The first line of the song, "So your brother's bound and gagged, and they've chained him to a chair", refers to Black Panther leader Bobby Seale,[3] the sole African-American defendant, who was gagged and chained to a chair in the courtroom following repeated outbursts in protest of rulings by Judge Julius Hoffman.

In 1973, Australian band Sherbet recorded an extended version of Chicago for their album On with the Show, which went for over 10 minutes.

[8] In August 2009, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour released an online version, titled "Chicago - Change the World", on which he sang and played guitar, bass and keyboards, to promote awareness of the plight of Gary McKinnon.

[9] A remix of the track later developed into the album Metallic Spheres, credited to The Orb and David Gilmour.

Nash disagrees with Kennedy regarding vaccine hesitancy and felt that the original intent of his protest song was being co-opted for an unrelated cause that he did not believe in.