Stone Of Sisyphus is the title of an unreleased studio album by the jazz-rock band Chicago, recorded in 1993. The set was originally titled Chicago 22. January 2006 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → 31 January 2006 (Tuesday) U.S. President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). ... Chicago is a rock band that was formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. ...

History

After the disappointing sales of Twenty 1, keyboardist Robert Lamm indicated that the band felt it would be best to succeed or fail on its own merits. Produced by Peter Wolf and set for release in 1994, Stone was to mark the return to the adventurous and experimental sound the band had established in their glory years of the early 1970s, with a modern refurbishing. It was meant to be a drastic departure from the familiar power-ballad mode the group had become locked into. Twenty 1 is the twenty-first album by American rock band Chicago, released in 1991. ... Robert William Lamm (born October 13, 1944 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American keyboardist, singer and songwriter. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ...

The Songs

The soaring title track, written and co-sung by guitarist Dawayne Bailey, was based on Greek mythology - a man named Sisyphus forced to climb up a huge mountain with a rolling stone. Upon reaching the mountaintop successfully with the stone, he would be free of the curse. But the stone kept rolling down the mountain, thus he would have to start all over again. Dawayne Bailey is an American guitarist who has toured and recorded with Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band and Chicago. ... Sisyphus (Greek Σίσυφος; transliteration: Sísuphos; IPA: ), in Greek mythology, was a sinner punished in the underworld by being set to roll a huge rock up a hill throughout eternity. ...

In discussion, members of the band felt that the myth related to their career, and songs such as "Plaid," "The Show Must Go On," and guitarist Dawayne Bailey's title track operate on that subtext (however, since all songs were written and recorded before the title track lyrics were written--and before the band decided on the album title--none of these songs were pre-conceived from this concept; this coincidence lends a "concept album" feel to a record that was not designed to be one).

Other songs follow more predictable patterns. "All The Years" is a Lamm political statement (featuring a sample straight off of the Chicago Transit Authority album), "Bigger Than Elvis" is a nice Valentine to Jerry Scheff (bassist Jason Scheff's father, who played on the track without knowing the subject matter and who played for Elvis Presley, along with The Jordanaires, the gospel group who often sang backing vocals for Elvis), "Let's Take A Lifetime" and "Here With Me" are love ballads, with "The Pull" and the thunderous "Get On This" being straight-ahead rockers. Quincy L Station serving the Brown Line, Purple Line and Orange Line The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), founded on October 1, 1947, provides bus and rail mass transit services to the citizens of Chicago and several of the citys inner suburbs. ...

Unique are the funky "Mah Jongg" and "Cry for the Lost" (a Champlin tune originally titled "Proud Of Our Blindness" and submitted to Michael Jackson) in that they defy easy categories. Lamm, Bill Champlin, Jason Scheff, and James Pankow take lead roles on this production, and it must be said that it is among Chicago's best work. Important, too, are the contributions of guitarist/vocalist Dawayne Bailey, and session sideman Bruce Gaitsch. For other people with the same name, see Michael Jackson (disambiguation) Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29, 1958), also known by the nicknames King of Pop and Wacko Jacko, is an American musician whose successful music career and controversial personal life have been at the forefront of pop culture for... The popular soulful singer and keyboardist/guitarist Bill Champlin was born on June 21, 1947 in Marin County, California. ... Jason Randolph Scheff (born April 16, 1962 in San Diego, California) is an American bassist, singer and songwriter. ... James Carter Pankow (born August 20, 1947) is an American trombonist and songwriter who is best known as one of the founding members of the rock band Chicago. ... Dawayne Bailey is an American guitarist who has toured and recorded with Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band and Chicago. ...

The Album's Demise

Warner Bros. Records, Chicago's record company at the time, was displeased with the album, and thus dismissed Sisyphus as being "unreleasable". This led to an acrimonious split with the band. The band's failure to issue an official press release regarding the album's mothballing and subsequent departure of guitarist Dawayne Bailey left fans to years of rampant debate and conjecture about the events surrounding Stone. Through its official Web site, as well as public discussion forums of past and present band members, the band has actively worked to quell discussion and debate about Stone, while releasing a series of more mainstream albums that have not sold well. Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) is one of the four major record labels. ...

A good amount of information about the project, including sound clips and lyrics, can be found on former Chicago guitarist Dawayne Bailey's Web site

Current status

Like The Beach Boys/Brian Wilson's SMiLE, Sisyphus has built a legend of its own. Tracks from the unreleased album have surfaced on bootleg recordings, and even through the Internet. The band seems to have done nothing to stop this, and many of the songs have since appeared on legitimate compilations as well. Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson and Mike Love The Beach Boys are a pop music group formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961 who are widely considered one of the most influential bands in rock and pop music history. ... Brian Wilson, 1988 Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942, in Hawthorne, California) is an American pop musician, best known as a founding member of and the main producer, composer, and arranger for The Beach Boys. ... Smile, which for many years was perhaps the most famous unreleased rock and roll album of all time (sometimes spelled with the idiosyncratic partial capitalization SMiLE, derived from the lettering on the original cover), was intended by its creator Brian Wilson as the follow up to The Beach Boys influential... A bootleg recording is a audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. ...

The title cut and "Bigger Than Elvis" were first released in Canada on the 1995 double CD compilation Overtime (Astral Music). A single edit-version of "Let's Take A Lifetime" debuted in Europe on the 1996 Arcade Records compilation called The Very Best Of Chicago (a title which would be reused in North America in 2002). 5 of the 12 tracks were released in Japan between 1997-1998 on the very rare green and gold editions of The Heart of Chicago compilations: "All The Years" (debut), "Bigger Than Elvis", and "Sleeping In The Middle Of The Bed Again" (debut) all appear on the green-clad The Heart of Chicago 1967-1981, Volume II (Teichiku, 1997), with "The Pull" and "Here With Me (A Candle For The Dark)" appearing on the gold-clad The Heart of Chicago 1982-1998, Volume II (WEA Japan, 1998).

Lamm recorded a solo version of "All The Years" for his 1995 solo album Life Is Good In My Neighborhood, and a solo version of "Sleeping In The Middle Of The Bed (Again)" for his 1999 album In My Head. Champlin recorded "Proud Of Our Blindness" for his 1995 solo album Through It All, whose liner notes included his stinging criticism of the major record labels inspired by the row Chicago had with WB over Sisyphus. Jason Scheff recorded a solo version of "Mah Jongg" for his 1997 solo album Chauncy.

In 2003, the group finally allowed three tracks from Sisyphus, "All The Years", the title cut and "Bigger Than Elvis", to be officially released in the U.S. on their CD compilation box set by Rhino Records. As of 2005, the album as a whole remains officially unreleased to the public, though it continues to be in great demand by dedicated fans. The group's vague, mixed messages about the demise and possible resurrection of this album continue to puzzle those same fans, who wonder where the band would be today had this effort seen the light of day as intended. Their reward will to finally see this great effort released to the listening public in the format and packaging originally intended by the creators--the ones who put the "blood, sweat and tears" into the album in the first place. // Events January - following an investigation by The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and London detectives, police raids in England and the Netherlands recover nearly 500 original Beatles studio tapes, recorded during the Let It Be sessions. ... Rhino Entertainment is a specialty record label originally known for releasing retrospectives of famous comedy performers, including Richard Pryor, Stan Freberg, Tom Lehrer, and Spike Jones. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Dawayne Bailey's Stone of Sisyphus page
• Chicago's Lost Album - The Stone of Sisyphus