Songs about the City: I *heart* Chicago

As a little intro, we thought it’d be cool for the three of us to talk about what song we feel best fits our little towns.  Araceli, for NY, has chosen the illustrious rat packer himself, Frank Sinatra’s  “New York, New York” as a befitting jewel of a song for the Big Apple.  (Does anyone call it that anymore?)

So, yeah.  Araceli chose a song BY a New Yorker ABOUT a New Yorker, so now I’ll do the same for Chicago.  There’s a few tempting choices:

• I could easily go the Wilco route and say “Via Chicago,” but if you’re listening to that song you’ll quickly figure out it has very little to do with Chicago.
• I’m a big fan of “Slow Down Chicago” by Canasta but that really doesn’t SAY that much about the city that it doesn’t say about every metropolis — it’s busy.
• Gil Scott-Heron’s “Home is Where the Hatred Is,” is tough not to choose.  Scott-Heron not only is a soul icon, hip-hop progenator, poet, author, and freedom fighter, but was also born in Chicago proper (though raised in Tennesse).  The same song was sampled more recently by another icon raised by accomplished southside civic leaders — Kanye West’s “My Way Home” from the Late Registration LP samples it exclusively.
• Paper Lace’s “The Night Chicago Died” is a hilarious song.  And quite a re-telling of a riot during Al Capone’s bootlegging days… unfortunately it was written by four guys from Nottingham UK that have no idea what they’re talking about.  E.G., starting the song, “Daddy was a cop / on the east side of Chicago” (Psst, the east side wold be a lake).  Also adding to its Chicago lore –  in the movie High Fidelity, Barry (Jack Black) adds it to his Top 5 Songs About Death: A Laura’s Dad Tribute List.  He ad libs some new lyrics though… “The night Laura’s daddy died. Sha na na na na na na na na! Brother what a night it really was. Mother what a night it really… angina’s tough! Glory be!”

Though Scott-Heron would be, like, the “well-informed” one to pick, I have to go with one I’ve always loved forever and ever.  That’s Aliotta, Haynes and Jeremiah’s “Lake Shore Drive”

It’s a beautiful piece of music with a wonderful shambling piano part, a road-tripping feel and some great lyrics.  They lyrics not only recall some vibrant nostalgic drives, but also drops some references that show the artist was certainly familiar and fond of Chicago, even if the band was from West Allis, WI.

It was not until recently, when I heard this song again, that I realized it was also a road tripping song.  AH&D may have just been using my favorite road in Cook County as a thinly-veiled drug reference… “Just slippin’ on by on LSD, Friday night trouble-bound…” is just one of the many acid references in the song , most of which are equally unclever.  Regardless, it’s still a really pretty song.  Enjoy! (Along with some shoddy photography):

Tomorrow is Record Store Day!

Sometimes I wonder if calling albums, “records” will become as antiquated as calling portable stereos “boom boxes”. Eitherway, I’m still calling them boom boxes so that’s neither here nor there. Years from now you will sit your grandchildren down and tell them that, in your day, if you wanted to buy music you had to leave your home and walk over to what was then called a “record store”.

In the near future, of course, songs never heard before or since will be generated and downloaded directly into your brain based on 30+ years of personalized last.fm information. But until that time comes (and while the RIAA and major labels work backwards trying to ruin “Mom & Pop” record stores), music culture is still flourishing at your local bastion of Indie. If you think I’m referring to Best Buy, please kindly close this window now.

Good. Now that they’re gone, tomorrow (April 19th) is National Record Store Day. A day in which, “all indie-record stores are invited to participate… [with] … in-store performances, sales, demonstrations, dances… everything that makes an indie record store unique should be on display…”

There are plenty of goodies and in-store shows taking place all over the US of A. In Chicago, Reckless Records in having some prize give-aways, Permanent Records is hosting an in-store show with Grand Ole Party and Purricane. Meanwhile, Reggie’s Rock Club, a historic South Loop indie staple since late 2007, is hosting a 3-stage, 27-band extravaganza. There’s a bunch more stuff going on, check the list of local records shops participating here.

Stephen Malkmus and Vampire Weekend are also both releasing limited-edition EP’s for the occasion. (Maybe Records Store Day is finally the time to ask someone why an “extended player” is longer than a “long player”. I’ve always been curious).

Not mentioned as part of record store’s celebration of uniqueness is the classic over the counter know-it-all-isms that we all loathe but actually crave. -Brian Howe Battle