CHICAGO – "If You Leave Me Now"

Lovely, lovely record. Maybe a tad too pillowy with all the strings and “oohs” but still gorgeous.

Though it’s use in the war movie ‘Three Kings’ did affect how I hear it now.

“Nr.1 in USA und England” — for some reason this made me smile

This was heavily playlisted on Capital FM in the early 90s for some reason (along with Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’ and 10cc’s ‘I’m Not In Love’). I bloody loved it, even if I had no idea who the artist was.

a bunch of American bands who had enjoyed long careers in the 70s but who were close to invisible here

Some Brit bands managed this feat too. Wikipedia not a help here, but I think Foghat’s success was almost entirely in North America. And Foreigner, which was founded by two Brits with a bunch of Americans rounding out the band, were mammoth for five years in the U.S. before Britain finally gave a hit to “Waiting for a Girl Like You.”

I knew Chicago, and I knew “If You Leave Me Now,” but I never associated the two until today. I probably did my best to avoid music like this and bands like Chicago in 1976, but I’m hoping that whenever I first heard this I recognized that it had merit.

foghat is pronounced foffit in the uk

25 Or 6 To 4 (anyone got a clue what that means?)

from the straightdope site

“The song “25 or 6 to 4” appeared on “Chicago II” and was written by organist/vocalist Robert Lamm. The title and lyrics have puzzled many since it appeared in 1970. Some say it’s a drug reference, suggesting a unit of measurement involving the quantity of joints that can be rolled from a what-used-to-be dime bag. Some feel it’s about looking for spiritual revelation, undergoing a mysterious soul-searching journey.

……

Lamm says it’s simpler than that. “The song is about writing a song. It’s not mystical,” he says. Take a look at some of the lyrics:

Waiting for the break of day–He’s been up all night and now it’s getting close to sunrise.
Searching for something to say–Trying to think of song lyrics.
Flashing lights against the sky–Perhaps stars or the traditional flashing neon hotel sign.
Giving up I close my eyes–He’s exhausted and his eyes hurt from being open too long, so he closes them.
Staring blindly into space–This expression can be seen often on the faces of writers and reporters. Trust me.
Getting up to splash my face–Something you do when you’re trying to stay awake, though a good cup of Starbuck’s does wonders for Cecil and me.
Wanting just to stay awake, wondering how much I can take–How far can he push himself to get the song done?
Should I try to do some more?–This is the line that makes many think it’s a drug song. But it is just as easily construed as a frustrated writer wondering if he should try to do some more lyrics/songwriting.

As for the curious title, Lamm says, “It’s just a reference to the time of day”–as in “waiting for the break of day” at 25 or (2)6 minutes to 4 a.m. (3:35 or 3:34 a.m.)”

I’m a sucker for things that sound like this. Okay, sure, I could take or leave a number of the flourishes…but there are an awful lot of them, and the Spanish-ish guitar is definitely one too many. Or twenty-five or six. But the combination of effects and performance produces a lead vocal that’s just stunningly fluid to listen to – I’ll take more of that please.

As an American in his mid-twenties, I can tell you that Chicago remains somewhat mysterious to me as well. They have a knack, I think, for producing good-but-faceless singles. Somehow I’m reminded of “Cheery Blossom White” (or whatever it’s called) where Tom (I think) raised the notion of people going to record stores asking for the one with where the horn goes breeeeeeeowwwww. “If You Leave Me Now” is like that – I just listened to it and I had to look back up at the top of the screen to remember what it’s called. The band as a whole feels that way to me. Not sure what it is they’re missing; of course if I’d been alive and listening to the radio when this came out I might actually associate some kind of specific information with either the band or Peter Cetera….

This was another example of Tony Blackburn somehow picking a belter as his record of the week, quite contrary to his usual behaviour. I remember distinctly remarking that “this is far too good to get to number one” and then smugly going out and buying it. The rest of the country quickly followed and of course I was totally wrong, as it was one of the great hits of the year both here and in the States. IYLMN remains as one of my favourite tracks of the decade (What say Dale, MC?) and stands the test of time with minimum difficulty. Obviously Chicago had already registered on my radar, particularly with the sublime “25 or 6 to 4”, which was rashly labelled a “drugs record” but was actually referring to an early morning reading of a clock, apparently. The arrangement to this track was phenomenal, the intro (repeated later in the number) was marvellous and Terry Kath’s guitar solo clearly worthy of the work of any of the great ones. Kath, alas, then went and spoiled everything (particularly the contents of his bonce) with a comedy death. Picking up a 9mm automatic pistol in 1978, Terry, a gun fanatic, placed this to his head before waving away the concerns of his friends gathered there with him with the immortal: “Don’t worry, guys. It’s not even loaded. See?” He then pulled the trigger. Alas everyone did indeed see, as there had been one slug left in the chamber and Kath’s brain went flying into a neighbouring wall before sliding slowly down to the floor like a damp sponge. The now ex-Chicago guitarist almost certainly didn’t see, as the sucker was dead before he commenced his short journey to the Axminster. For this minor slip-up, Terry was presented (not personally, of course) with the prestigious “Darwin Award” for “removing himself from the gene pool in a sublimely idiotic fashion”. A matter of weeks later, that other idiot Claude Francois was similarly ennobled after deciding to fix a light bulb, whilst standing in a filled bathtub. There wasn’t much left of the French buffoon for a decent funeral, apparently. I can just imagine St Peter pissing himself ragged as he waved these two supreme fuckwits through…

