Track Listing

1. Mississippi Delta City Blues
2. Baby, What A Big Surprise
3. Till The End Of Time
4. Policeman
5. Take Me Back To Chicago
6. Vote For Me
7. Takin' It On Uptown
8. This Time
9. The Inner Stuggles Of A Man
10. Prelude (Little One)
11. Little One
12. Wish I Could Fly (Rehersal)
13. Paris (Rehearsal)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69741 in Music
• Brand: Chicago
• Released on: 2003-02-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Album Description
Expanded & remastered version of Chicago's 1977 album features 2 previously unreleased bonus tracks, 'Wish I Could Fly' (rehearsal)& 'Paris' (rehearsal). Rhino. 2003.

Customer Reviews

Terry Kath's last hurrah
CHICAGO XI was issued in September 1977 and in hindsight has emerged as an era-closer. They dispensed with James William Guercio's production services (feeling he was dominating too much) and in January 1978, Terry Kath accidentally shot himself and died. Remarkably, his presence on CHICAGO XI is at its most intense since the third album in 1971, with him singing 4 out of the 11 songs. Peter Cetera wrote the only big hit on the album "Baby What A Big Surprise" and the album topped out at # 6 at home, a big hit, but clearly Chicago were beginning to lose ground on the charts by this time. Still there are many highlights here. "Mississippi Delta City Blues", an old Terry Kath number from the early days, gives the album a great beginning, full of his great playing and vocals as well as those trademark horns. Robert Lamm's sympathetic "Policeman" is a very affecting ballad, while "Take Me Back To Chicago" (which was NOT autobiographical, though it had personal relevance) proved that the band also had a talented songwriter in drummer Danny Seraphine. Lee Loughnane's "This Time" is also a mid-tempo pleaser, while the album ends on a poignant and high-spirited note with Danny's "Prelude (Little One)" and "Little One" itself, sung memorably by Terry Kath. You really feel the loss of Terry on these last two cuts - in fact, on the whole album. The band were devastated by his tragic passing, yet persevered and decided to carry on. Unfortunately, the widely-changed musical climate would be very difficult for Chicago to excel like they had the past 8 years. CHICAGO XI stands as the closing chapter on the band's first (and greatest) era.

Terry's Final Farewell
From the opening bass chops of Peter Cetera and the haunting laugh of Terry Kath- this album is gripping. The final album of the original line-up of Chicago shows a return to some of the hard rock stylings of their 1969 debut album on songs such as Mississippi Delta City Blues and Takin' It On Uptown.

Mississippi Delta City Blues- Viewed by some fans as Terry's swan song. This song can be interpreted on multiple levels. Terry's laugh at the beginning of the song juxtaposed with the lyrics about masking his unhappiness is a very nice creative effect. Peter Cetera shines on the bass on this song. The guitar riff is catchy, the horns accent Terry and Peter's performance. Although this song had been around since Chicago's days playing the club circuit in the late sixties, the lyrics seem particularly pertinent to Terry's feelings at the time of its recording. His unhappiness is expressed throughout the song despite his somewhat jovial tone- it's almost eerie that this was recorded so close to Terry's death.

Baby What A Big Surprise- This is the rough in the diamonds, reinforcing the label of "ballad band" for Chicago. It might as well have been called If You Leave Me Now Part II- This Time We'll REALLY Give You Cavities.

Till the End of Time- James Pankow's second endeavour as lead vocalist. While somewhat slow, this song still contains a lot of the elements of earlier Chicago. The syrup doesn't run quite as thick as on Baby What a Big Surprise. The horns are still quite prominent, the vocals are well done by Pankow leaving some fans wondering why he only sang lead on two Chicago songs during his entire (and continued) tenure with the band. The harmony vocals at the end of the song are some of the best harmonies Chicago has ever done.

Policeman- Musically speaking it's not one of Robert Lamm's stronger songs. The lyrics however are written quite well in a story-telling style which is somewhat reminiscent of the songs of Gordon Lightfoot and Harry Chapin. The horns are quite prominent, Terry's guitar playing accents and compliments the horns nicely. The harmony vocals compliment both Lamm's vocals and the horns. Unfortunately after this song Lamm's songwriting skills seemed to fall into a slump.

Take Me Back to Chicago- A touching song written by Danny Seraphine and "Hawk" Wolinski for Freddy Page, the late drummer of the Illinois Speed Press. However with Terry's untimely passing being so close to the release of this album this song is seemingly just as much written for Terry as it's written for Page. The preach by Chaka Kahn at the end of the song is a nice touch. This is easily one of the best Danny Seraphine penned songs and it shows his emergence as a songwriter.

Vote For Me- Typical Robert Lamm political commentary. This song is quite tongue-in-cheek, however, lyrically speaking it seems a bit weaker than Policeman. On the musical end of things this song has a stronger feel to it than some of Robert's other endeavours from the late seventies.

Takin' It On Uptown- In a word WOW! Terry Kath at his absolute best! Both vocally and on guitar- Terry Kath shines on this album. Some of Terry's best playing since his marathon solos on Live at Carnegie Hall. The lyrics are written by Fred Kagan, however they seem to carry a similar theme to the lyrics of Mississippi Delta City Blues. This song has a more upbeat theme to it although Terry sings it in an almost angry, fed-up tone. Moreso than any other song of Terry's- this seems to be a duet between Terry the singer and Terry the guitarist.

