My daddy was a cop on the east side of Chicago
Back in the U.S.A. back in the bad old days
In the heat of a summer night, In the land of the dollar bill
When the town of Chicago died, And they talk about it still
When a man named Al Capone, Tried to make that town his own
And he called his gang to war, With the forces of the law
I heard my mama cry, I heard her pray the night Chicago
died
Brother what a night it really was,
Brother what a fight it really was, Glory be!
I heard my mama cry, I heard her pray the night Chicago
died
Brother what a night the people saw
Brother what a fight the people saw
Yes indeed!
And the sound of the battle rang, Through the streets of the old east side
'Til the last of the hoodlum gang, Had surrendered up or died
There was shouting in the street, And the sound of running feet
And I asked someone who said, "'Bout a hundred cops are dead!" Chorus
And ther was no sound at all
But the clock upon the wall
Then the door burst open wide
And my daddy stepped inside
And he kissed my mama's face
And he brushed her tears awayChorus
"The Night Chicago Died" is a song by the British group Paper Lace. It is about a highly fictionalize shoot-out between the Chicago Police and members of the Al Capone Syndicate. It was their follow-up of "Billy Don't Be A Hero," which Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods covered in America. Though the song's story is set in the United States, Paper Lace was unable to perform the song live in the U.S. at the height of its popularity because of contractual issues.
"The Night Chicago Died" is about a shoot-out between the Chicago Police and gangsters tied to Al Capone. It was inspired by the real-life Saint Valentine's Day Massacre,[3] although that involved Capone's men killing seven of Bugs Moran's gang members and had nothing to do with the police, though some of the gangsters did disguise themselves as police officers. No confrontation large enough to leave around one hundred police deaths ever happened. Al Capone was arrested in 1932 for income tax evasion.
The song's events supposedly take place "on the East Side of Chicago". Chicago has three commonly referred-to regions: the North Side, the West Side and the South Side. There is no East Side, as Lake Michigan is immediately east of Downtown Chicago. While there is an area of Chicago known as "East Side", it is a neighborhood on the Far South Side on the Illinois/Indiana state line. East Side is also several miles away from where Capone lived on Prairie Avenue in Chicago. Furthermore, in the 1920s, East Side was known for being a quiet, residential, and predominantly Eastern European neighborhood-a sharp contrast from the site of the bloodbath described in the song.
Paper Lace sent the song to the mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley, who greatly disliked it. A member of Daley's staff is quoted as saying that Paper Lace should "jump in the Chicago River, placing your heads under water three times and surfacing twice. Pray tell us, are you nuts?"
