tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319982385052710495.post9091137418997956218..comments2024-03-25T14:00:23.934-04:00Comments on The Land of Whatever: Musical Interlude: The Night Chicago Died (1974)hobbyfanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08089664500077967952noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319982385052710495.post-10596096834418319862017-04-14T11:48:43.986-04:002017-04-14T11:48:43.986-04:00Historical inaccuracies never stopped anything fro...Historical inaccuracies never stopped anything from being successful, unfortunately.hobbyfanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08089664500077967952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319982385052710495.post-40125866705036036092017-04-14T11:20:27.421-04:002017-04-14T11:20:27.421-04:00When this song came out, we who actually lived in ...When this song came out, we who actually lived in Chicago had a major laugh at the expense of the performers.<br />Where to start?<br />First of all, Chicago <i>doesn't have an "East Side" - old or otherwise</i>.<br />There's a North Side - that's where the Irish, German, and Jewish gangsters held sway.<br />There's a West Side - that's where the Italian-Sicilian faction was based, extending into Western suburbs like Cicero and Berwyn (<i>Berwyn?</i>).<br />And of course the South Side, which was the object of many of the ongoing Unpleasantnesses.<br />And satellite areas like the Southwest Side, which is where I'm from. We just watched, and stayed out of the way as much as possible.<br />Other satellite areas were Southeast and Northwest, but I think you get the idea.<br />"The Old East Side?"<br />That might be the Lakefront, where the Rich People lived - but the Mobs steered clear of that part of town; those were the paying customers for booze, dope, and sex, and they didn't care who got killed, as long as it wasn't them.<br />The sillyass Brit rockers who came up with this dumb song obviously got their "history" from old Warner Bros movies, conflating with the ones set in Manhattan (which of course <i>does</i> have a Lower East Side - but that's <i>another</i> story ...).<br /><br />Oh, and any and all gun battles tended to happen in the dead of winter, and well out of public view.<br /><br />This is all kidding, of course - nobody takes a Britrock song seriously as history.<br />Funny thing, though - we in the Cities are curiously protective of our Gangster Pasts.<br />It's not unlike the way Americans love the myths of the Wild West - the more mythical the better.<br />Ultimately, what bugged us about "The Night Chicago Died" was that it's such a stupid song.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05527404061764217504noreply@blogger.com