SOTD #6: We can make it happen

I'll just go ahead and own up to it: today we have another analysis featuring Chicago, one of my favorite bands (if you hadn't assumed that yet).  Since the first song of theirs I featured was more about the title, I feel obligated to showcase one that's all about lyrical cleverness.

In fact, this song is all about its lyrics from the get-go, meaning you know it's about words the moment you read the title.  Any guesses?  Here we go... *cue electric guitars and trumpets in an unusual but perfect medley of originality*

Dialogue (Part I & II) - Chicago

(Personal fave lyrics in bold)

(Part I)

VOICE 1
Are you optimistic 'bout the way that things are going?

VOICE 2
No, I never, ever think of it at all

VOICE 1
Don't you ever worry when you see what's going down?

VOICE 2
Well, I try to mind my business, that is
No business at all

VOICE 1
When it's time to function as a feeling human being
Will your Bachelor of Arts help you get by?

VOICE 2
I hope to study further, a few more years or so
I also hope to keep a steady high
Ooh, yeah, yeah

VOICE 1
Will you try to change things, use the power that you have
The power of a million new ideas?

VOICE 2
What is this power you speak of and the need for things to change?
I always thought that everything was fine
Everything is fine

VOICE 1
Don't you feel repression just a-closing in around?

VOICE 2
No, the campus here is very, very free

VOICE 1
Don't it make you angry, the way war is draggin' on?

VOICE 2
Well, I hope the president knows what he's into, I don't know
Ooh, I just don't know

VOICE 1
Don't you see starvation in the city where you live?
All the needless hunger, all the needless pain

VOICE 2
Ooh, haven't been there lately, the country is so fine
But my neighbors don't seem hungry 'cause they haven't got the time
Haven't got the time

VOICE 1
Thank you for the talk, you know, you really eased my mind
I was troubled by the shapes of things to come

VOICE 2
Well, if you had my outlook, your feelings would be numb
You'd always think that everything was fine
Everything was fine

(Part II)

We can make it better
We can make it better
We can make it better

We can change the world, now
We can change the world, now
We can change the world, now

We can save the children
We can save the children
We can save the children

We can make it happen
We can make it happen
We can make it happen...

We can make it happen, yeah
We can make it happen
We can make it happen
(...)
We can make it happen, yeah
We can make it happen
We can make it hap-

*

The aviators analysis:

I never get tired of that cutoff ending.  It's so self-talk and positive, and then it just STOPS.

I first heard this song as a very young kid and have always loved singing along, quoting back both sides of the conversation.  Like in "Piano Man," I appreciate what this song devotes to characterization - although "Piano Man" uses mostly direct characterization (the characters are described directly by the narrator) and "Dialogue" uses exclusively indirect characterization (the characters become clear through their own words or actions with no help from a narrator).

Also like "On The Border," obviously another political piece, still talking about the tumultuous 1970s.  Fellow millennials, did you know that songs used to be heavily political and not just about breakups/hookups/etc.?  Wild, right?

As dumb as we're lead to believe the character behind Voice 2 is, I get a huge kick out of his responses to Voice 1.  They can be taken as either entirely idiotic or sassy, although I've always seen them as a little of both.  Look how he just misses (or dodges) the whole point of one of Voice 2's most profound questions: "When it's time to function as a feeling human being / Will your Bachelor of Arts help you get by?"  Meaning, what good is this fancy education doing you if you aren't going to pair it with a sense of compassion for your fellow man?  Knowledge is useless without ambition, compassion, and awareness!  And what does Voice 2 say to that?  "I hope to study further, a few more years or so..."  He starts giving him his after-undergrad plans.  Essentially: "Well, I won't have just a Bachelor's."

Like...dude.  That wasn't the point!

Now that I'm in college working on a Bachelor of Arts, with the political world in all kinds of shambles around me, this ditty hits me harder between the eyes.  Although I don't think everything is fine, I know my classmates and I are entirely guilty of getting sucked into the campus-here-is-very-very-free "bubble" and neglecting to pay attention to the world around us.  Yikes.  To be fair, it's very easy to do, and we college students are always anticipating that after-undergrad question, as if we've been conditioned to answer it at every turn.  It's frightening how much Voice 2 sounds like so many college-age people I know.  How much he sounds like me, even.  10/10 Chicago, would recommend.