Ain't no road just like it: Surviving band member not a fan of LSD's renaming

CHICAGO - Chicago's city council voted Friday to change the name of Lake Shore Drive to the name of a Black man recognized as a key settler of the city.

But the last surviving member of a rock group that wrote an iconic song about the scenic expressway thinks aldermen took a wrong exit ramp by renaming it Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

"I think it's a total atrocity," said Ted Aliotta, who was a drummer in the Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah trio. "Some individual's ego trip should not interfere with the most beautiful skyline of any city in the world."

DuSable, a native of Haiti, is considered Chicago's first permanent, non-Indigenous settler. He had a successful trading post in the late 1700s and died in 1818. Chicago was incorporated as a town in 1833 and as a city four years later.

South Side Alderman Donald Moore proposed changing the name of the ribbon of concrete along Lake Michigan to DuSable Drive two years ago after a riverboat tour of the city during which he claimed DuSable's name wasn't mentioned.

Moore's initial request to get rid of the Lake Shore Drive name entirely was opposed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, but she supported the compromise struck this week to add DuSable's name.

The vote for the change was 33-15, with "no" votes coming from 12 white and three Latino aldermen.

Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa said the lack of proper honor for Black leaders has a harmful impact on Black children. Naming the road for him "is a small but important step to addressing racial injustice," Ramirez-Rosa said.

Aliotta, who lives in Lyons, said the band started recording the song "Lake Shore Drive" on New Year's Eve 1971 and finished it New Year's Day 1972. It was released as a single and later as part of the same-named album.

"My brother Mitch (the band's bassist) and I were living in Old Town, and we were a block away from Lake Shore Drive, and I said, 'This road deserves a song," Aliotta said.

So, Aliotta said, he wrote a song called "Cement Cowboy."

Aliotta said fellow band member Skip Haynes, who was living down the street, "asked if he could use the lyrics to the song. I said, 'Sure.' And he changed some of the words and the music and then forgot he got a lot of the words from me."

Aliotta said Lake Shore Drive captured his imagination and inspired him.

"I would ride my bicycle every day through the sunrise or sunset with my big black Belgian Shepherd running next to me." He said he was captivated by "the freedom of the site, the smell of the air coming off the lake. And I've always loved Chicago. It was just too magical not to worship."

The song took off like a convertible cruising from Hollywood to the Gold Coast.

"I was in British Honduras (which is today Belize) and heard it on the radio," he said.

Aliotta continues to play, appearing with such musicians as singer-songwriter David Molinari. You can find his gigs on his Facebook page.

He said he still plays "Lake Shore Drive." But he won't be changing the song to "Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Lake Shore Drive" anytime soon.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.