28 years ago today...

[smittykins--70s pop RULES!]

the music world lost Terry Kath, the talented(and, IMHO, underappreciated)guitarist, composer, and singer of Chicago. I've always believed that a large part of the band's soul died with him, and he's never gotten the recognition he deserved. I can listed to his solo on "25 Or 6 To 4" forever, and songs like "Introduction," "In The Country," "Once Or Twice," and "Mississippi Delta City Blues" rank among my favorite Chicago songs of all time. To this day, I can't listen to "Little One" from Chicago XI without fighting back tears, because it sounds so eerily prophetic(even though I know Terry didn't write it), as if he knew he wasn't going to be around to see his daughter grow up.

On the old chicagotheband.com message board(discontinued several years ago), someone posted the question, "If you could change the band's history in one fundamental way, what would it be?" The majority of replies were to the effect of somehow making the gun in Terry's hand not go off that night, forcing him to clean up his act. It is my belief(and, again, MHO)that if Terry had lived and gotten his head straight, a lot of the 80's and 90's fluff tunes would not have seen the light of day, and Chicago would be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame where they belong.

RIP, Terry.

[SAT-I need more room!!]

Probably without question, the most UNDERRATED guitarist of all time. I'll go out on a limb and call him one of the most underrated vocalists of all time. His voice was PERFECT for the haunting songs he picked. Smitty, you pointed out songs with his great guitar work, how about his VOCALS on songs like Bylos, Make Me Smile, Free and the absolutely wonderful Wishing You Were Here.

But as far as his guitar talent, someone no less than Jimi Hendrix told one of the guys from Chicago that Terry was better than him. Better than Jimi Hendrix.

You are SO right about much of the soul leaving with Terry. They still had some good songs like No Tell Lover and even some of the 80's stuff before Peter left was decent, but it was never like the early years.

IF his shooting was a suicide as some people have speculated, it's a shame that part of his depression was a lack of acknowledgement of the talent that the man had.


RIP Terry.

[smittykins--70s pop RULES!]

sat said:

IF his shooting was a suicide as some people have speculated, it's a shame that part of his depression was a lack of acknowledgement of the talent that the man had.

I believe his death was accidental, mainly because other original band members(and his widow)have stated the same thing. On "Behind The Music," Camilia Kath said, "For him to take his life, it just wasn't him." Also, I've read from a couple of sources that said that the gun that killed Terry had a hair-trigger and was known for going off inadvertently.

[H2IZCOOL]

Although I do like many of the Cetera-led Chicago songs of the '80s, there is no doubt that the passing of Terry Kath ended the Chicago "sound." I don't know that this has kept the group out of the Hall, but it is certainly possible. (Would this be similar to Sammy Hagar keeping VH out of the Hall, I wonder?)

[SAT-I need more room!!]

h2izcool said:

(Would this be similar to Sammy Hagar keeping VH out of the Hall, I wonder?)

I don't know about that, there are many people, fans AND critics, that find the Sammy-era to be the better era. (I'm not one of them, just stating what I know about it.) They certainly were more commercially successful, unlike the post-Cetera era of Chicago.