Searching For Some Thing to Say

 

Thursday.

I don't know why but that's how I wanted to lead this off.

Just Thursday.

Then again, I could never get the hang of Thursdays, as Arthur Dent said in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I woke up not feeling my best, which tracks with my voice feeling a bit off. Save for recording "Hanratty's Huddle" with Terry Hanratty, and "Doubleheader," I rested my voice.

In the case of "Doubleheader," I had an 18-minute interview that I recorded yesterday so that gave me even more time to rest.

With the show over, we grabbed dinner and I settled into continuing to prepare for tomorrow's basketball doubleheader (not the show) at Fordham University.

It's an honor to call two high-leverage games in New York Catholic high school basketball. One game is a semifinal while the other is a state championship.

If you're keeping score, that's a state championship call in New York to go with the New Jersey state championship calls that I'm offered and there was a chance I was going to call one in Pennsylvania also (that one isn't happening this year). 

I appreciate that.

But Fordham? The Bronx? Near the Vin Scully Pressbox? 

The same borough that produced Harold? This is hallowed ground tomorrow night.

Oh, and a baseball team plays there also. I've heard of them.

Saturday would have been a bigger monster but I'd already committed to one Rockets hockey game in New Jersey. I was offered four basketball games in Yorktown on Saturday but the timing didn't work.

These are all things to prepare for.

And now, maybe a few more games are coming to light for next week. I'll probably be able to confirm that one tomorrow.

*****

The night belonged to a music documentary, which I am a sucker for.

Tonight, I watched one about Chicago. 

So, what did I learn? 

I learned producer and songwriter David Foster is sort of an arrogant clown.

“I know I’m great,” he said. “You don’t get 16 Grammys without being great.”

Oh, OK, McCartney.

I also learned that Peter Cetera, along with Foster, began to act like the rest of the talented musicians in the band were simply Cetera's backing band in the 1980s. 

Let's just say Cetera -- who didn't participate in the documentary -- didn't come off well. Talented? Sure. Great singer? Yes. Insecure? you bet.

But the big truth -- and this is no surprise at all -- is that Chicago changed entirely after their insanely talented guitarist Terry Kath accidentally killed himself in Jan 1978.

Please note that Jimi Hendrix once said Kath was better than him.

Music was in the process of changing in the late 70s and Chicago's art/jazz rock sound was becoming passé as disco was the thing of the moment and punk was on the rise. In fact, Chicago tried to embrace disco and it didn't take.

With Foster and Cetera in charge, they found multiplatinum success in the 80s and hung on to that. They didn't emphasize the horns -- the very thing that made Chicago different -- and pushed an adult contemporary sound that was based on ballads.

Some of the songs hold up well. Others? Well...

In some ways, I find Chicago's path to be similar to that of Genesis, who worked hard to perfect prog rock up through the departure of Peter Gabriel. Hits weren't really their priority until Phil Collins took them to bigger heights.

For Chicago, they didn't worry about the hits but wow were they a machine with Kath in the 70s as a touring and hit-making band.

It's not a perfect comparison but I'm going with it.

So if you need something to watch, give Now More Than Ever: The History of Chicago a view.

You'll enjoy it for 25...or 6...to 4.

I hate myself for finishing on that line.

It did not make me smile.

That's better.