have been a 4/5 if they had decided to leave out Free Form Guitar

Lifeless soul. Or funk. Or whatever. Any way up, it's ersatz shit.

It's a bit leaden When the horns and a bit of funk come through it improves, but halfway through, and my abiding memory is that a track called introduction should not last six minutes, unless it's a sodding warning. They love a good bit of noodling. Questions is quite good (but would be better 2 minutes shorter still.) Free Form guitar is the most extended act of masturbation this side of Porn Hub, except you know nobody else is going to get any enjoyment out of it. I gave up before the live tracks, because frankly it was bad enough before that. Been a while since I've hit one star, but honestly, this was an hour wasted, and this now becomes seventh in my hall of shame.

“Chicago Transit Authority” by Chicago (1969) (Alert: What follows is not a critical review. It’s more of a prose ode. Sorry, but I get carried away talking about how much I love my baby, oo-wah, oo-wah.) This debut double album starts off (the aptly titled “Introduction”) as enticing jazz, with a (smallish) big band flavor, teasing the ears with unconventional chords, rhythms, tempo shifts, and meter, heavy with improvisational bass and wildly expressive percussion. But the horns are both deft and and powerful—wonderfully synchronized, from the initial ensemble groove to the soulful jazz trombone, trumpet, and electric guitar solos. And it only gets better from there. One can imagine first time listeners taking a deep breath and softly exclaiming, “Whoa!” The confidently discordant piano solo intro to the next song (the hit single “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”) has been sadly removed from airplay versions the song. The ‘hit’ version intro is actually a transition. This album is much better than the singles. Nevertheless, the hit version cut still stands as a brilliant example of pop/rock jazz fusion, despite its inane lyrics. By the prophetic third track (“Only the Beginning”), the listener is comfortable, pleading to be taken where Chicago is going, and it’s only the beginning of the journey in more ways than one. One can’t help but embrace the classic extended outro. Turn it up, then turn it up again, then turn it up one more time. Cowbell, claves, and wood block never sounded so welcoming. And then it’s time to turn the record over. And cook. (Listeners who ‘stacked’ the LPs, listening to sides one and three before flipping both discs to hear sides two and four were missing the perfectly arranged flow.) The natural fade on the last note of “Questions 67 and 68” is captivating. And Terry Kath’s guitar playing on “Listen”, “Poem”, and “Free Form Guitar” (with no pedals!) prompted Jimi Hendrix to say “He’s better than me.” That’s not an urban legend. “Poem 58” inspired generations of university lab bands for its innovation and virtuosity. And while most people can do without “Free Form Guitar”, that would be a mistake. It’s a masterful demonstration of the studio interplay between electric guitar and amplifier that would influence rock and roll forever. No wonder Hendrix was impressed. Terry (“the gun actually was loaded”) Kath and Jimi (“should I try to do some more?”) Hendrix both left us too soon. Damn. The blues band styled “South California Purples” is well executed, with excellent lead vocal by keyboardist Robert Lamm. But on “I’m a Man”, the pot nearly boils over. The first 1:19 always gives me goose bumps. What. A. Groove. And the percussion interlude from 3:08-5:28 outclasses Iron Butterfly’s Ron Bushy (“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” [1968]) in so many ways. I dare you to air drum it. Side four is an improvisational delight, perfectly punctuated by the (uncredited) belch at 0:19 on the fourteen-minute closing track, “Liberation”. Chicago then proceeds to blaze away into the sunset. If you can’t fall in love with this album, there’s something wrong with you. 5/5

I'd heard a bunch of these singles before, turns out they're all like five minutes longer than I was used to hearing. The back half of this album is absolutely insane. What a gem!

This was a revelation, awesome guitar playing paired with some brass/orchestral sounds paired with some prog experiments produce a album that is long but doesn't fail to amaze. Enjoyable and catchy songs that finish with a 14 minute epic, what's not to love?

