It Better End Soon

(1969)
(Robert Lamm-Terry Kath)


Political awareness was affecting middle of the road bands too. Chicago a.k.a. Chicago Transit Authority began delving into politics as well. In their 1st LP released in 1969, the band included chants from demonstrators outside the 1968 Democratic Convention. In the 1970 LP Chicago II Robert Lamm penned a song titled It Better End Soon about the kinds of questions the youth of America were asking and specifically about the Vietnam War.

Robert Lamm: 'I think just being alive in those times and watching that conflict in asia unfold on television daily because lord knows we all sat around and watched a lot of television, then the culture shock of moving from chicago to california. and then the alternative press, the L.A. Free Press, was very much into the hot topic of revolution. It seemed that the generation of which i was a member and the generation which was peopling the new bands had a connection, and so it seemed natural to give voice to some of the thinking. my opinions and those of some of my contemporaries felt really real, and also it felt like it was right, it was right that a lot of bands at the time were giving voice to the idea of the average person having a certain amount of power, and power maybe enough to stand up to the policies of the government and protest the war.'

The LP itself included a dedication of political consciousness:

With this album we dedicate ourselves, our futures and our energies to the people of the revolution...And the revolution in all its forms.