Tag Archives: REO Speedwagon

February 25, 2026 · 7:19 pm

Hey! Nineteen!

AM, Then FM is 19 years old tonight.

Thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to read and enjoy and touch base since that first night, Feb. 25, 2007. A bunch of you have been friends for almost that long. It’s much appreciated.

Nineteen years, though. That got me to thinking back. Way back.

What were my first 19 albums?

These are records I bought during junior high school in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, from 1969 to early 1972, when I was 12, 13 and 14.  I listened to WOKY, a Top 40 AM station out of Milwaukee. We all did, although FM radio was starting to take over as 1972 arrived.

  1. “The Best of Bill Cosby,” Bill Cosby (1969). From a time before Bill Cosby was problematic, or at least a time before we knew he was problematic.
  2. “Green River,” Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969). I loved Creedence. “Cosmo’s Factory” (1970) also would be on this list, but I bought that for my friend for his 13th or 14th birthday when I really wanted to buy it for myself.
  3. “When I’m Dead And Gone,” Bob Summers (1970). I won this record by calling long-distance to WOKY radio in Milwaukee and answering a trivia question. I knew CCR were the Golliwogs (and the Blue Velvets) before they became Creedence.
  4. “Tap Root Manuscript,” Neil Diamond (1970). “The African Trilogy (A Folk Ballet)” that made up Side 2 was my introduction to world music.
  5. “The Best of the Guess Who,” the Guess Who (1971). Didn’t have all the 45s, so I bought this and got a cool poster with it.
  6. “Shaft” soundtrack, Isaac Hayes (1971). A life-changing record. My introduction to soul and R&B deep cuts beyond the songs in the Top 40.
  7. “Wild Life,” Wings (1971). The first album on which I took a flier, curious to hear what one of the Beatles was doing. Quite honestly also hoping to bump my most modest cool factor among my friends by having it. The results of doing so were inconclusive.

In January 1972, I packed up those seven albums and we moved. I went from junior high school in Sheboygan straight into high school in Schofield, Wisconsin, 122 miles northwest, in the dead of winter.

These are records I bought there from early 1972 on, when I was 14, 15 and 16. I listened to WIFC, the local Top 40 FM station, which flew its freak flag by going free-form after 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. at night. Most of us listened to WIFC, but we also had WRIG, a Top 40 AM station that was more white bread.

  1. “Nilsson Schmilsson,” Nilsson (1971). Almost certainly bought this after “Coconut” hit the Top 40 in the summer of 1972.
  2. “The Mothers: Fillmore East, June 1971,” Mothers of Invention (1971). We played this album at parties for comic relief. I probably didn’t buy this until 1973.
  3. “Killer,” Alice Cooper (1971). Pretty sure I bought this before “School’s Out” because I vividly remember the 1972 calendar that came with it. We heard many of its cuts during WIFC’s late-night free-form hours.
  4. “School’s Out,” Alice Cooper (1972). I vividly remember the WTF moment when I took off the shrink wrap, slid out the record and found a pair of paper panties wrapped around the vinyl.
  5. “Golden Decade, Vol. 1,” Chuck Berry (1972). He’d hit the charts that summer with “My Ding-A-Ling,” a novelty song. That is not on this two-record set. I bought it because I wanted to learn about how he built the foundation for rock ‘n’ roll.
  6. “Son of Schmilsson,” Nilsson (1972). First time I bought a follow-up album that was disappointing.
  7. “Dark Side of the Moon,” Pink Floyd (1973). You heard it everywhere. Everyone had it. So did I.
  8. “The Beatles 1962-1966,” the Beatles (1973). I knew many of their hits, but I didn’t have any Beatles albums. I figured this was a good place to start.
  9. “The Beatles 1967-1970,” the Beatles (1973). Likewise. I quickly came to like the blue record more than the red record.
  10. “Who Do We Think We Are,” Deep Purple (1973). “Smoke on the Water” came out as a single in the spring of 1973. I loved it. So I eagerly, optimistically bought the follow-up album. I should have bought “Machine Head” instead.
  11. “Brain Salad Surgery,” Emerson, Lake and Palmer (1973). Bought this after “Karn Evil No. 9” hit free-form radio. Quite a trip. Not a lot of kids from central Wisconsin were listening to prog albums at that time, but “Dark Side of the Moon” had made that more acceptable.

