Chicago or ELO?

 

I think Chicago deserves a lot more respect than they get, and in many ways they were progressive when no one else was, and in their first two albums you can check out long cuts ... and they are very good, and not just jams ... in other words, deserve the credit for being progressive, or at least for wanting to take their music further than simply the pop music market.

 

With all due respect, ELO is very good, but simply a pop band, and nothing else, and they never really produced anything that was more than just pop ... yes, it was adventurous and better defined and well constructed instrumentation, highly influenced by classical music ... but how would they compare to Chicago?

 

I would think they do not at all ... but I am not sure that anyone in this board has the first 5 albums by Chicago (I still do!) ... they are all worth it, and the long cuts are very good all around. Specially the first album (the dark covered one) ... which is sensational and then some ... and should be considered a prog classic ... period!

 

(Edited later)

 

Also interesting and was rather off-key and somewhat progressive (is there such a thing?) were The Sons of Champlin (the leader of which was to join Chicago way later on!), and then Ides of March ... which had a hit single, but a much better album with a killer version of Eleanor Rigby on it! These were about the same as Chicago, not "progressive and out there" like a KC for example, but they were breaking away the bonds in rock music and taking long cuts into nice areas, that were not just "jams" .... these were more jazz oriented in my ear, but still free, and unlike the San Francisco jams that were more off key and sometimes not as interesting, but at times far out and off the wall ... in a way the ones from these groups were more formulaic and much easier to handle and ... sometimes I like to say ... had less dope in them than other musics.

I like ELO more but they admit they were just extending what the Beatles did on "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Am the Walrus".

 

....but, come on, ELO is just so much more FUN.

 

 

 

Seriously though, ELO by a longshot.

 

I'm a fan, so V thru Hot Street at least have a bit of the spark of the first three, but those unititiated should go directly to the first three.....I'm partial to the third album - fantastic harmonies but a bit of fat at the end (that suite on the evolution of man that I spoke of earlier.....eeek!  But still a million miles away from those Peter Cetera 80s ballads).