ROBERT LAMM
''IN MY HEAD''
JULY 6 1999
42:06
1/Will People Ever Change?
Robert Lamm/4:04
2/The Love You Call Your Own
Robert Lamm / Gerard McMahon/4:29
3/Sacrificial Culture
John Van Eps / Robert Lamm/4:43
4/Watching the Time Go By
Robert Lamm/4:36
5/Sacha
Robert Lamm/4:04
6/The Best Thing
Robert Lamm / Phoebe Snow/3:39
7/The Love of My Life
Robert Lamm / Jim Vallance/3:28
8/Standing at the Door
Robert Lamm/4:19
9/Swept Away
Bruce Gaitsch / Robert Lamm/4:17
10/Sleeping in the Middle of the Bed (Again)
Robert Lamm / John McCurry/4:27
Brad Albetta /Bass
Gerry Beckley /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Peppi Castro /Vocals
Vivian Cherry /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Hugh Elliott /Drums
Phil Galdston /Vocal Producer
Peter Greco /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Robert Lamm /Arranger, Keyboards, Vocals
Gerard McMahon /Vocals
Jeff Mironov /Guitar
Ira Siegel /Guitar
Phoebe Snow /Vocals
Vaneese Thomas /Vocals
Ross Traut /Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric)
Eric Troyer /Vocals
John Van Eps /Arranger, Bass, Drums, Drums (Snare), Keyboards, Percussion, Vocals (Background)
Carl Wilson /Vocals
REVIEW
by William Ruhlmann
Though Robert Lamm's second solo album, Life Is Good in My Neighborhood, was released in 1995, 21 years after his first, it sounded like it might have been made as much as a decade earlier, implying either that Lamm was out of touch with current musical trends or that he'd been working on it for a long time. But his third album, In My Head, following a mere four years later, sounded much more contemporary. In fact, the tracks assembled by producer John Van Eps, with their occasional hip-hop and trip-hop rhythms, sometimes suggested that the listener was about to hear from a current rap act rather than a pop/rock veteran in his mid-fifties. But from the opening song, the philosophical "Will People Ever Change?," it was clear that this was the same singer/songwriter who had sung "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" in his butterscotch voice three decades before. Chicago, the band he co-founded and to which he remained faithful, hadn't released a new album since 1991, and that seemed to be enough time for him to come up with an album's worth of excellent material, including "Sacha," a lovely ballad of parental love; "The Best Thing" and "Swept Away," romantic duets with Phoebe Snow; and several songs that pondered the meaning of existence and the state of society. Best of all was the one song Lamm didn't write, "Watching the Time Go By." Written by Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys and Gerry Beckley of America (like Lamm, two longtime bandmembers), the song reflected autobiographically on the passage of time, echoing John Lennon's "Watching the Wheels." Though, as usual, there were no indications that Lamm was about to leave Chicago, In My Head suggested for the first time that he had rediscovered the songwriting talent that launched that group and was using it to examine his times as trenchantly as he had in the '60s and '70s. "You know I've still got the passion, " he sang in the catchy "The Love of My Life," and the album bore him out.
BIOGRAPHY
by Heather Phares
Brooklyn-born keyboardist/vocalist Robert Lamm may be best known for his tenure in Chicago, but his involvement in music began when he was a child, playing piano by ear and singing in the Brooklyn Heights choir. Lamm played in bands while in high school and went to Roosevelt University in Chicago to study theory and composition; early in 1967, he joined Chicago the band, beginning a phase of his career that lasted over three decades. While with the multi-platinum band, Lamm also made the occasional solo album, like 1975's Skinny Boy, 1995's Life Is Good in My Neighborhood, and 1999's In My Head.
''IN MY HEAD''
JULY 6 1999
42:06
1/Will People Ever Change?
Robert Lamm/4:04
2/The Love You Call Your Own
Robert Lamm / Gerard McMahon/4:29
3/Sacrificial Culture
John Van Eps / Robert Lamm/4:43
4/Watching the Time Go By
Robert Lamm/4:36
5/Sacha
Robert Lamm/4:04
6/The Best Thing
Robert Lamm / Phoebe Snow/3:39
7/The Love of My Life
Robert Lamm / Jim Vallance/3:28
8/Standing at the Door
Robert Lamm/4:19
9/Swept Away
Bruce Gaitsch / Robert Lamm/4:17
10/Sleeping in the Middle of the Bed (Again)
Robert Lamm / John McCurry/4:27
Brad Albetta /Bass
Gerry Beckley /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Peppi Castro /Vocals
Vivian Cherry /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Hugh Elliott /Drums
Phil Galdston /Vocal Producer
Peter Greco /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Robert Lamm /Arranger, Keyboards, Vocals
Gerard McMahon /Vocals
Jeff Mironov /Guitar
Ira Siegel /Guitar
Phoebe Snow /Vocals
Vaneese Thomas /Vocals
Ross Traut /Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric)
Eric Troyer /Vocals
John Van Eps /Arranger, Bass, Drums, Drums (Snare), Keyboards, Percussion, Vocals (Background)
Carl Wilson /Vocals
REVIEW
by William Ruhlmann
Though Robert Lamm's second solo album, Life Is Good in My Neighborhood, was released in 1995, 21 years after his first, it sounded like it might have been made as much as a decade earlier, implying either that Lamm was out of touch with current musical trends or that he'd been working on it for a long time. But his third album, In My Head, following a mere four years later, sounded much more contemporary. In fact, the tracks assembled by producer John Van Eps, with their occasional hip-hop and trip-hop rhythms, sometimes suggested that the listener was about to hear from a current rap act rather than a pop/rock veteran in his mid-fifties. But from the opening song, the philosophical "Will People Ever Change?," it was clear that this was the same singer/songwriter who had sung "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" in his butterscotch voice three decades before. Chicago, the band he co-founded and to which he remained faithful, hadn't released a new album since 1991, and that seemed to be enough time for him to come up with an album's worth of excellent material, including "Sacha," a lovely ballad of parental love; "The Best Thing" and "Swept Away," romantic duets with Phoebe Snow; and several songs that pondered the meaning of existence and the state of society. Best of all was the one song Lamm didn't write, "Watching the Time Go By." Written by Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys and Gerry Beckley of America (like Lamm, two longtime bandmembers), the song reflected autobiographically on the passage of time, echoing John Lennon's "Watching the Wheels." Though, as usual, there were no indications that Lamm was about to leave Chicago, In My Head suggested for the first time that he had rediscovered the songwriting talent that launched that group and was using it to examine his times as trenchantly as he had in the '60s and '70s. "You know I've still got the passion, " he sang in the catchy "The Love of My Life," and the album bore him out.
BIOGRAPHY
by Heather Phares
Brooklyn-born keyboardist/vocalist Robert Lamm may be best known for his tenure in Chicago, but his involvement in music began when he was a child, playing piano by ear and singing in the Brooklyn Heights choir. Lamm played in bands while in high school and went to Roosevelt University in Chicago to study theory and composition; early in 1967, he joined Chicago the band, beginning a phase of his career that lasted over three decades. While with the multi-platinum band, Lamm also made the occasional solo album, like 1975's Skinny Boy, 1995's Life Is Good in My Neighborhood, and 1999's In My Head.