That’s 18 albums. I’m fairly certain about all 18. I still have them all, although the Bob Summers album is a replacement copy. (The one I won from WOKY had a “DJ Copy” sticker on it. It probably went away in the Great Record Purge of 1989.)

Cover of "R.E.O./T.W.O" album from REO Speedwagon, 1972

But what’s the 19th album? It could be …

— Another Creedence record. Can’t remember when I bought “Cosmo’s Factory” for myself. Also could have circled back for their self-titled debut album from 1968 or “Bayou Country” or “Willy and the Poor Boys,” both from 1969.

— “R.E.O. T.W.O.,” REO Speedwagon (1972). “Golden Country” and “Like You Do” were the album cuts we often heard during the late-night free-form radio hours. “Like You Do” was one of my favorites.

— The self-titled debut album from Clicker (1973). Clicker was a Wisconsin rock and cover band that got airplay on WIFC and played lots of gigs at local roadhouses and schools. If this is indeed the 19th album, it’s me taking another flier and quite honestly hoping to bump my cred among my friends by having it. The results of doing so were again inconclusive.

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September 30, 2024 · 10:45 pm

We must make a stand

As it turns out, I was on tour — visiting Virginia and Maryland — when REO Speedwagon announced earlier this month that they would stop touring in 2025.

That news caught me by surprise, if only because I always thought I’d get around to seeing REO Speedwagon someday.

Though they’re one of those great Illinois rock bands that has toured the Midwest seemingly forever, I’ve never seen REO Speedwagon despite many opportunities to do so.

I’ve seen Cheap Trick twice, once in a small hotel ballroom where Rick Nielsen knocked out ceiling tiles when he fired a KISS record over the crowd during “Surrender.” Styx is another. I saw them in 1975, my first rock show. I saw Starcastle — then fronted by former REO lead singer Terry Luttrell — in 1978. Head East is another. I saw them in, uh, 1990?

But never REO Speedwagon, even though they’ve played arena shows in Green Bay in every decade since the ’70s, the first time in 1974, the last time last fall. REO has been playing gigs in Wisconsin since lead singer Kevin Cronin joined the band in 1972.

“Back in those days, the drinking age in Wisconsin was 18. A lot of action, a lot of fun in Wisconsin. We used to play all the little towns,” Cronin told the Green Bay Press-Gazette last fall.

“We used to travel in a green Chevrolet station wagon with our tour manager and the five band members and the luggage in the back, and we drove the roads of Wisconsin. We crisscrossed your state a million times.”

Oh, I still have some chances. Their tour resumes Oct. 23. But to see REO, I’d have to tour the Midwest as hard as they have over the years. Of their eight Midwest shows before year’s end, the Nov. 22 gig in Rockford, Ill., is the closest, 200 miles and 3 hours away. Mostly already sold out, though, save for the nosebleed and side stage seats.

I think I’ll be OK with not seeing REO Speedwagon. I came in when they were staples of late-night free-form FM radio in the early ’70s, and it’s that oldest stuff that I still dig the most.

Here’s one of those deep album cuts, a protest song that remains relevant — and a staple of REO’s live shows — all these years later.

“Golden Country,” REO Speedwagon, from “R.E.O./T.W.O.,” 1972.

This was written by lead guitarist Gary Richrath, who gave himself a tremendous guitar solo. He and Cronin were the creative forces behind REO Speedwagon for almost 20 years. Richrath left the band in 1989 after a falling-out with Cronin. Richrath died in 2015 at age 65.

