Creativity • Leadership • Classic Chicago
What Time Taught Robert Lamm About Creativity
Five Chicago songs. Five different angles. One creative well: the moments by which we measure a life.
At 3:35 in the morning, most people see a clock. Robert Lamm saw a title. In the uncertain first light of a relationship, he heard “Beginnings.” In two remembered years, he found “Questions 67 & 68.” In the rush of modern life, he asked whether anybody truly knew—or cared—what time it was. And in old Super 8 footage of a summer afternoon, he rediscovered a Saturday in the park.
Listen to those songs separately and they sound wonderfully distinct: hard-driving rock, expansive romance, psychedelic questioning, social observation and sunlit celebration. Put them beside one another, however, and a pattern appears. Lamm, Chicago’s founding keyboardist, vocalist and one of its defining songwriters, repeatedly returned to moments in time.
That does not mean he wrote the same song five times. It means he proved a lesson every business leader, entrepreneur, content creator and artist needs to remember: creativity is not always the discovery of a brand-new subject. Sometimes it is the courage to approach an enduring subject from a new direction.
Five songs • one recurring fascination
How Robert Lamm kept finding a new door into time
“25 or 6 to 4”: turn the obstacle into the material
The famous title is far less mysterious—and more creatively useful—than decades of folklore suggest. Lamm has explained that he was trying to write in the middle of the night. It was twenty-five or twenty-six minutes before four in the morning: approximately 3:34 or 3:35 a.m. The fatigue, the waiting and the search for a line became the lyric itself.
That is the first lesson hiding in plain sight: when the work will not come, describe the work not coming. The block can become the subject. The constraint can become the hook. The clock that seems to be judging you can become the title people remember for generations.
Listen: “25 or 6 to 4” by Chicago. If this upload is unavailable in your region, replace the video ID with an official Chicago upload.
“Beginnings”: capture the season before it changes
“Beginnings” is not about a minute on a clock. It is about the emotional weather at the start of love—the stage when language feels too small for possibility. Its long, rising arrangement even seems to resist closure, expanding into percussion, horns and repeated feeling.
For creators, this is time experienced rather than time measured. A beginning has its own energy: nervous, hopeful, unfinished. Smart storytellers do not merely document what happened; they identify which season of the experience contains the voltage.
Listen: “Beginnings” by Chicago, from the band’s official YouTube channel.
“Questions 67 & 68”: let a date become a doorway
Here factual precision makes the creative point stronger. The title is sometimes misread as political code, but Lamm has said the questions concern a woman he knew during 1967 and 1968, with Beatles influence and psychedelic imagery in the mix. The years are not a policy reference; they are coordinates in personal memory.
A date can do more than establish chronology. It can carry atmosphere, identity and emotional distance. For a leader, “the year we almost failed” may hold a dozen lessons. For a creator, an old address, a school semester or a particular summer can become a container large enough to hold a universal question.
Listen: “Questions 67 & 68” by Chicago.
“Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”: question the frame
This title appears to ask for information, then immediately opens a deeper argument. The song looks beyond clocks toward the hurried way modern people move. Contemporary commentary has often read it as a critique of a society too rushed to notice what exists outside its own schedule.
That move matters. Lamm takes an ordinary question and challenges its premise. Leaders create breakthroughs the same way: not only by answering the question on the whiteboard, but by asking whether it is the right question. Does the meeting need to be faster—or unnecessary? Do we need more content—or a clearer point of view? Do we need to manage time—or recover attention?
Listen: “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” by Chicago.
“Saturday in the Park”: revisit what you were wise enough to notice
Lamm has described carrying a Beaulieu Super 8 camera in New York and filming people enjoying Central Park. Looking at the footage later, he wrote from what he saw. The wonderfully uncertain “I think it was the Fourth of July” reflects the fact that he had filmed the park in two consecutive years; the day might have been July Fourth—or the following day in another summer.
The song offers a practical creative method: observe now, interpret later. Your camera roll, voice notes, customer conversations, journals and abandoned drafts are not clutter. They may be a private archive of future insight. Memory changes the frame, and distance can reveal the meaning that immediacy concealed.
Listen: “Saturday in the Park” from Chicago’s official YouTube channel.
The practical turn
What leaders and creators can learn from Lamm’s return to time
Lamm told the Recording Academy that he has tried not to repeat himself in lyrics or musical structure. These five songs show the distinction between repeating yourself and revisiting a rich idea. One is imitation; the other is exploration.
Go deeper before going elsewhere
If a subject keeps calling you back, it may be your territory—not evidence that you have run out of ideas. Ask what angle, audience, scale or emotional register you have not explored.