That’s a nice contribution, Rob. When Johnnie W had to leave his Radio 2 show five years ago in order to battle cancer, he too played “Bridge..” and I would be a lying hound if I claimed that I was my usual smily, “glass half full”, positive self when that classic track came to an end. I can equally understand how IYLME would have the same effect.

Oh yes – nobody had referred to cheese as I thought they might when the time came. This is a piece of cheese to be sure, but it’s a piece of vintage parmesan more than it’s a lump of supermarket mousetrap.

Anyway, I’m very partial to good cheese.

Oh, dear God, who could forget Blackburn’s on-air pleading with Tessa Wyatt (admittedly very lovely) not to dump him by playing amongst other things Gary Benson’s “Don’t Throw It All Away”? Cue Smashy and Nicey, of course but Tony’s begging and whining has to be up there with DLT losing it later on for a different reason.

Btw, I wish Tessa had called in and requested Tammy Lynn’s “I’m Gonna Run Away From You” as a response. SENSATIONAL!!!

re#23 yes, IYLMN is indeed sampled by Lemon Jelly on their splendid track “Soft” which personlly i prefer to the original..
Is this the only charttopper to feature someone who died playing Russin roulete?

Waiting for Mark to come back on here in the working week so we can thrash through the UK prog/US jazz-AoR pre-punk parallels but this is slow and weightless (some might say “ploddy”) enough for Tales From Topographic Oceans any day – there’s even a touch of the Jon Anderson LEAP TO THAT MAJOR FIFTH Fosbury Flop about Cetera’s vocal – and a very long way from the days when they were talked about in the same terms as Blood, Sweat & Tears and Don Ellis’ big band as, er, The Future (did Al Kooper ever have anything to do with Chicago?).

(and also the best one of the lot from that side of the Atlantic were Toronto’s very own Lighthouse but they never made it to these shores, more’s the pity)

I’d really like to see big band jazz-rock-R&B-post-psych fusion tried again, to be honest (yes all right Jamiroquai but I need something with a lot more HUSTLE than dear old Jay), but maybe leave the Tom Jones vocal aspirations of David Clayton Thomas and similar out.

Anyway, “If You Leave Me Now”; dreary anaesthetising guff for Bouquet of Barbed Wire fans and absolutely fitting for this Valium of a Popular year – no wonder everyone needed to be waked up and kicked very loudly (“New Rose” next to this is akin to life next to death). Christ, Cetera, enough with the basset hound whining; no wonder she’s pissing off.

Also a subsequent mainstay of Simon Bates’ Our Tune NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST IN FOUR SECONDS as requested by Tracey who was going to marry Darren but the night before the wedding he was transfixed by a spear of frozen liquid waste from a passing aircraft etc. etc. Chris Morris to thread.

Been very busy at work the last three weeks, so I have a whole corncucopia of treats to contemplate, and work backwards on.

I’m definitely with Rosie on this. I don’t think I ever did snog to this, but my God, I WANTED TO! Perfect first time in love fodder this (I wasn’t, but I thought I was, and so, so wanted to be). We loved, the swoops, the horns, the strings, the guitar. In June the following year my three friends and myself had a joint 18th/leaving school party (unsullied by any of that ghastly punk stuff, which just wasn’t on our radar and – check this Marcello – in a Knights of St Columba Hall. Eek!) and this just had to be the final smoochy dance number, leaving us all replete with warmth and happines, and sighs. If I remember rightly none of us actually had what you could call a boyfriend at the time, but no worries. This was the business!Got to dance with the object of my misplaced affections but he, being a responsible chap 16 years my senior wasn’t going to allow any of that smoochy stuff. On the rare occasions I see him now, we laugh about it.

As les girls went off to our different universities, no more the Three Musketeers, this saw us on our way*, and for that reason it’s proudly my Ipod.

Well, after a belting singalong Flower of Scotland, natch!