This Time- For a slower song, Terry really jams on this song as well. Lee Loughnane's lead vocals are very reminiscent of Terry's soulful style in fact at first listen one would almost assume that it is indeed Terry, not Lee, on lead vocals. One of Lee's finer attempts at being a songwriter and a singer.

The Inner Struggles of A Man- The orchestration on this piece provides a beautiful segue from the more upbeat This Time to the more somber Little One. It's a very beautiful piece and it sounds like it could be used for a film.

Prelude (Little One)- Picking up where The Inner Struggles of A Man crescendoes this is an excellent lead-in to Little One.

Little One- Written by Danny Seraphine for his daughters, Terry puts his stamp on this piece as well. This song can easily be interpretted as being just as much for Michelle Kath as it is for Danny's daughters. The string orchestration in the background really compliments the horns and Terry's voice.

Terry Kath's Final Contribution to Chicago
This album was significantly different from Chicago's early albums. Gone was the progressive flavored rock and jazz fusion. Gone are the longer, highly experimental tracks. In its place is tautly written and performed music indicative of the skill of a group into their eleventh album, a group that would soon be losing one of its most creative members, Terry Kath.

The CD kicks off with "Mississippi Delta City Blues," a mixture of Terry Kath's bluesy voice style with Chicago's strong horns and a rock beat to create a powerful song. The funky flavor of this song is indicative of the mid-70s era in which it was written and performed, and yet the jazz and blues provide this song with a timeless quality that make it as enjoyable to listen to today as 1977. This song is so fast-paced and instrument-laden that it flirts with the hard rock category.

The transition from the powerful "Mississippi Delta City Blues" to "Baby, What a Big Surprise" is very dramatic. The former is instrument and beat powered. This song is a love ballad focused on Peter Cetera's vocals and harmonies. This beautiful pop song hit #4 and was a hint of Chicago's transition to a pop band in the 80s.

The transition from "Baby, What a Big Surprise" to "Till the End of Time" is less dramatic than the transition into the previous song as this song is also relatively slow and mellow, but Chicago's signature horns and blues flavor make this song a ballad in Chicago's style of that time rather than the much mellower Peter Cetera pop song. The thick vocal style and layered sound are but some of the characteristics of the unique Chicago sound of this era.

"Policeman" is lyrically significantly different from the two previous love songs. The song is jazz and blues influenced, with a touch of keyboard, typical for the 70s. The song is poignant in that it combines the worst scenarios in life for policemen in general. Seeing the worst in life, hoping to make a difference, and the stress being a policeman causes in your personal life. With so many songs that are down on the police, this blues song looks at their life from their side, a look that puts in perspective that police are people with a tough job.

The next song, "Take Me Back to Chicago," is a funky jazz celebration of Chicago, the city. The singer is apparently in Los Angeles, longing for Lake Michigan and Tastee Freeze and probably Lakeshore Drive. This song offers a mellow start with little keyboard flavors. The song breaks into stronger jazz sections that proclaim how enthusiastic the band is about Chicago. This song was released as a single with "Policeman," though it charted poorly. Unfortunate because it is a better song than many released in the late 70s.

The bouncy little ditty that follows, "Vote for Me," is pure fun. The song offers a rock style that has some similarity to Elton John's mid-70s music, and the lyrics are a parody of political promises made in every election year.

"Takin' It on Uptown" offers a Jimi Hendrix-style guitar driven rock song that bears little resemblance to any of the previous six songs. This powerful song is the fourth style offered in the first seven songs, and shows the breadth of ability of this phenomenal group. In spite of the heavy beat and the power instruments this song is enjoyable. While the next song, "This Time," offers horns, it too has a powerful guitar track that retains some of the flavor of the previous song. The latter song is a fun love song with all the hallmarks of classic Chicago music.

"The Inner Struggles of a Man" is a short instrumental that is somewhat reminiscent of the instrumentals on the first three Chicago albums. This track is shorter than most of those instrumentals, but the style is similar. The change in pace from the previous tracks is dramatic, with an orchestral sound including strings rather than jazz or rock instruments. This instrumental smoothly transitions to "Prelude (Little One)," a short (52 seconds) blues introduction to "Little One," which was the final track on the original release. The transition between "Prelude (Little One)" and "Little One" is not discernable. "Little One" features lead vocals by Terry Kath and his emotional vocals become in effect a poignant end to his recording career. Knowing that Terry Kath would soon be gone when this was recorded sends chills down my spine. "Little One" was released as a single with "Till the End of Time," achieving only modest success, rising to #44 on the hot 100 and #40 on the easy listening chart.

This version of "Chicago XI" features two bonus tracks, "Wish I Could Fly" and "Paris." "Wish I could Fly" is a rock instrumental that is a worthy addition to this CD. "Paris" is a bouncy rock tune with strong percussion. Both tracks are listed as being rehearsals. I think "Wish I Could Fly" is the better of the two bonus tracks. "Paris" is nice having and pushes the time for this CD to over 52 minutes, but is the weakest track on the entire CD.

Chicago started as a unique group. While this CD is less experimental than their earliest albums, the experimentation has given way to refinement. The result is a quality album that compares well to their most ambitious albums. Fans of Chicago's early, more progressive tracks will find this album lacks that type of music. This album stands as a testament to a group that marks the end of its first era with its release. This CD is a must have for fans of early Chicago music and for those who enjoy jazz-rock.