I just didn’t realize Chicago was that big. Like, sure, I’ve heard “Saturday in the Park” and “If You Leave Me Now,” and yes, they’re great songs. But “permanently rebrand the third-largest metropolitan area in the United States” great? That’s how you know you’ve really made it.
Imagine being such a huge band that six major sports franchises bear your name. The Bulls? Named after the band Chicago. The Bears? Chicago. White Sox, Cubs, and Bruins? All Chicago. Oh! And I almost forgot Chicago Fire FC. You can’t forget Chicago Fire FC. Or the Chicago Sky. Great team. Real success. I watch women’s sports, and I support women’s sports. I have League Pass. Just because I didn’t know the city of Chicago was named after the band Chicago does not make me some kind of knuckle-dragging Neanderthal.
Really think about it. Linkin Park was a huge band, and they only got a park. Boston was a pretty big band too, but they only got Boston, Massachusetts. Chicago? That’s a whole damn real ass city! Color me impressed.
I had no idea that before the city officially became Chicago in 1971, following the release of the wildly successful Chicago II and the massive hits “25 or 6 to 4” and “Make Me Smile,” the city was simply called “Sausage Lake City.”
Wow. Good for them. For most bands, success is selling out Madison Square Garden. For Chicago, it’s naming an entire metropolitan area. A musical, two newspapers, a river, pizza, hot dogs, the whole kit and caboodle. I will never listen to “You’re the Inspiration” the same way again. I had no idea the inspiration for the city of Chicago was the band Chicago. Go figure.
Apparently, Chicago got their name from an Algonquin word meaning “wild garlic” or “wild onion.” The band members encountered it during a visit to the Field Museum of Natural History in 1967. It was Peter Cetera’s birthday, and he said he wanted to “go see da big dinos,” so the band took him there. While at the museum, Cetera announced that he “want snack,” and on the way to the café the band passed an exhibit on Indigenous peoples of the Midwest. Despite Cetera’s protestations and repeated insistence that they proceed directly to snack, the band lingered long enough to see the word shikaakwa, which French colonialists later rendered as checagou, and eventually, Chicago. The band, who at the time were called The Big Thing, immediately decided to change their name, and then got Cetera a hot dog and a Coca-Cola for being such a patient, good boy. I can’t believe I didn’t learn any of this in school. It almost feels like they kept this history from us. What else are they keeping from us?
