Chicago or ELO?
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=59859
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Topic: Chicago or ELO?
Posted By: Evan
Subject: Chicago or ELO?
Date Posted: July 25 2009 at 14:29
It struck me the other day that these two have a similar approach to music, as both are pretty conventional rock bands spiced up by non-conventional instrumentation. That, and both went downhill after their first two albums  . So, who will it be? |
Replies:
Posted By: lazland
Date Posted: July 25 2009 at 14:33
But neither could really be described as prog  ------------- Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org Now also broadcasting on www.progzilla.com Every Saturday, 4.00 p.m. UK time! |
Posted By: LiquidEternity
Date Posted: July 25 2009 at 16:38
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They are both proggy, though probably not truly prog. It's okay. Plus, ELO are on this site and Chicago are pending, last I checked. I went with ELO. Both bands were great, but ELO had a lot more unorthodox ways to toy with their music (for example, the bizarre Fire on High).
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Posted By: tdfloyd
Date Posted: July 25 2009 at 17:48
| Got to go with Chicago. 3 excellent vocalists, horn section, many writers and styles. And if you wait for it, Terry Kath could rip it up when he was given the chance. |
Posted By: Alberto Muñoz
Date Posted: July 25 2009 at 19:36
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i can't vote i like both
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Posted By: manofmystery
Date Posted: July 25 2009 at 20:49
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Gonna be a Showdown
-------------  Time always wins. |
Posted By: Padraic
Date Posted: July 25 2009 at 21:48
| Chicago, easily. Can't stand ELO. |
Posted By: rushfan4
Date Posted: July 25 2009 at 21:48
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I like both, but Chicago is definitely my favorite between the two. ------------- 
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Posted By: Finnforest
Date Posted: July 25 2009 at 22:25
Me too, Pat. Chicago's best material gets to me emotionally, fulfills something. ELO has never gotten beyond empty calories for me. Ear candy, no protein. I know when I start describing music in culinary terms, I must be getting hungry. ------------- ...that moment you realize you like "Mob Rules" better than "Heaven and Hell" |
Padraic wrote:Posted By: Misomex777
Date Posted: July 25 2009 at 23:08
| I thought this was progressive rock? |
Posted By: Equality 7-2521
Date Posted: July 27 2009 at 09:04
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I have to go with ELO. Jeff Lynne was just a great songwriter and I quite like the more poppy shift the music took after the first 3 albums. Chicago had some nice songs, but that was it for me. ------------- "One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn't fall. " |
Posted By: Greg W
Date Posted: July 28 2009 at 13:19
| Chicago is awesome(the first few lps anyway,) ELO is just okay. |
Posted By: Epignosis
Date Posted: July 28 2009 at 13:22
I prefer strings to horns...and evil women to Saturdays in the park. 
