Chicago Offers Insight Into the Construction of ‘Naked In the Garden of Allah’

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Chicago continues to offer fans unprecedented access into the progress of their long-awaited new project, as co-founding member Robert Lamm posts the step-by-step construction of a track called “Naked In the Garden of Allah.”

Chicago, which somehow has put out just one album of newly recorded original material over the last two decades, is suddenly on a tear. Just last week, they posted previews of two other unfinished tracks, called “Somethin’ Comin,’ I Know” and “Watching All the Colors.” Lamm and Co.’s most recent release was XXXII: Stone of Sisyphus, a previously shelved early-1990s album that finally saw the light of day in 2008. Their most recent recording featuring all-new songs goes back even further, to 2006’s XXX.

Over the weekend, Lamm began by posting clips of the basic track for “Naked In The Garden Of Allah,” heard above, as it became conceptually complete — but without the group’s legendary horns. Lamm says the musical origins of the tune go back to the 1990s, with a narrative added in 2011 after the U.S.’s final troop surge into Afghanistan.

Along the way, “Naked In The Garden Of Allah” reanimates a much earlier period for Chicago in general — and Lamm (who, during the group’s early-1970s heyday, penned some cutting anti-Vietnam War songs), in particular. The lyrics, and the song’s turbulent textures, speak to both the horrors of war and to Lamm’s enduring pleas for peace: “How did we get to this,” Lamm asks, in the notes area of the upload, before adding: “I know. I remember.”

Today, he’s added a fascinating moment of creativity in miniature, by sharing the initial brass elements as sketched out by Trent Gardner — giving us a fuller idea of how this song will ultimately sound, once it’s complete.

Nick DeRiso