Listening to REO Speedwagon‘s classic live album, ‘You Get What You Play For’ tonight. This gem was recorded on a US tour in the beastly hot summer of 1976. It’s been a while since it last graced my turntable, and my life hasn’t gone as swimmingly as Kevin Cronin‘s reassuring vocals intimated it would when I first bought this record as an adoring teenager, but I still love the collection.
Why, you ask?
Try “Son of a Poor Man” is both poetic and compelling. And it is, Pilgrim, for sure, both poetic and compelling. It certainly is.
“Golden Country” was way ahead of its time. Pitiful humanity does not deserve such beauty.
Late REO lead guitarist and songwriter Gary Richrath has become so forgotten. But he shouldn’t be. Not with his expansive body of arena rock perfection earworming it’s way into our collective memory. According to Wikipedia, Richrath wrote most of REO’s hits such as, “Golden Country” (1972), “Ridin’ the Storm Out” (1973), “Find My Fortune” (1973), “Son of a Poor Man” (1973), “Wild as the Western Wind” (1974), “(Only A) Summer Love” (1976), “Flying Turkey Trot” (1976), “Only the Strong Survive” (1979) “In Your Letter” (1980) and “Take It on the Run” (1981).
