The Meaning of Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4”
Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4” has bemused many listeners over the years as they ponder the meaning of the song, which is driven by the strange numbers in its title. The track appeared on Chicago’s self-titled second album, released in 1970, and was written by the band’s vocalist and organist Robert Lamm.
To understand the meaning of “25 or 6 to 4”, one must look at the time when this song was released. Lamm wrote the song in 1969 and it was recorded that August, the same month that the Woodstock Festival took place.
There was a psychedelic air taking over the United States, and while Chicago didn’t play at Woodstock themselves, they certainly felt that air, and as made clear by the lyrics to this song, partook in the culture themselves.
“25 or 6 to 4” opens with the line, “Waiting for the break of day” followed by a verse that one can only assume is about staying up all night on psychedelics. “Dancing lights against the sky / Giving up I close my eyes / Sitting cross-legged on the floor,” Lamm sings.
This is followed by the numbers in the title, “25 or 6 to 4”, which Lamm explained to Straight Dope in 2000 is a simply a reference to the time of day, as in “25 or 26 minutes until 4am”. This lends further to the theory about the song’s meaning having to do with psychedelics, as they are known to keep you up all night.
Lamm’s lyrics also describe other experiences consistent with taking LSD, or just being generally spun. The whole song is centered around these themes, and many of the things he sings about are things you have probably considered or done yourself if you’ve ever found yourself awake at “25 or 6 to 4”, such as “staring blindly into space.”
“Wondering how much I can take,” Lamm sings, “Should I try to do some more?”.
While Lamm himself has never confirmed that Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4” is about drugs, I would say that it’s pretty clear. Funnily enough, the meaning is so clear that the government of Singapore actually banned it in 1970 for this reason, along with the music of several other bands.
Listen and decide if this song is about drugs for yourself below.
There was a speed pill in the 80s with 624 on it.
I thought it was cool that this song was used in the 2023 movie FLASH. Such a great old classic.
Haha, yes. That why I went back to check out the song more closely. It’s also really funny that Michael Keane was Batman.
Someone told me a life sentence is 25yrs. And that he was singing about getting a job 6-4 or committing crime and turning over for a sentence instead.
Damn, I just love the music! My all time fave band.
You should here Vince Neils version of 25to6or4, totally worth checking out.
Eh, Peter Lamm has stated that it’s about staying up all night writing a song. As he was doing so, he decided to make the lyrics about what he was doing. I don’t see any reason to disbelieve him. I agree with the person who said that if it were about drugs, he wouldn’t deny that and make up something fictitious.
All this about “25 or 6 to 4” alledgedly being about drugs reminds me of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” supposedly being about an LSD trip, wink wink nudge nudge. Never mind that John Lennon stated that his son Julian presented him with a picture he’d drawn, and when he was asked what it was he had drawn, he replied, “Lucy in the sky with diamonds”, Lucy being a girl in his school class.
I grew up never really paid attention to the lyrics but at 46 I take these lyrics into how I feel today. Waiting for the break of day to me to get up and doing my day to day to not think. I stare off into space often and I hardly sleep. I tend to be socially awarkard. Idk every one perceives songs poetry what have you differently.
like that too good take
25 was the name of a certain kind of LSD. 6 to 4 was the time they had to work. 25 or go to work
Well said , Dean..
You’re wonderful. You’re not socially awkward, you’re you. It takes all kinds. Be strong I love you.
Not to be picky, but Lamm wrote the song, Cetera sang it.
In Robert Lamm’s own words, it’s about writing a song. He’s never hidden that they (some of the band members, including him) did drugs, so there’s no reason for him to lie about what this song is about. If it was about drugs, he would’ve just said so because, in many interviews, they’ve admitted using drugs when they were young.
LSD 25 by sandos laboratories but 624 May be in my opinion not lemon 714 but rohre 624
“If it was about drugs, he would have just said so…”. Not necessarily! Admitting that they used drugs when they were younger is completely different than claiming that the song is a description of the experience of using drugs (LSD). Describing the Genesis and the meaning of the song, true or not, would have caused many (maybe most) radio stations to ban the song from their play list. It was a totally different era back, bands could not risk the financial devastation of their music being blacklisted!
From what I remember from those days and those drugs and musicians I’ve known, if you’re up writing songs at that time of night you were usually high as a kite.
I honestly thought this song was about this guy being afraid to sleep.
