Chicago Guild (kinda)

AcornHouse

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Yes it’s a Guild, yes it’s Chicago, yes it’s a nauseating song, yes, it signaled a dark period in the band’s history.
I was watching a docu on Chicago’s history, and spied this Guild 12 string (F-412?) in the hands of Peter Cetera during an early live performance of their first big Cetera ballad. (They have one of the greatest guitarists EVER, and this clown decides HE wanted to play guitar.)

 

walrus

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+1 on your thoughts regarding this song. A quick station change was required when that used to come on the radio...

walrus
 

idealassets

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The song was OK, and Peter Cetera no doubt made another $1 Million about this time. Then he went on to a solo career singing with Amy Grant and Crystal Bernard among others. If you listen real close in this song there is a second acoustic guitar player (or harp?) filling in with some very nice embellishments.

This song was not constructed all that bad, and to conceive of an orchestra along with those horns was nice, and not overdone. The only bone of contention I have is when these many, many songs appear to be made to appeal to the feminist side, similar to a "chick flick"- that is when the commercialism of that type of thing begins to get obnoxious.

I saw Chicago play live right after their 2nd album was released. At that time all the songs were heavier and the group had not developed this softer sound much as of yet. It was exciting to watch as compared to all the 3 piece power trio's that were prevalent at the time..
 

idealassets

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If we thought Terry Kath faded out in this song, how about the drummer only clicking his hi-hat every other count in this song?

As a well paid drummer in the day, I could only do this type of song for so long before I had to call a few songs myself with some great drum structures in them in order to get back to a more prominent position as a contributing member of the group.
 
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beecee

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Rockin' out at 1:40...…

My mid-teen daughter is a pretty good trumpet player and I turned her on to Chicago about 6 years ago...along w/Blood Sweat & Tears...she can play a mean Lucretia MacEvil...

She never liked If you leave me now either. Likes the earlier stuff.

I've done well.
 

hansmoust

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I was watching a docu on Chicago’s history, and spied this Guild 12 string (F-412?) in the hands of Peter Cetera during an early live performance of their first big Cetera ballad. (They have one of the greatest guitarists EVER, and this clown decides HE wanted to play guitar.)

Take a closer look! It's an F-612!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl
 

AcornHouse

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Gee, I always liked this song...
That’s what makes music great! There’s something for everyone.
And, as much as I don’t like the Cetera era, he pretty much saved Chicago as a working band.
 

Quantum Strummer

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I remember this song fondly, though likely not quite as its creators intended. During our first year of college my friend Steve & I commuted, about a 30-mile drive each way. We were both pretty good singers…Steve even performed in high school theater in singing roles. (I was too shy.) Whenever the song came on the radio we'd take turns singing lines, trying to out-schmaltz each other. :) It got pretty ridiculous in the end, to the point where we'd just bust out laughing as soon as the song started to play. (The amount of weed we were smoking at the time didn't help either!)

-Dave-
 

Bill Ashton

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...saw Chicago week after I graduated from high school...Terry Kath playing a Les Paul Professional (low-z p/u's) to the great disappointment of us guitar geeks...lost track of the band, thankfully, following Chicago II...

Don't the fancy fretboard inlays make it a 612?
 
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Dano

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According to the song's Wikipedia page:

According to Mike Stahl, Chicago's live audio engineer during the 1970s, Terry Kath would always "quietly" walk off stage when the band was about to perform "If You Leave Me Now" because he was not present in the studio when the band recorded the song, and since he wasn't on the recording "he would never, ever play it live."[SUP][21]

[/SUP]
 

walrus

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According to the song's Wikipedia page:

According to Mike Stahl, Chicago's live audio engineer during the 1970s, Terry Kath would always "quietly" walk off stage when the band was about to perform "If You Leave Me Now" because he was not present in the studio when the band recorded the song, and since he wasn't on the recording "he would never, ever play it live."[SUP][21]

[/SUP]

Nice to know Kath had excellent taste in music!

On a serious note, one wonders what might have been if Kath had lived much longer. Chicago was never the same.

walrus
 

Dano

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Nice to know Kath had excellent taste in music!

On a serious note, one wonders what might have been if Kath had lived much longer. Chicago was never the same.

walrus

Yes... The Kath era was up/fun. I lost track of them in the "Ballad years"...
 

SFIV1967

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adorshki

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Rockin' out at 1:40...…

My mid-teen daughter is a pretty good trumpet player and I turned her on to Chicago about 6 years ago...along w/Blood Sweat & Tears...she can play a mean Lucretia MacEvil...

She never liked If you leave me now either. Likes the earlier stuff.

I've done well.
Yes you have.
Some music's like cotton candy.
Some's like beef jerky.
For some reason cotton candy always seems to outsell beef jerky.
Hell is a place where there are only 2 choices on the jukebox:
"Free Bird" or "If You Leave Me Now".
 
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