Terry Kath

[Heather Anne Peel]

I was inspired to start this thread by remarks made about Terry in another thread. Terry was Chicago's guitarist from their "beginnings" in 1967 as Chicago Transit Authority up until he shot himself to death in 1978. Terry was an amazing guitarist, and although he played Strats and SGs, he spent a lot of time in the '70s playing a Tele that he decorated with stickers. Terry was equally versed in Rock and Jazz, and was capable of virtuosity, as well as playing for the song. Hendrix was a fan of Terry's playing! Terry was also a great singer and writer ("Make Me Smile" comes to mind) and his wah-wah solo on "25 or 6 to 4" has to rank as one of the best solos by anyone, period. Unfortuntaly, Terry's death seemed to correspond with the quality of Chicago's music dipping. They were never really quite the same without him. When I think of Terry, I think of a player with great feeling, chops and tone. His playing on those early Chicago albums is essential, as far as I am concerned. His playing on tracks like Chicago's remake of "I'm A Man" still gives me goosebumps. Anyway, I thought Terry was great, and I am obviously a fan. Chicago's first 8 albums and Chicago lX (the early greatest hits) were faves of mine growing up and remain faves to this day. Chicago, in it's initial incarnation, offered a blend of Rock, Pop, Jazz and Swing that was very unique and adventurous. I think Terry Kath had a big role in that. Anyway, thanks for the great music Terry, R.I.P..
8) Heather

 

[petebradt]

Terry Kath was a Bad Man. He was the real deal.

 

[TBoneDeluxe]

Awesome post Heather!! Terry Kath is one of my all-time favorite guitarists. In my top 5 for sure!!

 

[Tim Bowen]

Terry Kath was great, no doubt. "Russian Roulette", what a shame.

Those were, and are, great records. For myself, CTA was a great band with good writing and fantastic arrangements. In other words, the sum is greater than the parts. The first thing that caught my ear about that band in its prime was the interplay between drummer Danny Seraphine and bassist Peter Cetera, and whoever the heck else was playing percussion. Man, what a killing rhythm section. Toss on top of that those brilliantly arranged horn and vocal parts, along with Kath's icing on the cake, and you easily get some of the best pop records of the era. Those arrangements were a huge influence for me personally.

 

[Jim W]

When ever I saw Terry Kath playing a tele it had a bucker in the neck position. I also liked his playing.


I saw them in the early 70's. Glass Harp (Phil Keaggy's band) was the warm up group. In my opinion I thought the Harp blew Chicago off the stage.

Jim

 

[Joel Terry]

I once read where Prince, when holding auditions for guitarists, always plays a run through of "25 Or 6 To 4" to see if the hopefuls can nail Terry Kath's solo.

Joel

 

[SteveY]

I once read where Prince, when holding auditions for guitarists, always plays a run through of "25 Or 6 To 4" to see if the hopefuls can nail Terry Kath's solo.

Joel

And here I always thought Prince wanted to be Jimi Hendrix real bad.
Shame on me.
Kath's entire solo on "25 or 6 to 4" was inspired.
One of my all time favorites.

 

[RCinMempho]

The guy who taught me my first guitar lessons nailed the 25 or 6 to 4 solo with the high school stage band. I was impressed at the time, but I've never seen anyone cover it any better since then.

 

[Dan R]

Heather Anne, I always enjoy reading your posts. We are on the same musical wavelength. I think Terry had a terrific, unique style . He was a very talented writer and singer as well. I read that he was self taught, which inspires players like me. He was truly a gifted musician. Thanks for reminding us of his work.

Dan R

 

[Oskar]

Wow, that brings me back

I remember when that first CTA album came out. Double album, black cover with the CTA logo, and it was filled with stuff no one had heard before. The 60s were so wonderful in that respect. You never knew who was around the corner with something unique, inspiring, creative and wonderful.
I agree about Kath. Great guitar player and yes I do agree that CTA lost its edge ("went downhill") once he was gone. Too bad, it could have gone on to take some interesting musical paths, or Kath would have left and started some new all over again.
Ahh, the good they do die young.

 

[Tim Armstrong]

I had kinda forgotten how great Chicago was before Terry Kath died, until I was visiting a friend and he put on some of that early stuff. Terry Kath was a hell of a guitarist, and an equally great singer and songwriter. Even before his death I thought he was the soul of that band, and their work since just confirmed that!

Cheers, Tim

 

[cvansickle]

Kath is what made Chicago a ROCK band! Without him, Chicago is just a horn section.

 

[Mik]

I saw a recent edition of Chicago on an HDTV broadcast, 5.1 and all that, an excellent young guitarist handled the Kath parts expertly on Teles and Strats including a spirited romp through 25 or 6 to 4, I think the show may have been Soundstage, another show (HDTV too) circulating is Chicago with Earth Wind and Fire, not as good as the "soundstage" one but good.

I gave up on Chicago after Chicago II, OK? Around 1972!! That's where I'm coming from.

Chicago just SMOKED, built a great performance through that "soundstage" show, , I was amazed.

I want to see Chicago live (just missed them in my area, an anyway I didn't dig the venue nor the bill), and this is NOT the kind of pop music I dig, not at all.

Keeping an open mind and ear paid off, I really enjoyed that reunion with Chicago after many decades.

Mik

 

[Eric Karonen]

I'm A Man.