I just grew up with the song never even thinking about the songs meaning. The Guitar work by far the Best ever . We will never feel the flavor of this time again …
Could it be he was simply bad at math?
Funny this song was played by high school marching bands
Still is. Literally in Ventura, Ca (6/15/2013)
I’ve always said that this song is about staying up all night on speed.
I also read it was a reference to trying to write a song working through the night and that was the time. Of course musicians don’t always want to fess up about drug references 🙂
Should I try to do some more? 25(LSD25), or 6 to 4
(work starts at 6am gets off at 4pm)
He is trying to decide if he should go to work or get more high. Song is clearly about being high on LSD, as many references to the subject are in the words of the song.
I think you have come the closest of all of the guesses, however I think the choice is: take a 25 or skip it and go to classes (High School) 6:00a to 4:00p. School days were a lot longer back in the day!
No high school classes have ever started at 6am, ever
Keith B is correct!
Now that makes sense!
Saw Chicago this evening at Tuscaloosa Amphitheater 10/22/22 and their still awesome with four original members. They did play 25 or 6 to 4 as their last song.
Terry wasn’t there you didn’t see Chicago
I am truly blessed to have lived through an amazing era of music. This was one of my favorites and happened to hear it in a TV show I was watching. Now 25 or 6 to 4 is playing 24/7 🙂
I thank you ALL
for the replies here it made my day end up laughing
Many thanx x x x
Ha. Ha. What did I know? We played this in high school marching band for football games at Chugiak High School in the 70s. (Incredulous this music came out more than half a century ago. When I was a kid, that would’ve been like listening to music from the 1920s. Crazy.) I wonder what the folks would’ve thought if they knew the lysergic acid diethylamide reference. The aroma of marijuana around the hockey rink at the back of the school wasn’t entirely covered by patchouli.
Whoa! I was in high school band in the 80s and we played this at every football game – Friday Night Lights. Chicago the Band created such amazing music, timeless.
Same here 🎺🎶
Well I’m 70 years old and 17 back in 1969 the song 25 or 6 to 4 stands for LSD 25 you drop it at 6pm and it’s crash time at 4 am. A really nice 10 hr cruise 😁
Know that’s right 😎
LSD 25 Purple Osley. 6 Hits to 4 people. At that rate you could hear the grass grow. Maybe my mistake.
I completely agree and also love stinky buttcheeks like Lamm mentions
I personally think the song is about crank not LSD. Because wondering if you try to do some more isn’t really consistent with taking LSD. Taking LSD one tab is usually enough and most people are tripping too hard to want to take another tab. And I don’t think it was about cocaineBecause cocaine wasn’t really that popular back then it was just getting a startBut who am I to say anything I’ve never done drugs in my life
They were big into cocaine. Its mentioned several times in “Chicago – the Terry Kath experience”
I’ll have to check that out!
In the late 60s, I received a shipment of LSD from my very good friend who was living in San Francisco at the time. He was far more into LSD than I was, often going on month-long binges that only ended because his body resources literally ran out. He sent me 2,000 hits of “Purple Microdot.” It was puny compared to something like the legendary “Orange Sunshine” which would send you over the top every time. You had to take 5-10 hits of the Microdot to get off. So, I would tell trippers if 5 didn’t work, try 5 more.
Cocaine (very expensive), hashish, heroin, opium, Reds (Seconal), meth, and Bennies, were widely available at the time as well as various and sundry natural hallucinogenics like peyote, mescaline, etc. Sopors and quaaludes came later.
Chicago’s song certainly could have been about crank, but crank (or speed as it was called back then) gave one an intense body “stone” rather than visions or colors.
Like Fentanyl today, you could never be sure of the purity or quality of anything you bought on the street.
I can’t say I’ve never done drugs, obviously. But at 76 now, I have no desire to experiment or “trip” anymore.
It’s the formula for LSD
I have read elsewhere in an interview wth Lamm that the song tells the story of writing this song, he was in LA and lots of people were partying and it was literally 25 or 26 minutes to 4am, and he was suffering from writers block “should I try to do some more”. He doesn’t mention drugs specifically and doesn’t give the impression thats what the song is about.
That’s what I have read also
Hello all! My dad has told me it was about being high all night on coke, he listened to an interview on KLOS, LA radio, he also gave me my first album, Chicago 5- We loved listening to them when gardening together! Simple n free!
Come on people the song is about taking acid.