Questions 67 & 68
Composer: Lamm
Key: C major
Meter: 4/4
Lead Vocal: Peter Cetera
Form: Extended intro, verse 1, verse 2, double-time interlude, verse 3
Instrumentation: trumpet, tenor sax, trombone, electric solo guitar, piano, bass, drums, tambourine, two voices
Overall form and style: “Questions” is a slow, majestic rock ballad. It’s pompous and grand, one of the very, very few songs in the rock area that earns those adjectives. I suppose some people may point to groups like Pink Floyd and say some of those tunes are majestic, pompous, and grand, but I don’t know that those words really apply to stuff that is merely slow and long. “Questions” achieves through composition and arrangement what tunes like “Time” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” are trying to achieve by mere repetition. Cetera’s soaring vocal complements the stately ensemble playing, and the whole thing is energized by an instrumental middle section in double time.
Formally, you might call the lines starting with “I’d like to know…” as the chorus, since it is the same in every verse, but musically no part of the verse really sounds like a traditional chorus, so I will be calling the whole thing a verse.
There is a long introduction featuring some blazing electric guitar work before the vocals at last come in, and a long instrumental interlude. The form is a prog-rock form much like “Introduction”, albeit more compact as this song has fewer style/tempo changes and a shorter overall length.
Melody: The first short phrase of each verse starts on the dominant and rises stepwise to the tonic, a C in the middle of treble clef, showing off Cetera’s clear, powerful high vocal range. The second phrase ends by leaping up to the dominant, leaving the end of the phrase open and the listener waiting for more. The next area of the melody (“I’d like to know…”) descends a little lower as the key wanders in the direction of G minor, and rises way back up as the harmony returns to C major at the end each verse (“Appears in my mind…”). Throughout, the melody moves slowly and deliberately. In contrast to the previous couple of songs, the melody here is rhythmically simple and direct. Rather than emphasizing upbeats, the rhythm is mostly straight, slow eighth notes.
Harmony: Suspended 4th chords resolving to major. That is the most characteristic sound of this song’s harmonic content. Starting in the fifth measure, with one chord per measure, a D-flat suspended chord becomes major. Then this pattern repeats for C, B, B-flat, A-flat, and finally G, setting up the home key of C major. (Yes, it skips A. I guess five times was okay, but six was just too many.) The transition from verse 1 to verse 2 as well as from the interlude into verse 3 features an exciting subversion: Gsus4 G Bbsus4 Bb C. We hear V suspended, then V - then the obvious authentic cadence is delayed by the same cadence on B-flat (the lowered 7th) before finally arriving back at I. It’s an interesting device that sounds like a modulation, but ends up back where it started in C major.
The verse chords begin with a simple C major progression with the bass stepping straight down the scale, a progression similar to the Beatles’ “For No One”. (It's even in the same key!) The “I’d like to know” section uses the V/V chord (D major) to meander into G minor, and then an A-flat major chord pulls the key even further flatward, but this starts bringing us back to C major as a borrowed chord (bVI). From there, we have bVI iv Vsus and the delayed authentic cadence I mentioned above.
In the instrumental interlude, the key moves in the sharp direction, first to G major, then all the way to A major. This section manages to get back to the original key by transforming the A to minor and cadencing on G: Amaj7 A-7 D7 Gsus and into the delayed authentic cadence.
Throughout - especially outside of the quicker interlude - the harmonic rhythm is slow and regal, with just one or two chords per (slow) measure.
Arrangement: This piece is not in a hurry to get anywhere! The introduction lasts a whole 44 seconds before the first verse starts, most of it that long, long string of resolving suspended chords. The horn section is quite prominent in this one, all warm, full, round sounds constantly answering and supporting the voice. The horns lead the quicker interlude as the energy ramps up a bit before returning to the broad, grand last verse. This is another example of a horn chart that is incredibly effective without being flashy or difficult.
