I didn't get a chance to do one yesterday and I'm late today, but with good reason. I started this little bloggercize with the "rule" that I'd flip on my radio and somewhat coherently scribble down my thoughts on the first song that I heard. As I mentioned previously, the station that provides me the source for this inspiration is Jack FM in Denver, a station that purportedly plays 80's classics, but in reality, they're all over the place. I decided to research every song and always have a back up in case the first song is disqualified, specifically not from the 80's. So I was excited to hear the Eurythmics crank out Missionary Man this morning...always liked the song, etc... So I fire up the Googlizer and BAM!, the album was released in 1990. Thanks for playing. With great trepidation I realized that I'd have to fall back to the second song I heard this morning, and quite honestly, I've been in denial about it.
So unfortunately, here's today's song:
Keep on Loving You by REO Speedwagon
Most of the people my age would be lying if they said they never liked REO Speedwagon. A huge majority of people who graduated from High School around 1980 (give or take a few years) knew way, way too much about REO after having some fairly decent (by that days standards) tunes jammed down our radio listening ears. Ridin' the Storm Out, Roll With The Changes and Back On The Road Again were all late 70's anthems to rock and listenable even today, for sentimental reasons.
One of my closest friends, Mike "the Man" Dotts, was totally in love (in a completely heterosexual way) with REO when we were freshman in college. He literally drove us up the freakin' wall with his constant "Crank REO" chants. Mega. Sport. That's what she said. You had to be there... So sometime in late 80, early 81, REO came out with a new album High Infidelity. And it ruled the charts, with a number of hits and constant air play. And it stunk. Real bad. Real, real bad.
Keep On Loving You is both the highlight and the low light of their career in my opinion. It had hellacious radio play. It crossed genre's, going from harder, AOR stations to softer, lighter contemporary stations. I think it got song of the year of some sort. And it's droning, wheezing sound is as incessant and mind numbing now, 24ish years later. I thought having to hear a Van Hagar song was bad, but this was torture. Interestingly, REO never produced anything of substance after this album. I seem to remember a follow up to this album but it was neither crafted like this one to tap into a radio audience recently created nor was it good enough to win back the old school REO fans. They faded into obscurity, re-emerging with a couple of the original musicians now and then. I remember hearing about a tour that they did with some members of Styx, called Arch-Allies. Back in the Napster heyday, on a near masochistic download, I snagged a live recording of this song, done jointly by REO and Styx. Enough said.
Now I've been accused of being totally cynical and bitter about songs. "When are we going to hear something positive about a song?" I'm asked. Good question. Not every song stunk from this era. In fact, a lot of songs did not stink. Just like in cards, you play the hands your dealt, and I've been dealt some pretty weak hands so far. But perhaps, things will improve.
So unfortunately, here's today's song:
Keep on Loving You by REO Speedwagon
Most of the people my age would be lying if they said they never liked REO Speedwagon. A huge majority of people who graduated from High School around 1980 (give or take a few years) knew way, way too much about REO after having some fairly decent (by that days standards) tunes jammed down our radio listening ears. Ridin' the Storm Out, Roll With The Changes and Back On The Road Again were all late 70's anthems to rock and listenable even today, for sentimental reasons.
One of my closest friends, Mike "the Man" Dotts, was totally in love (in a completely heterosexual way) with REO when we were freshman in college. He literally drove us up the freakin' wall with his constant "Crank REO" chants. Mega. Sport. That's what she said. You had to be there... So sometime in late 80, early 81, REO came out with a new album High Infidelity. And it ruled the charts, with a number of hits and constant air play. And it stunk. Real bad. Real, real bad.
Keep On Loving You is both the highlight and the low light of their career in my opinion. It had hellacious radio play. It crossed genre's, going from harder, AOR stations to softer, lighter contemporary stations. I think it got song of the year of some sort. And it's droning, wheezing sound is as incessant and mind numbing now, 24ish years later. I thought having to hear a Van Hagar song was bad, but this was torture. Interestingly, REO never produced anything of substance after this album. I seem to remember a follow up to this album but it was neither crafted like this one to tap into a radio audience recently created nor was it good enough to win back the old school REO fans. They faded into obscurity, re-emerging with a couple of the original musicians now and then. I remember hearing about a tour that they did with some members of Styx, called Arch-Allies. Back in the Napster heyday, on a near masochistic download, I snagged a live recording of this song, done jointly by REO and Styx. Enough said.
Now I've been accused of being totally cynical and bitter about songs. "When are we going to hear something positive about a song?" I'm asked. Good question. Not every song stunk from this era. In fact, a lot of songs did not stink. Just like in cards, you play the hands your dealt, and I've been dealt some pretty weak hands so far. But perhaps, things will improve.