What a way to end a really good week of music! We grew up with a lot of the Chicago hits, including "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is," but I've never listened to an album from them before. This is not what I expected but really impressive! Virtuosic, exploratory instrumental work all around, a lot less traditional song structure than I anticipated. Dare I say experimental? "Free Form Guitar" is absolutely melting my brain. And the sample of the chanting at the 1968 DNC, there's just so much going on here. If you heard this for the first time in '69, what kind of band or music would you even think this is? Learning the lore too, that this was the original band name until they received a cease and desist from the actual CTA. The Grammys giving them best new artist was probably one of the few times they got an award right. And of course, I have to mention Uncle Jim on the trombone. I think it's really cool that he actually wrote the last two songs on this album. This is really great. Favorite tracks: Free Form Guitar, Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is, Listen, Liberation, Someday. Album art: Love this. I've always admired that Chicago was consistent with their font/lettering on all their album covers. This one has the added charm of appearing painted on wood. The colors really pop, the framing is excellent. Proud of you guys. 4.5/5

Wow, this was crazy, I thought I knew Chicago. This was almost Hendrix like in places. Really interesting album.

More rock than I had expected with my little knowledge of their later soft pop career.

Loving the remastered songs!

They had me at Chicago! This album is an introduction to to amazing talent of a band homegrown in the USA! Transit AC shows how truly talented the artists were before their explosion into stardom. The instruments played cover a wide spectrum of cow bell to trombone. I can honestly say they grew leaps and bounds after this album...25 or 6 to 4..... Name a band today that has vocal, drummer, trumpet keyboard, brass, guitar and cowbell to boot! Loved Beginning, Q’s 67 & 68, I’m a Man& Introduction. Jim, I never knew you were the original “More Cowbell” guy?! Chicago goes on to become a legend in their own time. “Does anyone Really Know What time it is”.

Really great album. Great straight up rock songs, but the addition of a powerful brass section adds a cool flair to many of them. Then there’s those free form jams that are interesting. Really great stuff. Favorite Track(s): “Introduction,” “Listen,” “Poem 58,” and “I’m A Man”

Started off as dog water, but turned into Evian. Terry Kath is God.

Great stuff! Really experimental guitar, great vocals. Didn’t quite key into any sort of story, but fantastic overall.

Chicago Transit Authority I do like a fair bit of Chicago’s early music, 25 or 6 to 4 off the next album is an absolute classic, but they did tend to make very long albums with very long songs, and sometimes the jazz horns and prog blues of it all can get a bit much, and this is no exception. It does feel like a long hour and 20 minutes and a lot of the songs can feel very long, because, well, nearly all of them are very long. Having said that, there are good songs and some great moments on here amongst the noodling and the parping. And also one of the cringiest bits of musical stupidity in Free Form Guitar, nearly 7 minutes of utter pointlessness. Introduction is a microcosm of the album - great groove, a jazzy feel, pretty busy and goes on a bit too long. The actual meat of the song in Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is is very enjoyable, but I’m not sure the broken jazz piano intro really adds a great deal to the whole song. Having a horn section as part of the band is a great USP, but I think that sometimes leads to an over-application of horn parts, which in turn leads to a lot of busy-ness from the other instruments, competing to be heard. Beginnings is a bit like this, it’s a great bluesy country track, possibly my favourite on the album, but it would benefit from a simpler arrangement, definitely a case of addition by subtraction. Questions 67 and 68 is a nice bit of jazz rock pop, the piano sounding a bit like Come and Get It, giving it a nice added rhythmic dynamism. Really like the groove of Listen, a great track with a nice bass riff. Poem 58, for what is basically a guitar jam, is very listenable, with a decent groove, the two different parts complementing each other well. We shan’t talk about Free Form Guitar. South California Purples is a decent blues groove with great sounding bass, and the cover of I’m a Man is also goof, the jazzy proggyness suiting the song’s repeating organ groove very well. Prologue, Someday and Liberation I guess are meant to be taken as a suite. Liberation is actually great, one of the times when the throw the kitchen sink approach works over the course of it’s 15 minutes. Overall it’s a bit of a mixed bag. What they do they do very well, and there’s a great deal of skill involved, but their tendency for competing instrumental prominence makes it feel like a slightly overwrought and busy listening experience - in some instances a less is more approach would benefit the album without diluting what they excel at. Don’t think it makes it into the 4s, so a solid 3 feels about right. 🚃🚃🚃 Playlist submission: Listen

