July, 1999 - updated 2005

If you were a Chicago fan in the early 1990s, you may have wondered why there was no album between Twenty-One (1991) and Night and Day (1995)

It wasn't like Chicago was taking a break. In 1992 they recorded what many fans think is their best album since the days of Chicago Transit Authority (their first album) and other albums by the original lineup.

I first learned of the existence of the Stone of Sisyphus album from an unusual source - none other than Chicago trumpet player Lee Loughnane.

When Chicago was touring in 1995, I wangled an interview with Loughnane. I asked him why there had been no album in four years until Night and Day, and he told me that the band had recorded an album called Stone of Sisyphus.

However, management had decided not to release it at that time, he said.

During that same year, Tris Imboden stated in a Modern Drummer interview (December, 1995 issue) that the album would be released in a few months. That's probably what management told him, and may have been the plan at the time. There was a possibility that Giant Records, which released Night and Day, was considering releasing Stone of Sisyphus.

But this album has never been officially released in its entirety. It has, however, been bootlegged extensively, and songs from it have shown up on Chicago import compilations. Alternative versions of certain songs have shown up on solo albums by band members.

Following is an attempt to put the album in historical context. But first, a few words of disclaimer:

The Stone of Sisyphus album is one of the most hotly debated topics among Chicago fans on the Internet. Check out any Chicago board and there are bound to be numerous posts about the album.

I don't claim to know the truth about the album. The facts presented here have been gathered over several years of net surfing. When possible, sources have been quoted. Some of it admittedly is my own conjecture.

With that said, feel free to e-mail me with your information and facts. I can always add it to this page or site.

After the success of Chicago 19 with its blockbuster hit "Look Away," Warner Brothers released a greatest hits collection (Chicago 20) and the band went back to the studio to try to duplicate the success of its previous Warner/David Foster albums.

But Twenty-One, despite some strong songs (If It Were You, God Save the Queen, Who Do You Love) did not sell well. The band played "You Come to My Senses" on the Arsenio Hall late night show. The performance was weak and at least one band member thought about hanging it up.

Dawayne Bailey, who was Chicago's guitarist at the time, has this to say about that performance: "The performance of You Come To My Senses was only weak on Jason Scheff's part - I truly believe the rest of the band played it well, despite the fafact that our souls were all vomitting on the inside having to perform this atrocity on not only national tv. but on a tv show that was based on soul and funk music." (Bailey was NOT the band member who thought about hanging it up).

The group didn't even play songs off of the Twenty-One album on tour.

So here's where we get into some conjecture: did Chicago tell Warner Brothers it was tired of doing sappy ballads by outside writers, and demanded the opportunity to do an album that truly reflected the band?

Or did they just go crazy in that Simi Valley studio in 1992 and 1993?

Peter Wolf was brought on board to produce the project, tentatively titled Chicago 22. This Peter Wolf, not to be confused with the singer of the J. Geils Band, is a noted producer. He has worked with Starship and many other artists, including Jason Scheff, Chicago's bass player/lead vocalist.

Arguably, Wolf got more out of the band than any producer since James William Guercio, who produced all of the albums through Chicago XI. (David Foster fans, control yourself. I agree that Foster should be duly credited for resurrecting Chicago.)

The band recorded the album in Wolf's studio. Band members for the album were the remaining originals: Loughnane, James Pankow, Walter Parazaider and Robert Lamm; three of the longer-tenured replacements, Bill Champlin, Jason Scheff and Dawayne Bailey; and relatively new drummer Tris Imboden.

Bruce Gaitsch played guitar on most of the cuts. He also would do most of the guitar work for Night and Day.

Every song had at least one band member as an author; no Diane Warren ballads were to be found.

The band had scored with a Warren song on 19, but her songs on Twenty-One didn't go anywhere. Some fans have blamed lack of promotion.

The album's title and title song came from an unlikely source: guitarist Dawayne Bailey. Although Bailey had been the band's touring guitarist since July of 1986, his involvement in albums had been limited mainly to background vocals and occasional guitar parts.

