What does Chicagos song 25 or 6 to 4 mean?
The story goes that Robert Lamm woke up in the middle of the night with a melody running through his head. He quickly wrote out the music for the melody before he forgot it, and then sat there trying to come up with some words to go along with it. Since the middle of the night is NOT a great time to try and come up with lyrics, he encountered a bit of a mental block. He decided to write down the frustration of trying to think up the words to this song, and these thoughts became the lyrics to his new song. The time was “25 or 26 to 4” in the morning. This is the official explanation given by the band on several occassions. However, some people interpret the song as being the description of a drug trip – specifically LSD. Supposedly 25 is drug slang for LSD, and “6 to 4” is how long the trip would last. Drug meanings have been hidden in songs before, but the band has denied that this is the meaning they were intending.
