How did Indiana Jones inspire one of Chicago’s biggest hits?
Not every band is looking to put anything too dramatic into their songs. The concept of a silly love song works for a reason, and half of the greatest tunes of all time have become so because of someone talking about affairs of the heart rather than trying to create a movie within the span of one song. While Chicago were not ones for making anything too cerebral lyrically, that’s not to say that they couldn’t make something sound epic when they wanted to.
Then again, some of the biggest hits that the classic rock staples ever had were usually a bit on the mellow side. ‘If You Leave Me Now’ is still one of the most diabetically sweet love songs to come out of the 1970s, and ever since they lost Terry Kath, songs like ‘Saturday in the Park’ weren’t exactly going to give Led Zeppelin a run for their money any time soon.
However, once the band entered the MTV generation, every band of their generation had to go through a bit of a sea change. The whole point behind making elaborate videos may have seemed stupid for anyone used to the touring life cycle, but since the focus had shifted to what every band looked like, it wasn’t out of the question for them to rent out a soundstage and maybe put on something fancy to sell their song.
Of all the Chicago songs to get that treatment, though, ‘Along Comes A Woman’ was at least cinematic enough. While it was by no means the hardest tune that they ever made, hearing them talk about falling in love still had that dramatic heft that would make for a decidedly cheesy video, but Chicago weren’t looking for merely good. They wanted the video you’d see in modern blockbuster movies.
After all, this was the era where songs managed to help out movies at the box office because of how they were placed. Flashdance already had one of the most unstoppable soundtracks of the time, and since the decade was also home to Kenny Loggins making Footloose and Top Gun his wheelhouse, this could have been the moment where Chicago entered that conversation by doing everything in reverse.
For a song all about a man finding someone to talk to, the band managed to take inspiration from Indiana Jones for the final version of the video, with director Jay Dubin saying, “I just said, Hey, let me see how close I can come to Casablanca with this small budget. It would be fun to really see if we can get it to look right. I think one of the reasons we picked that studio was because it had a water pit, which it means there’s a false floor. They have a 10 foot by 10 foot hole, basically a little pool in there, so we were able to fill it up with mud and water.”
At the same time, there were already some concerns over why they would release something like this for a standard love song. The whole point behind the record was making a slightly funkier take on a lyric like Billy Joel’s ‘Just The Way You Are’, and yet they are making something that felt like it was ripped straight out of old-time Hollywood.
Chicago would eventually find their niche in the 1980s with songs like ‘You’re The Inspiration,’ but part of the beauty behind that video was seeing all of them in a room playing together. Their strong suit was always in performing their songs, and seeing them try to give their best thespian performances jumped the shark a few too many times.