It's not that Bailey didn't have the talent. However, the various producers chose to use studio players (and in the case of Chas Sanford, himself) on the albums. But at least Bailey was in on most of the background vocals, as he is a talented singer with a Peter Cetera-like range.

Bailey first wrote the music to "Stone of Sisyphus." Loughnane happened to hear it and liked it. Bailey added words based on the myth of Sisyphus. The song originally was titled "20 Years on the Sufferbus," but Bailey changed it because the word "sufferbus" already was taken by a band called Masters of Reality and the name of their album at the time was called "Sunrise on the Sufferbus."

In the opinion of this writer, the myth of Sisyphus seems to parallel the history of the album and of the group. According to Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned to continually roll a stone up a hill, but every time he got near the top, the stone would roll back down the hill and he would have to start again.

Although the song is credited to Bailey and Loughnane, all of the words and music were written by Bailey. I do not know how Loughnane ended up with a writing credit.

The song "Stone of Sisyphus" is, in this writer's opinion, the best on the album. It's an up tempo rocker with bold, brassy horns. Lamm and Bailey sing lead vocals. It's classic Chicago updated for the 90s. Bailey helped with the horn arrangements, giving them a somewhat different style than the usual Chicago horns.

The song appeared on the Canadian import compilation "Overtime" along with "Bigger Than Elvis."

Bailey's rocking edge also shows up in "Get on This," a collaboration with James Pankow. According to Bailey, Pankow called him up one afternoon and said the group needed another rocker for the album, and that Bailey was the man for it. Bailey went over to Pankow's house and they produced "Get On This." Bailey wrfote the verse and chorus lyrics. Pankow wrote the bridge lyrics. Bailey incorporated some poetry written by Felicia Parazaider.

The album has strong songwriting. Peter and Ina Wolf, along with Jason Scheff, share songwriting credit for ed "Bigger Than Elvis" as a tribute to Jason's father, Jerry Scheff. He was Elvis Presley's bass player in the TCB (Taking Care of Business) band. Elvis' backup singers, the Jordanaires, also appear on the song. Jerry Scheff played bass on the latter part of the song. Peter and Ina Wolf share the songwriting credit with Scheff.

Scheff also contributed "Let's Take a Lifetime," a nice ballad about taking time with love. There are at least two known versions of this song - a short "single" version that showed up on the European import album "The Very Best of Chicago;" and a longer version, presumably the album cut, that has shown up on bootlegs.

The third Scheff contribution is "Mah Jong," an uptempo song featuring a gritty Bill Champlin lead vocal and another example of the revived Chicago horn section. An alternate version of this song was on Scheff's solo album "Chauncy."

Lamm brought "All the Years," a politically-tinged song that recalls the issue-oriented work of Lamm's younger years. Gaitsch co-wrote it. It harkens back to the Chicago Transit Authority album in that it uses a sample of the demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. An alternate version of this song was on Lamm's solo album "Life is Good in My Neighborhood." The SOS version showed up on the green-colored Japanese release "The Heart of Chicago 1967-1981, Volume II."

Lamm's "Sleeping in the Middle of the Bed" contains elements of rap. A solo version of this cut appears on Lamm's album "In My Head." John McCurry co-wrote the song with Lamm.

Also on the album is "The Pull," a collaboration of Peter Wolf, Scheff and Lamm. It may have been the first song from the album to have been legally released in any form. In the 1993 "Live at the Greek Theater" video, Lamm introduces the song as being "from the new Chicago album." Scheff and Lamm do great vocals on both the video and album version. The song was included on the 1998 Japanese release "The Heart of Chicago 1982-1998 Volume II."

That same, gold-covered compilation includes "Here With Me," also known as "Candle for the Dark." Pankow, Lamm and Greg O'Connor collaborated on this song. Champlin and Scheff deliver marvelous lead vocals.

