Talk:Lake Shore Drive (song)

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The band's wiki article (linked to in this article) describes them as a "West Allis, Wisconsin trio". I know folks from Chicago will occasionally refer to southern Wisconsin as "the far north 'burbs" but it might be a stretch to call the band "Chicago based". Did they record in the Windy City maybe? Wolfhound668 (talk) 18:01, 15 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Both mitch and his younger brother teddy were born and raised just outside Chicago in a suburb called Berwyn went to Morton West High School I know I went to high school with mitch I don't know where the wisconsin "West Allis" came from the author of the web site told me he got it from Wikipedia guess you have to be carefull what you believe on here [email protected] —Preceding unsigned comment added by Steve6261944 (talk • contribs) 03:20, 20 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Update: According to a conversation I had with John Jeremiah,(some years ago, I'm afraid), Pretty blue lights" is double meaning for the street lights and the police lights. "Concrete mountains" were the buildings,and the shadows start covering then buildings at around 5pm. (sorry no double meaning), "Sometimes you can smell the green", double meaning as well, the green meaning the smell of money and of course marijuana."Slippin on down on LSD" also double meaning...as in Lake Shore Drive and of course LSD."Blue lights shining with a heavenly grace" refers to the blue(appearing)lights on top of the buildings, (again no double meaning)."Ratz on up to riches" Was indeed a bar AHJ played at up north on LSD. The rest is pretty much as it says.

While there seem to be some suggestions that the "pretty blue lights" may belong to the Chicago PD, my recollection of city lights in the 60's was that they had a particular shade of blue, which lasted until the coming of sodium vapor street lights.

In addition, I would suggest removing the reference in the posting that "concrete mountains" refers to the I-55 (Stevenson Expressway) interchange. I have to say that the interchange is not that tall and in 1970, the only thing there was the East building of McCormick Place and open space on the west where the railroad tracks are (and the newer McCormick Place buildings). My experience is that the reference is for the Gold Coast buildings at the Oak Street curve. It is commonplace to find pictures of the shadows extending across LSD to the Oak Street Beach. While this is not unique to this section of LSD, it is the most often photographed. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrodmanjr/3180256653/

There also seems to be some dispute about the lyric "From rags on up to riches". I have always understood it to be "rags", but listening to it again, it could be "rats". I have also seen it transcribed as "Rat's", hence the reference in the current article, I suppose, although I have yet to see it shown as "Ratz" as shown in the article. My guess is that it is probably more of a reference to poverty and wealth rather than a shout out to a tavern where they played. Ya never know, I suppose.

P1cunnin (talk) 23:33, 4 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If it truly is "Ratz" on up to riches, then it's a play on words. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:12, 8 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've added a section about the remake of the song by Skip Haynes following the blizzard of 2011 in Chicago. Hopefully it's considered "newsworthy" enough. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wolfhound668 (talk • contribs) 12:12, 5 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have edited for clarity and rewritten most of this article, especially the Lyrics section. I want to add a reference to a January 8, 2012, interview with Skip Haynes (I also listed him as the actual composer of the song) but I don't know how to do this. The reference I have is: http://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2012/01/story-behind-lake-shore-drive-part-two.html, "The Story Behind 'Lake Shore Drive' (Part Two)" in which Haynes says the "pretty blue lights" are police lights and "concrete mountains rearing up" are the tall buildings. Haynes also says the song is not about the drug LSD.

"Ratzs" remains a mystery -- I have read that it is the restaurant but I've also heard that it is spelled "rats," a reference to a bar just south of the Loop. I tend to believe the latter simply because it makes more sense: Ratso's was located at 2464 N. Lincoln which is north of the "riches" of the Gold Coast (the lyric would then be either "from riches up to Razts" or "Razts down to riches"). There is a picture of a 1971 ad for Ratso's here: http://forgottenchicago.com/forum/5/4596/ratzo_s.

On the other hand, it could be that there were once two places: Ratso's the northside restaurant and Ratzo's the south of the Loop bar.

Also, I don't think the Britannica Building is the one that gives off the "blue light’s shinin' with a heavenly grace," but I don't know the name of the building that does. I am trying to find this out but it may require a trip to the building to see what it's called. Risssa (talk) 21:19, 12 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Copied verbatim from flyleaf of "Chicago's Lake Shore Drive, Urban America's Most Beautiful Roadway," by Neal Samors and Bernard Judge, published Chicago, 2010, by Chicago's Neighborhoods Inc.

How Lake Shore Drive Became a Song

by Skip Haynes

I was riding on Lake Shore Drive with our manager, Arthur Belkind, one cold night in December of 1970. We had just finished working at a place called the Gate of Horn. We were in Arthur's Opel GT -- the one that looks like a little Corvette.

It was snowing and very late and Arthur was driving me home. I was staying with my parents that weekend because I had been on the road for some time and wanted to spend a little time with them. The lived just off the drive. Arthur missed my exit at Belmont so we headed for Foster to shoot the loop and get back to Belmont, we hoped.

We were both one toke over the line when Arthur misgauged a slight curve in the Drive and the Opel spun out -- three times. Luckily, no other vehicles were on the road. We recovered nicely and continued on our way.

We then began talking about what a great road Lake Shore Drive was -- you could spin out three times and still get to where you were going. We decided it was better than Riverside Drive in New York and Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles -- and every other road in between. The conversation continued in this manner until Arthur finally found my parent's building and dropped me off.

I wasn't asleep -- to put it mildly -- so I wrote down our conversation about LSD. It took me about five minutes to come up with the melody and words. By the time I went to sleep at about 6 am, the song was basically finished.

Before the first show at the club the next night, I called Arthur over to the stage and quietly played the song for him. I just did it to show him I was a songwriter and not a total reprobate.

That was the only time I ever intended to play the song. I didn't particularly like it, nor did the boys in the band. Arthur was the only one who liked it. Later he made us record it. I have since changed my opinion. Lake Shore Drive is still my favorite road. Still makes me smile.

Skip Haynes

For more info: www.skiphaynesonline.com

Notes: 1. The book is a medium-format pictoral history of the Drive. It was generally available in Chicago bookstores around Christmas 2010 (when I got my copy), but I haven't seen it since, maybe because there are very few bookstores left. 2. Gate of Horn was at Chicago and Dearborn -- near north side. To get to the Drive, you'd probably either go down Chicago to Michigan and then north, or go a couple blocks west to LaSalle and go north. 3. Not entirely sure why they went all the way up to Foster to turn around. There are exits at Irving, Montrose, Wilson, and Lawrence, before you get to Foster.

BobHerm (talk) 21:41, 14 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The composer of the song is Eugene Von V Heitlinger - Information collected from: https://www.ascap.com/repertory#ace/search/workID/420181495 --BBLENDEM (talk) 19:43, 7 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Interpretive content largely originates with editors rather than sources—compare content assigned to each source to that source—and includes speculative language and content. Not ready for student use. 2601:246:CA80:999B:15C9:D4F1:49E8:F722 (talk) 20:15, 11 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]