Chicago - a close reading & interpretation
This is my very personal interpretation of Chicago, content warning: babygate, Douis & stunting. Here you can find all my other close readings & interpretations of Faith In The Future I’ve written so far.
Close reading of the lyrics:
Interestingly Louis starts the song with a line about a baby - after we speculated from the beginning this song might be connected to babygate. He is talking to someone he used to know quite well and spent time with, but now only “saw” that they went through a major life event, and therefore are not close anymore.Â
Did you use any of the names we liked?
The person Louis is singing to was someone Louis felt comfortable enough with to discuss names for hypothetical children. What seems odd is that he assumes they would consider using one of the names the two of them came up with for their current relationship’s baby - not necessarily something you would do if Louis is an ex-partner in the romantic sense in this scenario.
And is your brother doing ok? Is he still getting out of fights?
He is bringing in more information to identify the person he is singing about, the person has a brother, which Louis witnessed not only getting into but also out of a lot of fights. He also cares about the brother, asking about how he is doing - it seems Louis has spent some time with him as well.
I’m sorry that your mum don’t like me, I’m sorry that I brought that on myself
He is saying that the person’s mum not only didn’t like him in the past, but still does to this day, and more importantly, that he brought this on himself. Was he simply rude to her? Or did he do something more profound that made her dislike him to this day ? He seems to be sorry about that. Does this mean he sort of understands why she dislikes him? That he is still doing what the mother disliked him for? That he feels sorry that he is doing that?
They say bitter ends turn sweet in timeÂ
Another End mention here, hmmm. He is saying he and potentially the other people involved in this, like “you,” were bitter about it ending back then. Why would both be bitter about this? Is the bitterness stemming from frustration? And then he tacks on, that eventually, the bitterness turns sweet, very importantly, with time. Is he saying that because time goes on, the bitterness will fade? Or does something need to change, shift for the bitterness to turn sweet?
Is that true of yours and mine?
He is asking the person, if this also applies to their situation, if the person is feeling the same way about it how he feels now.
Cos if you’re lonely in Chicago, you can call me baby
And then he goes and reaches out to them - respectfully - and putting the ball in their court, stating he’d be okay if they called him up again, to meet up, talk? If they’re lonely? He just said they just had a baby, wouldn’t one assume they don’t really feel lonely at the moment, romance wise? They either are in a committed relationship with the other parent of the baby, and/or have the baby on their mind, not really booty calling their ex? He is specifying they’re in Chicago, and because Louis obviously isn’t always in Chicago, supplying another identifier to who this person might be. He calls them “baby” at the end of the line, a term of affection: he feels positively about them, still, to this day.
Has it been long enough that you can forgive me?
Another identifier, as to when this happened - long enough ago that he considers it possible for the person to have gotten over it. Probably more than a year, but from the tone of it, it is more likely several years - they had a relationship become this serious that they had a baby in the meantime. In the same breath, he is asking for forgiveness - did they blame him for the situation? Did they regret the situation back then?
Just because it didn’t work doesn’t mean it’s meaningless to me
Now he is saying that “it” didn’t work - what is it? The relationship? Or the situation they found themselves in? He says that no matter what - being with this person during that time is far from meaningless to him. He is expressing, that even though it might have gone wrong, overall he still appreciates them and the time spent together.
It just wasn’t meant to be
This sentence is basically “it is what it is” in a different font - now, looking back, he gave up on questioning why it didn’t work out, but accepted it as out of his control.
Have you seen how my life’s been going?
Now he is asking the person if they’ve been keeping up with what he’s been doing. Did they follow his career, and his choices, and the tabloids talking about him? Is he asking if they have seen he’s now suddenly talking a lot about his son, another baby in the mix?
Cos i’ve been wondering what you’d say
Apparantly, this person’s opinion seems to be important to him, especially in regards to his actions in recent times. Is he drawing parallels from back then to now? Back then, the person was involved, and now, Louis deems them to be qualified to make a judgement of the current events.
