"Beginnings" features a great vocal by Robert, lots of 7th chords, a gradually emerging latin beat, and fantastic trombone and trumpet solos. "South California Purples", uses long fade-in, fade-out brass notes, laid down on top of the power blues bass. "Poem 58" is a guitar tour de force by Terry morphing into a rousing, sexy, blues love song. Check out the intro by Terry, joined by Peter's bass rising into the fray, my favorite moment on the album. "I'm a Man" features all three singers strutting their stuff in succession to a jumpy, twitchy layer of percussion, putting even the fine version sung by Steve Winwood and the Spencer Davis Group into the dustbin of history. "Questions 67 and 68" is perfect power-pop. These are just my favorites, but there isn't a bad cut on here.

In 1969 Blood Sweat and Tears had the hit singles and the grammys, but this was the horn band with the most guts and impact, and was the true musical and spiritual descendent of the original Al Kooper-led BST of 1967. Much, but not all of it still sounds youthful and fresh 34 years after its release. By 1972 Chicago had hit rock bottom (of musical significance, not the charts), but in this original recording, they earned the right to appropriate the name of the city that was their home.


CHICAGO WAS BUILT ON A TOUGH, ROCK-SOLID FOUNDATION!   April 18, 2006
t'amant (WA)
28 out of 30 found this review helpful

AND HERE IT IS - ONE OF THE GREATEST ALBUMS AN AMERICAN BAND HAS EVER CREATED (in my opinion). Listen (yes there is a song on here by that name) to Terry Kath's ferocious guitar work throughout. This dude would have gone into spontaneous combustion without that outlet I think! He can sing too, and with so much soul...what an asset to the band. And he had better be with Daniel Seraphine's whirlwind power drumming and Peter Cetera on bass, this combo moved musical mountains by force of will (all could sing well, but Cetera was the harmony master it seems, check out the synergistic energy these young dudes could pull together, WOW). I guess Robert Lamm was often in the lead vocalist spot along with keyboard duties, but they all shared the spotlight nicely, his voice and songwriting are classic early Chicago. What would Chicago be without the signature horn section dynamics (fade in/outs, precision staccato explosions of sound, harmonic counterpoint), they do it all with such power and style. This recording had an inordinate influence on the music world, and rock world especially. There is a very progressive influence here, American style. The whole big band type of horn section mixed with acid rock was ground-breaking, and many tried to do their thing with it later to less success generally. Worth mentioning are the intense contemplative lyrics on many topics, metaphysical and otherwise, that (from the story I remember) got the real transit authority to request a distancing name change. This band was pretty revolutionary in every way. Jimi Hendrix even allegedly stated that Kath was better than him (somewhat modestly, I'm sure Kath would humbly disagree). If you are looking for a new classic album to absorb, you can't go wrong with this one - IT ROCKS BIG TIME! All other readers familiar with this (who like harder rock albums) won't need any convincing, this is the foundation from which Chicago built an empire. And this remaster of the original double album is very nicely done with a nice long essay, good track notes, many pictures and original artwork (about 77 minutes). You've got to love it! I always go back to this masterpiece when I want inspiration on many levels, 5 stars barely does it justice. Peace (often the message of this political statement from the vietnam era)!


Chicago's First is Still Their Best!!   February 18, 2005
Louie Bourland (Garden Grove CA)
23 out of 24 found this review helpful

