This article appeared in an entertainment magazine called "The Scene" on September 12, 1974. It is an interview between Robert Lamm and the magazine. Robert's picture from the back of the Skinny Boy album is on the cover. Robert makes his views about critics clear at the end. It is written by Mark Kmetzko.

"OUR BARRIERS ARE PRETTY FLEXIBLE"

Robert Lamm discusses Chicago and new solo album

"When you think about it, Three Dog Night, The Beach Boys and Chicago are the only American bands left."

That's the opinion of Robert Lamm, leader / keyboardist / vocalist / songwriter of the last-mentioned band, Chicago. He could be right, as the average lifetime of a band in its original form is about two years. Rock bands seem doomed to a future of changes with respect to personnel, music and record labels.

As Lamm says, though, Chicago has been around for seven albums and about as many years. The personnel (Dan Seraphine-drums, Jim Pankow-trombone, Lee Loughnane-trumpet, Walter Parazaider-reeds, Terry Kath-guitar, Peter Cetera-bass and Lamm) has remained the same, as has the sound of the music, for the most part. That elusive jazz-rock fusion that was adopted and dropped again so quickly in the late sixties still finds a comfortable home with Chicago.

Lamm recently scored a new first for the band by releasing a solo album. And to the surprise of most everyone, the horns and sound in general that are found on Chicago albums were absent from Lamm's work. For SKINNY BOY, Lamm utilized the talents of only one member of Chicago, Terry Kath, filling out the music with studio men, friends and a string orchestra.

While spending some time in the Cleveland area for a concert, Lamm talked with The Scene about his solo effort, as well as about his main commitment, Chicago.

SCENE: How is it being in a band that appeals to so many different audiences ?

LAMM: Sometimes that tends to alienate some people that would like you if everyone else didn't. But that's something we have to live with.

SCENE: In the beginning it was very hip to like Chicago.

LAMM: Yeah, it was. But to me, it's still on the same artistic level. And at the same time it's on a very high commercial level, which it wasn't in the beginning.

SCENE: Did you plan on any singles for the first album or did they just happen ?

LAMM: We didn't plan on anything except finishing that album. The first single things didn't happen until the second album. The first single was from the second album, but we got pissed when they started editing singles from the first album. I was very naive then and I felt that whatever the group wanted, that's the way it should be. But it isn't. The artist has very little control of what happens to his music once it's recorded.

SCENE: Who did the editing on those first few singles ?

LAMM: I have no idea.

SCENE: Is that why you started writing shorter, more single-length things ?

LAMM: No, I would say that as far as the length of the tunes, I don't think any of us has ever sat down to write a three-minute tune. But some tunes deserve to be three-minute tunes, and if you try to make them into six-minute things, you should just sail 'em right on out the window. So, a tune like "Aire," from the seventh album, could not ever, by any stretch of the imagination, be a three-minute tune. We wanted to be the first group that would have the radio play a longer single - "Beginnings" in our case - in its original version. We thought we could change history. But you can't.

SCENE: Are you doing any things from your solo album with Chicago on tour ?

LAMM: No, I don't think we will.

SCENE: Why not ?

LAMM: Well, first it's a problem deciding what to pull from the repertoire of Chicago for the live sets. But as far as the solo album goes, we could do "Skinny Boy" because that track is on Chicago VII as well as on my solo album, but the Pointer Sisters are so integral to that track that I wouldn't want to attempt it without them. It's like "Wishin' You Were Here." We COULD do it without the Beach Boys, but it would lose a lot.

SCENE: Did you purposely avoid horns on your album so it wouldn't sound like Chicago ?

LAMM: Yes. In retrospect, most of the tunes are tunes I couldn't envision for Chicago. There's now maybe one or two tunes that could have been done by Chicago, because I can hear spaces that I unconsciously left for the rest of the band. But let's say I HAD written a tune to use horns. I would've felt weird asking other cats to come in and play, when I have really good ones that know me and my music. But I would've felt weird asking THEM to come in and play, because then it would be another Chicago album. So I decided to go for a real pure thing that was not Chicago.

