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Chicago documentary

buldog5151bass

buldog5151bass

Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
Oct 22, 2003
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Connecticut
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#1
About as good as any I've seen. They covered the half century of the band, warts and gems. Lots of great musical cuts. It looks like they interviewed (or tried to interview) everyone associated with the band - performance and management. The five people with the most screen time were the 4 original band members still there, and Danny Seraphine. Peter Cetera was one of the people who declined.

CNN was an odd spot for the show, but I think it was extremely well done and enjoyable.
 
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#2
I dug it, but I wish there was a little more outside perspective and Bill Champlin's and Cetera's side of things. I was really happy they had Seraphine participate though. But I'm nit-picking, cool stuff!
 
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#3
jerry said:
I dug it, but I wish there was a little more outside perspective and Bill Champlin's and Cetera's side of things. I was really happy they had Seraphine participate though. But I'm nit-picking, cool stuff!
Click to expand...

They asked them, but they declined to participat. I thought it was interesting that they allowed Seaphine as much camera time as they did. I also think it was interesting how much they were and are affected by the death of Terry Kath, who may be my favorite guitarist.
 
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#5
buldog5151bass said:
They asked them, but they declined to participat. I thought it was interesting that they allowed Seaphine as much camera time as they did. I also think it was interesting how much they were and are affected by the death of Terry Kath, who may be my favorite guitarist.
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I'm old so I remember the dividing line between the Kath era and after his death, he was a force for sure and the documentary really did cover that.
 
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#8
jerry said:
I was really happy they had Seraphine participate though. But I'm nit-picking, cool stuff!
Click to expand...

Danny was Chicago's founder and the glue that held it together as they all went through their drug heydays. It was ironic that in the end he was the guy who was ousted when new management came in to manage the band. His current band California Transit Authority CTA plays many (if not all) of Chicago's hits.

I recommend picking up a copy of Danny's book Street Player, it's a good read and incite into the band.

TD
 
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#10
Thornton Davis said:
Danny was Chicago's founder and the glue that held it together as they all went through their drug heydays. It was ironic that in the end he was the guy who was ousted when new management came in to manage the band. His current band California Transit Authority CTA plays many (if not all) of Chicago's hits.

I recommend picking up a copy of Danny's book Street Player, it's a good read and incite into the band.

TD
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I have that book and some of Danny's California Transit Authority CDs , I've always been a fan of his work.
 
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#11
I really enjoyed the documentary. Chicago was one of my favorite and influential bands when I was learning how to play. I even had a 3 piece guitar, bass, and drums band when I was a teenager that played all the Chicago tunes without horns just to learn and play them. I learned quite a few things about Chicago from the show that I did not know. I saw them live in 1971 and I still have the ticket stub. Interestingly, they will be playing at the same arena this March. I hope I can go.
 
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#13
I saw them one night in Toronto at The Electric Circus on Queen Street East in June of 1969. They had just recorded their debut CTA LP and were out as the opening act promoting it. That night they were the opening act for Ten Years After, however Alvin Lee had collapsed on stage in LA during a show a couple of nights before so they cancelled their Toronto show. The Electric Circus said come tonight and see this new band "Chicago Transit Authority" and we will give you a free ticket to come to next weeks show. That show was The Jeff Beck Group - Truth LP and the following week was Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Needless to say, not many turned up to see Chicago that night but a couple of buddies and myself went and had a great time. The band were all of 10 - 15 feet away from us and during their break they all came and mingled with the crowd. It was such a great show!

Sorry I missed the documentary.

TD
 
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#14
Bought this on Amazon...and just watched it yesterday.

David Foster is a piece of work, huh?
Unfortunately, many only know Chicago as a "ballad-band".
Technology (the abuse of) watered down their '80s material.
Those Mattel Toy drum sounds? Lame then...even more so now.

From the doc, I found Chris Pinnick to be a cool player. The right guy to replace a Terry Kath, IMO.
Of course, he was given the boot. I am guessing he wasn't MTV-friendly.
Jason Scheff was a nice fit, too.
 
#17
repoman said:
Back them I used to give a damn about a trumpet playin' band...and I still do!
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How 'bout those squat cobblers on the documentary ('80s time frame) that didn't want the Chicago horns anymore?!?

I still have my Carnegie Hall box. I busted it out this morning...a nice booklet (& the wall poster from Hell) is included-
I had forgotten that Lee Loughnane also played guitar.
 
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#18
JimK said:
How 'bout those squat cobblers on the documentary ('80s time frame) that didn't want the Chicago horns anymore?!?

I still have my Carnegie Hall box. I busted it out this morning...a nice booklet (& the wall poster from Hell) is included-
I had forgotten that Lee Loughnane also played guitar.
Click to expand...
The poster took up a whole wall, ceiling to floor lol
 
#20
A couple comments regarding the docu-
Seeing Chicago doing the '80s...painful to watch & hear.

The comments about Seraphine's drumming-
As in "1" was hard to find/hear and that's the drummer's job, he can't play to a click track, etc.
Wow, just wow.
 

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