tv The Eighties CNN January 7, 2017 7:00pm-8:01pm PST
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white house with dignity, grace and good humor. he ran an administration that was largely scandal-free. and he did it all the while under a microscope because he looked different. in a sense, america made a big bet in electing barack obama as its first african-american president. and with respect to his personal character and intellect, most of the country believes it was a bet that paid off. i'm fareed zakaria. thanks for joining us.
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the inception of the band was an assembly of the best musicians i could find in the city of chicago. we discussed about making the best band we could possibly make. that the band would be a musical democracy. i said when you give me your hand, that'll be the contract. the only way you get out of it is to ask out or you die. >> i've always thought of chicago in terms of a family
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rather than eras. you know, in the span of 40 or 50 years, there are going to be changes. i don't care if it is a family or a band. there are going to be changes. the realization becomes, man, we're all replaceable. we're all replaceable. ♪ >> our first pictures were in a foundation of a building. and we had suits. you know, we picked up shovels. we were leaning on shovels and stuff. >> i enjoyed playing music. i enjoyed playing in all the groups that i had played in up till then, which were three to four different combinations. but i really enjoyed playing with these guys. you know, it was a whole other animal. >> robert has always been a song writer, ever since i met him. when he joined the band, he had a book of 50 songs. >> i remember meeting him at depaul and he had a notebook this thick full of lyrics. i remember, he said, i have a few songs here.
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i just said, well, you know, they might come in handy one day. >> in those days, there weren't bands that -- you know, there were individual singers and the bands backed up the singers. >> we were doing what other bands did in clubs, playing covers. ♪ >> the club owners wanted us to play stuff that people could dance to and then drink. they would make money and, you know, hopefully fill the club. >> we started playing one song called "clouds" and we got fired because we did an original song. he wanted to hear top 40. >> it was exciting. really, we'd gotten the chance to hear what the band sounded like. ♪ i love you so >> we wore the suits and did the steps. ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the club. we're going to warm it up. >> it was an entirely different attitude toward playing music.
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>> then eventually, we began to arrange those songs for the transportation of chicago. that's when we got into some dispute. >> we'd get a call on a saturday night at 9:00 saying, this band, chicago transit authority, won't play the top 40 stuff. the kids hate it. we're getting rid of them at the next break. will you come down and finish the night? ♪ >> there would be the boys, packing up their stuff. they're pissed. we're thinking to ourselves, why don't they lighten up? why don't just play the, you know -- give them a little rolling stones. give them a little, you know, temptations if they want it. whatever. we're thinking, you know, they got to go their own way. >> terry came on stage at barnabys on state street in chicago. i think it was during the first tune. he just ripped the shirt, the coat, right off his back. and that was it. we went straight to hippie dom. >> we did original material.
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it was a small group of people that dug it. ♪ come on, everybody >> kind of the legend around illinois. the chicago transit authority had been formed out of these local supergroups. >> we watched them play. we were all like, wow, these guys could really read music. these guys really know what they're doing. ♪ >> all the way in cct with jim. >> i first became involved in college. >> saw there was no way for this to be successful without total commitment. >> he had the idea of building a company called creative
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community. >> when the time was right we brought them to los angeles. >> the stars were aligned and we were supposed to do this. we were meant to be. >> we all lived in a house under the hollywood freeway. and our bedrooms were various rooms. my bedroom was the dining room. each guy had a shelf in the medicine cabinet and a shelf in the refrigerator. god forbid you take somebody's food. whoever had the last shower got the cold shower. >> you drew strauz every day you went to work. >> the home front. >> we went from clubs until we moved to l.a. and more and more people starting to become aware of the band and realizing that we were starting to become successful. >> we were straight out of playing bars in chicago and moved out to southern california and we ran into janice joplin.
