One of rock’s biggest bands gets the documentary treatment
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How could the same group that produced “25 or 6 to 4″ have also given the world Peter Cetera? The answer is a long and mostly interesting one, presented in the new CNN documentary Now More Than Ever: The History of Chicago.
There’s some bad hair, worse clothes, and great songs from the band’s 50 plus years in the business. While Now More Than Ever isn’t a hard hitting affair, it’s not a puff piece either. The principals are especially candid, save for one: Peter Cetera.
The blonde crooner, who took over 80s radio with his iron jaw and dulcet tones, didn’t make himself available for this work. We get a few archived interview snippets, but the man himself is absent. His split from Chicago was deep.
The adventures of the band are often standard rock and roll fare: drugs, women, fame. The struggle to make it big morphs into success that would end up being both long lasting and intense.
There are some extreme moments. At one point in the 70s, Chicago moved out to a ranch in Colorado where they both recorded five of their most successful albums but also engaged in debauchery that can only happen when a hippie-commune vibe gets mixed with copious amounts of drugs. This section could probably make for its own movie adaptation.
In 1978, things went south. Guitarist and singer Terry Kath died from an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound–most likely due to the influence of drugs–robbing the group of one of its most important pillars. While this could have ended the entire project, the rest of the band decided to push forward.
The following decade would see heights of stardom never before reached, as single after single dominated radio airplay. Even without additional chart toppers, the band has continued to tour and record. Five decades is a freakish amount of time for a band to both exist and succeed, but Chicago has managed to do the near impossible.
