antiMusic.com: Chicago - VI Decades Live (This is What We Do) Box Set Review

Chicago - VI Decades Live (This is What We Do) Box Set

by Kevin Wierzbicki

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Here's a real jackpot for Chicago fans as this 4CD + DVD set contains hours and hours of live performance, all of it previously-unreleased. As the album title indicates, the performances span six decades, the earliest represented being from 1969, with the most current being a take on "America" that the band recorded in 2014 during a radio show in Delaware. Two of the CDs hold the band's headlining performance at England's Isle of Wight Festival in 1970; that show begins with "South California Purple" and includes many of the group's signature tunes: "Beginnings," "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is," 25 or 6 to 4" and "I'm a Man." The other two CDs are packed with cuts recorded at different shows, most of them in the U.S. but also a version of "Now That You've Gone" that was taped in Australia in 1972 and a few cuts recorded in Paris in 1969, most notably a preview of "Poem For the People," a cut that at the time was still a month or so from being released on Chicago II.

Cuts from the '70s include the sublime hit "If You Leave Me Now," "Goodbye" and "Takin' it on Uptown;" selections from the next two decades include "Hot Streets," "Forever," "In the Mood" and a medley of "In the Midnight Hour"/"Knock on Wood"/"I'm a Man"/"Get Away." The DVD is a Rockpalast show that was filmed in Germany in 1977; considering the era, the video quality is not up to par with the concert films of today, but that is not to say that it is bad. The late '70s snapshot of the band features deep album cuts and hits like "Saturday in the Park," "Just You 'n' Me," "Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is?" "25 or 6 to 4," "If You Leave Me Now," "Beginnings" and "I'm a Man." The two-hour plus show also includes a cover of the Beatles' "Got to Get You into My Life." Appended as an extra on the DVD is a 1973 video for "What's This World Comin' To." A 24-page booklet rounds out this collectible.

Get your copy here.

Chicago - VI Decades Live (This is What We Do) Box Set
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