“Chicago & Friends Director’s Cut” to Air on Fantracks Starting Dec. 16
- Steve Vai, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Robert Randolph among guests
Chicago went back to its Transit Authority days for a pair of Chicago & Friends gigs, reminding themselves and late-coming fans the band once specialized in full-bore rock ‘n’ roll.
“If you didn’t listen to Chicago, man, you know, you weren’t hip,” James Pankow says in the trailer for the forthcoming “Chicago & Friends - Director’s Cut.”
There was a time that was true. And on Nov. 17 and 18 in New Jersey, it was true again.
Here’s Robert Randolph playing the solo and singing the long-in-dry-dock “Listen.”
There’s Steve Vai tapping his way through the even rarer “Poem 58.”
And just listen to Christone “Kingfish” Ingram recreating Terry Kath’s “Make Me Smile” solo.
Chris Daughtry, VoicePlay and Robin Thicke are among the other guests in the preview.
So forget about the waving cellphones in “Hard to Say I’m Sorry;” check out Vai playing “25 or 6 to 4” the way it was meant to be played.
tonight been listening at youtube to all five of the simon & garfunkel albums from the 60s which were what my mom’d put on when we went to bed
it’s been great but somehow i didn’t realize they’d only last three hours
next i’m hunting up the three chicago albums i had & imma try listening to the tracks in the order of the phonograph sides as i’d put’em on the record changer
Song Review(s): Chicago - “Saturday in the Park,” “Feelin’ Stronger Every Day Coda” and “25 or 6 to 4” (Live, July 4, 2023)
Chicago didn’t lip synch during their performance at a Capitol Fourth in Washington, D.C., though they - or at least Robert Lamm - perhaps should have.
At 78, Lamm’s once-smooth baritone is now quite rough and nearly unrecognizable. So to hear it on a nationally televised, Fourth of July rendition of “Saturday in the Park” was both jarring and deflating. Backed with a sparse - but still intrusive - symphonic arrangement, this was a poor showing of the quintessential Independence Day pop song.
Sung by new guy Neil Donell, the coda of “Feelin’ Stronger Every Day” fared better, though Sound Bites hates that the band never plays the entire song, even at headlining gigs.
And while the 2023 edition of Chicago can’t play “25 or 6 to 4” with the muscle of the original band, it was kind of funny to watch a bunch of goofy, straight-laced Americans shaking it to a drug song under the fireworks’ red glare.
They’re not very good on stage anymore - read Sound Bites’ review of Chicago’s May gig in Ohio here - but the band has at least retained a subversive sense of humor.
Grade card: Chicago - “Saturday in the Park,” “Feelin’ Stronger Every Day Coda” and “25 or 6 to 4” (Live 7/4/23) - D/C/B-
My place of employment is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month. I made a playlist of music from 1970-73 for the party, and it got the greenlight from all the department managers. If you're also celebrating a 50th anniversary, and don't want to make your own playlist, you can give this one a look over.
These tune are More Than #Memories. What are your favorite songs of 1972? #Nostalgia #Oldies
Last week we gave you part one of our top tunes of 1972. This week we have the rest of these golden memories. The following article appeared a year ago on SERENDIPITY.
Golden Oldies, 1972 Edition, part 2, by Rich Paschall
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This week’s sock hop will begin soon in the SERENDIPITY Gymnasium and Auditorium so it is time to hurry over. If you can not take your “Hot Rod Lincoln,”…