Our final stop on our Summer in the Cities tour is Chicago, where lakefront winds, crowded L tracks and glowing dive bars color the music echoing from basements, rehearsal halls and neighborhood clubs. Don and Dude drop the needle on two Chicago born records that traced how the city’s grit, pride and restless motion pressed into soul and horn heavy rock, turning street level stories and late night jams into full album statements.

The Albums

Curtis Mayfield – Super Fly (1972)

Curtis Mayfield used his Chicago roots and Curtom studio band to craft a tight, cinematic soul and funk set about poverty, drugs and survival, following dealers, hustlers and their victims with smooth grooves, sharp bass lines, orchestral strings and clear eyed lyrics that challenged the blaxploitation film it accompanied. Across love songs, instrum ...