Champlin is the dominant musician on "Plaid," "The Show Must Go On," and "Cry for the Lost" (aka "Proud of Our Blindness"). None of those three songs has been officially released. "Proud of Our Blindness" was featured on Champlin's solo album "Through It All."

"Officially released" - that's the rub.

After learning of SOS, this writer held out for three years in the hope that Chicago would release the album. I finally gave up and acquired a bootleg. Although it was recorded under the auspices of Warner Brothers Records, Chicago Records owns the master. Who owns Chicago Records, and thus controls the masters? Da boyz from the Windy City.

The band has been besieged with requests for the release of the album. Reportedly, one group of fans threw SOS brand soap bands on the stage at one concert. (This writer does not condone throwing objects at performing groups, or anyone else for that matter.)

In 1998, the band went to great lengths to say the album would not be released. Harold Sulman, who ran the now-defunct Chicago Records, emphatically stated at the 1998 fan club convention that the album would not be released, and that he would not take questions on the subject.

It's hard to tell what the band's feelings about the album are. In a 1998 magazine interview, Lamm refers to SOS as an "album we'd like to see released."

Imboden spoke highly of the album in the Modern Drummer article, and there's at least one Pankow interview on record in which he praises the album.

Just why didn't Warner Brothers release the album? It almost did.

Reportedly, the label had done the design work, had a master made, and was taking pre-orders. It abruptly canceled the release not once, but twice in 1993.

There are reports of large quantities of the album being manufactured, only to be destroyed. There are rumors that some copies survived. However, these are just rumors. I am not aware of any actual official copies that exist. Peter Wolf has said that the recordings were never mastered. If the recordings never were mastered, then there could not be any copies manufactured.

Like the original Stone of Sisyphus, the album almost got the top of the hill, only to roll back down.

Internet Chicago fans got excited in 1998 when an on-line seller of rare albums offered the album for sale. It was listed with the original Warner release number, and fans hoped that someone had discovered a cache of albums in a warehouse somewhere.

Alas, it was not to be. No one who ordered the album ever received it. There also are rumors that a warehouse in Japan was full of the albums, but those also were destroyed.

It is a mystery Why Warner Brothers went as far as it did with the album without releasing it.

Another mystery was why Chicago didn't release the album when they operated their own label, Chicago Records.

In defense of Chicago, "Stone of Sisyphus" probably is dated to the point that it would not be a big seller. It's debatable whether it has any potential radio hits.

However, Chicago Records released "Live in Japan" and "The Innovative Guitar of Terry Kath," two albums that didn't have tremendous sales potential, but which were nonetheless appealing to hard-core fans.

Copies of the album show up on Internet auction sites, usually E-Bay and Yahoo. These albums are CD-R copies of the alleged original album. It isn't hard to surf the Internet and score a good quality tape of the album - often at no charge.

Please note that this practice is illegal. Chicago has the legal right not to release the album. Their decision not to release the album does not give anyone the right to make illegal copies.

That makes me a hypocrite, to some extent, because I broke down and obtained a tape of the complete album in 1998. It was a good quality copy, and the album simply blew me away.

Legally, though, you can put together a semblance of the SOS album. Here are the songs that have been released in the form in which they were recorded for SOS:

All the Years, Stone of Sisyphus, The Pull, Here With Me, Bigger Than Elvis, Sleeping in the Middle of the Bed Again, and Let's Take a Lifetime.

That's seven of 12. Alternative versions of "Mah Jong," "Cry for the Lost," "All the Years" and "Sleeping in the Middle of the Bed Again" have surfaced on band members' solo albums.

"The Pull" is on the Greek Theatre video.

The best hope for a release of the album is on the Rhino label, which has been reissuing Chicago albums. One option would be Rhino's "Handmade" imprint.

Chicago fans continue the fight for the release of the album. Perhaps they are taking to heart a line from the title song from SOS:

"I'm gonna take the Stone of Sisyphus (and) I'm going to roll it back to you."

Other information about Stone of Sisyphus:

Here's the song sequence most commonly reported for the proposed album: