Chicago III (Remastered)

My older sister turned me on to Chicago's first LP as a pre-teen, right around the time I started playing in the school band. By the time Chicago III came out, I was "all in"! Even used to hear "The Approaching Storm" on a local jazz station as they used snippets of it to segue into their news segments and call letter announcements. What I didn't realize until later was how much Jimmy Pankow influenced the way I write horn arrangements AND my approach to playing section & solo trombone! With the band's diversity of styles, and the flawless execution of those styles, THIS is the album I drew the most from! It is admittedly a huge part of my musical DNA

Please explain how "Hour in the Shower" is divided into 5 songs and not worth downloading since it would be all chopped up on your IPod? Friggin ridiculous. Pay $6 for one song that you can't listen to in order.....

Excellent, from the first classic period of Chicago. One question. One of my favorite beat changes in all of rock and roll is the beat of the drum solo (Motorboat To Mars) changing into the beat of Free, the next track. But because of digitalization etc, that beat is messed up. I guess you would have to go back to the original vinyl to get it right. Is there another different digital version to make this right?

Lowdown, what a great great tune!!!! Thanks for the great music all these years, way to many great songs to list here! Crazy happy?

First heard Chicago Christmas 1970 when my older brother brought their second an third album home. Been a big fan ever since. The horns drummer an vocals take me back to my early teens. Seen them here in Stockton Ca. Live outdoors the best!!

Kat…Loved you back then….WKBW contest winner for your LP.

I have recently had the problem of having songs stop in the middle and discovered that this problem only occurred with purchased songs, so re-downloading them was the fix. With this album, however, other issues were apparent after the download. This album has 3 groups of songs which are meant to be played one after the other with no delay between. They do play correctly in iTunes, but do not do so in my iPod. Nothing I was able to do by way of modification in the song info window corrected the playing of song in the wrong order. An Apple tech-support person agreed when I suggested that this may be imbedded in each song, which the iPod extracts to determine playing parameters. In addition some of the songs are named incorrectly. See the list below for the correct grouping of the songs and compare it with what iTunes lists. Note, that the original songs I had down loaded before having the stop in the middle problem played correctly, so this issue is with the new song files available. I do hope Apple iTunes store personnel fix this problem soon. I love my iPod and the music I have on it. Chicago III Side One No. Title 1. "Sing a Mean Tune Kid" 2. "Loneliness Is Just a Word" 3. "What Else Can I Say" 4. "I Don't Want Your Money" Side Two No. Title 5. "Travel Suite" 1. "Flight 602" 2. "Motorboat to Mars" 3. "Free" 4. "Free Country" 5. "At the Sunrise" 6. "Happy 'Cause I'm Going Home" Side Three No. Title 6. "Mother" 7. "Lowdown" 8. "An Hour in the Shower" 1. "A Hard Risin' Morning Without Breakfast" 2. "Off to Work" 3. "Fallin' Out" 4. "Dreamin' Home" 5. "Morning Blues Again" Side Four No. Title 9. "Elegy" 1. "When All the Laughter Dies in Sorrow" 2. "Canon" 3. "Once Upon a Time..." 4. "Progress?" 5. "The Approaching Storm" 6. "Man vs. Man: The End"

After getting re-aquainted with this album recently, my view of this group has changed. I can see why Chicago is not in the R&R Hall of Fame and shouldn't be. They stopped making music after V and created drivel. Even on V, the hit 'Saturday In The Park' is the weakest song. If you listen to 'Now That You've Gone' and 'Goodbye.' you'll hear their prog rock/jazz rock jams that makes their first five albums classics. I can't listen to their hits anymore because it's jazzy pop music. Listening to II, III and V has led me to check out more of Frank Zappa. III is a transition to V as you listen to 'A Hit by Varese.' Also in these albums, you hear Walter playing the tenor and soprano sax with a progressive jazz style on his solos. YES!!! SOLOS. During the hit years, how many of you have heard his solos?? That's right!! They're non-existent. If they had maintained their experimental progressive path, there's no doubt they would be in the Hall of Fame, as they would have been blazing new ground. How many POP groups do you know that are in the Hall? They don't recognize top grossing groups, they only recognize those that have made an influential impact to the music. In other words, they only recognize musicians. In my book, Chicago ceased to be a band after V. Who knows. If they stayed the extended jam course, they could have double-billed with The Allman Brothers Band. What a dream match.

I originally had this on cassette tape many years ago. At first, I didn't care too much for it. When Columbia Records eventually came out with a CD version of this in the early 90's, I discovered that some genius at Columbia Records had altered the running order of the songs on my original cassette from the true running order of the album. When I heard the CD, I began to appreciate this release more upon hearing the tracks in the proper order. It gave the album a much better flow and feel. I absolutely love "The Approaching Storm"/"Man vs. Man: The End". It is one of my favorite tracks in the Chicago catalogue. It encompasses everything that was great about Chicago at that point in their history. Though not as commercially successful as the rest of their Seventies releases, it is amazingly great from an artistic standpoint and very ambitous with its musical suites and long instrumental interludes, as well as risky with its political undertones and the sound of a toilet flushing to end one song. This was about as radical as Chicago ever got and it did cost them in terms of hits and radio airplay for this album. For most old school Chicago fans, this is the apex of the band's artistic creativity. Their next stuido releases would be more mainstream with radio-friendly songs to cherry pick off the albums.

Didn't care for it when I was younger but grew to love it as I have aged and hopefully matured my listening ability...what a band