Song Analysis: A Chicago Concert

This coming summer I will have the incredible and exciting opportunity to go and see Chicago in concert. Throughout my high school career, I was in a chamber choir. My director, born in the 50’s has an affinity for everything Chicago. This affinity led my choir to sing countless Chicago songs, like “25 or 6 to 4”, “Saturday in the Park”, and “Will You Still Love Me?”. Each of these songs now brings me back to a memorable point in my life, which is relived every time I listen to those compositions. Each song has its own meaning to me, which I cultivated through singing these pieces. It was a requirement in choir to understand the time, place and meaning that each song has. The complexities of Chicago’s songs have filled my ears many times and

They started with a small group, in 1966, as a trio group, known as the Missing Links. They slowly added more and more individuals. By the time the end of 1967 rolled around the band was composed of seven members, each member specialized in their own instrument. Today there are 9 members that are a constant presence in the music scene. Once the full band of Chicago was formed they had a slow route to the public eye, they often declined interviews due to their avid practicing and composing (Gile). They did accept some interviews, like this one from 1969, with the trombonist James

Robert Lamm was quoted in an interview a month before the new album, Now - Chicago XXXVI, was released: “I think that there are many people who, whether they like Chicago or don 't like Chicago, assume that what Chicago does is all what you hear on classic rock radio… And we just wanted to kind of change that perception if we could by suggesting 'Now. ' (Graff). Chicago gave themselves a chance to rekindle their relationship with their fans, although Robert Lamm admitted that the album wasn’t supposed to be released in the first place. The group recorded some pieces on the road, to explore their craft and possibly release a few singles over a few years for their fans (Graff). Frontiers Records had something else in mind though, and they quickly signed Chicago and produced this album, which turned out to just as sophisticated as the previous albums. The goal was to stretch the limits, create long and memorable music, and to maintain the Chicago