Parts of this album are like warm sunshine on my brain and it’s difficult to separate the quality of the songs from the love I have for the memories associated with that horn/guitar/vocal combo. And then there’s parts of the album that need to be tightened up: do I really need to hear six minutes of guitar feedback?

Pretty out there, like a mad jazz funk soul fusion, but with other styles too, rock influence in parts. Weirdly enjoyable though, clearly really talented musicians, a whole range of genres of tracks and they bossed them all. Gotta be worth a 3/5, not quite a 4,some tracks were just covers.

Maybe unfair to judge an album that I started listening to while waiting to board a red eye flight, and then finished while on said red eye flight, but I really hated this. The noodling and riffing were unbearable, the tracks were sooo long, and I just didn't like anything about the way it sounded.

I remember hating this record when I first listened to it. Always thought that songs from this debut album could be used as soundtrack for that ridiculously campy "Love Boat" TV series. Brings a big stupid grin to my face. That funky bartender was a cool dude, was he not? Too bad I can't remember his name, or the ones of the other characters. That's how high my cheese-o-meter actually is when I think about Chicago. I make a point listening to whichever record is popping out in this app, at least if I'm not deeply familiar with it. I've been doing this everyday for a year and a half now. And this implies checking on records I thought I hated. There's been a few cases when I actually changed my mind about a musician or artist. And I always keep that in mind... So I was about to listen to that Chicago album again, after browsing through the top of the review section. Until I found this conclusion in one of the reviews: "If you can’t fall in love with this album, there’s something wrong with you." Seriously? I know that when people are enthusisastic about an album, they can get carried away. But there's a limit. This conclusion gives you the (probably wrong) impression that all fans of Chicago are twats. Which is a bit of a problem. Thing is, I don't want to end up like a twat. So I'll stick to my first impression that this Chicago debut is a cheesefest of epic proportion that has nothing interesting to bring musically except overblown jazzy horn parts and pyrotechnic (read *self-indulgent*) guitar solos. And I'll also stick to my initial impression that those many flourishes can't hide how frigging naive, dumb, trite and derivative the songwriting and basic compositions actually are. So I think I'll take the day off, for a change, and listen to 2023 albums instead. Maybe Geese's *3D Country*, or that latest Lana Del Rey LP. Or Shame's *Food For Worms*. Or *Mid-Air*, by Paris Texas. Well, anything *but* Chicago. Call that a protest of sorts. If really loving this record makes you utter that sort of line I've just quoted as a result, I'd rather not take that risk. In other words, you can't bully anyone to love an album. Oh and if that reviewer is reading me now, hear this out : If you can’t fall in love with Pixies's *Doolittle*, there’s something wrong with you. *Deeply* wrong. So tell me, pal: how does it feel taking your own medicine? The real issue is not that we are disagreeing about an album. It's the *way* you're expressing your opinion. Even that review you wrote about the Rolling Stones' *Sticky Fingers* (a record I actually love) had wrong moments, amid takes about it that were admittedly great. So don't expect to sound convincing for another record made by a band that has been overrated for decades. Especially when said album is clearly fifty notches under that Stones classic. 1.5/5 for the purposes of this list (I'm grading the album here, not that person's review, lol). Which translates to a 6.5/10 grade for more general purpose (5 + 1.5). The final build-ups of "Beginnings" and "Poem 50" are quite good, to be honest, and "I'm A Man" has a catchy chorus. Too bad that track is actually a cover. Didn't realize that before listening to the song again, by the way. But I guess it makes sense that the only tune worthy of interest comes from outside the band. Because, yes, I did listen to this record again, eventually--and this in spite of my earlier protest. I love music too much to let a reviewer with badly-phrased takes ruin my passion for it. Number of albums left to review: 483 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 245 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 115 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more essential to me): 155 (including this one)

