Why is Terry Kath Underrated?

[Boreas]

Chicago! They sold out and became an AM hit machine, if that! They had a great run with Kath but quickly lost it.

They would have been one of THE great jam bands had they kept up the 25 to 6 or 4 energy!

It is difficult to "jam" in a band with horns at the center. Horns can easily step on each other and other instruments. The parts need to be worked out to avoid dissonance and the charts more or less followed. What jamming is done it is usually done in solos, that are also often worked out carefully.

But the rhythm section was a monster. They could hang with anyone.

 

[Boreas]

Chicago's first two records are amazing!
After that they slowly became a pop band. Most rockers stopped listening to them after that.
I know I did and all my friends did also.

I don't hear much "pop" on III. I would say they started changing around V.

 

[Tarkus60]

I don't hear much "pop" on III. I would say they started changing around V.

I will have to give it listen. I have forgotten all about that one.

 

[Boreas]

I will have to give it listen. I have forgotten all about that one.

Hour in the Shower has great vocals by Kath. Great guitar on I Don't Want Your Money. A strong album, with plenty of stuff where they stretch their legs.




CTA and III are my favorites.

 

[Boreas]

Speaking of the 2nd album.. Here's rhythm/solo guitar isolated..

"Make Me Smile" (Ballet For a Girl In Buchanan)

Awesome! Perhaps his rhythm work is underrated as well.

How does one find these isolation tracks?

 

[Texicaster]

It is difficult to "jam" in a band with horns at the center. Horns can easily step on each other and other instruments. The parts need to be worked out to avoid dissonance and the charts more or less followed. What jamming is done it is usually done in solos, that are also often worked out carefully.

But the rhythm section was a monster. They could hang with anyone.

You'd think!

I recall watching Lockn a few years back and there were quite a few jam bands with horn sections that sounded a step below Chicago. Trey Anastasio, Tedeschi Trucks just two bands that had such.

Hecdk Tower of Power playing with Grateful Dead or Little Feat were where they could have gone.

 

[Archtop Bill]

Perhaps if MTV and YT were around in the late 60s, Kath would have been appreciated more. When you are only exposed to AM (and early FM) radio pablum from back then, you only hear what the media wants you to hear. Virtually all "guitar gods" went out on their own and were promoted as such. An artist hidden in a large band will often be simply overlooked.

Chicago had a couple prime time TV specials to promote Chicago VI and Chicago VII. They also appeared on the tribute prime time special, Duke Ellington We Love You Madly. TK, Cetera and Loughnane also appeared in Electra Glide in Blue. I think the prime time and movie exposure positioned the band as more fluff than a progressive rock band. Not necessarily Monkees level fluff, but leaning there.

 

[Archtop Bill]

Another great solo by Kath.

 

[Zarkon]

One of my favorite guitarists, and an amazing vocalist. So much power!

 

[Holy smokes]

Were I grew up lots of horn bands. Tower of power with their free concerts at balboa park - good memories. I was in a horn band all them brass guys had college degrees in music. Taught me a lot about music

 

[srblue5]

I'm just discovering Terry Kath's work with Chicago. I don't know if I'm qualified or knowledgeable enough to say he's underrated but he's certainly not a name I've heard of outside of this forum or certain Facebook groups.

Strangely enough, the first time I heard his name was in a scene in Paul Simon's One Trick Pony movie (circa 1980) where Simon's character and his bandmates are riding in the tour van playing a game of listing as many "rock n roll deaths" as they can. The scene used to be on YouTube but I can't find it at the moment. I can't remember if they actually said his full name or just "Terry from Chicago" or "the guitarist from Chicago".

I avoided listening to Chicago for years because I heard they were like a pop-rock big band and assumed they were more orchestral in nature, which wasn't something I was interested in. My mistake.

I remember auditioning for my high school's jazz band and sitting outside of the band room, I struck up a conversation with the other guitarist candidate. We asked each other what kind of music we were respectively digging. I said I liked Chicago blues, and the other guy was like, "Cool, Chicago is my favourite band too!" I realized we were both speaking English but not really speaking the same language.

 

[charlie chitlin]

If Kath released nothing other than "25 or 6 to 4," his standing among the guitar legends would have been cemented. But he was so much more. Another facet of his playing is his ability to play what is needed, flexing only when needed. I love his rhythm playing. "Dialogue" is one of my all time favorites, which by the way, also showcases Cetera's bass playing in fine form. And I am always moved by his singing in "Memories of Love."

Too bad the song's about staying up all night snorting coke.

 

[Manual Slim]

I wonder how he'd have played if it were about a game of cribbage.

 

[Boreas]

Too bad the song's about staying up all night snorting coke.

I don't pay much attention to the lyrics. But the band denies it is about drugs. I don't know - I wasn't there. 1969 seems pretty early for snow abuse.

 

[LoyalOpposition]

Too bad the song's about staying up all night snorting coke.

No, Robert has explained many times it's a song about writing the song.. "Fancy Colours" is the drug song.

 

[tonepoet333]

Many love to post his solo on "25 or 6 to 4" and it was great,

When I first ran across that live performance of "25 or 6 to 4" I was blown away!!! He wasn't just good, he was possessed!!!

tonepoet
www.jackshiner.com

 

[wulfenganck]

He's not underrated, he's just not so well known and popular.
This is probably due to his early death and even more to the image of Chicago being known for their (truely incredible) horn-section.
I'm born '67, so when I learned of Chicago, they were already that kind of Peter Cetera soft lounge pop vehicle.
Just take Duane Allman as an example of an untimely early death: He's well-known, because the whole band-concept was kind of centered around the dual leadguitars of him and Dickey Betts.
Everybody who ever listened to Terry Kath will say, that he was amongst the great players. But he wasn't the tonal center of Chicago.

 

[tonepoet333]

I believe Chicago itself turned many rockers off because of the horns - and rockers were into guitars at that time, not horns. Keep in mind, Herb Alpert and TJB was popular on the radio back then as well. BS&T was even more ostracized.

I think this is true about everyone back then wanting to rock hard without horns. But I always loved the sax played by Jack Lancaster in the the English band Blodwyn Pig. Here from their 1969 album "Ahead Rings Out" is "The Modern Alchemist" with Mick Abrams on guitar, Andy Pyle on bass and Ron Berg on drums.



tonepoet
www.jackshiner.com

 

[Chester P Squier]

I don’t think he’s underrated, I just think he’s under-known.

That's exactly what it is. Under-known!

He's overlooked because Chicago's biggest sales came from the later version of the band....which are cheesy, blandly overproduced, by the numbers 80s tunes to be charitable.

I think the term "underrated" is far too overrated. Most all of these "underrated" disussions are really about how a thing or a person should be more widely known.

Right, again.

Chicago's first two records are amazing!

I agree 100%. They were great. A lot went into those 2-record sets. No filler, except for (ducking for cover) "Free-form Guitar."

 

[charlie chitlin]

No, Robert has explained many times it's a song about writing the song.. "Fancy Colours" is the drug song.

nope.
sorry.
just saw it admitted to in a documentary about Chicago.
I always thought it was about LSD.