Lake Shore Drive is a song written by Chicago-based rock group Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah released on their 1971 album of the same name. This song was an homage to the famed lakefront highway in Chicago of the same name. The song also uses the initials of the highway, "LSD," to evoke an double entendre with the hallucinogenic drug lysergic acid diethylamide. Many fans of the song, and residents of Chicago believe this song paints an accurate musical picture of living and driving in downtown Chicago.[1] The song was initially recorded on August 7, 1970.
The following is a sampling of some of the lyrics that may be considered double entendre of both physically driving on the actual Lake Shore Drive and slippin' (or trippin') on lysergic acid diethylamide:
The reference to "pretty blue lights ... helping you right on by" can refer to both the mercury-vapor street lamps used on Lake Shore Drive in that era (today it is lit by yellow-orange high pressure sodium lamps), and to the hallucination of radiating colors typically experienced during a so-called "acid trip". However, Chicago Police vehicles are unusual in that they feature blue warning beacons as opposed to red lights common in other US cities, and Lake Shore Drive was a notorious speed trap in the 1960s.
Other lyrics in the song illustrate the physical features of the road and its surroundings. "It starts up north from Hollywood" refers to West Hollywood Avenue, which, running eastbound, becomes Lake Shore Drive. "A ten-minute drive from the Gold Coast back, Makes you sure you’re pleasure bound" refers to Gold Coast, a strip of extremely affluent residential housing along LSD. "Concrete mountains rearing up, Throwing shadows just about five" may refer to the expressway overpasses of the Stevenson Expressway. Alternatively it may refer to the downtown skyscrapers casting their shadows across the drive as the sun sets in late afternoon. "From Ratz on up to Riches" refers to Ratzo's a near-North Side tavern where AHJ once performed.
When The Blizzard of 2011 hit Chicago many motorists leaving the city were stranded on Lake Shore Drive as weather conditions deteriorated.[2] Within days Skip Haynes had reworked the lyrics of the song Lake Shore Drive and released it as Snowed on LSD.[3]