"Chicago" is a track from Sufjan Stevens 2005 concept albumIllinois, released on Asthmatic Kitty. The song tells the semi-autobiographical story of a young man on a road trip, and his youthful idealism. The track is one of Stevens' most popular songs, and he usually ends his live shows with a version of this song. The song has been recorded in five different versions by Stevens himself, the versions not on Illinois being included on the collection , and one demo released digitally on Stevens' website, later released as a 12" single bundled with the "Illinois: Special 10th AnniversaryBlue Marvel Edition". The track has also been sampled by Chiddy Bang on their single "All Things Go".
Production
In the process of making the second album in his ambitious Fifty States Project, which involved recording an album for each of the states of America, Stevens had committed a large amount of time to researching the people and history of Illinois. However this track is one of the most autobiographical on the album. Sufjan Stevens states in interviews around the release, that, "I've had quite a few exceptional and traumatic experiences in Illinois, a few times when visiting Chicago at a particularly difficult time in my life or driving cross country and being pulled over by the cops just outside Peoria," and that he saw his first rock show there. However, he self-deprecatingly qualifies the story of the song as only being partly true, stating, "The writer is the inventor, the designer, the creative force behind a body of work. The author is the actual man or woman, in reality, in society, in person. I like Woody Allen the director/writer, circa 1975, but I doubt I would like Woody Allen the person, circa 1975." Stevens also cited the poem "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg as an influence on the track, and had intended to include a track about Saul Bellow on Illinois, but could not find a way to adequately cover the writer.
Alternate versions
The year after the track was released on Illinois, three further versions were included on the outtakes album, , these being an acoustic version, the "Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version", which is a baroque pop version of the original track, and a "Multiple Personality Disorder Version", of which Stevens stated, "James, my drummer was in town, and we decided it would be kind of fun to deconstruct the song". One further "" version was recorded during the album recording sessions in 2004 and released digitally on Stevens' homepage on February 25, 2016. It was released as a 12" bundled with the "Illinois: Special 10th Anniversary Blue Marvel Edition" on April 1, 2016.
Reception
The track was well received as the centerpiece of the acclaimed album Illinois. Allmusic described the track as having "An expansiveness that radiates with the ballast of history and the promise of new beginnings.", and the track was included as one of the Pitchfork 500 most important tracks since punk broke.
The vibraphone line from the start of the song as well as the chorus were sampled in Chiddy Bang's 2009 single "All Things Go".
The song is referenced in Snow Patrol's "Hands Open" with the lyrics "Put Sufjan Stevens on/And we'll play your favorite song/"Chicago" bursts to life/And your sweet smile remembers you."
The song was featured in the 2014 movie Veronica Mars.
The song was remixed by Donald Glover under the moniker "mcDJ" and is titled "chitown" as the third track on the album "Illin-Noise! The Sufjan Stevens Remix album"
The song was used as opening theme of the Netflix series The Politician, which premiered in September 2019.