One of the more interesting things to listen for in Chicago’s early days is how they use the many fine singers they have. They had three strong lead singers with totally different styles who could also harmonize, and three MORE strong backup singers in the horn section. This is a song written by Lamm for Cetera to sing, but the two of them briefly switch roles in a clever way: Cetera sings solo most of the way. Then: “I’d like to know, can you tell me please don’t tell me” is sung by Cetera and Lamm in harmony, the next line (“It really doesn’t matter anyhow”) is Lamm alone, the next harmony, and then Cetera is back singing solo. It gets the lowest line to the lower-voiced Lamm without ever having the two singers sing solo back to back. And it does so on a line that could be perceived as an answer to the earlier lines, spoken by a different person. The title of this song isn’t in the main body of the lyrics, but is shouted at the very end by Peter Cetera.
Terry Kath really lights up the guitar with amazing solos in the introduction and a few bars before the third verse, so it’s easy to miss that those two solos are the only thing he plays on the song! The rest of the way he lays out while Lamm’s piano plays a simple quarter note accompaniment.
The rhythm section on "Questions" is arranged with Danny Seraphine's drums leading the way as he plays lots of active fills throughout the verses. The other rhythm instruments stay out of the way, with the bass and piano playing a simple quarter-note accompaniment and the guitar laying out entirely except for a few solo passages.
Other notes: Chicago had several songs on the first few albums with inexplicable numbers in their titles. This one, according to Robert Lamm himself, is that these questions were rattling around his head in 1967 and 1968.
"Questions" continues and transforms the joy of "Beginnings". While "Beginnings" is a youthful, exuberant shout, "Questions" is triumphant, mature, and settled.
Chicago’s broad, rich horn section sound makes a piece like this one possible. Most horn section in pop music have nasally, edgy, thin sounds, and that kind of tone color wouldn’t work for a triumphant, majestic piece like “Questions”.
The final chord of “Questions” is the I chord, C major, and when the band cuts off the piano continues to hold low octave Cs. The sustained piano note continues for almost half a minute, effectively setting some distance between this piece and the next one even though they are on the same side. (It is perhaps also inspired by the Beatles' similar device to end "A Day in the Life".)
PM
Key: C major
Meter: 4/4
Lead Vocal: Peter Cetera
Form: Extended intro, verse 1, verse 2, double-time interlude, verse 3
Instrumentation: trumpet, tenor sax, trombone, electric solo guitar, piano, bass, drums, tambourine, two voices
Overall form and style: “Questions” is a slow, majestic rock ballad. It’s pompous and grand, one of the very, very few songs in the rock area that earns those adjectives. I suppose some people may point to groups like Pink Floyd and say some of those tunes are majestic, pompous, and grand, but I don’t know that those words really apply to stuff that is merely slow and long. “Questions” achieves through composition and arrangement what tunes like “Time” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” are trying to achieve by mere repetition. Cetera’s soaring vocal complements the stately ensemble playing, and the whole thing is energized by an instrumental middle section in double time.
Formally, you might call the lines starting with “I’d like to know…” as the chorus, since it is the same in every verse, but musically no part of the verse really sounds like a traditional chorus, so I will be calling the whole thing a verse.
There is a long introduction featuring some blazing electric guitar work before the vocals at last come in, and a long instrumental interlude. The form is a prog-rock form much like “Introduction”, albeit more compact as this song has fewer style/tempo changes and a shorter overall length.
Melody: The first short phrase of each verse starts on the dominant and rises stepwise to the tonic, a C in the middle of treble clef, showing off Cetera’s clear, powerful high vocal range. The second phrase ends by leaping up to the dominant, leaving the end of the phrase open and the listener waiting for more. The next area of the melody (“I’d like to know…”) descends a little lower as the key wanders in the direction of G minor, and rises way back up as the harmony returns to C major at the end each verse (“Appears in my mind…”). Throughout, the melody moves slowly and deliberately. In contrast to the previous couple of songs, the melody here is rhythmically simple and direct. Rather than emphasizing upbeats, the rhythm is mostly straight, slow eighth notes.
