REO Speedwagon debut album from 1971 recorded 1970 and probably early 1971 .. no Kevin Cronin on this one.....interesting..they started out as a generic blues rock midwest band...no sign of the power ballads that made their name... their most important contribution may have been their manager Irving Azoff who went on to greater fame as manager for the Eagles and then kept climbing the corporate music ladder until he got to the top...although I do not know all the particulars about Azoff.. maybe he started out managing Fogelberg? anyways by the last decade he was considered the most important person in the music industry.. I guess he had a lot to do with both Ticketmaster, Live Nation and their horrible merger...by all accounts - and one came to me first hand- he is a first class prick
anyways REO Speedwagon..
the album is pretty boring blues rock but it was their first... still .. some nice stinging guitar leads..at least it tries to rock out... always a plus! .but the furthest thing imaginable from the type of music they had such huge hits with in the late 70s / early 80s like Cant fight this feeling..
I also have their second album by which point Cronin had joined the band and they even did a CHuck Berry cover on it! All rock used to come from there..
I saw REO at the jack fest where they were easily the least interesting band to me on the bill.. they could not compete with the pretenders, zz top, straycats... but by that point rickrath who originally was their big songwriting talent was long gone (and its telling that when he left / was pushed out they never again had a hit!).. rickrath died a few years ago... i think alcoholism... cronin continues to take REO on the road...
by all accounts REO's first album sold ok in the midwest but that was about it...