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♪ ♪ come on, i think you feel like you were the only man i ever wanted and i ever needed ♪ >> she came in with this entourage and dropped her brush at my feet and went hey, pick up the f-ing brush. i said pick up your own brush and when you get done with that apologize that you talked to me that way. she picked up the brush and she said i'm sorry. ♪ >> and that was the start of a thing where she hung with us and showed us what she did to command on the stage. ♪ you know you got it if it makes you feel good ♪ >> how she could really handle people. we went on the tour, the last big tour on the west coast that
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was the big brother and the holding company with janis joplin. we saw their last show. >> we played every peace rally that happened in california. we didn't have any money. they started writing like crazy. we started doing anything we could to pay the rent. >> we happened to play the whiskey a go-go and pictures on cta on the marquis at the whiskey. and when i go by there, i think of jimmy and i standing there. >> we were opening for bb king or something like that. albert king. walter turned around and he might have told you this story. >> i got a tap on my shoulder and i turned around and i was putting a saxophone away. it was jimi hendrix. he called me by name.
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he said the horns are like one set of lungs, the guitar player is better than me. >> it sounds like one set of lungs and the guitar player is better than me. >> he said terry plays better than him. >> you have to realize we were already listening intensely to his music. we looked up to him. >> he was playing stuff that hendrix had on his records. ♪ >> terry could play a rhythm guitar part. a lead guitar part and a lead vocal simultaneously. i never heard anyone that could do that. >> in a couple of weeks, we are on the road with hendrix. >> we got to see stuff that was driving them. jimi is not happy with the licks he was playing.
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>> do you have to practice every day like a violinist? do you keep in shape every day? >> i like to play to myself before we go on stage or if i feel down and depressed, you know. >> it was stuff that happened to every musician, especially guys who feel like that. they are put on pedestals and they have that pressure of having to do something new all the time. >> we were on a plane and i said why are you so unhappy about what you are doing? he says you are going to know this one day and know it more than me. you will be real successful and spit up hits and work hard. that's really not what i'm into. i said i would love to have your problems. he said well, you will have them. my belly pain and constipation?
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♪ send a message with the whiskers on my chin ♪ ♪ always got a problem, time is always used up ♪ >> we had given him a right of first refusal so he could not sign orders to another label an artist, until he gave us right f first refusal. i signed them. and i was very happy. ♪ >> it was a four-sided album. almost an hour and a half of new music we performed well and with
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enthusiasm and lot of joy. >> and material they themselves wrote. and they did it with their material, combining genres in a very special way. ♪ >> "does anybody know what time it is" is the first thing we ever recorded as a band together. we got in the same studio and we >> we were in sort of a circle. for myself personally, we didn't want to lock at each other. afraid we would make them make a mistake. ♪ as i was walking down the street one day ♪ >> we started thinking we may not be ready.
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we had no idea the microphone gets in front of you. it hears everything. >> this is going to be forever. ♪ ♪ >> i wrote beginnings based on scribbled notes i had that i was carrying around. i loved the idea of strumming 16th note figures and a really pressed vocal. ♪ when i kissed you, i feel a thousand different feelings ♪ right away the song had a resonance and appeal. basically songs need to be memorable. i showed terry what i was doing on guitar and piece of cake for him. ♪ >> we were all still very young
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and very wide eyed and without experience. >> i always believed i would do what we did. 1st album hit the charts with a bullet and i went, that's cool. we realized we were more of an album act and people weren't getting what horns were. where is the strings? there are not strings on the saxophones. they didn't know about it. it was the start inception of horn bands. >> walt was eternal opt mist. we were on the way to a gig. i don't know what i associated hey walt, you think ever have a cashmere suit? i don't know. walt was, are you kidding? you will have 200 of them. this was the concept he totally
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believe in and had no doubt it was going to develop into something. >> i remember jimmy told me we were in indianapolis. 20,000 people and they were yelling bring on hendrix. i got so fed up and i said shut the bleep up and listen. ♪ >> am radio was still a baby. it was top 40, but bubble gum stuff. they were not ready for what we were doing. fm radio was commercial-free in those days and played whole albums. >> am radio still had not played one of our songs.
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we released beginnings and does anybody know what time it is? they wouldn't play it. they said we hadn't had a hit. catch 22. how are you going to have a hit? >> there was a certain amount of frustration. singles had been released and weren't successful. besides the fact that they were young musicians on the road. doing partying. they will burn the candle. >> the zeitgeist of that era was that people our age were noticing that we felt different about things and we sort of felt like we ought to do something about it. ♪ >> we are watching the war in vietnam on television. we are watching the marchs in the south for voter registration
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watching all of this stuff and reading about it and we feel like we need to have our voices heard. ♪ political flavor and college students grabbed this. because man these guys are spreading the word. these guys are hip. they are with us. you know? we became kind of the required listening on college campuses. if you were hip, huh to listen to chicago transit authority. these guys know the score. next thing you know, let's stand up to the powers that be.
