Chicago Feature- Virginian Pilot

Robert Lamm believes that his brain is wired differently than most other people’s. How else to explain the near constant hum of music playing in his head?

 “Even as I speak to you now I hear a melody in the background,” said the founding member of the band, Chicago. 

 As the songwriter for such classic rock hits as “Saturday in the Park,” “25 or 6 to 4”and “Beginnings,” this ever steady soundtrack has been mostly a good thing. After all, Chicago has produced five number one albums and twenty one top ten singles over the course of their celebrated career.  But sometimes the tune spinning inside Lamm’s head is unwelcome.

 “It’s not much fun when it’s a jingle from some dog food commercial,” he laughed.
 Such are the occupational hazards involved with five decades of music making.  Chicago, who play tonight at Farm Bureau Live in Virginia Beach with the Doobie Brothers, has been churning out their horn fueled rock and roll for 45 years now. Still, suggest that the band has provided the soundtrack to people’s lives and Lamm is gracious but mostly indifferent.

“I don’t like to focus on the past,” said the keyboard player and vocalist. “We’re all about moving forward.” Fans of Chicago’s 80’s power ballad years may be unaware that the band’s early output was very different.

When Peter Cetera, the de facto leader of that era left the band, Chicago returned to their earlier adventurous mind-set. By 1994, love songs gave way to experimental fare including psychedelic jams and even a rap song for what was meant to be Chicago’s 22^nd album.

Considering their storied career up to that point, it seemed as though Chicago had earned the right to follow their artistic vision. “Well you would have thought that would have been the case,” said Lamm of the project. Instead, “Stone of Sisyphus” was deemed unmarketable by Chicago’s record company. Even so, the album gained legendary status among fans and was heavily bootlegged until it was finally self- released in 2008.

With four original members now in their sixties, Chicago could easily coast on their back catalog but instead are busily crafting new music for a CD they expect to release in 2013. Lamm says his compositions reflect the direction taken in his solo efforts.

“My interests move toward world music and electronic music. The great thing about Chicago is that there’s never been a lot of resistance to pushing boundaries.”

 A prime example of that mentality is the viral sensation “Forget Saturday,” a mash-up of Chicago’s “Saturday in the Park,” with Cee-Lo Green’s Grammy winning song, “Forget You.” The track, produced by a Lamm collaborator melds the two songs seamlessly.

“I spoke with Cee-Lo and he just laughed and threw his hands up in a humorous way when we talked about the similarities in the songs,” said Lamm. “I look at it as a compliment.”

But that wasn’t the first time Chicago’s music has served as an inspiration.

I’ve had a lot of requests over the years for permission to sample Chicago songs,” said Lamm, who’s given consent to artists ranging from R&B superstar Chris Brown to the European hip-hop collective Cookin’ Soul. 

“A lot of today’s current music makers have a certain reverence for 70’s music,” he said. “For them, it’s where it’s at right now. They think it sounds cool.”