Tuesday, February 14, 2017


                  Only the Beginning...

"People running everywhere/don't know where to go/don't know where I am. Can't see past the next step/don't have time to think past the last mile. Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?"  from Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?/Robert Lamm


What were you doing on February 15, 1967? If you lived in Chicago, attended DePaul University and your name was Terry, Robert, Lee, James, Danny or Walter, you were in a basement playing music together for the first time, hoping to be discovered. It wasn't long before a bass player named Peter joined the group that eventually called themselves the Chicago Transit Authority.                

They moved to Los Angeles, landed a record deal, toured and became the rock powerhouse now simply named Chicago. A bit of trivia: what was the first song recorded by Chicago as an official band? (see below) Fifty(!) years later, four original band members remain: Robert Lamm, Lee Loughnane, James Pankow, and Walter Parazaidor (whose mom owned the basement the band first called home). Terry Kath died in 1978. Danny Seraphine and Peter Cetera left the band after differences emerged regarding the band's music and direction (compare Robert Lamm's Listen with Peter Cetera's If You Leave Me Now).


"Then a voice came out of the darkness saying, "Tear the system down. Tear it down."  from State of the Union/Robert Lamm

For rock 'n' rollers accustomed to hearing guitars and drums with an occasional piano, listening to a song driven by a saxophone and trombone was a surprise. If you need to refresh your memory, listen to Terry Kath's Introduction on Chicago Transit Authority

The often political lyrics still resonate 50 years later:

Q: Will you try to change things, use the power that you have, the power of a million new ideas?
A: What is this power you speak of and this need for things to change? I always thought that everything was fine. from Dialogue, Part One/ Robert Lamm

Or, from 1968, "Tell me what you see/faces full of hate and fear/ faces full of me. Do you feel the rumblings...do you know what I mean? from Someday/James Pankow & Robert Lamm


If you're feeling nostalgic, listen to the songs and watch CNN's film, Chicago: Now More Than Ever. You'll hear stories about the band meeting Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix for the first time, life on the road, drugs, cashmere suits, and a continuing love of music. 

"Flying high, touch the sky/going to places I never knew. There must be room for growing somewhere else and I'm going/So goodbye and hello, long ago." from Goodbye/Robert Lamm.

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The city of Chicago is known for a wealth of literature. Some writers are native born Chicagoans, others have adopted the city - or did the city adopt them?

Kathleen Rooney - Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan
Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl
Gwendolyn Brooks - Maud Martha
Erik Larson - Devil in White City
Scott Turow - Presumed Innocent
Sandra Cisneros - The House on Mango Street
Steven Tracy - Writers of the Black Chicago Renaissance
Studs Terkel - Hard Times: An Oral History
Richard Wright - Native Son
Jane Addams - The Jane Addams Reader
Barack Obama - Dreams From my Father
Edna Ferber - So Big
Willa Cather - O Pioneers!
Gordon Parks - A Hungry Heart
Audrey Niffenegger - The Time-Traveller's Wife
Mike Royko - One More Time
Stuart Dybek - The Coast of Chicago
Carl Sandburg - Chicago Poems
Nelson Algren - The Man With the Golden Arm 

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The first recorded song by Chicago?? Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is

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Wednesday, February 1, 2017

                         Febrrruary

"But February made me shiver with every paper I'd deliver. Bad news on the doorstep, I couldn't take one more step. ...something touched me deep inside, the day the music died." >>Don McLean, from American Pie


Since 1959, February 3 has been known as the day the music died. On a cold, snowy Iowa evening after appearing at the Surf Ballroom, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Big Bopper Richardson died in a plane crash. The three men have been immortalized on film, in music and books. If you need a reminder of their songs, listen to Holly's Everyday and That'll Be the Day, Bopper's Chantilly Lace and Walkin' Through My Dreams, and Valens' La Bamba and That's My Little Suzie. Last year was another tough year for music. We said goodbye to David Bowie, Prince, George Michael, Glenn Frey, Leonard Cohen, Merle Haggard, Leon Russell, Paul Kantner and Keith Emerson.

As fans, we often want to know more about our favorite musicians: what's the inspiration of the songs we sing along to; who are their favorite singers; and are we better off not knowing if he or she is a jerk offstage? Lower the needle on some scratchy vinyl and settle back with a biography or memoir by: Bruce Springsteen, Carly Simon, Graham Nash, Phil Collins, David Crosby, Linda Ronstadt, Gregg Allman, Joni Mitchell, Keith Richards, Marvin Gaye, Carole King, John Fogerty, Rita Coolidge, Ann Wilson, Elvis Costello, Diana Ross, Duff McKagan, Cherie Currie, Tom Petty, Ray Charles, Pat Benatar and Jimi Hendrix. This list is only the beginning!       

Looking for something to celebrate this month? Consider National Haiku Writing Month, Library Lovers' Month, National Black History Month. Or, sit down with a new book by J.D. Robb, George Saunders, Deepak Chopra, Jonathan Kellerman, Deborah Crombie, Eric Braeden, Sophie Kinsella, or Daphne Merkin. Watch for a new Nintendo book, too. And just in time to help me figure out another layer of the History Channel's "The Vikings," Neil Gaiman is releasing a new book, Norse Mythology


                              February Days

1      - Change Your Password Day

1-7   - Women's Heart Month

3      - The Day The Music Died, 1959

5-11 - Children's Authors and Illustrators Week
          Freelance Writers' Appreciation Week

7      - Laura Ingalls Wilder Day

9      - Read in the Bathtub Day

10    - All the News That's Fit to Print Day

14    - Library Lovers' Day

15    - Random Acts of Kindness Day

24-26-Girl Scout Cookie weekend

28     - Mardi Gras - Laissez le bon temps rouler



Congratulations to the bookstores on Publishers Weekly's shortlist for Bookstore of the Year. The winner will be announced in March. While traveling, look for these shortlist stores:

Prairie Lights - Iowa City, IA
Wild Rumpus Books - Minneapolis, MN
Parnassus Books - Nashville, TN (thank you, Ann Patchett!)
King's English Bookshop - Salt Lake City, UT
Avid Bookshop - Athens, GA



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