what's /mu/ think of REO Speedwagon?
>>129155657horrible butt/dadrock slop and, like, all of their album titles are unfunny puns
jojo reference
Distinctions Not Cost-Effective [1970s]: When the banality reached a certain density, I figured rotational velocidensity no longer mattered. Then they began to score hit ballads.
>>129155837The early albums up to 74 were different and rawer sounding. They followed the general industry trend towards more slicked up arena buttrock in the late 70s. Try for example "How The Story Goes" from album #2. pretty diff from "Keep On Loving You", innit?
>>129155867He'd love them if he was from the Midwest.
I know very little about this band beyond the early 80s radio hits, which everyone in the Western hemisphere knows. There seems to be very little discussion of them on here.Of course they started as a regional Midwestern hard rock band in the early 70s and their career trajectory seemed to run parallel to Chicago's (although REO's were nowhere near as big, took ages to 'make it' and never had a horn section). Like Chicago, they had some elements of the counterculture and political messages in the early days which they dropped after the protest era ended.They are responsible for one of the worst album titles of all time and I'll admit to finding their later music very bland. The earlier stuff sounds a lot less corpo slop.
>>129155657my dad saw REO in Chicago in '69 before they'd even released an album. although he was never a huge fan. they didn't have Kevin Cronin yet and he thought they were just another ok dime-a-dozen hard rock act.
>>129156038Nothing Chicago put out ever got close to as massive as Hi Infidelity.
>>129156099My cousin saw them a bunch of times in the 70s when he lived in Kansas City, they always put on a great show. Yeah they were very Midwestern and I can see why Cuckgau didn't "get" them.
The music isn't really my thing but they were a hard working band who made a long climb. My dad liked Hi Infidelity a lot.I lived in Elgin, Illinois for a while in the 2000s and met a guy who knew Kevin Cronin in the 60s. As I recall he said Cronin had been in the folk scene and did music with a friend who didn't want to make a full-time career of it and became a plumber instead.
>>129156128I know but Hi Infidelity occupies a very odd place in their discography: it was huge, even in places where they were virtually unknown. Whereas Chicago seemed to become stars out of the box - a top ten debut album, then a series of 'regular' American chart-toppers, plus an early 80s second wind.
>>129156359REO had one massive album, Chicago in total well out-paced them.
>>129156128Outside being both Midwestern bands the two had little else in common.
>>129156428>both start out as counterculture scene bands with protest songs>later become buttrock>become county fair boomer oldies act bullshit
Gary Richrath was a very underrated axeman.
>>129156405no shit, Chicago released 3x as many albums
>>129156530If you define a peak as 1 album/year then yep your correct. Chicago never had a Escape type of album. If you stop Chicago's sales at the time of Kath's death in 78 they still handily outsell REO by a wide margin. All Chicago albums are multi platinum.
I'm old and I remember these guys being a bit of a niche band in the late 70s that some cool people were into but way more of a "deep cut" band than the real heavyweights of that era like Aerosmith et al until they exploded with Hi Infidelity and then all the girls and jocks were playing that one at parties, but none of them ever played any of the previous albums.The early albums show that the band didn't quite know what they were yet but they're not bad all the day.
>>129156598>all the day*all the same, I mangled that
I had REO put down as one of those 70s hard rock groups like Aerosmith, Foreigner, Heart, and Journey that later sold out to power ballad cheese in the 80s although in fact their run as a recording act goes back earlier and begins during the counterculture era. Chicago were the gods of bad pop/ballad slop but they had also been around since the LSD days and Jimi Hendrix had even called Terry Kath his favorite guitarist.
what does REO even stand for... gay?
>>129156644it's a reference to the REO car company that existed prior to WW2. They abandoned passenger cars after the war and then produced exclusively trucks. The band name specifically refers to an early truck model the company sold.
me gusta el tema de que vuelvan los lentos de las papas fritas
>>129156639As for the band themselves, I never thought they were anything exceptional, more like a decent bar band that happened to get lucky with some hits and one multiplat album. Their playing skills were always pretty meh and Kevin Cronin had a weird intonation when singing. I guess there's not a lot to say about them because unlike Aerosmith or KISS or any of those guys they never had any interesting band drama.