Would you have told me to keep going, or would you say to walk away?
So this seems to be a hypothetical question about a time between them parting ways and now - it is a little bit in the past. Speculating, it could be about the beginning of the “recent” years he’s asked them about just before. He seems to value their opinion, and missed their advice. It seems he stood in front of a decision, either to go through with something hard, or to leave it all be and walk away.
You always made me feel much better, and I’ll always be grateful for that
Back then, this person gave Louis some relief in the situation, helping him get through it and feel better, and to this and into the future he will be grateful for that. So even though they were going through something tough, this person offered comfort to Louis.
I didn’t have to search cos I still know your number
he isn’t even saying that he still has their number saved, but that he still knows their number - did he call them so often during that time that he would know it by heart? Is it a certificate of how much they talked, and how close they really were?
I bet that you didn’t think that I’d remember
Now he is guessing that they didn’t think he would remember (the number? them?) - maybe he is expressing that he thinks that it seems like they think he doesn’t like them - maybe he is trying to say “look, I know you think I dislike you or don’t want to think about you because I connect this difficult time with you, but I do - you were important to me, and no, i don’t dislike you, and no, I am not disinterested in you.”
It just wasn’t meant to be, no, it just wasn’t meant to be, it just wasn’t meant to be
Then he repeats that it simply wasn’t meant to be - their relationship or what they were going through for - over and over again, almost like a mantra, like something he had to make himself believe, a state of mind, just like “it is what it is” is.
I didn’t have to search cos i still know your number, I bet sometimes you still like to wear my jumper
contrary to the one before this one, where he guesses they think he might dislike them, here now he is expressing he thinks they still like Louis, or at least have a soft spot for him - and even mentions clothes sharing, they are wearing his jumper - where do we know this from? Stunting in the 1D-Universe always includes wearing each other’s clothes, because it’s, as always, a cheap copy of the real thing: the boys all sharing their clothes from the very start. Is this a nod, a hint, to connect this to stunting?Â
Just because it didn’t work, doesn’t mean it’s meaningless to me, it just wasn’t meant to be
 He ends on the repetition of “it didn’t work but it still meant something to me, it is what it is” which is summing up the situation he’s finding himself in now: looking back at the situation, having made his peace with what went wrong, and telling the other involved person that he still cares about them, and that he appreciates them for being there for him back in the day.
Let’s start with the title: Chicago. What comes to mind in connection to Louis? Yes, that very wild and weird time at the end of 2015, where suddenly, amidst all the baby and engagement rumours to Briana, Louis suddenly went public with a steady girlfriend: Danielle Campbell. And because Danielle Campbell is from Chicago, and her family lives there, Louis spent a lot of time there between end of 2015 and end of 2016. He also got the infamous bum tattoo there with Danielle’s brother on a night out, as well as the 28 knuckle tattoos. People in the fandom often are scared to look into the Douis relationship, because - in contrast to Elounor - they actually seemed quite comfortable with each other. Danielle was, in my opinion, the only beard / PR girlfriend Louis chose himself. There were rumours about him holding “auditions” with at least Alycia Debnam-Carey and Danielle Campbell. Speculations are that Louis installed her as a safety net to not get dragged further into the babygate drama by management/pr company and the fame hungry trash family, meaning Danielle was by Louis’ side all the way through the first year of Freddie’s life, there are several photos of her with Louis and the kid. So Chicago is synonymous with Louis spending time with Danielle and her brother and being in the midst of the babygate chaos.Â
Another link could be the musical Chicago: we know Louis loves musicals (Grease made him audition for the X-Factor in the first place!) and Chicago is a 1975 American jazz musical by Bob Fosse, the original production opened in 1975 and ran for a total of 936 performanences (lol) - it is the second most performed musical ever. It is about a woman,who’s being sent to a woman’s prison in the 1920ies for having murdered her lover, who promised her stardom in the showbiz, but never delivered. In order to regain her celebrity status and increase sympathy towards her in the court of justice, she lies and acts as if she was pregnant (sounds familiar??).