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let's ride in the streets and tear the system down. we didn't want to go that route. we are not politicians. we are musicians. ♪ hit 300,000 miles. or here, when you walked away without a scratch. maybe it was the day your baby came home. or maybe the day you realized your baby was not a baby anymore. every subaru is built to earn your trust. because we know what you're trusting us with. subaru. kelley blue book's most trusted brand. and best overall brand. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. mone hundredts thousand times a day, sending oxygen to my muscles. again! so i can lift even the most demanding weight. take care of all your most important parts with centrum. now verified non gmo and gluten free. that i was on the icelandic game show. and everyone knows me for discounts,
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like safe driver and paperless billing. but nobody knows the box behind the discounts. oh, it's like my father always told me -- "put that down. that's expensive." of course i save people an average of nearly $600, but who's gonna save me? [ voice breaking ] and that's when i realized... i'm allergic to wasabi. well, i feel better. it's been five minutes. talk about progress. [ chuckles ] okay.
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night. >> we were working so intensely, we were traveling so intensely, we were learning and rehearsing the songs of the second album while we were on tour promoting the first album. >> when the second album came out, jimmy had written "ballet for a girl in a cannon" and am radio said they were interested in "make me a smile." >> i'm in the car and hear this. hey, that's the ballet. i was going, i'm in the car going, hey! hey, this is me on the radio, you know. i mean, you know, i'm embarrassed to say it, but the disc jockey came on and said, this is a new song by an up and coming group called chicago, destined for number one or something like that.
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ba, ba, ba, ba. ♪ i'm alone in the dark even though ♪ ♪ time and time again, i see your face smiling inside ♪ ♪ i'm so happy, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ that you love me >> wow, this is cool. you know? they're going to play the ballet on the radio. boy, how can they play something that long? >> at that time, am radio, the jungle warfare of music. >> am radio, you know. >> i think if you had a cut longer than 3:30, you were not really getting on the top 40 radio. >> and they took the end of the ballet, which is the reprise of "make me smile," put it on the
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first movement, the beginning, and made it the whole song itself. >> fortunately, the issue was resolved because the album would have the longer original version on there. ♪ >> i would be reconstructing actual history if i tried to ascertain whether or not the group was reluctant to be in the spotlight. they are performing artists from the very get go. their material was very strong. >> other than experiencing the joy of playing music, i didn't really think of anything in terms of success or longevity or -- that was way, way down the road.
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♪ so hard to be ♪ to you ♪ staring at me, try to take you away ♪ ♪ there's no time to delay ♪ we've got to live for today >> the ballet was not an easy piece to perform live. ♪ so much to say >> because there are time changes, there are key changes. a lot of different intricacies that had to be fit together like a puzzle. this guy is singing that. this guy is singing this. >> we were playing with world class singers, players, writers. and the same thing, lee was a really serious musician. ♪
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>> also, he had a real identity problem in those days. i mean, it was real tough. >> i never had confidence in myself. i was always like, i'm not good enough. i don't know. you know, i don't belong here. ♪ i was just afraid of people. afraid of success, i guess. >> i wasn't writing a pop song. these movements in the ballet were titled in the latin for tempo or mood. it was just a series of classical moments sewn together. color my world was kind of a break. andante. ♪ i've waited to share >> one thing that differs with my song, when i wrote a song, it was a sing off. ♪ of our moments together >> i didn't have to have a sing off. that was ray charles.
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terry gatt. ♪ color my world with hope ♪ of loving you >> i got a phone call and it was jimmy. he said, i got an idea for a movement of the ballet. >> let's slow it down and get a little -- let's get pretty. ♪ simple, brief, a little romantic interlude between "make me smile." and agitato. da, da, da, da, da, da. which was another, you know -- ♪ >> quizzically, he looked out of the corner of his eye. i said, what do you think? >> i looked at him and honestly, i said, it'll make me famous. >> what a player and arranger. it was a really great -- greet
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-- great to have a guy like that in your band. >> you have to learn the instrument well enough to get the tape going on in your head. >> brass arrangements, sense of melody, expression in his playing his horn, it is uncanny. ♪ >> "make me smile" was actually titled -- vivace. first movement and then reprises at the end. ♪ >> how would you like to be remembered? i remember john lennon said, just as a good little rock and roll band. you know, we wanted to be a good little rock and roll band with horns. ♪ make me smile >> thank you!