Something about this music makes me think of San Francisco. I'm not sure why because I love(d) SF and I hate this album. The horns were a novelty and I really liked them for the first track and-a-half. As the album progressed and we go to the Poem 58 and Free Form Guitar, this album had burned all my excitement for it. I'm all for experimentation, but these two tracks were terrible and proved nothing. The Byrds did some experimentation with Moog Raga that was far superior to this garbage. I was kind of excited to listen to pre-Cetera Chicago because I knew they had changed a lot and really weren't the same band that I knew in the 80's. However, by the end of this album my disappointment had turned to anger coming to the realization this was just shitty jam band music with horns.

I've always enjoyed Chicago. This album is an absolute belter, the musicianship is amazing and the tracks effortlessly show that. Not a single weak track on there.

I am a 42 year old geriatric millennial who grew up on grunge and emo, and maybe they’re cheesy or cringe, or maybe it’s the nostalgia of what my parents listened to, but I fucking love Chicago. Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is is a perfect song. 10/10, no notes.

Great album! 4.8 so rounded up to 5.

excellent

At one point Chicago the band was not a sleazy, sultry, cringy smooth rockers to woo the middle-class spinsters, but an actually talented jazz-prog-fusion band with gut and grit, instrumental palette, song-writing chops, adventurous sound.

It was brilliant and funky. I see it in my store all the time and never realized the perfect album was there the whole time.

Great. But Free Form Guitar? That's a no from me.

5/5. A big jam band with sophisticated brass rhythms and a unique vocal. The highlight is the guitar here that drives most of the songs. The solos are insane. This is a great album to listen to front to back, it flows so nicely and another song becomes your favorite with each listen. I wouldn't say every song is perfect but they all are well-written and structured. A very good listening experience. Best Song: Questions 67 & 68, Beginnings, Poem 58

Fantastic album!

Horns meet psychedelia.

I haven’t heard some of these tunes in years. It was nice to hear them again.

this slaps so hard

I loved the big band crooner rock of Side 1, and my goodwill carried me through the soft rock on Side 2. The avant-garde guitar solo that begins Side 3 is quite a distance from where the album started out. I liked it. Experimental electronic artists twiddled diodes to get these kinds of sounds, it’s an impressive leap to use an electric guitar in the same way. Then some blues rock and the rock/soul/exotica of I’m A Man. Counter-cultural vibes coming in for Side 4, and we’re also back to the crooner style we started with. I like the use throughout of what we’d now call interludes, the talking and the sound of the protest crowd. I also like the way the loungey exotica weaves in and out.

Not only is the musicianship great, but the album is fulll of fresh-sounding ideas and unusual choices. A little long perhaps, but the quality of the album makes it feel shorter.

wow, this was not what i was expecting. this album is fantastic! my only complaint is the length of the album but they managed to keep it interesting the entire time so i can overlook it

Perfect jams. Thanks Dad for showing me this band in elementary school.

From the first notes I knew I'd like this. Big big fan

I think I love this. Had only listened to Chicago II before, but this feels more raw. A bit less polished, and it really suits them.

I love horns in rock music. Good jazzy rock with catchy lyrics and some pretty cool experimentation going on. I really liked free form guitar not really as a song but just respect the amount of noise and various sounds coming out of one guitar.

