The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders (Part 1: The Great Frontier; Part 2: Come to Me Only with Playthings Now)

Westward migrants built Chicago on the prairie. This song asks if it was worth it and suggests that we appreciate the grandeur and experience of the new city, good or bad. The West was not for the patient, but for the soldier and carpenter who played equally important roles in transforming the West. Settlers raced into this new life without much contemplation of where they would end up or what they would create. The remainder of the song lists aspects of the city that would have impacted the lives of residents from founding days to the present:

The fortress – Fort Dearborn, The faker – Mayor Daley claimed he yelled this (not something much more vulgar) at the ’68 Convention, the chewing gum – Wrigley etc., the floozies – low life on Skid Row perhaps, the wind that wakes the ocean – 1893 World’s Fair (“Windy City” put on map)?, the house we got at Sears – everything you need or thought you needed you could order from Sears, Great Fire – 1871 fire that destroyed city, Great Goat – the Cubs are cursed to lose in the postseason because they didn’t let the owner of the Billygoat tavern bring his goat to a game, Great River green with envy – Chicago river is dyed green each year for St. Pat’s Day and the city is always envious of New York, Jane Addams – she built the Hull House south of the loop in the 19th century to educate and train immigrants and the poor, Great Trumpet and the singers – jazz and blues, Joe Jackson – Shoeless Joe Jackson of the 1919 World Series scandal.

You can’t pine for the prairie when all these things are going on around you; embrace them.

Song title – another of Chicago’s names is The City of Broad Shoulders