Every songwriter knows that the best lyrics are autobiographically inspired. Granted, not everyone will like a song in the same fashion. After all, “Chicago Is My Home” accepts the Windy City’s weather in all its aspects, including the cold and the snow!

**** All photos used with permission. Thank you to all photographers. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

BACKGROUND TO THE SONG

When my family immigrated from Belgium to Chicago in 1969, we already had lived in 6 countries** (see below).

We came from a rigid European culture within a strict Judeo-Christian religious context, so we thrived on the American welcome we received in the wild 1960’s!

In the Windy City, I found happiness and an unexpected welcome that remains to this day. Not only welcome by Americans of every cultural backgrounds imaginable but by the Blues community in particular. It is no exaggeration to say that I feel at home when I am around musicians; particularly African-American musicians. Those who welcomed me in my early blues career are Junior Wells and Sonny Wimberly (both formerly with the Muddy Waters Band). They were the very first to adopt me. Later on, Jon McDonald, Tad Robinson, Robert Covington, Bob Stroger, Deitra Farr, Carl Weathersby, Lurrie Bell, James Wheeler, Billy Flynn, Katherine Davis, Inetta Visor, and numerous others gave my life a sense of belonging and purpose that I had never felt before.

When I wrote “Chicago Is My Home” in 2007, I felt energized because it reflected a significant truth: Chicago is the longest place I have ever lived in. 54 years as of 2023!

A deeper reason for writing this song is that I love being a Chicago-based musician. So much so that “I don’t care where the weather goes” as the song’s lyrics go.” Of course, I would welcome the sun too, but Chicago’s climate is not a deciding factor for my happiness. Playing the Blues is.

Lurrie Bell often told me that he has the same love feeling for Chicago! He embraced this song.

NOTE**
1952-1954: Jerusalem, Israel (my place of Birth in 1952 where our father studied biblical and modern Hebrew at the Hebraic University of Jerusalem.

1954 –1955: Neheim-Hüsten, Germany (near Cologne) where our father was an army chaplain shortly after the end of WWII.

1955-1957: Neuviller-la-Roche in Alsace, France, where besides being that village’s minister, our father was also working on his doctorate in Theology (Old Testament) at the University of Strasbourg.

1957 – 1962: Brussels, Belgium. Our father had received a teaching position at the Faculté Protestante de Bruxelles.

This was the first time that my siblings and I lived in the country of our ancestors. For centuries, both maternal and paternal sides of the Tournay-Lacocques have hailed from Belgium.

1962-1963: Back to Jerusalem. The purpose of returning to Israel was for our father’s advanced work in the Old Testament (also at the Hebraic University of Jerusalem).

1963-1969: Back to Brussels for 5 years before immigrating to Chicago. Our father had received a tenured professorship of the Old Testament at the Chicago Theological Seminary. He taught there until his retirement.

CHICAGO’S IS MY HOME (Lyrics)
Pierre Lacocque, Ransart Music, BMI

From Hattiesburg Blues (2008) – Delmark Records (DE 795)

LURRIE BELL: LEAD GUITAR
1. CHICAGO IS MY HOME
AND I DON’T CARE WHERE THE WEATHER GOES
YES, CHICAGO IS MY HOME
AND I DON’T CARE WHERE THE WEATHER GOES
I LOVE THIS CITY
ANY WHICH WAYS THE WIND BLOWS

2. MY FAMILY LIVES HERE
IT’S WHERE I PLAY THE BLUES
MONEY DON’T COME EASY
BUT I KNOW I’M PAYING MY DUES
CHICAGO IS MY HOME … / …

3. WINTERS ARE COLD [2 HITS]
SUMMERS GET HOT [2 HITS]
WHATEVER THE CLIMATE
I CAN DEAL WITH WHAT I’VE GOT
YEAH CHICAGO IS MY HOME … / …

4. GUITAR + HARP SOLOS

5. I LOVE TO TRAVEL
AND PLAY EVERYWHERE
BUT WHEN I COME HOME
IT’S A THRILL I CAN’T COMPARE
CHICAGO IS MY HOME … / …

6. REPEAT VERSE # 2:
MY FAMILY LIVES HERE …

7. GUITAR SOLOS: LURRIE BELL
BREAK:
YES I LOVE THIS CITY [STOP]:
ANY WHICH WAYS THE WIND BLOWS