Page 32 - Peter Cetera News Today

As we near the close of a year that can be seen as somewhat tactile deficient, we thought it was time to embrace some wonderful songs that are well situated within the theme of HOLD.  The majority of songs tend to relate to holding or touching people, though ELO wants you to hold on to your dreams, John Lennon suggests that when you’re alone in the world you just have to hold on, Smokey Robinson refers to an emotional hold on someone and Sue Thompson is hoping that James will hol...

Its hard to know who to talk to because theyre all stars of the band. right? [ cheers and applause ] >> mole hilgz never become mountains. its a democratic organization. everybody is a front man and everybody has anparazaider. >> peter cetera. bobby lamm. danny seraphine on drums. chris kennic on guitar. >> my first day of rehearsing with them i had to go down and hide in the pool house because nobody had told don anybody was out of the band. >> we had auditioned unbeknownst to donny. donny day ...

>> we all went to the premiere. peter and i are sitting next to each other. weve written the song. hes singing it. were so excited. the end title comes on, it starts out. you can hear it, really nice. ♪ were getting excited like this is our moment. its just filling the speakers. way in the background of the movie is a motorcycle, getting louder and louder. and the song is getting softer and softer. and its like, you think the sound of a motorcycle is more important than this beautiful song wev...

>> we said okay, well, well give you more control. you want that, thats going to do something. >> i have to say that peter, to be very honest, was not a fan of the horns. ♪ ♪ you know our love was meant to be ♪ ♪ the kind of love to last forever ♪ >> you know, peter felt that there didnt need to be brass on every single song. and i happened to agree. >> i just cant say that they were the integral part of what the music was up to that point. >> horn players would come in, you know, and ...

At the top of his game. >> i dont know what jimmy guercios contribution was to those early albums, but i suspect that that sound that they had, he just had to harness the sound and like hang on for dear life. i dont think he was hands-on the way i was, getting there and playing and arranging and writing. the very first day of the very first session peter, when you get to the bridge, you played a wrong note there. its an f, not an e, whatever. oh. he took me to the vocal booth. there was nobody i...

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 tep up and add a little more to it, and we survive it somehow. >> cetera kind of felt less than because he wasnt a songwriter and he wasnt really an instrumentalist. he played bass and he was a great singer. but he felt really insecure about presenting his songs. >> chicago. its terry and theres peter and theres danny. welcome to the u...

He had gotten physically in shape. he was really focused. he was really kind of like a new man. ♪ hold me now ♪ its hard for me to say im sorry ♪ >> no one -- there was never any one face in the band. but it became all about peter. ♪ after all that weve been through ♪ >> at first the focus did change, and there were videos. ♪ i promise to >> when we went in to record videos, the director would say, so whos the leader? what do you mean? there is no leader. you know, shoot all of us. "...

>> so all of a sudden we have this new guy whos stepping to the front. and frankly, its completely different than anything chicago was doing. ♪ far away from the one that i love ♪ >> at that particular point in time adding a new approach, you know, with a new enthusiasm was fortuitous timing. >> we were desperate for a hit record. okay, if thats what you think were good with that. if that will put us on the radio, okay. ♪ hold me now >> david would start dictating lines to us. he wrought s...

And everything else peter and i did. >> those of us who were kind of being in a rock band were looking at each other sideways saying what is this? why are we doing this? >> those songs were not chicago songs. those songs were peter songs. >> i think that the person who was mostll affected by it was probably terry kath. because he did not want to go there. he did not want to go to ballad land. >> the height of his frustration was after we recorded chicago 7 and we went out on the road and tried t...

-- i dont know. its hard to know who to talk to. they are all stars of the band, right? [ applause ] >> mole hills never become mountains. it is a democratic organization. there is no front man. everyone has an equal say-so. >> peter cetera. >> bobby. >> danny on drums. >> chris on guitar. >> my first day of rehearsing with them i had to go down and hide in the poolhouse because nobody told donny he was out of the band. >> we had auditioned, unbeknownst to donny. donny was late for rehearsal. we...