The Music of REO Speedwagon — Transcript

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1. 0:00REO Speedwagon was a legendary band that
2. 0:03formed all the way back in 1967
3. 0:07and toured until 2024.
4. 0:11During their remarkable career, they had
5. 0:13great commercial success
6. 0:16with hit records in the 1970s and 80s
7. 0:20and they were a fixture of summer
8. 0:22amphitheater tours for decades to
9. 0:25follow.
10. 0:26REO Speedwagon is important for a few of
11. 0:29their contributions.
12. 0:32They were among the greatest and most
13. 0:34prolific live touring bands in rock
14. 0:36history
15. 0:38and based their early success very much
16. 0:40on live concert tours.
17. 0:43They helped cement power ballads as part
18. 0:45of the rock music mainstream
19. 0:48and they were featured on MTV in the
20. 0:50early 80s contributing to MTV's original
21. 0:53format.
22. 0:56I'll cover those points after a short
23. 0:59bio.
24. 1:01REO Speedwagon was formed by a group of
25. 1:03students at the University of Illinois
26. 1:05in 1967.
27. 1:07They played some bars and clubs around
28. 1:09the Midwest and signed with Epic
29. 1:12Records.
30. 1:14They released their first self-titled
31. 1:16album in 1971.
32. 1:19The band had a different lead singer on
33. 1:21each of their first three albums before
34. 1:24they settled with Kevin Cronin. And
35. 1:27Kevin Cronin was their lead singer for a
36. 1:30decades until their retirement in 2024.
37. 1:37Let's talk about the importance of live
38. 1:41music for REO Speedwagon in particular.
39. 1:45And this is something I think to be said
40. 1:49about AOR bands generally, but live
41. 1:53concerts were so
42. 1:55key to their success and their music.
43. 1:59REO Speedwagon
44. 2:01had three or four initial albums that
45. 2:05did not sell very well.
46. 2:08Uh Epic Records though, their record
47. 2:10company, kept them on.
48. 2:13And give Epic Records credit because
49. 2:15they were taking a risk here.
50. 2:17>> [gasps]
51. 2:18>> Um Epic Records kept them based on the
52. 2:21popularity of their live concerts.
53. 2:23Typically, you'd expect a band to need
54. 2:26strong record sales to familiarize the
55. 2:29public with their music, and then that
56. 2:33would in turn lead to concert ticket
57. 2:35sales. And I should note that concert
58. 2:38ticket sales are the goal for artists.
59. 2:41That's where the revenue is.
60. 2:45Consider
61. 2:47um a modern example like Taylor Swift,
62. 2:49and look at how much Taylor Swift's
63. 2:51concert tickets are selling for
64. 2:53thousands of dollars versus the revenue
65. 2:56she makes for each live stream of her
66. 2:59music, which is literally a a penny or
67. 3:01or two, maybe if that. So, concert
68. 3:05ticket sales are so important to an
69. 3:07artist's financial success.
70. 3:12REO Speedwagon did not have
71. 3:15strong record sales. They had touring
72. 3:18success alone.
73. 3:20And uh they must have had a stellar
74. 3:23reputation as a live band to succeed on
75. 3:26those terms despite low record sales
76. 3:29initially.
77. 3:31Epic Records knew that REO was a great
78. 3:34live band. So, they decided to release a
79. 3:37live album in 1977.
80. 3:39That [snorts] album went platinum and
81. 3:41was the big breakthrough for REO
82. 3:43Speedwagon after 10 years
83. 3:46toiling uh in obscure relative obscurity
84. 3:50um in the Midwest.
85. 3:54That live album led to their
86. 3:56breakthrough second album in 1978.
87. 3:59That record was called You Can Tune a
88. 4:01Piano, But You Can't Tune a Fish.
89. 4:05REO toured most successfully around the
90. 4:08US in the mid-80s, and they teamed up
91. 4:11with Styx for a joint tour in 2000.
92. 4:15REO toured during the 2000s
93. 4:17independently and with other bands of
94. 4:20the 80s performing mostly their hits.
95. 4:23And REO Speedwagon broke up in 2024,
96. 4:27citing irreconcilable differences among
97. 4:29the band members
98. 4:31and declining health.
99. 4:34So,
100. 4:35what made REO Speedwagon different?
101. 4:39REO Speedwagon knew their identity as a
102. 4:42band, and they were uncompromising in
103. 4:45it.
104. 4:47We have to look at some criticisms of
105. 4:50AOR, I think, to put this in context.
106. 4:53AOR bands like REO Speedwagon have been
107. 4:56criticized at times for their rather
108. 4:59overly sentimental and syrupy lyrics,
109. 5:02for focusing on pop music melody and
110. 5:04vocal harmony over heavy guitar riffs
111. 5:07and the
112. 5:10traditions of hard rock.
113. 5:13Shh, to put it, you know, succinctly,
114. 5:16AOR bands don't do a lot of musical
115. 5:19artistic risk-taking.
116. 5:22AOR is sometimes referred to as hard
117. 5:25pop, and is seen more as entertainment
118. 5:27than art.
119. 5:31To this discussion,
120. 5:33enter REO Speedwagon.
121. 5:35REO had enough guitar-based rock
122. 5:38tradition in their sound along with
123. 5:40lightweight memorable melody to appeal
124. 5:43to the rock music market of the youth
125. 5:46and the adult contemporary market.
