THE PAST REMINDS US SO MUCH OF THE PRESENT

I don't exactly know what's gotten me on this trip back in time I've been having recently. You may have read one of my posts from a few days ago remembering the years I spent in suburban Houston and falling in love. Those were great days.

It may be listening to a greatest hits collection from my all-time favourite band, Chicago, wishing I would be able to attend their upcoming concert at the Ford Ampitheatre in Tampa. Their early blend of rock, jazz, and a touch of blues were unique for the time, and only a few other bands such as Earth, Wind, and Fire and Blood, Sweat, and Tears have succeeded with similar sounds.

One of Chicago's lead songwriters, keyboardist Robert Lamm, spiced some of the group's early hits with political commentary. After all, many of their fans were college students who were strongly opposed to the Vietnam War which was still raging in the very late 1960s/early 1970s. Listening to one of those tunes from 1972, Dialogue (Parts I and II), is so appropriate today as well. The late Terry Kath and Peter Cetera do the back-and-forth dialogue on the first part of this piece, and the group joins end for the real message:

Dialogue (Parts I and II) - Robert Lamm

Terry: Are you optimistic 'bout the way things are going?

Peter: No, I never ever think of it at all

Terry: Don't you ever worry when you see what's going down?

Peter: No, I try to mind my business, that is, no business at all

Terry: When it's time to function as a feeling human being, will your Bachelor
of Arts help you get by?

Peter: I hope to study further, a few more years or so. I also hope to keep a steady high

Terry: Will you try to change things, use the power that you have, the power of a million new ideas?

Peter: What is this power you speak of and this need for things to change?
I always thought that everything was fine

Terry: Don't you feel repression just closing in around?

Peter: No, the campus here is very, very free

Terry: Does it make you angry the way war is dragging on?

Peter: Well, I hope the President knows what he's into, I don't know

Terry: Don't you see starvation in the city where you live, all the needless hunger, all the needless pain?

Peter: I haven't been there lately, the country is so fine, but my neighbors don't seem hungry 'cause they haven't got the time

(Insturmental break)

Terry: Thank you for the talk, you know you really eased my mind. I was troubled by the shapes of things to come.

Peter: Well, if you had my outlook your feelings would be numb, you'd always think that everything was fine.

(Insturmental break leading into Part II)

Group: We can make it happen...We can change the world now...We can save the children...We can make it better...We can make it happen...We can save the children...We can make it happen