AUDIO: BallinJack’s “Found A Child (Platurn Edit)”

Posted on December 11, 2014 by John Book

One of Oakland’s best DJ’s honors a much sampled jazz rock song from area code 206 (that’s Seattle) in one of his new edits. DJ Platurn takes on Ballinjack’s “Found A Child”, made famous by producers Matt Dike (one half of the Dust Brothers) and Michael Ross as one of the core samples in Young MC’s “Bust A Move”. Hear how Platurn flips things around in his new edit.

BOOK’S JOOK: Chicago’s “25 Or 6 To 4” b/w “Make Me Smile”

Posted on June 2, 2014 by John Book

Book’s Jook is a column dedicated to placing a record within my dream jukebox, if I were to have one. The Seeburg jukebox shown below is similar to the one I have wanted since I was a kid. To read more on why I started this column, click here.

Last week I posted a new edition to my dream jukebox but as I was reaching the last sentence, I began to question myself. Should the “Colour My World”/”I’m A Man” 45 by Chicago be in there, because I realized I had a slightly more powerful record, also by Chicago, in mind. I decided to leave it alone and post the article but when I did, I came up with the conclusion I may have been wrong with my initial decision.

As much as I like the softer, more delicate side of Chicago’s music, it was the rockers that always got to me first, and “25 Or 6 To 4” is my all time favorite Chicago song. Say what you want about where Peter Cetera’s career went to in the 1980’s, but in 1970, he belted it out with passion and of course, his bass work was powerful and incredible. You can’t help but hear a song where I wondered “what are they talking about?” Is it about drugs? Is it about something else? Or is it some guy who is up at 3:35 in the morning, unable to finish a song and realized “maybe I should just write a song about how frustrated I am by not being able to complete this.” It made for a good story, whatever the story is. On top of that, you have the majestry of Terry Kath’s guitar work, and while the 45 single edit removes the part where he hits the wah-wah pedal for a wicked run towards the finish line, the single edit seems to shorten this song nice and promptly. The single edit does remove a verse, but my introduction to the song was through the edit and I was content until I bought my own copy of Chicago II and learned there was about 90 or more seconds extra.

This 45 too was part of Columbia’s Hall Of Fame series, offering two hit songs on the same record so the B-side had another song from Chicago II, “Make Me Smile”. It sounded funny to me, not as full as “25 Or 6 To 4”, and I would later learn that the original safety masters were destroyed so it sounded like someone used a cassette dub of a cassette dub of a cassette dub, where the quality sounded muffled. This was a mean rocker too, with Kath handling the lead vocal duty, and I would learn that this too was a short edit of the original song. I would also later learn that the single edit of “Make Me Smile” actually spliced a part of the original and “Now More Than Ever”, which then made me learn those were part of the mini-opera known as “Ballet For A Girl In Buchanon”. These two songs were the ones that made me want to know how much more music Chicago had made, outside of the popular songs I heard on the radio. The old Chicago was far better than the then-latest Chicago but I wanted to like them all. I’m glad I did.

BOOK’S JOOK: Chicago’s “Colour My World” b/w “I’m A Man”

Posted on May 26, 2014 by John Book

If there is a place where my love of Chicago started, this is one of the first places. I was always told that my Uncle Wayne loved “Colour My World” and that it was one of the easiest songs to play on piano. My next door neighbor had a piano so when I was able to pay a visit, I tried it out. I realized it was very easy and in my mind, I knew how to play the piano. It was about the song that made me like it, from Terry Kath’s sensitive vocals to Walter Parazaizer’s flute solo, that just set it off for me.

This pressing is notable because it’s part of Columbia Records’ Hall Of Fame series, which was a part of their “Oldies But Goodies” series where music fans could have the hits “back to back”, or have two older hits on the same record. There was a special section near the regular 45’s where you could specifically buy the older material, and it seemed like a bargain because you were getting two popular sons on one 45 opposed to the hit plus “a piece of junk” on the B-side. This was a mentality before I got into collecting and realized the B-side can sometimes be where the true winner is. Anyway, it was a chance to have two Chicago hits on the same record, so I was happy.

The B-side of this record had a solid rocker, and I believe I heard this version of “I’m A Man” before I heard The Spencer Davis Group’s original version of it. While the label listed it simply as Chicago, this was done by Chicago Transit Authority from their debut album, I knew that before I even had the full album because my neighbor had the CTA album plus CHICAGO II. “I’m A Man” was awesome not only because it’s the one Chicago/CTA song sans horn section, but because of the drum break from Daniel Seraphine. I loved how jazzy it was, even though I wasn’t aware at the time of his jazzy roots, it just sounded like something I might’ve heard on one of my uncle’s jazz albums, yet there was something else about his drumming too. As a kid who admired the drums and wanted to play the drums so bad, I’d find myself playing this song over and over and doing air drums to it, properly accurate to the 45 edit on the record. When I bought the CTA album, I realized there was three extra minutes, which means more air drum learning.

The record seemed perfect: delicate ballad on the A-side, mean rocker on the B. At the time, Chicago’s bit hits were “Alive Again” and “No Tell Lover” and I wondered “how come the Chicago on my record sounds better than what’s on the radio?” In time, it would lead me to buy Chicago’s entire U.S. discography, all except Chicago 21. Yet. As I’m wrapping this article up, I was positive that this was my formal introduction to Chicago but I realized that it was not. It’s a respectful introduction but I now know that my parents showed me the yellow brick road with a different Chicago record. I’ll share that title next week Monday.

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SOME STUFFS: Chicago Transit Authority’s 1969 set from Fillmore West released by Wolfgang’s Vault

Posted on May 20, 2011 by John Book

When these gentlemen shot this photo, little did they know they would become one of the soft rock kings of not only the 1970’s, but the 1980’s, at a time when most bands who came up during the same time were long gone. Before they were simply Chicago, they were the Chicago Transit Authority, and they played at a number of colleges and made it through the normal hippie spots, including the Fillmore West. As over 200,000 music fans congregated to Bethel, New York for the Woodstock Music & Art Fair, CTA did a three night stand at the Fillmore West 3000 miles away from August 15-17th (so if any of you ever wondered where Chicago were when Woodstock was happening, now you know.) The band played two sets a night, an early show and a late show, customary for a lot of groups back then. CTA had released their debut album that were becoming staples of freeform FM radio, and their late show set from August 17, 1969 has been widely bootlegged over the years. You can now purchase an official recording of the show from Wolfgang’s Vault, the official site for anything and everything that had to do with Bill Graham‘s venues. Graham was able to have almost every artist documented in his venues, primarily audio but occasionally video. Wolfgang’s Vault have opened up their collection to fans, and now they’re able to hear this CTA set officially, available as MP3’s or in beautiful FLAC (lossless) files.

You can find out about this show by heading to WolfgangsVault.com.

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This Is Book's Music

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Tag Archives: rock jazz

AUDIO: BallinJack’s “Found A Child (Platurn Edit)”

BOOK’S JOOK: Chicago’s “25 Or 6 To 4” b/w “Make Me Smile”

BOOK’S JOOK: Chicago’s “Colour My World” b/w “I’m A Man”

SOME STUFFS: Chicago Transit Authority’s 1969 set from Fillmore West released by Wolfgang’s Vault