No tele, but lots of cowbell!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Tl5R0U2w0&search=chicago%20transit%20authority[/url]

 

[Tim Armstrong]

Yowsa, that was a great Beat Club video, Eric! Thanks!

Cheers, Tim

 

[AZMike]

I agree he was a great guitarist, and the first album when they where still called Chicago Transit Authority was huge when I was a senior in college in '69-'70. There was some good stuff on the second album, too, but I lost interest after that. The obvious comparison in those days was with Blood, Sweat, and Tears, but I thought they fell off big-time when Kooper left after the first album. In retrospect, Chicago obviously had the better guitarist in Kath over Steve Katz, and I thought Seraphine was a better drummer than Bobby Colomby. I think BS&T had the better horn players, however, and better material (pre-"Spinning Wheel," of course).

There's a radio station out of Flagstaff that we can pick up most of the time here, and they play a lot of early CTA/Chicago. I have been enjoying hearing it again, and, yes, I wait eagerly for the Kath solos.

Great thread!


Mike

 

[trag-o-caster]

Agreed! Terry was one of rocks greatest kept secrets. I still remember when they first came out, and my big brother bringing the album home. I was rather taken aback by all of the horns - and then the blazing guitar work. You NEVER heard that combination in rock before. I personally thought that they were slipping by the time of "Saturday In The Park", when the horns began to be featured more prominantly than Terry's guitar. I used to have an interview in some old magazine with several members of the band, including Terry, and his bandmates were just gushing about how he was the bands greatest soloist, and so forth. They really respected his playing.

You may, or may not know that Jimi Hendrix heard them playing in a club while on his 69 tour, and insisted that they join him on tour as an opener. That gave them their big break.

I still remember reading about his death in the paper. Apparently it was not unusual for Terry to grab a gun and say "Hey watch this" while squeezing the trigger several times. The other guys said it was always unloaded and they didn't worry about it. It was something that he did as a gag with some freguency. So, was the last time intentional? Was it ever officially ruled a suicide? I don't know. I never heard anything further after that. What a great great loss to the guitar world though.

 

[collinsman]

Heather

I was inspired to start this thread by remarks made about Terry in another thread. Terry was Chicago's guitarist from their "beginnings" in 1967 as Chicago Transit Authority up until he shot himself to death in 1978. Terry was an amazing guitarist, and although he played Strats and SGs, he spent a lot of time in the '70s playing a Tele that he decorated with stickers. Terry was equally versed in Rock and Jazz, and was capable of virtuosity, as well as playing for the song. Hendrix was a fan of Terry's playing! Terry was also a great singer and writer ("Make Me Smile" comes to mind) and his wah-wah solo on "25 or 6 to 4" has to rank as one of the best solos by anyone, period. Unfortuntaly, Terry's death seemed to correspond with the quality of Chicago's music dipping. They were never really quite the same without him. When I think of Terry, I think of a player with great feeling, chops and tone. His playing on those early Chicago albums is essential, as far as I am concerned. His playing on tracks like Chicago's remake of "I'm A Man" still gives me goosebumps. Anyway, I thought Terry was great, and I am obviously a fan. Chicago's first 8 albums and Chicago lX (the early greatest hits) were faves of mine growing up and remain faves to this day. Chicago, in it's initial incarnation, offered a blend of Rock, Pop, Jazz and Swing that was very unique and adventurous. I think Terry Kath had a big role in that. Anyway, thanks for the great music Terry, R.I.P..
8) Heather

I agree that solo by Mr Kath was fantastic, one of the best, I love it when he goes into the wah wah pedal. He really played the snot out of that Tele.

 

[Heather Anne Peel]

Terry was indeed one of the greats. A huge loss for Rock music. Had he lived, I think Chicago would have gone on to make more classics, and not morphed into the pop sensations they became during the David Foster/Peter Cetera songwriting era in the '80s. Nothing against Foster or Cetera (a great bassist and songwriter in his own right), but while the innocuous pop music they made in the '80s was a guilty pleasure, it was not the Chicago I grew up with. It was a bad sign when Lee Loughnane, Walter Parazaider and James Pankow were relegated to mostly backing vocals/keyboards instead of their horns! Thankfully, in recent years, they have gone back to something more akin to their original sound, at least live. Had Terry lived, I think he would have steered Chicago in a more guitar-driven direction, which would have been more of an "inspiration" for fans of the early Chicago albums.
Heather

 

[Edenbridge]

Oh man, Chicago was a big part of my life growing up. I was a bassist in several bands that did nearly everything from the first 8 albums; we had horns, the whole works.

As far as I was concerned, it wasn't Chicago without Terry in the lineup. The guy was amazing, had so much soul in his playing and in his voice. I was fortunate to see them on tour with the Beach Boys, summer of '75 (or was it '76?).

He's got some great stuff on Chicago 8 that doesn't get much mention. There's this very un-Chicago-like tune he wrote ("Oh Thank You, Great Spirit")that may be the heaviest thing they've cut since maybe the first album. Starts out with this trippy, psychedelic guitar and then morphs into a flat-out guitar meltdown that stops on a dime! No horns either! There's also a beautiful acoustic ballad, "Til We Meet Again."

Hey, in case you didn't know, Chicago Live at Carnegie Hall has been re-issued with an additional bonus disc of unreleased live tracks! This was originally a 4-album set back in the day, it's now a 4-CD set that is an absolute must if you want to see just how they were able to pull this stuff off live in concert!!