♫ Saturday In The Park ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

I decided to go with a song that has ‘Saturday’ in the title, because … well, because today is Saturday!  I thought about Sam Cooke’s Another Saturday Night, but I just played that last September.  I discovered that I have only ever played this one as a part of a Saturday Surprise post, never as a stand-alone music post, so now’s as good a time as any, right?

This song was written by Robert Lamm, founding member of the band Chicago and the primary writer of much of their work.  From Wikipedia …

According to fellow Chicago member Walter Parazaider, Lamm was inspired to write the song during the recording of Chicago III in New York City on Saturday, July 4, 1970:

Robert came back to the hotel from Central Park very excited after seeing the steel drum players, singers, dancers, and jugglers. I said, ‘Man, it’s time to put music to this!

However, Lamm recalls the story differently, as he told Billboard magazine:

It was written as I was looking at footage from a film I shot in Central Park, over a couple of years, back in the early ‘70s. I shot this film and somewhere down the line I edited it into some kind of a narrative, and as I watched the film I jotted down some ideas based on what I was seeing and had experienced. And it was really kind of that peace and love thing that happened in Central Park and in many parks all over the world, perhaps on a Saturday, where people just relax and enjoy each other’s presence, and the activities we observe and the feelings we get from feeling a part of a day like that.

This song charted well … in Canada (#2) and the U.S. (#3) … but not so much anywhere else.  Despite that, it was very successful upon release, becoming the band’s highest-charting single at the time, helping lift the album to #1. Billboard ranked it as the #76 song for 1972. The single was certified Gold by the RIAA, selling over 1,000,000 units in the U.S. alone.

Saturday In The Park

Chicago

Saturday in the park
I think it was the Fourth of July
Saturday in the park
I think it was the Fourth of July
People talking, people laughing
A man selling ice cream
Singing Italian songs
(Fake Italian lyric)
Can you dig it (yes, I can)
And I’ve been waiting such a long time
For Saturday

Another day in the park
You’d think it was the Fourth of July
Another day in the park
You’d think it was the Fourth of July
People dancing, really smiling
A man playing guitar
Singing for us all
Will you help him change the world
Can you dig it (yes, I can)
And I’ve been waiting such a long time
For today

Slow motion riders
Fly the colors of the day
A bronze man still can
Yell stories his own way
Listen children all is not lost
All is not lost
Oh no, no

Funny days in the park
Every day’s the Fourth of July
Funny days in the park
Every day’s the Fourth of July
People reaching, people touching
A real celebration
Waiting for us all
If we want it, really want it
Can you dig it (yes, I can)
And I’ve been waiting such a long time
For the day

20 thoughts on “♫ Saturday In The Park ♫”

  2. My daughter was the first in my family to discover Chicago and she played their music constantly. It was great listening for the first few months but then became almost like the year she got a keyboard for Christmas. She learned to play Silent Night and I still almost gag when I hear that one although it is getting easier with more time. Once a day is sufficient for some songs. I did enjoy this one tonight though. Haven’t heard them for a long time and this was almost like hearing it for the first time. Just please don’t play Silent Night any time soon. I was praying for a silent night after hearing her play it a few notes off key 50 times a day. I kid you not! She would hear me start to play my guitar and grab that keyboard to join in but since that was her entire repertoire we were in trouble from the beginning. Thanks for this memory, Jill. I can now listen to Chicago again!

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  5. Pingback: ♫ Saturday In The Park ♫ — Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  6. Fun song, from when there was fun in the world. I guess people can still have fun, but especially in the USA, one needs to keep a vigilant eye out for trigger-happy people carring automatic weapons. Whatever innocence the world had is long gone.

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    • rawgod — sometimes music can be just for fun, a way of tuning out the real world for just a little while, a way of preserving our sanity, of reminding us there is still fun and beauty in the world.

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      • That was more true in 1970 than today. Maybe we “need” to tune out more today, but that creates the danger we do not tune back in. We xnnot afford to complately tine out.
        Though I wish we could…

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        • No, most of us can tune out for an hour or two, listen to music, read a bit, and jump right back into the fray. It is mentally essential to do so, rg, otherwise we won’t likely live to finish the fight. Sometimes I do play a song for its social significance, like “We Are The World” or “Imagine”, but most often music is my break from the darkness, my relaxation, something to make me smile. We can find something negative in anything if we try, but … why try? Sometimes just listen to be listening, not to be analyzing and finding fault.

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  7. Such a great some — this is one my whole family played together when we used to do lessons/performances. Youngest kid on piano, eldest on ukulele, husband on trumpet or guitar and me on bass guitar. So fun.

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