SCENE: Is that why you didn't use Jim Guercio as producer on it ?

LAMM: Yeah. I wanted to produce it. He's a busy cat and I've learned a lot from him, but I wanted to do it myself; I wanted to make decisions based on my own criteria. A lot of things on Chicago albums, my tunes, are really - as far as the actual sitting down in the studio and working things out - my production, too. But they have the Guercio touch on them by the time they're mixed and packaged. I just wanted to see how different it would be if I did it myself.

SCENE: Had you been writing the songs, that are on the album, all along for the past several years ?

LAMM: Most of them were songs that were either unfinished or unacceptable for Chicago's usage. I sit down at the piano and play and jot down ideas, and when I get in the mood where I know I should write some music, I can usually tell straightaway if it's gonna be right for Chicago or not. Our barriers are pretty flexible, so for tunes not to be right for Chicago, they have to be REALLY not right for Chicago. I just got tired of seeing 'em sit there collecting dust, so I did an album of them.

SCENE: You won't be doing a solo tour, will you ?

LAMM: No. I considered playing a couple of nights in a club just for fun, but no tour. If I did those couple of nights I would use Terry on bass, the conga player (Laudir) that's with Chicago now, James Vincent on guitar and maybe some other Chicago city musicians.

SCENE: Have any of the other guys in Chicago been involved in any extracurricular projects, like solo albums ?

LAMM: Nothing really firm. Terry wants to do a solo album, and has wanted to for a long time. But we all have different ties and Terry maybe just hasn't had the time or maybe he just doesn't feel emotionally right to do it. And Peter still needs bolstering emotionally. He's very unsure, but he should do it. He's getting to be a great songwriter and he's got a lot of tunes that Chicago should not do and he should do. Whenever I tell him, "You gotta do a solo album. It's fun, it'll be good for you, you'll be a better person for it," he'll just sorta say, "yeah." But he's got no plans.

One thing that our drummer's doing, though, is opening up a night club in Chicago called "B'ginnings" and we're gonna play two sets for the opening. And he's not payin' us. Originally, he said, "Would you consider as a favor to me to come and play ? I'll take care of everything - I'll get you chicks, I'll get you high and you can get a couple of grand." So after a while we agreed, and last week he says, "I'm haven' trouble gettin' my bread together and I can't pay you." He's like a typical club owner - "Catch me next week."

SCENE: Why do you think Chicago's stayed together so long in its original form ?

LAMM: I think cause it stays pretty creative. Everybody still has fun. There were times when it wasn't fun, but it wasn't all everybody at the same time, fortunately.

SCENE: When were these troubled times ?

LAMM: I would say the third or fourth albums for me were low points, I mean, they were spotty. I think the 1,2,5,6 and 7 albums are the most meaningful. But in that one period I think there was a lot of tension in the group, not among members, but within ourselves.

SCENE: Was "Critic's Choice" (a song in which Lamm spoke his mind of overzealous music critics) vented against reviews of any one album ?

LAMM: No, that was just aimed at the critics in general; I'd had it. It was something that was in my stomach for a number of years and I had to get it out. We would do an album like Chicago V and get a total pan. At least if it was accurate, I wouldn't mind, but in most cases it wasn't accurate. Our albums were not judged in terms of what was going on at the same time. I think you have to be objective; you can't look at us without looking at everybody else.

You can't expect the seventh or the eighth albums to be as innovative as the first album was because there was no Chicago before the first album. And the critics think it has to sound the same because the musicians and instrumentation are the same. So all we can do is try to improve as musicians and composers, and I think we've done that.

After finishing an album, before reading a review, I'd say to myself, "Maybe now, maybe the critics will at least accept it on a musical level. Maybe it doesn't measure up to their personal tastes, but at least they can say this is a musical album, that this is creative." And when I didn't see that, it hurt. So I wrote "Critic's Choice" and it's not gonna hurt anymore.