When most people think of Chicago nowadays, the first thing that usually comes to mind is those lovely Peter Cetera-sung ballads and catchy upbeat pop tunes. However, before the ballads and before the big hits, Chicago was a giant seven-headed monster brewing with new innovative musical ideas with a solid 'jam-band' sensibility.
Released in 1969, Chicago's self-titled debut album, "Chicago Transit Authority" (the band's original name) displays the band on-fire with a number of extended musical numbers. Tracks such as "Introduction", "Poem 58", "South California Purples", the cover of Spencer Davis's "I'm A Man" and the closing 15-minute instrumental "Liberation" all showcase solid group interplay with the band's three-piece horn section and Terry Kath's stinging lead guitar taking center stage most of the time.
Although the album initially didn't generate any hit singles at the time of its release, several years later, many of the songs did get released as singles and have since become Chicago classics. The swinging "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" (presented here in its full version complete with a two minute solo piano improvisation) and the band's now-signature tune "Beginnings" (also presented in full here, clocking in at 8-minutes) are tracks that long-time fans associate with Chicago and are still standards that the band performs live today. "Questions 67 and 68" was also a minor hit from the album and introduced Peter Cetera's high soaring vocals to the world.
"Chicago Transit Authority" is a solid group effort from start to finish and all seven band members get a chance to shine with plently of space here. However, if there is one musician from the band that truly stands out among the rest here, it would have to be guitarist/singer Terry Kath. On no other Chicago album does Kath let loose with some groundbreaking guitar work than on this one. His extended soloing in "Poem 58's" long intro as well as "Liberation" are up there with anything played from Clapton or Hendrix. "Free Form Guitar" is a seven-minute showcase performed by Kath in which he produces a plethora of sounds and feedback effects from his Stratocaster and amplifiers - a true buried treasure in the history of electric guitar playing. Terry's contributions to the music world were sadly overlooked by many and his untimely death in 1978 did nothing to errect him into 'legendary' status. However, Kath's work on this album is ample proof that he was indeed a guitar hero worthy of merit. One listen to this album is pure evidence of this.
Indeed, "Chicago Transit Authority" is still one of the band's very best efforts. After this, the band would begin to have greater success with hits such as "Make Me Smile" and "Colour My World" (from their second album) and eventually would find a niche in crafting out romatic ballads with Peter Cetera taking centerstage. However, this is where it all began.


Possibly one of the greatest albums of all time, all genres ! ! !   October 19, 2006
Eddie Landsberg (Tokyo, Japan)
22 out of 25 found this review helpful

o.k. we all know the cr*p that Chicago would come to be known for in the 80's...
Luckily, I'm just old enough to actually remember when tunes from the first few Chicago albums were still playing on pop radio (I was VERY young... but I remember - - 25 or 6 to 4 and Saturday In The Park in particular.)
This said, listening to this album is really exciting when you realize it was the roots of a revolution, something completely new, very experimental, different - - groundbreaking. In many ways a product of its era (very message oriented, experimental and political) at the same time the music came from so many different directions... and so much was happening. 10 years later what went wrong - - all theories aside (including Kath's tragic death) my guess is that it had every much to do with the changing of an era, than anything artistic... How sad! If you can associate with this album then, you were "with it", today you're probably VERY out of place with a world that has changed... No one is asking Questions 67 or 68 anymore (and the drugs that the group wrote about in a later album are no longer hip.) As for words like "Liberation", talk of revolution - - and philosophical ponderences about the superficialities of daily life... forget it. - - as for the other elements - - college appealing Jazz/Rock, a guitar hero who was even respected by Jimi Hendricks and two great lead vocalists... not to mention a tight but unique and highly experiental rhythm section - - not as "superficially" technical as Blood Sweat and Tears, but very deep and adept a creating a sound that definitely had its roots in psychadelic rock and Jazz, but was borrowing from everything from pop to Varese - - oh and all the hair... wow... its almost as if the ALBUM is as alive as ever when you listen to it, but the world has foresaken its truths.

Though listening to this album only drills in the tragedy of the big sell out (*at the expense of not becoming a starving oldies group) - - the truth is that in its early years Chicago was a machine that could created its own brand of chart friendly yet politically and musically heavy rock and pop music. - - The idea of a band being both "experimental" yet being a pop power house - - now that's something to be amazed about (of course, it was the trend with most of the groups of the era but these guys managed to hang in through the '70s and keep on doing long after Woodstack.) Will it happen again? Maybe now... and for this reason realize that this is not just a "good album" - - it is really a miracle, the soundtrack of a lifetime and the start of something great - - Just try to forget that we all know how the story ends...


Great album, lousy remaster   July 29, 2002
18 out of 22 found this review helpful

I agree with everyone else here that this album is extraordinary. My complaint is with Rhino's remastering job, which is simply atrocious for this album. "Introduction" begins almost a semitone flat, and is seriously distorted at times. "Beginnings" is distorted during the big climax. So is "Questions 67 & 68." Etc. The mastering engineer cranked the average levels WAY up to make the album louder, and the results are often unlistenable.

The original two-CD version is dated but okay. The one to get, alas, is the gold-CD MasterSound issue, now out of print. You can, however, get almost 2/3 of the album in the "Group Portrait" box, which is remastered very well by Mark Wilder.

Again, my single star rating applies to this remaster, NOT to the music, which earns five stars. Rhino should be ashamed of themselves.