The best of the young American songwriters, a voice full of feeling and a b… Read Full Bio ↴The best of the young American songwriters, a voice full of feeling and a big, big heart. And the balls to say what he thinks.

Berkeley is a New Jersey native, but in the past decade, he's lived in Brooklyn, Atlanta, Berkeley and Corsica. Santa Fe is now home, where he lives with this wife and two young sons. Within months of arriving and still overwhelmed by the palette of reds and browns, the endless open sky, and the frightening lack of water in his new high desert surroundings, Berkeley wrote and recorded his most haunting and personal songs to date. Berkeley's doleful baritone and vulnerable falsetto, called "lustrous and melancholy" by the New York Times, is up front in the mix, showcasing his profoundly elegiac lyrics. Indeed, Berkeley cites Yeats and Melville among his greatest influences. For his unique way with words, the San Francisco Chronicle dubbed Berkeley "a musical poet."

Berkeley's gift as a songwriter and storyteller is that he sees both the tragedy and comedy in life, managing to both reveal the sorrow at the heart of the human condition and the blazing joy and beauty in the same. It's a duality that audiences experience at all of Berkeley's shows as he tells uproarious stories between heartbreaking songs. It's why his fans respond so deeply to his music and why so many look to him to express what they are often unable to articulate. It's also why his voice and lyrics have cross-genre appeal. Berkeley's songs are at once hard and hopeful.

Chicago
David Berkeley Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Take anyone at all
Out any day
Let's say the day before the fall
Strike up the band and maybe
Load the cannonball
Strike up the band before the fall

You couldn't be more wrong than this, than this.

You couldn't be more wrong than this.

Oh I gotta get away
How about Chicago
I could be there in a day
What's in Chicago
That the wind won't blow away?
What's in chicago after all?

You couldn't be more wrong than this, than this
You couldn't be more wrong than this
Ah, the wind it blew before
But not like this
It was much easier before
You left me standing
In front of all the open doors
Come back before too long

You couldn't be more wrong than this, than this
You couldn't be more wrong than this

Overall Meaning

The opening lines of David Berkeley's song "Chicago" present a striking image of impending doom, with the lyrics "take anyone at all out any day, let's say the day before the fall." From there, the song seems to pivot to a desire to escape, with the repeated refrain of "Oh, I gotta get away." The singer suggests Chicago as a potential destination, asking "what's in Chicago that the wind won't blow away?" The lyrics convey a sense of restlessness and uncertainty, with the singer searching for a way to break free from whatever it is that's weighing them down.

The song's chorus features the repeated line "you couldn't be more wrong than this," which initially seems to addressed to an unnamed other person, but also takes on a more introspective meaning within the context of the song as a whole. The final verse seems to circle back to the idea of missed opportunities and the pain of being left behind, with the lyrics "it was much easier before, you left me standing in front of all the open doors." Overall, the song manages to effectively capture a sense of longing and uncertainty in its lyrics, even as its upbeat melody and instrumentation provide a somewhat contrasting feel.

Line by Line Meaning

Take anyone at all
Choose anyone, it doesn't matter who

Out any day
On any day

Let's say the day before the fall
Before everything goes wrong

Strike up the band and maybe
Start the music and maybe

Load the cannonball
Get ready for something big

Strike up the band before the fall
Enjoy the time before everything goes wrong

You couldn't be more wrong than this, than this.
You are completely mistaken

You couldn't be more wrong than this.
Again, you are completely wrong

Oh I gotta get away
I have to leave this place

How about Chicago
Maybe I should go to Chicago

I could be there in a day
It's not far, I can go quickly