Listen, Chicago is classic rock at some of its finest and I’m here for it

Wow, their first 2 albums are masterpieces. I received both on my birthday from my gay cousin who knew his stuff about the category of music. I prefer the second one to the first but both are solid 5/5

I do unashamedly love this album. It has a great energy to it and they get a bad rap for their later work, however there is some good music on the first 7 albums and it ends there. I loved them as a young teen and think this album holds up well.

Fuck yeah

OK - Free Form Guitar - ROCKS! I wasn't so sure about this album at first, but this track saved the entire album.

Love them. Own an album. The August 29th songs reminded me of the Chicago riots and the Democratic national Convention.

Head and shoulders above their other albums. A magnificent debut.

Nice jazz rock

Big band, jazzy, funky rock n' roll? Nails all my favorites. I would love to listen to this on a day where I'm feeling a bit more spry, but it has all the makings of a 5 star album right out of the gate. Didn't love Free Form Guitar much, but that's gotta be the only blemish on this one. All other guitar shredding songs on this album make up for this though. I think this one deserves a re-listen because I'm a bit distracted at work, but I am erring on the side of "fuck yeah this album was awesome" that will hopefully be even better after a second listen.

The best!!!

The First half of the album is transcendent, the second half faffs around way too much, still top marks.

Classic Chicago Reminders of college

Loved this album! Shared with a bunch of people and added songs to playlists. Will seek this out to listen to again.

A classic. HArd to believe it is was recorded 50+ yrs ago. Still Rockin" Only the Beginnings is the first "Hey Jude"- sweeps you up and into it.

Komplett überraschend - wenn man nur Chicago‘s 80ger Jahre im Ohr hat. Mir gefällt es besser als Hard to say I‘m sorry!

Still sounds great after 50+ years.

Although I’ve heard parts of this album many times over the years, I hadn’t really realized what a great album it is. Boy, I missed out not seeing them live at some point, they would have been amazing. I can’t believe this came out so long ago. The musicianship is amazing, I never really heard it from this perspective previously. I have a whole new appreciation for Chicago for sure. Can live without the one guitar noise tune though, a bit self-indulgent.

Loved it. Excellent use of tons and a great perspective of potential jazz

אחלה של אלבום!

Just a pretty fun album start to finish. Love the long outro track. Chicago just has a good vibe about them always.

It's prog, it's funky, and it has HORNS?!

Absolutely love this album. Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is is towards the top of my favorite songs and the rest rip as well. Bass lines through the whole thing are delicious.

This album contains my all-time favorite Chicago song, Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?, this is a great example of where the group came from as opposed to the sugary songs of the 80s from the Peter Cetera led version of the group. An excellent album!

Terry Kath

Very good, groovy, cool instrumental and vocals.

Heerlie

Favorite Song(s): I'm a Man, Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? Overall a really strong debut album for the Chicago Transit Authority. Lot of bops that I would put on my playlists, and a couple songs I can forget but not every song in an album can be a banger. I could be a bit biased though as a trombone player as I love hearing horns in general.

Man, would've loved to see these guys back when they sounded like this. Great musicians.

Amazing, experimental, incredible that this was from Chicago.

I listen to a lot of Jazz-Rock/Jazz-Fusion/etc. but this one is just so impressive like one of the coolest albums I’ve heard all year - 10/10

An amazing first album from CTA/Chicago. Possibly the best album they ever made. Rich and vibrant, jazzy, horn-laden sound. A little jammy, but in all the right ways. I love the older albums with Terry Kath playing mind-bending guitar and the shared vocals between Kath and Peter Cetera. There's a soulfulness and grit here that is absent from the band's later work. There is so much nuance and care in every single song, with something new to appreciate each time I hear it. "Free Form Guitar" is a little bonkers, and "Liberation" is waaaay too long. But when the band gets it right, it's stunningly good. Fave Songs (All songs, from most to least favorite): Beginnings, Questions 67 and 68; Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?; I'm a Man; Introduction; Listen; South California Purples; Poem 58; Liberation; Someday (August 29, 1968); Prologue, August 29, 1968; Free Form Guitar

First of all, the latter half of the album talking about the civil rights movement is pretty great, but the whole album was just really really good jazzy rock.

