B-side "Now That You've Gone" Format 7" Genre Funk rock, pop rock | Released October 1972 Recorded September 1971 | |
Length 5:00 (Single version)
2:56 (Part I)
4:13 (Part II)
7:11 (Album version) | ||
"Dialogue" is a song written by Robert Lamm for the group Chicago and recorded for their album Chicago V (1972). On the album the song is over 7 minutes long and is divided into two tracks. An edited version of the song was released as a single in October 1972, eventually reaching #24 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
In Part I, the song's lyrics are a dialogue between two young people with different views. The first person (whose lines are sung by Terry Kath) is very concerned about events of the early 1970s, such as war, starvation, and "repression... closing in around." The second person (whose lines are sung by Peter Cetera) maintains that "everything is fine." Musically, the song is also a dialogue between Kath's rhythm guitar and Cetera's bass, which is all the more interesting as the songwriting credit went to keyboardist Lamm. As Part I comes to a close, Kath's character sarcastically endorses the other character's worldview, saying "you know you really eased my mind; / I was troubled by the shapes of things to come." The response, which hints at an acknowledgment of culpability: "Well, if you had my outlook, your feelings would be numb - you'd always think that everything was fine"
Part II contains more optimistic lyrics sung by the whole band, including "we can make it better" and "we can change the world now" and points the way by noting "we can save the children."