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and i think it scared us to a point that we could have gone one of two ways. somebody could have gone, i don't need these guys. i'm going to do my own stuff. you know, or just go, let's just -- we've taken care of ourselves this far. we've gotten through it with club owners. lost gigs because of playing our own material because we believed in it. let's hang together and forget all the outside stuff. that's what we did. ♪ ♪ >> success with chicago was truly phenomenal.
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"make me smile," "color my world," "25 or 6 to 4." >> we only knew sold out arenas, we only knew success. we didn't know failure, and we didn't know struggle. we were so busy, we didn't have time to sit down and say, we've done it. >> and in the meantime, we were drinking. you know, i was drinking all the time. >> why not? let's do that, yeah. dumb kids thinking, you know, we're indestructible. you know, live forever. >> we burned the candle. trust me. back in those days, no internet. nobody looking over your shoulder because you could get away with so much, you did get away with so much.
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we traveled exclusively by charter jets. >> we had a falcon jet. it was two guys. we were flying to the next gig. >> we had pilots. fresh off an aircraft carrier, flying f-16s. >> the pilots were vietnam cats. i can't mention their names but a couple times, they smoked pot with us. not before the flight. >> i don't know. >> these guys were right out of the military, and they wanted a part. >> we asked if they could do a, you know, a roll. you know, they looked at each other and went, you sure you guys want to do that? >> they have contests, you know. first seater and second seater. they'd try to outdo each other and try to do tricks. >> they said, we're out of the mainstream. you guys still want to try to do that? yeah! ♪
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>> i mean, we'd be doing loops, snap rolls. hey, guys, look out the window. all of a sudden, we'd look out the window and it was like -- >> you could look out and see the earth turning. >> you had no sensation of, oh, what -- >> you can actually take a cup with liquid in it and pull the cup out from underneath. and the volume of liquid stays solid and the same shape as the cup. >> the balls and beer. here comes terry, horizontally floating by me. he's -- it was so much fun. >> eventually, you know, we stopped with the tricks. until we got the helicopters. ♪
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a place of destination where you could go. and set your stuff up, get sounds, start recording and do it whenever you wanted. >> at that time, columbia, i was forced to use their studios. they were all union. i wanted to be free creatively from any technical constraints. ♪ i do believe in you and i know you believe in me ♪ ♪ oh, yes, oh, yes
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>> i think that he was hoping in creating a place where we could go and create, it would be a cottage industry. >> there was a lot of resistance. i mean, even a lot of the gu in chicago, what are you, nuts? >> that was literally away from everything. that was like a town within itself. >> i remember leaving the ranch because i needed to get some carbon monoxide. you know, it was very cloistered in a way. i'd go to boulder. then come back. >> i think that when you put young guys with too much money together in an isolated venue like caribou ranch, it is a recipe for disaster. and it was. ♪ >> there are no police.
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number one. >> we were growing beards. i remember trying to be older, tougher looking. >> we were carrying around these winchesters, feeling like we were in the old west or something. ♪ saturday in the park, think it was the fourth of july ♪ ♪ saturday in the park, i think it was the fourth of july ♪ ♪ people talking, man selling ice cream ♪ ♪ singing italian songs >> caribou ranch happened to be very close to a college town. there's a ton of drugs. there were really good drugs. ♪ i've been waiting such a long time ♪ >> the bank is there, to be able to afford whatever you want delivered to your cabin in the mountains.
