“All the Years,” from the controversial Stone of Sisyphus, is easily the greatest song composed and recorded by Chicago – or any current or former member of the band – after Terry Kath’s passing. It has Robert Lamm’s personality all over it.
Composed by Lamm and Bruce Gaitsch, the guitarist Chicago used during the sessions for 1995’s Night & Day: Big Band, this track harkens back to the early days of the band when politics and social commentary songs were a routine part of their repertoire.
“All the Years” is a such a contrast from their work on the albums that immediately preceded it that I almost cried when I heard it, because its excellence proves how far Chicago had fallen from the top of a mountain they once ruled. Perhaps that is why we see the legendary Sisyphus on the album cover, trying so hard to push the rock that symbolizes their career back up the mountain. “All the Years” is Lamm’s attempt to accomplish that.
James Pankow’s horn chart is superb. He hadn’t written one this perfect since “Get Away” on 1982’s Chicago 16. The horns are not just an afterthought: They’re an integral part of the arrangement – and that’s the way it always was when Chicago was at the top of their game. The opening guitar lick, suggested by Bill Champlin, is pretty cool too.
“All the Years” is about the political activism of the late ’60s, and how Lamm believes that despite all their efforts things hadn’t really changed in the ’90s: “All the years we wasted, all the years we tried.” The mid-section includes samples of a speech from Martin Luther King Jr. and the phrase “the whole world’s watching” that protestors shouted outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Those words are a reprise of the same chant Lamm used on Side 4 of Chicago’s debut album, 1969’s superlative Chicago Transit Authority.
“All the Years” and Stone of Sisyphus were scheduled for release in 1994. When the entire album was shelved by Warner Bros., Lamm added the track to his disappointing, synthesizer-heavy solo album Life is Good in My Neighborhood in 1995. Fortunately, the full-band version was released in 2008 – and Robert Lamm’s masterwork was finally gifted to the world.
