In the early days of the online world, a group of Chicago fans established a home on the online service provider known as Prodigy. As a fan in his mid-teens, I was excited to find others that shared my love of Chicago. That’s where I learned more about this band that I had newly discovered, and in the wake of the recently released 1991 album Twenty 1, I was thirsty for new music.
Word started to leak out from Prodigy message boards that Chicago was making an album that would be unlike anything we had heard from them in years. They were going to focus on in-house writing, de-emphasize ballads, and they were going to experiment again with instruments and arrangements. It was honestly a very exciting time.
Fast forward to September 1993, and I am preparing to attend my very first Chicago concert. Rumors indicated that the band would play “The Pull” from the new album on tour. I couldn’t wait to hear this new gem from my favorite band. I knew from listening to the first few notes as they floated on the autumn air that “The Pull” was different from anything I had heard on the previous three albums.
I emphasize the version of “The Pull” from that fall day in San Diego because it was the first time I ever heard the song, and because of the buzz around the Stone of Sisyphus album at the time. As a young fan, I felt like I was listening to a renaissance of Chicago. Old versus new, transitioning to a “new” new.
The strengths of “old” Chicago were anchored in the powerful horn lines, the intricate arrangements, and the juxtaposing vocals – elements that had been pushed into the background in recent albums. However, this song featured all of these. This was a Chicago song for the ’90s. Horns, vocals, a great lead guitar, and an outstanding arrangement: If this was what the new album was going to sound like, then Chicago was back!
“The Pull” isn’t a love song; instead, it hints at something more introspective. The track showed a lyrical depth to the band that hadn’t been explored since the death of Terry Kath. With lead vocals by Jason Scheff and accompanying vocals on the bridge by Robert Lamm, “The Pull” was a welcome change from their most recent studio projects. When Chicago: Live at the Greek followed in 1994, I recorded “The Pull” off of the VHS and listened to it all the time. To this day, this is still one of my favorite Chicago songs – not just because of its catchiness or musicality, but because of what it represented at the time.
Sadly, we will never know what impact Stone of Sisyphus would have made in its time. After the album was shelved, fans were only able to listen to the songs as they appeared on various compilations, solo albums, or cassette bootleg versions. The masterful work hinted at on that warm September would have to wait 15 years to see the light of day as a finished piece. By then, so much had changed.
Listening to this song all of these years later, I still wonder what might have been. This Jason Scheff/Robert Lamm composition never had its day with the general public, but for that brief period of time Chicago fans were granted an excitement and anticipation they haven’t had since.
- Chicago, “90 Degrees and Freezing” from ‘Chicago XXX’ (2006): Saturdays in the Park - October 23, 2021
- Chicago, “Show Me a Sign” from ‘Heart of Chicago Vol. II’ (1998): Saturdays in the Park - August 14, 2021
- Chicago, “Sophisticated Lady” from ‘Night & Day: Big Band’ (1995): Saturdays in the Park - May 29, 2021