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>> i was flying women up. playboy bunnies. had we been straight, it would have been so much better but there was a lot of drugs, a lot. >> whether it was pot or speed or coke or acid or whatever, it was all available and it all could be delivered. you could use it whenever and wherever you wanted to. ♪ >> could never happen. i mean, there'd been some tmz guy in your tree taking a shot. look what they're doing now, these guys. ♪ talking about saturday, saturday ♪ >> they were sort of like, you know, a binge. it was a ready made bing ♪
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>> i think we've accomplished more here in the past couple months than we've accomplished in the big cities the last couple years. because we don't have the problems, the hassles, the head aches of getting into the studio in rush hour traffic. nature is conducive to being creative. ♪ >> go into the mountains in colorado, and you immerse yourself in this creative process. and the real world kind of fades away. my fiance and i, we had a problem. i can't even remember what it was about. she wound up locking herself in a bathroom, and i was on the other side of the door, trying to, "come out of the room." >> no way!
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i don't want to see you anymore. >> she was not cooperative. i finally went, enough of this. i went through the door. and it freaked her out, to the point where it freaked me out when i saw her. and i stopped in my tracks. i asked myself, what the hell are you doing, man? i stepped back and looked down the hallway. saw my piano. something moved me to go to the piano. i had a tape recorder sitting on the piano. i pressed record, sat down. and this song just came out. ♪ "just you and me" began to come out of my fingers.
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pretty much in its entirety. i don't know what power came over me because it's never happened before or since, where i sat at a piano and a complete song happened. i turned the machine off, and i sat there in amazement. wondering what had just happened. and i took this tape recorder to the bathroom where she was still sitting on the edge of the tub, upset. and i played this song. it erased all the acrimony. the song bathed it away, and everything was fine. ♪ you are my love and my life ♪ and you are my inspiration >> i took this tape up to caribou ranch to see if the guys are into it. and i asked them if it was any good. robert looked at me and said, any good? jimmy, that's a hit song.
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we are the epitome of a band. i mean it has always been a team effort. when it starts getting weird or -- somebody always steps up to take whatever slack is going on in the career. they step up and add a little more to it. we survive it somehow. >> so tera felt less than because he wasn't a songwriter or instrumentalist. played great bass. he was a great singer but felt insecure about presenting his songs. >> three members from chicago. terry, peter and danny. welcome to the uchlt uk. where did you get the song from?
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>> you ought to start with him. he wrote this song. >> i want you to say that. >> get to him. >> actually, i did write the song. just from experience. >> somebody wandered out of your life? >> many times. >> i don't know. i just wrote it. put me on the spot like this. i have no idea. >> when peter presented the ballad it was like, of course. one of the things chicago was about was let's record and write whatever we want, including songs that maybe not everybody in the band loves but if you write a song we're going to do it the best we can do it. that's who we are and we know that's not who we are. we know that as nice a song as it is, it's just not -- you know, nobody's going to like it. ♪ ♪ if you leave me now ♪ you'll take away the biggest
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part of me ♪ ♪ ooh, ooh, ooh, no ♪ baby, please don't go >> perception from radio or the public or critics is that we think a certain way. and we think they read something into what we are doing that may not exist ♪ >> okay this band is this. it's an r & b band. oh, chicago. now we see what they are. they're a ballad band. ♪ ♪ a love like ours ♪ is love that's hard to find ♪ how could we let it slip away ♪ >> this is what you dream about. it doesn't always come in the form you want it to. we had a ton of success with all different styles. we were able to do what we wanted.
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>> the process was bifurcated. we used the band. "if you leave me now" it's just bobby on rose and danny playing the drums. everything else peter and i did. >> those of us who were all about being in a rock band were looking at each other saying, what is this? you know? why are we doing this? songs.se songs weren't chicago thoss wee song peter son. ♪ >> i think the person who was most affected by it was probably terry. he didn't want to go there. he didn't want to go to ballad land. >> the height of frustration was after chicago 7. we went out on the road and tried to play the album live. >> without playing the other hits. >> right. >> it was great, but the audiences really didn't -- they weren't buying it. i smoked a joint and i called terry.
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i said, do you know what, man? when we go out on the road next we should play every [ bleep ] hit we have. play every [ bleep ] hit and forget about trying to do the jazz stuff. he said, oh, man. you're a [ bleep ] hypocrite. hung it up. that's really where he was. he wanted to stretch out. >> move forward. >> that's where we started. that's who we were. ♪ >> when you get caught up in success and everything you're so preoccupied by the enormity of a career when it takes off like it did for us that you don't give enough thought to, well, what about the business of this? ♪ >> as far as the business, i kept an eye on the business a lot more. things were inequitable. the first thing that resonated
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