REO Speedwagon 232, 231

ALBUMS: High Infidelity (1980). A Decade of Rock and Roll 1970 – 1980

MVC Rating: Infidelity 3.5;/ $$’ Decade of Rock and Roll. 4.0/$$$

Kevin Cronin (with the hair ) and me (Mike Oliver) a photo and discussion after the show about Lewy body dementia at a Lewy conference in Las Vegas.

OK, i’ll start something: Journey or REO Speedwagon?

Which one was the better band?. They both suck right, ?

Well, no. How can you even ask the question? Journey had better songs. Journey was the perfect rock date band: Journey was more famous and was worldwide. Man, what’ are you even talking about?

I hear you .

My family moved to Indiana, trading red clay dirt clods for cornfields and a famous car race My new Indiana friends were very much into REO Speedwagon and if you think REO ws a cheesy Top 40 band listen to some of their earlier albums, they rocked so hard the front row had their eyebrows burned off.

Of course that is obviously not true but I’m sure there were ringing ears.

Now flash forward a couple of decades plus. I was regional editor or projects editor for the Oakland Tribune., My co-workers of a slightly younger age who grew up in the SF Bay Area Journey was the thing. Not even a guilty pleasure but an awesome hard rock band that made REO look like hayseeds. (They’re behind the corn).

Let’s look at the tale of the tape, quite appropriate when you consider how many cassettes these guys sold .

Super hard rock in Speedwagon’s earlier days.
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Journey, over a 40-years career, has been one of the greatest classic rock bands of all time. The band has released 23 albums and 43 singles since 1975 and has reached worldwide album sales totaling more than 75 million. .

OK drop the Mic. I

I like this early one by Journey:

I didn’t think their resume was THAT good. And I like them. Just so we give ’em a fair shake, I’ll find REO’s numbers. Those are oustanding numbers for Journey probably putting them in the top echelon for 70s and 80s bands..

OK, here we go with the REO number. (Both of these nuggets of info, supplied by Wikipedia and Google aggregation abilities.

Over the course of its career, the band has sold more than 40 million records and has charted 13 Top 40 hits, including the number ones “Keep On Loving You” and “Can’t Fight This Feeling?.

Not bad. But this was exactly the music I was transitioning out of at about 18. Played them again for this piece and yes both Journey and REO Speedwagon rock!

Daily journal: 6-29-2019 Brummies REO Speedwagon edition

From Left David Oliver, Mike Oliver, Susan Schneider Williams and Catherine Oliver.

Been a wild week, much of it spent in Las Vegas. More on that in this column at AL.com: Susan Schneider Williams.

Just got through playing one of my favorite albums of the past year or so: The Brummies’ “Eternal Reach.” You know why I am listening to it? Because I saw one of the best concerts I’ve seen in recent memory last night. The Brummies at the Saturn. Even ate one of those gigantic hamburgers from the man outside. The Brummies deny classification except I guess I’d put them under Beatlesqe. I’ve said it here before, they are a band to watch (and listen to). Dang that was tight last night.

So two days earlier I was at the Lewy body dementia international conference in Las Vegas (see Susan Williams story above).. After one long day, they had a pool party and they had listed (Live Music) in the schedule. We had no idea the live music was going to be REO Speedwagon as represented by lead singer and songwriter Kevin Cronin. Now this midwestern band had a huge career in the 70s, 80s and 90s. They were from Illinois but they were huge in my 1970 Junior High School named Klondike in West Lafayette, Ind. We took a picture and as we parted ways,he told me to ‘Roll with the Changes,’ and I told him to ‘Keep on Pushing.’ Seriously that’s true. So cool.

They became this big Top-40 band with the release of High Infidelity but they had been cranking out hard rock singles since 1972, Kevin came to the event because his mother had Lewy body dementia. His voice after 40 years of rock n roll singing, is not as strong but he entertained with another REO member dipping into the group’s deep bag of hits.

Kevin Cronin, lead singer of REO Speedwagon with Mike Oliver of myvinylcountdown.com