50-Year-Old Songs: Wishing You Were Here

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The PGA Championship ends today. The weather has cooperated; however, the cops have not. I supposed you heard about some jerk giving policemen and Louisville a bad name by arresting Scottie Scheffler. There goes any chance for us having another major golf tournament here. Oh, well, at least the music from 1974 continues flowing uninterrupted. Here’s another song from 50 years ago. Wishing You Were Here - Chicago Man, it’s not fair. Terry Kath was one of the best guitarists ever and you’ve probably never heard of him. (@Scarred4Lyfe ‘s hoomin will hopefully back me on this.) I think of all the bands back in the 70s who had two or three guitarists. Chicago only had one: Terry Kath. It’s only in retrospect that we can see just how vital he was to Chicago. After his death in 1978 (accidentally shot himself), Chicago became one of the lame-@$$-est bands on earth. They went from the grit of “25 or 6 to 4” and the beauty of songs like this to the Peter Cetera shlock show. And it’s not like Cetera couldn’t write great ballads. He wrote this one. (Funny story on Picky Wedia: he wrote the music too low for his own singing voice, so Kath had to sing lead on this.) However, you listen to this marvelous tune or Kath’s “Colour My World” then you hear “Hard to Say I’m Sorry,” you can’t help but think Kath really was the soul of this once-great band. PS: yes, that’s The Beach Boys in the video. They sang backup on the recording. And, on the record, Kath played bass, not guitar. Wishing You Were Here Written by Peter Cetera Recorded by Chicago From Chicago VII, 1974 Pay the price, make a sacrifice: