To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the first album by Chicago Transit Authority, the band who would soon become known as just Chicago, we thought we'd look back at the late 60s and early 70s, when Chicago, together with the likes of Blood Sweat & Tears, as well as locals like Max Merrit & The Meteors and Jeff St John & The Id, led a charge of horn powered rock bands up the charts.
Chicago Transit Authority – Does Anyone Know What The Time Is?
Formed in Chicago in 1967 and taking their name from the local public transport system, Chicago Transit Authority was one of the first of the young rock bands with horns. It was a natural development. A few years earlier the kids had been discovering R&B via English groups like the Stones; there was also a lot of brass-driven soul music in the charts, and a lot of the more musically proficient young players were discovering jazz. Indeed the classic Chicago Transit Authority album contains a 7+ minute version of the 1967 Spencer Davis Group hit “I’m A Man” that reveals the horn-rock group’s roots in the earlier R&B and soul-influenced British rock and pop of the 60s, while the third Top 10 single off the album, “Does Anyone Know What the Time Is?” reveals the soul and jazz vibes of the time perfectly.
Chicago - 25 or 6 to 4
The song that probably pushed bass-player Pete Cetera to the fore as a lead vocalist for the newly rechristened band – by the time of their second album they were just Chicago - this song was taken from the band’s second album, released in 1969. The first of their singles to reach the Top 5 in 1970, it also reached number 12 in Australia.
The Buckinghams - Kind of A Drag
Hailing from Chicago, and no doubt an influence on Chicago – both band’s worked with producer James William Guercio early on – the Buckinghams hit with the brass-accentuated “Kind of A Drag” in 1967, the year that Chicago formed. Along with other bands like the Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, they bridged the divide between teenage rock’n’roll and a more middle of the road soul-influenced pop sound.
Blood, Sweat & Tears – I Can’t Quit Her
Also formed in 1967, and citing the Buckinghams and their producer James William Guercio as an inspiration, Blood Sweat & Tears was the brainchild of Al Kooper, a man best known at the time for wrangling his way into playing keyboards on Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone”. While Kooper would only remain with the New York based band for one album, that album Child Is Father to the Man is considered one of his shining achievements.
Blood, Sweat & Tears – Spinning Wheel
After Al Kooper’s departure, new singer David Clayton-Thomas was brought in, and the band hit pay dirt with his song “Spinning Wheel”. A # 2 US single in 1969, it was taken from the band’s second album, simply titled Blood, Sweat & Tears, which went on to win the Album of the Year award at the Grammys in 1970.
Average White Band – Pick Up the Pieces
While some of horn rock groups got softer and more middle of the road as they developed, a group out of Scotland of all places upped the ante funk-wise and in 1975 had an American #1 on their hands. Spotted while opening for Eric Clapton, the band had previously backed Clapton’s pal Bonnie Bramlett of Delany & Bonnie fame, and released an album for MCA before they had been signed by Atlantic. Working with legendary producer Arif Mardin, their first Atlantic album hit the top spot first, followed by the single.
Max Merritt & The Meteors - Western Union Man
Around the time that Chicago Transit Authority and Blood, Sweat & Tears were breaking through in the US, horns were quite the thing down here in the Antipodes as well. New Zealander Max Merritt had been making rock’n’roll and R&B records since the fifties, but by the late 60s, in Australia and with sax player Bob Bertles on board, he was making great soul and jazz-influenced rock. “Western Union Man”, the first single by this incarnation of the band, was a #13 Australian hit in 1969
Jeff St John & The Id – Big Time Operator
Sydney’s the Id, fronted by one of the country’s great singers, Jeff St John, had been doing a brass-driven thing since adding trumpet and sax in 1966. Their 1967 cover of Zoot Money’s “Big Time Operator” was the first real local soul-rock recording and a killer one at that. A popular draw in the Sydney clubs and discotheques frequented by US servicemen on leave from Vietnam, The Id eventually wound down in 1969 and Jeff started taking his beloved soul sounds into more progressive directions.
Ram Jam Big Band – Sunshine & I Feel Fine
Melbourne had its own soul-rock thing going on before Max Merritt & The Meteors moved down from Sydney in 1967. The Ram Jam Big Band, with an expanded line-up which included future Daddy Cool/Jo Jo Zep drummer Gary Young and former Loved One Ian Clyne, were a popular local draw, and their second single for Spin, a Clyne original released in 1968, presaged the relatively soft soul-rock that would become more popular at the end of the decade. Trumpet player Russell Smith would later go into play with the likes of Kate Ceberano.
Daly Wilson Big Band
Known as a jazz big band – drummer Warren Daly had actually played in the States with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Sydney’s Daly Wilson Big Band began in 1968 and went onto phenomenal international success. With lead singers including Kerrie Biddell, Marcia Hines and Ricky May, they captured the popular combination of jazz, soul and rock and were perhaps the most mainstream extension of what had been going on in the clubs since the late 60s. They didn’t look like a hip rock group, but they were mining the same sounds as some of the era’s hippest, and their records are now sought after by a new generation of funk fans.
Chicago have just released a special 50th Anniversary edition of thier debut on limited gold 2LP, check it out here.
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