The tone is set - we have both links connecting the song to babygate already. And then he goes ahead and sings about a baby in the first line?! And the best part is - it is pretty obvious by the song who it is meant to be about: Danielle Campbell. He drops enough identifier (“brother,” “Chicago,” “your mother,” “clothes sharing,” to be able to pin down who it is about. Just imagine the spike search results had when the album was released - wait hang on, let me just show you. Isn’t it funny that the collective sentiment will be “huh, but she didn’t have a baby?”
He is very clever about it, though: at first glance it is dressed up as a love song about an ex - in my opinion, though, it isn’t. It is very honest, I think, just not the way the sloppy conclusion leads to believe. To me, it is very much about Danielle, but as exactly what my reading showed: she was someone he could lean on during a hard time, who met him with compassion and understanding, and who was there for him when he had to do things that weren’t easy and black or white. She helped him choose a name for the fake baby he was having (unhinged theory: they were the ones starting the Conchobar rumour /j) He wants to express this and get it off his chest, maybe he wasn’t in the right space back then to show his appreciation and gratefulness properly.Â
Maybe, because of the mentioned bitterness and “it” not working out, he can only now allow those feelings and speak them out loud. I think the “it” was the whole idea of stunting with Danielle to keep from being dragged further into babygate. Obviously, he is still very much entangled in the babygate stunt, so it fits, saying it didn’t work out back then. The theme of one of his plans not working out and it destroying/hurting a lot of people in his life is a recurring theme in his songs (“took a left, trying to make it right,” “said I had a plan, time came and changed it all”). He is insisting that it was more than just a means to an end for him: she was important to him, in a way someone becomes important to you when they help you through a hard time.Â
The lines would make a lot of sense also in regards to what Danielle has said in an interview a couple years ago that mysteriously has been wiped off the internet last year and the only evidence we have of not collectively imagining things is on tellmethisisnotlove’s archived blog. She says she regrets deeply agreeing to do a PR relationship and seems to be very careful how to word it and that she would never do that again. Sounds like someone who got deeply involved in very shady stunting, if you ask me - and maybe that is why Louis is asking for forgiveness.Â
He manages to put “end” in there a couple of times, and he is also saying that with time, the bitterness (about it not ending? not working out?) turns into sweetness - this is kind of along the lines of what I have been theorising, that he is starting to gear up to end it again. I do admit, that it can also be interpreted as him finding peace with it and just accepting that this is his life now “Cos i’ve been wondering what you’d say, would you have told me to keep going, or would you say to walk away?” - he is asking her if she’s seen that he is reviving the babygate stunt (and maybe she knows what he’s trying to do?) and what she thinks of it. It seems they had these conversations before, where she reminded him that he could always just leave it all and walk away if it got too much. And now seemingly he chooses to keep going (with the plan? To eventually end it? Or to just use it to his advantage?) and wonders if she would agree with that today.
To me, this song speaks of affection and respect for someone he considers somewhat a friend, that because of the circumstances was deeply knowledgeable about the predicaments he’s found himself in. The image does fit what I think happened - that they became actual friends and got along great while stunting, and that she managed to relieve some of the pressure and stress instead of adding to it, which is a feat as a hired beard.
Of course I am aware of confirmation bias, but when it makes this much sense, I just go hmmmmm…Â
I am really glad to be reading that he wasn’t alone during this time, and that she was able to offer him comfort and strength and someone to lean on.
So, in conclusion - Chicago is, just as I predicted, about babygate, but not the way you think. It’s about Danielle Cmapbell, but not the way you think. It’s an honest song, but just not the way you think.Â
It’s an insanely clever song, and I love that he decided to share this with us. Thank you, Louis.
Find an overview of all my close readings here.