Harmony: Suspended 4th chords resolving to major. That is the most characteristic sound of this song’s harmonic content. Starting in the fifth measure, with one chord per measure, a D-flat suspended chord becomes major. Then this pattern repeats for C, B, B-flat, A-flat, and finally G, setting up the home key of C major. (Yes, it skips A. I guess five times was okay, but six was just too many.) The transition from verse 1 to verse 2 as well as from the interlude into verse 3 features an exciting subversion: Gsus4 G Bbsus4 Bb C. We hear V suspended, then V - then the obvious authentic cadence is delayed by the same cadence on B-flat (the lowered 7th) before finally arriving back at I. It’s an interesting device that sounds like a modulation, but ends up back where it started in C major.
The verse chords begin with a simple C major progression with the bass stepping straight down the scale, a progression similar to the Beatles’ “For No One”. (It's even in the same key!) The “I’d like to know” section uses the V/V chord (D major) to meander into G minor, and then an A-flat major chord pulls the key even further flatward, but this starts bringing us back to C major as a borrowed chord (bVI). From there, we have bVI iv Vsus and the delayed authentic cadence I mentioned above.
In the instrumental interlude, the key moves in the sharp direction, first to G major, then all the way to A major. This section manages to get back to the original key by transforming the A to minor and cadencing on G: Amaj7 A-7 D7 Gsus and into the delayed authentic cadence.
Throughout - especially outside of the quicker interlude - the harmonic rhythm is slow and regal, with just one or two chords per (slow) measure.
Arrangement: This piece is not in a hurry to get anywhere! The introduction lasts a whole 44 seconds before the first verse starts, most of it that long, long string of resolving suspended chords. The horn section is quite prominent in this one, all warm, full, round sounds constantly answering and supporting the voice. The horns lead the quicker interlude as the energy ramps up a bit before returning to the broad, grand last verse. This is another example of a horn chart that is incredibly effective without being flashy or difficult.
One of the more interesting things to listen for in Chicago’s early days is how they use the many fine singers they have. They had three strong lead singers with totally different styles who could also harmonize, and three MORE strong backup singers in the horn section. This is a song written by Lamm for Cetera to sing, but the two of them briefly switch roles in a clever way: Cetera sings solo most of the way. Then: “I’d like to know, can you tell me please don’t tell me” is sung by Cetera and Lamm in harmony, the next line (“It really doesn’t matter anyhow”) is Lamm alone, the next harmony, and then Cetera is back singing solo. It gets the lowest line to the lower-voiced Lamm without ever having the two singers sing solo back to back. And it does so on a line that could be perceived as an answer to the earlier lines, spoken by a different person. The title of this song isn’t in the main body of the lyrics, but is shouted at the very end by Peter Cetera.
Terry Kath really lights up the guitar with amazing solos in the introduction and a few bars before the third verse, so it’s easy to miss that those two solos are the only thing he plays on the song! The rest of the way he lays out while Lamm’s piano plays a simple quarter note accompaniment.
The rhythm section on "Questions" is arranged with Danny Seraphine's drums leading the way as he plays lots of active fills throughout the verses. The other rhythm instruments stay out of the way, with the bass and piano playing a simple quarter-note accompaniment and the guitar laying out entirely except for a few solo passages.
Other notes: Chicago had several songs on the first few albums with inexplicable numbers in their titles. This one, according to Robert Lamm himself, is that these questions were rattling around his head in 1967 and 1968.
"Questions" continues and transforms the joy of "Beginnings". While "Beginnings" is a youthful, exuberant shout, "Questions" is triumphant, mature, and settled.
Chicago’s broad, rich horn section sound makes a piece like this one possible. Most horn section in pop music have nasally, edgy, thin sounds, and that kind of tone color wouldn’t work for a triumphant, majestic piece like “Questions”.
The final chord of “Questions” is the I chord, C major, and when the band cuts off the piano continues to hold low octave Cs. The sustained piano note continues for almost half a minute, effectively setting some distance between this piece and the next one even though they are on the same side. (It is perhaps also inspired by the Beatles' similar device to end "A Day in the Life".)
PM
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