Word: bop
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Whatever the fad, the Top 40 is territory that has not often been treated to the sound of well-groomed bop and is usually alien to lyrics of such well-tuned wit as these: "He was sittin' behind us down at the Pantages/ And whatever it is that he's got up his sleeve/ I hope it isn't contagious/ What's her name?/ Is that her there?/ Christ, I think he's even combed his hair!" For this song about the amours of Chuck E., and for a fine new album full of similar...
This battle-of-the-sexes takes place against the backdrop of a Chicago nightclub and jazzy be-bop syncopation. The era? When guys packed heaters and goils snapped chewing gum and were referred to as having "gams," instead of legs. People mispronounced words longer than three syllables. Gun molls abounded, and their boyfriends had special revolver pockets fitted into their suits...
...electric bass works beautifully, and Corea is literally all over the place--playing synthesizer, playing piano, stamping his feet with excitement. Appropriately, the encore is a Corea-Clarke duet; the chemistry between the two is obvious as they perform a free improvisation that is loosely based on the bop standard "On Green Dolphin Street...
...Sullivan and his cameras saw a cash crop of bop sweating teenagers making all kinds of marketable noises. The money people record the noises and sell them back to their creators...
...problem with Hot Streets is its narrow focus on love and the loss of love as song subjects. Only the fact that Chicago can do a love song in a great variety of styles and patterns--from slow and moody, to light and airy, to classic bop-bop-bop hard rocking--saves the album from an over-specialization of theme. Still, one wishes they would throw in a few of the political songs they once did, before the '70s musical paradigms ruled out everything but immediate gratification as valid musical topics...