------------- https://epignosis.bandcamp.com/album/a-month-of-sundays" rel="nofollow - https://epignosis.bandcamp.com/album/a-month-of-sundays |
Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: July 28 2009 at 13:25
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I hate Chicago...really do. I find ELO pretty bad as well though, but I guess I prefer them. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: Whichonespink93
Date Posted: July 29 2009 at 03:16
| I personally don't consider the two of them actual "prog", but meh. ^^ I'm gonna go with ELO. I love Chicago's sound and all, but I've been an ELO fan since I was about 11 and I just really enjoy their stuff- pretty unique, really. |
Posted By: Liimatta
Date Posted: July 29 2009 at 03:21
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I just love ELO. Out of the blue is just pure gold. I have never cared for Chicago. |
Posted By: markosherrera
Date Posted: July 29 2009 at 13:49
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Electric Light Orchestra
------------- Hi progmaniacs of all the world |
Posted By: HolyMoly
Date Posted: July 31 2009 at 15:19
Tough to call, I like em both a lot, for different reasons (and I even like both of them up until quite a few albums past their "prog prime"), but in the end I went for Chicago for the reasons above. ------------- My other avatar is a Porsche It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased. -Kehlog Albran |
Posted By: DRACCA
Date Posted: August 24 2009 at 07:34
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ELO's approach on the No Answer debut title is stylistically based(on a few tracks), on a Gentle Giant or KC sound. ELO II and On The Third Day have certain errie-ness to them. Chicago had some excellent material especially pieces like Introduction. Terry Kath was an under--rated guitarist. Forget 25 or 6 to 4 with the wah-wah guitar! Listen to the guitar solo on Approaching Storm from Chicago Three. Then put on some great fusion guitar solos from Billy Cobham records and compare. Many times Kath chose not to use distortion and for God's sake he sounded like a George Benson at Carnegie Hall. He was also very technical. More technical than many people would ever realize. I can't compare the 2 bands. There are things I enjoy about both of them, especially in the early days. However Chicago blew me away with "The Devil's Suite" which was on a later album Chicago Seven. ------------- INNER TEMPLE |
Posted By: St.Cleve Chronicle
Date Posted: August 24 2009 at 12:00
And I prefer "A ballet for a girl in Buchannon" to "Roll over Beethoven". ...which is also pretty cool. |
Posted By: crimhead
Date Posted: August 24 2009 at 13:14
Don't sugar coat it. Tell us how you really feel about it. |
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: August 24 2009 at 15:47
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ELO all the way.... Micky does love those cape wearing cello and violin players... and props to Roll Over Beethoven having one of the single greatest rock violin solos of all time... demonic!!! ------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: Kazuhiro
Date Posted: August 24 2009 at 18:48
| The album of Chicago of the fourth piece is my favorite. |
Posted By: Hyardacil
Date Posted: August 25 2009 at 03:54
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ELO, definitely. The early works from them are definitely proggy. I don't like the later pop ones either much. But Overture 10538... C'mon. Cellos acting as electic guitar's... some notes from the trumpet. Truly has a symphonic feel to it. And there have been other great tracks as well. Check out Battle for Marson Moor for example. What other rock band has a piece just for cellos? EDIT: ... oh yeah... right. Well I'll discount them as I don't like them... ------------- "I am sitting in your eyes..." |
Posted By: marktheshark
Date Posted: August 28 2009 at 18:39
| I don't know how you can possibly compare the two! They're miles apart IMO. One is more in line with big-band-jazz and pop, the other is more in line with symphonic classical sounds. Whatever! |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: September 01 2009 at 10:13
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Hi,
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.
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Posted By: rushfan4
Date Posted: September 01 2009 at 10:17
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I actually have all of the Chicago studio albums from the CTA album through the Stone of Sisyphus that was finally released last year. -------------
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Posted By: Rank1
Date Posted: September 01 2009 at 11:54
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Both had great drummers but I think early Chicago were more groundbreaking. Jimi Hendrix really liked the guitarist on Chicago. I like ELO more but they admit they were just extending what the Beatles did on "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Am the Walrus".
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Posted By: Teh_Slippermenz
Date Posted: September 06 2009 at 01:50
| LOL, ELO by far. |
Posted By: The Block
Date Posted: September 16 2009 at 19:50
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Posted By: J-Man
Date Posted: September 16 2009 at 19:51
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ELO. Early Chicago is excellent (probably better than any ELO), but ELO has more solid albums.
------------- 
Check out my YouTube channel! http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime |
Posted By: Tarquin Underspoon
Date Posted: September 16 2009 at 20:38
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Chicago is probably BETTER.....
....but, come on, ELO is just so much more FUN.
Seriously though, ELO by a longshot. ------------- "WAAAAAAOOOOOUGH! WAAAAAAAUUUUGGHHHH!! WAAAAAOOOO!!!" -The Great Gig in the Sky |
Posted By: sixpack127
Date Posted: December 22 2009 at 19:16
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I found the CTA at the library when I was young and immediately fell in love with the brass (I was a trumpeter), but then I found ELO and found their sounds were a much more mature - Chicago was great but ELO was much better.
------------- Lyle - Eclectic Music Lover |
Posted By: Intruder
Date Posted: December 23 2009 at 21:10
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Chicago has really suffered from their extreme turn from revolutionaries to reactionaries. Their first three albums are absolutely progressive - and have a decidedly open anti-establishment message: Revolution now! Change the world! The whole world's watching! They did side long suites about motorboats to Mars, political and spiritual liberation, and the evolution of man.....they also fried speakers with acid guitars and blaring horn lines. They were amazingly tight and far-out frantic at the same time.....anybody who's not clued into the first three Chicago albums ought to at least give 'em a try.
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). ------------- I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there..... |
Posted By: Green Shield Stamp
Date Posted: January 03 2010 at 07:25
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ELO by a comfortable margin. Eldorado and New World Record are albums that are very close to my heart. ------------- Haiku Writing a poem With seventeen syllables Is very diffic.... |
Posted By: akamaisondufromage
Date Posted: January 03 2010 at 07:59
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I will stick to my side of the Atlantic on this one - as with a lot of votes (Not all before you start throwing eggs). ELO were a little proggy once and when they went pop I still enjoyed a lot I don't think they took themselves too seriously. ------------- Help me I'm falling! |
Posted By: FusionKing
Date Posted: January 04 2010 at 23:48
| Well, these are two bands which I don't know well. However, I'm going to go with E.L.O. simply because thier 'Time' album was stunning and some of Chicago's stuff that I've heard so far (late 70's) bores me somewhat. |
Posted By: Dick Heath
Date Posted: January 11 2010 at 07:32
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ELO lost it when Roy Wood left.... ------------- The best eclectic music on the Web,8-11pm BST/GMT THURS. CLICK ON: http://www.lborosu.org.uk/media/lcr/live.php - http://www.lborosu.org.uk/media/lcr/live.php Host by PA's Dick Heath. |
Posted By: snobb
Date Posted: January 11 2010 at 11:45
| ELO is a music of my late teens... But looking from now Chicago is much more interesting ( I am speaking about debut plus a few more earlier albums, for sure). Voted for Chicago |
Posted By: Juiceboxbiotch
Date Posted: January 12 2010 at 17:42
| Early live Chicago is fantastic... ELO was always cool or whatever but just based on those early live performances I gotta go with Chicago. |
Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: January 14 2010 at 15:13
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I was just thinking about ELO and how "proggy" I think they were back in the day. Discovery went pop in my mind, even though I enjoy their music. I thought it was very cool and "progressive" how Jeff Lynn brought in that classical theme to rock music. Isn't that a ProgRock feature to use classical and jazz and meld that into song structure, part of the definition of prog?? (IDK??)
To this day I still enjoy spinning Out of the Blue and Olé ELO. I think they are a low-end prog band with classical influences....heh
 |
Posted By: jammun
Date Posted: January 23 2010 at 22:27
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I mean this in the kindest sort of way.
Barium enema or root canal?
------------- Can you tell me where we're headin'? Lincoln County Road or Armageddon. |
Posted By: halabalushindigus
Date Posted: January 23 2010 at 23:15
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NoNononono. Electric Light Orchestra and Chicago are Outstanding multi-piece bands in Concert. They have sold Hundreds Of Millions of records all over the world. We dont compare them around here ------------- assume the power 1586/14.3 |
Posted By: Procol Harum Machine
Date Posted: January 24 2010 at 09:02
Chicago's considered prog?  ------------- 
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Posted By: micky
Date Posted: January 24 2010 at 11:27
no.... but they did prog albums. ------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: tszirmay
Date Posted: January 24 2010 at 15:35
Seraphine is fine drummer though but Lamm and Cetera (ugh!!!) ------------- I never post anything anywhere without doing more than basic research, often in depth. |