126. 5:50This mixture of rock and pop is a
127. 5:54product of lead singer Kevin Cronin,
128. 5:56who is interested in
129. 5:58acoustic music, pop, and ballads, and
130. 6:01guitarist Gary Richrath.
131. 6:05Unlike Styx, this divergence or even
132. 6:08conflict of musical interest paid
133. 6:11dividends for REO.
134. 6:14To hear REO Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin
135. 6:17tell it, compromise is important to the
136. 6:20band sound.
137. 6:21He says, quote,
138. 6:23"What had happened in the past was that
139. 6:25both Gary and I
140. 6:26have real outline musical tastes and
141. 6:29real outline talents. I always lean more
142. 6:32to harmonies, more acoustic, and a more
143. 6:34melodic approach, and Gary's more
144. 6:36obvious influence is this tougher, more
145. 6:39rock and roll approach."
146. 6:40>> [snorts]
147. 6:42>> He continues, "There hadn't been a
148. 6:44producer who could handle us both at the
149. 6:46same time. What would What would end up
150. 6:48happening is he'd end up siding, the
151. 6:51producer that is, with one of us
152. 6:53or siding with the other one of us, and
153. 6:54it would really cause a conflict in the
154. 6:56group. So, what happened was that Gary
155. 6:58and I got together and realized that we
156. 7:00don't need anybody between us. What we
157. 7:02need is to work closer together.
158. 7:05And what I learned, Cronin concluded, is
159. 7:08that we don't go too much one way or too
160. 7:11much the other way, because in order for
161. 7:12our band to do well, both Gary and I
162. 7:15have to feel real comfortable with
163. 7:16what's going on.
164. 7:18That in turn makes everybody in the
165. 7:20whole band feel comfortable." End quote.
166. 7:24So, indeed, REO Speedwagon is very much
167. 7:27a product of the melodic approach
168. 7:30of Kevin Cronin, their lead singer,
169. 7:32and the heavier rock guitar approach of
170. 7:34their guitarist Gary Richrath.
171. 7:37They never pretended to be a metal band
172. 7:40or maybe not even really a hard rock
173. 7:43band.
174. 7:45In fact, REO was adopting their approach
175. 7:47as AOR itself was being conceptualized
176. 7:51in the 1970s as a new a new thing in the
177. 7:54music industry.
178. 7:55They were just creating melodic rock.
179. 8:01So,
180. 8:02to wrap this up by looking at their
181. 8:04musical style, it makes sense that the
182. 8:07guitar sound in this music needs to be
183. 8:10made smaller, less heavy
184. 8:13to make room for vocal harmonies and the
185. 8:16lighter style of a singer like Kevin
186. 8:18Cronin.
187. 8:20Uh as well as making space for the
188. 8:23synthesizers and keyboards that are
189. 8:24typical of the genre of AOR, but are not
190. 8:28found in heavy metal.
191. 8:31So,
192. 8:32to accommodate
193. 8:34the lyricism of
194. 8:36a lead singer and their very important
195. 8:38melodies,
196. 8:40synthesizers and so forth, the guitar
197. 8:43sound needs to be lighter. So, this is a
198. 8:45lighter form of rock,
199. 8:47again, not heavy metal.
200. 8:54A couple of important songs by REO.
201. 8:56Their 1980 album High Fidelity High
202. 8:59Infidelity, excuse me,
203. 9:01featured four hits.
204. 9:03Keep on Loving You, a ballad by Cronin,
205. 9:06Rich Rath's mid-tempo rock song Take It
206. 9:09on the Run,
207. 9:10and in 1984, they released Kevin
208. 9:13Cronin's ballad I Can't Fight This
209. 9:15Feeling.
210. 9:17Both of those ballads by Cronin made it
211. 9:19to number one on the charts. So, we can
212. 9:21see based on their chart uh chart
213. 9:24success that ballads really were a key
214. 9:26to their popularity.
215. 9:31For a moment, let's look at REO
216. 9:32Speedwagon in the music industry,
217. 9:35particularly on MTV.
218. 9:38When MTV launched in August of 1981,
219. 9:41the idea was that it would be mostly a
220. 9:44rock and roll station for television.
221. 9:47They didn't, MTV, have a lot of interest
222. 9:50in R&B. Rap had not fully developed yet.
223. 9:54So, MTV patterned itself after AOR
224. 9:57radio.
225. 9:59MTV featured rock artists
226. 10:01in videos on heavy rotation, including
227. 10:04REO Speedwagon
228. 10:06in the first hours of MTV's life with
229. 10:09Take It on the Run.
230. 10:12Take It on the Run was the first concert
231. 10:14video to be aired on MTV
232. 10:17from REO Speedwagon's Live Infidelity
233. 10:20home video release.
234. 10:24On MTV,
235. 10:25artists ranging from Pat Benatar to Rod
236. 10:29Stewart to Iron Maiden and Blondie all
237. 10:32aired that first day in 1981, but
238. 10:36REO Speedwagon was featured several
239. 10:39times
240. 10:41within the first couple hundred songs
241. 10:43ever aired on MTV, which really
242. 10:46indicates how popular they were
243. 10:49in the early 1980s.
244. 10:53We'll cover more on MTV later on in the
245. 10:56course. For now, that does it for REO
246. 10:58Speedwagon.