Amazing & classic!

Oooo the pre-pop days of Chicago. Great band.

One of my favorite albums of all time. Great songwriting and arrangements. Robert Lamm particularly shines with his fine vocal performances on numerous tracks. Additionally, you will rarely here Terry Kath as featured in the songs or as adventurous as is playing is on this record.

Jazz-rock sesentero. Vinilo.

só pela introdução já merece 5 estrelas, sonzao impecável, vários sopros, progressivo, vocal tri

Incredible album! Just recently listened to this whole thing! Still enjoyed it the second time around! Pavement is such a great band,, so many incredible albums as well as this one!

That was some of the proggiest funk I've ever laid ears upon.

tässä on kaikkea... on kitaraa... rumpuja löytyy.... bassoa on...torvia... ja lauletaankin välillä... mitässitä muuta tarvitsrstee... tsigago...heh.. welcome to chicago.... heh....kitaran vängyttämistä ois voinut olla enemmänkin.. mitä kaikki valittaa taas... SUATANA POPPIA VETÄNÄ... ei aina tartte... poem 58

Who doesn't like Chicago?! Classic

The horns, combined with Terry Kathy’s phenomenal guitar work, just make this album a great debut My favorite Chicago album…

Such and awesome blend of jazz and rock. One of my favorite bands

What a great rock album, while I didn't really enjoy the track "Free Form Guitar", the rest of the album was stunning. 5/5. Favorite Track: Questions 67 and 68

I'd never listened to this whole album before, so this was a great experience. As a casual Chicago fan over the past decades, it was great to experience their first work and hear where they came from. Several songs are ones that have always been in the background of my life's soundtrack, but I am glad to give them more attention. I appreciate its experimental, "lets try this!" feeling, which works more often than not. The sounds that really worked are the sounds that continued through their later work. ("Free Form Guitar" is simply unbearable, but we're going to chalk that up to a time when seven minutes of guitar noise seemed like something that was worth trying. Win some, lose some.) In any case, the rock-jazz monster that is Chicago is magnificent! I am compelled to continue to follow their albums and connect the dots of my favorite songs of theirs.

Love the bluesy, hornsy sound of this band. Some of the songs go on too long (I had to stop Free Form Guitar and come back later), but great to hear the origins of some very familiar songs.

I’ve never listened to this debut album before, having mostly been familiar with Chicago’s greatest hits compilations until the 80s when I owned a couple of their cassettes. This is definitely Chicago, with a few little surprises. This album is funkier and bluesier in places than I expected. The guitar work gets heavy in the middle. I’m not sure I love the degree to which they take it in Free Form Guitar. It sounds quite skilled if not particularly pleasant or melodic. I can’t imagine I’ll sit through that song in its entirety again. Ready access to the skip track button would have been a good reason to get this on CD as soon as the tech was available… Other than that quibble, I loved the album!

I get what old heads mean when they say they don’t make music like this anymore

One of my all time favorites. Automatic 5. I will enjoy the entire day listening to this gem. Greatest use of a sample ever on Someday.

This is how I like my Chicago, not the stuff they did in the '80s. Of course I've heard (and loved) the songs on this album that showed up on their Greatest Hits compilations, but it was great to hear some new-to-me songs in that same style.

starts with a bang, making its intentions clear: strap in boys and girls this is going to be a wild journey and it absolutely delivered. almost lost me with the free form guitar but pulled me straight back in with the punchy bass line on listen.

amazing!!

This album was different than anything else at the time.

More jazzy than I expected, but still great

I'd give this a 4.5, it wouldn't sit in my all-time favorite albums but it's a great album with quite a few recognizable hits over 50 years later.

Tauban.

Better than I remember. The horns and virtuoso guitar make this a great album to listen to anytime.