I know they’ve been discussed here in thorough detail and yes, I personally find the whole concept somewhat questionable, but to me this is the epitome of a Guilty Pleasure. Even though it’s a soppy ballad sung by a load of hairy Americans, I’ve always found something strangely comforting about the way the horns nestle in the intro and the way those strings hover hopefully in the verses. Worth more than a 5, I’d say.

I think that this is a fine example of a very good bit (“If you leave me now/ Ooohooohoooh”/ horns come in) moored in the middle of a rather dreary song. Whenever I hear that bit I get a bit excited and then I lose interest. I remember it working well in the Lemon Jelly track, though.

What affection I have for this song is taken from the experience of watching 1976 clips on ‘Top of The Pops 2’ on a small black and white portable TV in the room of a Victorian hall of residence where a friend lived, one dark and wet Saturday evening in November 1996.

This came on. We watched, underawed.

“My mum likes this” she told me.

The song became imprinted indelibly in my mind – forever since – as “The song that Nicky’s mum likes”, no more and no less.

Knights of St Columba hall – eek indeed!

First “punk” record played at our school disco; “Something Better Change” by the Stranglers, autumn ’77, to which I did the Tiswas dying fly routine of which classmates still speak to this day.

I’m pleasantly surprised to see that reactions to this seem to be on the whole rather positive.

As with Waldo, in comment #16, I too heard this song early, and claimed it for myself, not really thinking it would be a UK no1 – It just didn’t sound like the sort of thing Brits would buy. It was only later that it became apparent it had been just a blueprint for precisely what the Brits would buy from an American (usually) AOR band.

I think it was the rather plaintive vocal which made it so memorable – the cod-flamenco guitar was a bit different back then (but not too cheezy) and overall the production seemed tastefully restrained, again not a bad thing back in the day…

I would probably hate it if it was new now, or even just five years later, by which time we’d had all sorts of similar tosh. But at the time, it seemed new, not revolutionary (like p**k), just a wee bit different. Chicago themselves attempted a carbon copy the following year with “Baby What A Big Surprise”, but we weren’t fooled and it only hit #41.

intothefireuk – it had been released in the US in July, and in these pre-download days, it was of course quite common for a single to be released in the US several months prior to its UK release (if it was released in UK at all), and vice-versa. It was a pretty instant hit on its release over here, but you would probably have heard Gambaccini playing it pretty regularly throughout the summer. Several other DJs around that time kept one ear on the US charts, so it may have got some airplay on other shows too. If you were a chart freak, you would no doubt have been aware of it as it hit the Billboard top 30 in week ending 21st August.

#2 watch – this prevented Leo Sayer having his first #1 with “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”

i’m surprised this charted so early as whenever i hear it on the radio i think of it as an 80s hit – maybe i get it confused with peter cetera’s later solo efforts

it has a kind of four seasons feel to it, maybe because of the high, nasal voice – but this has a more blissed out feel that conjures up pictures of men in blouses and medallions with blow dried hair
while googling some of the acts who followed that trend i discovered a new musical genre – yacht rock: details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacht_rock

re: no. 26 and the prog/aor pre-punk thing i seem to remember that among those writers who promoted those genres in the music press there was a lot of stuff which promoted ‘the studio’ as a scene of high-tech wizardry to which lesser mortals could never aspire until they had ‘paid their dues’ – the week after mick farren wrote his ‘titanic sails at dawn’ piece in the nme, max bell wrote a reply in which he sung the praises of steely dan and little feat amongst others

punk didn’t sweep all that away for me at least – i was happy to listen to the sex pistols as well as steely dan and pink floyd

Sloppy and slushy indeed. Which made it perfect for sloppy and slushy snogging.

He should have played Silver Convention instead.

He could have played ‘Love Hangover’, too…

There’s a truly bizarre version of this song by Brazilian singer Ive Mendes, which sounds like someone’s reprogrammed an automated call centre.

Que? Are you saying there’s an MP hiding behind this alias?! or at least a Commons researcher?

Oh Gawd, the Tony Blackburn on-air meltdown period. (The Jacksons’ “Dreamer”! Patrick Juvet’s “Just Another Lonely Man!”) Even at his most nauseatingly chirpy, you could hear the underlying brittle desperation, which he was barely able (or indeed bothered) to conceal.

Interesting that TB got behind “If You Leave Me Now”. I remember him playing Chicago’s “I’m A Man” as a “Revived 45”. When the record finished, he commented, almost apologetically: “That was from 1970, when the heavier stuff tended to get into the charts.” (Pause, then more brightly and briskly) “Aren’t you glad it’s not still 1970?!”

I love this record. A solid 9 from me.