Cover of "R.E.O./T.W.O" album from REO Speedwagon, 1972

Golden country your face is so redWith all of your money your poor can be fedYou strut around and you flirt with disasterNever really carin’ just what comes afterWell your blacks are dyin’ but your back is still turned

Another falling-out is why REO is retiring from the road. Bruce Hall, 71, REO’s bass player since 1977, apparently was deemed not fit enough to return to action after back surgery in late 2023. “Irreconcilable differences” are said to have developed between Hall and Cronin, who’s 73.

And your freaks are cryin’ but your back is still turnedYou better stop your hidin’ or your country will burnThe time has come for you my friendTo all this ugliness we must put an endBefore we leave we must make a stand

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April 26, 2008 · 11:17 pm

Midnight Tracker sampler, Vol. 6

It is late at night in the early ’70s.

You are listening to your local FM rock station.

A song comes on, its crunchy intro mixing some nasty wah-wah guitar with a little Hammond organ. Halfway through, there’s a pretty cool guitar solo.

Then you listen to the lyrics.

Well, your blacks are dyin’, but your back is still turned
And your freaks are cryin’, but your back is still turned
You better stop your hidin’, or your country will burn

Whoa. This is a protest song!

Then, in the last minute, there’s another pretty cool guitar run.

“Golden Country,” REO Speedwagon, from “R.E.O. T.W.O.,” 1972.

That’s Gary Richrath on lead guitar. He wrote “Golden Country.” He left the band in 1989.

That’s Neal Doughty on the Hammond organ. He’s the last original member of REO still with the band.

Check out the rest of Side 2 over at our other blog, The Midnight Tracker.

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April 5, 2007 · 3:30 pm

Music Man, now and then

REO Speedwagon has spent the last couple of weeks promoting its new album, “Find Your Own Way Home,” by doing radio appearances, singing the national anthem at a couple of ballparks and by playing free shows and meeting fans at a few Wal-Mart stores across the Midwest.

Part of me wants to cringe. REO is playing at Wal-Mart?

Then reality sets in. How else is REO going to get its Midwestern rock and power ballads heard today? Certainly not going to make the playlists at too many stations, even those playing the classic REO stuff.

Might as well go out and meet the faithful in the Midwest, where they started out in the ’70s, and where their popularity remains strong.

Might as well try the Web, like all the indie bands that don’t get airplay.

So good for them.

newreocd.jpg

You can check out the new stuff at REO’s MySpace page, where they’re also blogging about the promo tour. Interesting that the song that’s gotten the most downloads, “Smilin’ In The End,” rocks the hardest of the four samples. REO has long been one of those bands you love or you don’t — something I learned with my last post on REO — so you be the judge.

Back in 1972, Kevin Cronin wrote this song about the life of a musician. It holds up pretty well, especially considering REO’s marketing strategy.

“Can’t ya see I’ll always be a music man?”

reotwo.jpg

“Music Man,” REO Speedwagon, from “R.E.O. T.W.O.,” 1972.

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March 15, 2007 · 7:53 pm

Hard to believe, I know

Once, there was a time when you could say you liked REO Speedwagon, even say REO rocked, and not get looks ranging from disbelief to dismay to disgust.

Homercat discussed this in more passionate detail on his blog Good Rockin’ Tonight last year.

I’ll just add this. Those of us who grew up in the upper Midwest in the early ’70s remember REO — fellow Midwesterners — as a hard-rocking fixture on the FM radio of the day. It was a time long before their power ballads.

“R.E.O. T.W.O.” was one of my early album purchases. I probably bought it in the record department at Prange’s in Wausau, Wisconsin.

It’s still one of my faves. Homercat offered the last cut, “Golden Country,” when he wrote about REO last year. That’s a good one, and probably the one that got the most airplay. Lead guitarist Gary Richrath wrote that one, and he wrote this one — my favorite cut.

reotwo.jpg

“Like You Do,” REO Speedwagon, from “R.E.O. T.W.O.,” 1972. Also available digitally.

Thanks to Homercat for getting the ball rolling on this discussion. He’s long been a friend of AM, Then FM. Sorry it took so long to follow up.

But, as we say, late to the party as usual.

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