It can safely be said that Chicago had never recorded a song like “Get On This” before Stone of Sisyphus. It can also be safely said that they’ve not recorded a song remotely like it since. “Get On This” was ballsy, adventurous, and risky — all things that Chicago had arguably not been in a long time.
It can also be said that the song is somewhat divisive: There are plenty of fans who quite enjoy it for all of the reasons previously stated, and others that feel “Get On This” was too ballsy, adventurous, and risky — that it didn’t sound like Chicago. The counterpoint to that argument is an in-your-face horn chart the likes of which the band hadn’t recorded, arguably, since the Terry Kath era.
But looking over at the 800-pound gorilla in the room — the lyrics — a case can be made for this track not sounding like Chicago. One of only two songs co-written by then-guitarist Dawayne Bailey, “Get On This” is chock full of over-the-top imagery. Much of the song’s lyrics were taken from poetry written by Felicia Parazaider, daughter of founding Chicago member and woodwind player Walt Parazaider, and are describing a dream.
I suppose “Get On This” describes the kind of dream one might have when finally falling asleep after staying awake until 25 or 6 to 4 a.m. to write a song. While I appreciate the image-rich lyrics and the risks taken by Chicago in recording the song, I can concede the lyrics could be jarring to fans expecting the classic lyrics of “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” or “Just You ‘N’ Me” or “Make Me Smile.” “Get On This” very clearly has lyrics that are nothing like those songs.
“Get On This” was conspicuously absent from the belatedly released Stone of Sisyphus in 2008, despite having been a staple of bootleg versions that had circulated for 14 years. Instead, it was replaced with an unreleased demo of a ballad called “Love is Forever” that had been recorded during the Chicago Twenty 1 sessions.
There’s a reason why the song didn’t make it onto 1991’s Twenty 1, and it’s the same reason “Love is Forever” didn’t need to see the light of day on the inevitable release of Stone of Sisyphus: It’s bland and boring and everything that Chicago claimed that this album wasn’t. There was no musical adventurousness to “Love is Forever”; it’s a dime-a-dozen, cookie-cutter ballad with insipid lyrics. It’s the very antithesis of “Get On This.”
While I know that Dawayne Bailey’s parting from Chicago was acrimonious, to replace a song as ballsy as “Get On This” with a ballad as bland as “Love is Forever” is insult added to injury. It’s salt poured on a wound that festered for 14 years, an over the top bitter and vindictive middle finger to Bailey that shows a pettiness more characteristic of a childhood bully than the perpetually touring AARP card-carrying remaining original members of Chicago.
If they truly felt the need to replace “Get On This” with a different song, there are and were songs far more ballsy written by the likes of Bill Champlin or Robert Lamm that showed more adventurousness than the insult that was chosen to replace “Get On This.”
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