Song of the Day 7/2: Chicago Transit Authority, “Poem 58”

For the past 40 years, people have thought of Chicago as an easy-listening band that played lots of mushy ballads, because that’s how they wasted the bulk of their existence — raking in the bucks by pumping out gruel. The public mostly has forgotten that the band, known as the Big Thing when it formed and the Chicago Transit Authority after moving to Los Angeles in 1968, began as a “rock band with horns,” blending the tight, jazz-influenced arrangements of trombonist James Pankow with the feedback-soaked guitar and soulful vocals of Terry Kath.

The band played clubs for two years before issuing their first album, which is where they developed the sound of that double LP — jazz experimentation mixed with the long, bluesy jams they featured in concert. It iddn’t sell at first — it came out shortly after the debut of the first incarnation of Blood, Sweat and Tears, so Chicago seemed like imitators. But it was rediscovered when a tune from the band’s second LP, “25 or 6 to 4,” became a Top 10 hit. Lots more hits followed, and album sales were even better — at one point in 1974 Chicago’s first seven albums, its entire output to that point, were all on the Billboard 200 album chart at the same time.

Unfortunately, by 1974 they had left most traces of their original sound behind. High tenor and bassist Peter Cetera started writing the soft rock ballads that came to define their sound as both Kath and the horns moved to the background. Kath was fooling around with his guns when he died of a self-inflicted gunshot in 1978 (a scene eerily reminiscent of how Johnny Ace met his demise), but his legacy lives on, buoyed by the respect paid him by Jimi Hendrix.

This tune has since become a favorite of Kath’s fans. It’s really two different jams strung together — the first a Kath guitar workout, the second a sinuous funk groove that sounds like Jimi playing with Stan Kenton. Nobody thinks of Chicago as a jam band anymore, but they were right up there with the Allman Bros. back in the day.