Retro Video of the Week: "You're The Inspiration" by Chicago

A mere 35 years ago yesterday, Chicago released their fourteenth studio album, inaptly titled Chicago 17.  It was the last album to feature Peter Cetera, whose voice is forever linked with the band (and he was the bassist!).  This was the band's best-selling album, going platinum six times in the U.S.  As with pretty much every other album the band released, this one spawned multiple hits.  Four songs from the album reached the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100:  "Stay the Night" (#16), "Hard Habit to Break" (#3), "You're the Inspiration" (#3), and "Along Comes a Woman" (#14).

I decided to go with "You're the Inspiration" because it's the song I most associate with Chicago (the band, not the city) in the '80s.  I also chose it because the video is fantastic.  the band couldn't look more '80s, and the story line in the video is that of a punk couple, presumably on the verge of poverty (or else they wouldn't be punk enough), who like to walk down the street and make out.  There couldn't be anything further from punk rock than the lush adult contemporary sound of early '80s Chicago.

Then we move to a close-up of what appears to be another couple, clearly cheating on their respective spouses because no married couple rubs legs or grabs their partner for a kiss like that.  But just like that, we're onto another couple -- this one not so happy.  She's leaving, probably because he's always walking around outside their house with his shirt unbuttoned.  It's not clear if this is the same guy who was cheating or not, but I think we can all assume this guy's a scumbag.  She drives away in a conveniently double-parked car.  All she needs are two suitcases and a 13-inch TV.  

Then we move to another couple so caught up in their own addictions that they have just set up shop in the middle of their back yard and gotten the world's longest telephone cord, so that she can talk on the phone while he looks at Princess Di magazines and listens to his walkman while their Aryan youth kids run and play around them.  But they're happy, and that's what counts.

In the weirdest part, there is a pre-teen couple -- also blonde.  He plays the saxophone, completely uninspired (ironically), while she sits on a couch and barely looks up from her Vanity Fair.

Thankfully, we cut back to the punks, who appear to be the ones in the video most truly in love and present in each other's lives -- i.e., most likely to feel each other up on a public sidewalk.  But then we end with the cheaters.  I don't know what's going on, but this is a classic '80s tune, so that's all that really matters.