“VI Decades Live”: Chicago releasing career-spanning box set of concert performances

m_chicagovidecadesliveboxset630_021218
m_chicagovidecadesliveboxset630_021218

Rhino

RhinoHere’s some news that should make Chicago fans smile: The band will be putting out a four-CD/one-DVD box set titled Chicago: VI Decades Live (This Is What We Do) on April 6 that’s packed with previously unreleased concert performances.

For starters, the career-spanning collection’s first two CDs feature the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers’ full set from their August 1970 appearance at the U.K.’s Isle of Wight Festival.  That set included renditions of “Beginnings,” “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?,” “25 or 6 to 4,” the epic song cycle “Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon” and a cover of The Spencer Davis Group‘s “I’m a Man.”

The other two CDs feature a variety of live performances ranging from a December 1969 show in Paris through a May 2014 concert in Wilmington, Delaware. Among the tracks are versions of the standards “In the Mood” and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” — which Chicago played during its 1994 big band tour — plus an acoustic rendition of the 1988 chart-topping hit “Look Away” from a 2002 episode of A&E’s Live by Request series.

Closing out the box set is a DVD featuring video of Chicago’s 1977 appearance on the German television series Rockpalast. Among the many songs the band performed on the show: “Saturday in the Park,” “Just You ‘n’ Me,” “Beginnings,””If You Leave Me Now,” “25 or 6 to 4” and a cover of The Beatles’ “Got to Get You into My Life.”

The DVD also includes a bonus performance of fan favorite “What’s This World Comin’ To” from the 1973 ABC TV special, Chicago in the Rockies.

Here’s the full VI Decades Live (This Is What We Do) track list:

Disc One: Isle of Wight Festival (8/28/1970)
Introduction
“South California Purples”
“Beginnings”
“In the Country”
“Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? (Free Form Intro)”
“Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”
“Mother”

Disc Two: Isle of Wight Festival (8/28/1970)
“It Better End Soon”
“Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon”
“25 or 6 to 4”
“I’m a Man”

Disc Three
“Poem for the People” (Paris, France, 12/8/1969)
“25 or 6 to 4” (Paris, France, 12/8/1969)
“Liberation” (Paris, France, 12/8/1969)
“Goodbye” (The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C., 9/16/1971)
“Now That You’ve Gone” (Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia, 6/26/1972)
“A Hit by Varèse” (Chicago Stadium, Chicago, IL, 8/13/1973)
“If You Leave Me Now” (Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, CA, 12/1/1977)
“Takin’ It On Uptown” (Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, CA, 12/1/1977)

Disc Four
“Hot Streets” (Greek Theater, Los Angeles, CA, 8/11/1978)
“Little One” (Greek Theater, Los Angeles, CA, 8/11/1978)
“Forever” (Pensacola Civic Center, Pensacola, FL, 3/21/1987)
“Medley: In the Midnight Hour/Knock on Wood/I’m a Man/Get Away” (Pensacola Civic Center, Pensacola, FL, 3/21/1987)
“You’re Not Alone” (Starplex Amphitheater, Dallas, TX, 5/30/1992)
“The Pull” (Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV, 3/20/1994)
“In the Mood” (Caesar’s Palace, Atlantic City, NJ, 7/28/1994)
“Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” (Caesar’s Palace, Atlantic City, NJ, 7/28/1994)
“Look Away (Acoustic)” (A&E Network’s Live by Request, 9/5/2002)
“America” (WHYY, The Grand, Wilmington, DE, 5/7/2014)

DVD: Rockpalast (2/12/1977)
“Anyway You Want”
“Saturday in the Park”
“Skin Tight”
“Just You ‘n’ Me”
“Hope for Love”
“You Are on My Mind”
“Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”
“Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon”
“Beginnings”
“Scrapbook”
“A Hit by Varèse”
“Call on Me”
“Takin’ It On Uptown”
“If You Leave Me Now”
“Once or Twice”
“(I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Long”/”Mongonucleosis”
“25 or 6 to 4”
“Got to Get You into My Life”
“I’m a Man”

Copyright © 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.