As anon said in the /mu/ in 1972 thread R.E.O. Two is a very solid hard rock album with some good playing and has more of that early 70s rawness as opposed to the polished arena rock they would have by the disco era.
My dad saw them at Six Flags Over Texas in around 73 during an afternoon show, he and his friends were kids looking for some shade from the brutal Texas summer sun. He saw them later in the early 80s.Their early stuff up to and including the live album all have good songs on them. They were never a huge favorite of Dallas radio stations but they did get some airplay there especially the live album.
>>129155657>>129156780everyone in the Midwest back then knew these guys. i could understand New York boi Cuckgau not "getting" them, music was a lot more regional and tribal in the 70s than it is now and you were obliged to stump for your local scene.
Their albums always felt thin and never captured their live sound which was a lot more balls-to-the-wall than they got in the studio. Too bad they never had Jack Douglas producing.
>>129156530Styx are a better comparison than Chicago tbqh.
>>129156883Comparing REO Speedwagon to S*yx is almost an insult.
>>129156900Both Midwestern bands who started at nothing late 60s and were huge early 80s. Styx were prog/concept instead of meat-and-potatoes rock like REO.
>>129156910I only used that comparison because both were Midwestern bands and both contemporaries. Yeah they're otherwise very different.
>>129156807Cuckgau probably would have enjoyed REO's live shows since it was more-or-less the stripped down rock that he idealizes without any 25 minute drum solos or other gimmicks.
>>129156910Styx's first album was 72 and it still has a lingering counterculture era feel to it compared to the later ones.>>129156598It's kind of surprising that REO took as long as they did to get big when you consider that Aerosmith broke on album two and most other bands of that time had a similar arc. Tuna was a minor hit and then of course Hi Infidelity momentarily made them the biggest band on the planet, but in between that was Nine Lives, a flop of an album nobody remembers that sold nothing and has them wearing some really bad proto-hair metal clothes on the cover. I don't think Nine Lives got any airplay at all.
>>129157032while i agree NL had an awful cover, one cut from that album (Back on the Road Again) became a fan favorite and a regular part of their live setlists
>>129157032Aerosmith's S/T flopped most likely because CBS didn't promote it at all. As for the rest, KISS wouldn't have made it without Alive! and Casablanca nearly went under. Rush also almost got dropped by Mercury but 2112 saved their bacon. I too would be surprised at REO Speedwagon having like six or something albums without a major hit, guess they had good connections at Epic.
as a Midwesterner i always felt REO and Styx were unfairly maligned by the predominantly coastal rock critic establishment
>>129157078In the early 80s, America was obsessed with AOR crap like REO, Journey, Toto etc where as THANKFULLY, Oz was fully immersed in the UK music scene along with our own local acts.
>>129157165>In the early 80s, America was obsessed with AOR crap like REO, Journey, Toto etc where as THANKFULLY, Oz was fully immersed in the UK music scene along with our own local acts.What about Peter Cupples, mid 80s onwards INXS, John Farnham, Daryl Braithwaite or Glenn Shorrock?Or do you mean Rolf Harris when you say local acts? (^:
i agree Nine Lives was lame and devoid of memorable material
>>129157231that one was primarily a vehicle for Richrath's guitar and it's not really a song album
>>129156639that's unfair because the post-Kath Chicago was totally dissimilar to the early band whereas REO never really changed their sound. also of course Kevin Cronin wasn't the original singer, he doesn't show up until the second album.
>>129157133I just can't stand Dennis DeYoung's voice or theater kid songwriting. They're not bad when they just stick to basic rockers.
"Ridin' the Storm Out" is a banger.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6_Sm4b5HX8
>>129157334I had sampled the debut album since it was posted in the /mu/ in 1972 thread. Yeah it is rawer and feels a lot different from the Pieces of Eight era band.
>>129155657Heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend who heard it from another OP's been messing aroundSeriously, tho, the dead lead guitarist was their MVP. Keep on Loving you solo is gold.
