The Golden Oldies: Chicago

Words by Liz | photos by Emma

We owe a huge part of our love and fascination for old music to our ole’ daddio, Rog. There was rarely a Saturday morning where we didn’t get up to one of his albums from nineteen-seventy-something blasting throughout the house as our wake up call. We spent evenings in the living room dancing and prancing around to the Beach Boys and never sang John Denver’s Thank God I’m a Country Boy without screaming it at the top of our lungs alongside our dad and older siblings. These memories shaped us into the music lovers we are today.

One of my oldest recollections of appreciating music was hearing the song 25 or 6 to 4 by the band Chicago. I felt empowered and confident when I heard it, and I always wanted it to be played over and over again. My dad would share the story of when he was in high school and saw the band live. He and his friends were the only people who had tickets at the back of the arena, and for a couple songs the whole band turned around and played just for my dad's gang. He still has his little orange ticket stub with some autographs he got when he met the band afterwards. That was in 1972, over 25 years before I was even born, yet it’s still one of my favorite concert stories. I still daydream about seeing Chicago live and often wonder just how bangin' their shows were back in the seventies.

To give you a little bit of background, Chicago is a soft rock band from- you guessed it- Chicago! They aren’t just any old American soft rock band, though. They have a horn section. A HORN SECTION, Y’ALL. If that’s not the recipe for some LIT tunes, I honestly don’t know what is. They started in 1967 with a solid group of guys and have changed throughout the years but they are still out on the road. Still killin’ it. I suggest watching their documentary that CNN aired a few months ago called Now More Than Ever: The History of Chicago. It’s one of my favorite documentaries and it gives great insight on the rise and fall (and rise again) of bands, the struggles they faced, the trials they overcame, and the victories they shared. Let us know if you dip into their extensive discography, take a peek at their documentary, or end up selling your soul to this band as I have. We’d love to hear back!

Check out the playlist below for some of my favorite Chicago tunes and feel free to follow @honeypunchmag on Spotify for more!