Change the unit of measurement
Time can mean a minute, a year, a life stage, a cultural pressure or a memory. In business, “growth” can likewise mean revenue, mastery, reach, resilience or freedom.
Use specificity to reach universality
3:35 a.m., 1967 and 1968, a Saturday in Central Park: precise details give listeners somewhere real to stand. Vague ideas rarely travel as far as vivid ones.
Keep an observation practice
Save fragments before you know what they mean. Photograph the whiteboard. Record the voice memo. Write the customer’s exact phrase. Meaning often arrives after the moment.
Let form create freshness
A recurring idea need not produce recurring work. Change the format: essay to interview, keynote to workshop, data to story, question to case study.
Interrogate ordinary language
“What time is it?” sounds routine until a songwriter asks what knowing time is worth. Innovation often begins by refusing to accept the everyday question at face value.
Try this today
The Five Angles exercise
Choose one subject central to your work—trust, service, reinvention, courage, sales, faith, leadership or creativity. Then explore it through five kinds of time:
- A minute: What single instant changed your understanding?
- A beginning: What did the first stage feel like before experience hardened into routine?
- A year: Which season or date still carries a question?
- A cultural clock: What assumption about urgency, age or timing deserves to be challenged?
- A remembered day: What old photograph, recording or note reveals something you missed then?
You do not have five repetitive posts. You have five doors. The subject stays coherent; the perspective keeps it alive.
Go deeper with the people behind the music
More Chicago stories and creative conversations
Explore Terry Wilson’s conversations with musicians who helped carry Chicago’s sound across eras—including singer, songwriter and keyboardist Bill Champlin and longtime drummer Tris Imboden—then browse more episodes on creativity, performance and leadership.
The enduring note
Creativity is often closer than it looks
Robert Lamm did not need to abandon time after writing one song about it. He could find the subject again in insomnia, intimacy, memory, social pressure and a reel of film. The melodies changed. The arrangements changed. The emotional temperature changed. The human fascination remained.
That may be the liberating news for anyone staring at an empty page, a stalled business or a content calendar that feels exhausted. You may not need a subject no one has ever considered. You may need to look again at the subject you cannot stop considering.
The next valuable idea may not be miles from the last one. It may be twenty-five—or six—minutes away.
Frequently asked questions
Robert Lamm, Chicago and songs about time
What does “25 or 6 to 4” mean?
Robert Lamm has explained that the title describes the time while he was writing late at night: twenty-five or twenty-six minutes before 4 a.m., or roughly 3:34–3:35 a.m. The song captures the struggle of trying to finish the song itself.
Are “Questions 67 & 68” about politics?
No reliable account from Lamm supports that interpretation. He has said the song concerns a woman he knew during 1967 and 1968, with psychedelic imagery and a Beatles influence.
Was “Saturday in the Park” really written about Central Park?
Yes. Lamm has said he filmed people enjoying Central Park with a Super 8 camera and later described the footage in song. His uncertainty about the exact holiday came from filming the park in two consecutive summers.
Which Chicago songs did Robert Lamm write?
Among his best-known Chicago compositions are “Beginnings,” “Questions 67 & 68,” “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?,” “25 or 6 to 4,” “Saturday in the Park,” “Dialogue (Part I & II)” and “Harry Truman.”
What can entrepreneurs learn from Robert Lamm’s songwriting?
A strong central theme can support many original works when the creator changes the angle, scale, format and emotional lens. Returning to a core fascination can build a recognizable body of work without merely repeating it.
Research & further reading
Sources behind the story
- Recording Academy: Living Legends interview with Robert Lamm — Lamm discusses his songwriting, avoiding repetition and the Super 8 origins of “Saturday in the Park.”
- SongwriterUniverse: interview with Robert Lamm — reflections on observation and writing Chicago’s classic songs.
- AXS TV: How Chicago Wrote “25 or 6 to 4” — Lamm and Lee Loughnane discuss the song’s origin.
- Performing Songwriter: Chicago interview — Lamm describes “25 or 6 to 4” as a song about writing a song and a reference to time.
- Chicago’s official YouTube channel — official recordings, performances and band history.
Editorial note: Song meanings are attributed to Lamm’s published comments where available. Broader creative and leadership applications are the author’s interpretation. Chart performance varied among releases and reissues, so this article describes the selections as classics and signature songs rather than claiming identical chart results.
What is the idea you keep coming back to?
If you are building a business, a message or a body of creative work, Terry Wilson helps leaders turn experience into clear communication and meaningful action.
Ready to Grow Your Business?
Discover the marketing systems, AI tools, lead generation strategies, automation resources, and business coaching programs available through TW3.
Whether you need more leads, better follow-up, AI-powered marketing, or a clearer growth strategy, our Start Here page will point you in the right direction.
