Skip to main content

REO Speedwagon - Hi Infidelity

REO Speedwagon

REO Speedwagon released Hi Infidelity in the fall of 1980. Through 1981, it seemed like the album was on practically every turntable in the country. Even my best friend Mike, who hardly ever bought a record, had it - so I borrowed his copy for a while so I could have it on my turntable, albeit briefly, as he took it back.

Of course, I now have my own copy on CD, a wonderfully loaded remaster, and now this one on vinyl. At the time, what I knew about REO Speedwagon was on par with what I knew about algebra - which was nothing. To my dear old basketball coach and math teacher, Mr. Cameron, who passed me on the condition that I never, ever take another math class in high school. I promised and kept that promise. I needed to get that C- so that I could meet the minimum requirements to graduate. He's passed away since, but he was a wonderful man.

So, here was REO Speedwagon catching their big break with their ninth release. They'd been on the verge of hitting it big, but with Hi Infidelity everything came together, and the album would end up selling over 10 million copies. There were a lot of people who really liked the album - or at least the hits they heard on the radio - and there were a lot of hits on the radio.

Is this a perfect rock record? Nope. Even back then, it was an album that had some great moments and some spectacular WTF moments like "In Your Letter," a song so, well, bad you had to wonder what the band was thinking. Still, as far as flies in the ointment, that's really the only song that I don't care for. The label must have liked it, though, as they released it as a single. The first side is 4 out of 5 for being awesome. Heck, that's pretty good. They can't get that many dentists to agree on anything, so it's a win.

As a young guitar player being able to play the cowboy chords to "Take It on the Run" was pretty cool - even if the song was pure cheese (if you've followed me at all, I know I use that phrase a lot, but I can't help myself. I like cheese). Gary also pulls off an absolute killer of a solo on this one. You'll have to forgive this next bit, I'm not proud of myself but it is what it is ... our cover band would do this song on occasion and we'd replace the word run with bum when we sang it. Like I said, I'm not proud of myself, but I still found myself singing along to the song with the wrong lyrics as I played the record to write this up.

Let's just pretend that never happened and move on, shall we?

The second side opens with "Tough Guys," that is an oddly kitschy song that shouldn't work, but it's wrapped up in a rock and roll song and Gary's harmonic squealies are all over the place on the riff, and it makes me wonder if a young Zakk Wylde was inspired to add them to his playing. As a kid I didn't play side two as often, and listening to this now I remember why. It just wasn't as punchy, and while the songs are delivered with gusto, they just didn't measure up to the big songs on the first side. Oddly, I'm reminded of the early '70s glam bands who loved to channel the '50s. The songs here all have an oddly nostalgic feel to them, but with a lot more distortion on the guitars. I found it interesting that the highlight on the back half was "Someone Tonight," written and sung by Bruce Hall. This could have easily been done by Kevin, but Bruce did a great job.

Closing out the album is a power ballad "I Wish You Were Here" that feels a little like Joe Cocker covering "With a Little Help from My Friends" before morphing into a gospel number with a lot of wicked guitar. If it seems like I'm taking shots, I'm not. This is really good, and frankly it was almost new to me. Like I said, back in the day I really didn't listen to the second side a lot, and making it to the end didn't happen as often.

back cover

The band was tight and was anchored by Kevin Cronin's vocals and Gary Richrath's guitar playing. Of course this isn't to say the rest of the band was just hanging around doing nothing. Bruce Hall and Alan Gratzer were a solid rhythm section, with Bruce's bass laying the sonic foundation that allowed Gary's high fretwork to stand out and cut through the mix. Neal Doughty played keyboards, and along with drummer Alan Gratzer who actually started the band.

Still, this is an essential album by a band who really managed to be in the right place at the right time with a few killer songs, and the rest, as they say, is history. 



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Billy Rankin - Growin' Up Too Fast

Growin' Up Too Fast was never widely released on CD (if at all), and it was one of the albums I really wanted to get back after a basement flood wiped out my vinyl collection in the '90s (when no one really gave a shit about records, and my insurance gave me a couple hundred bucks for an appraised $10,000 collection). Way back in 1984, my (dearly departed and greatly missed) buddy Dave let me borrow his cassette copy, which included a bonus track of "Get It On (Bang A Gong)." When I eventually bought the album, I didn't know it was a bonus track, or even what a bonus track was. If that sentence was hard to read, just go back and skim it. I'm sure you'll get the gist. I'd find out later Billy was an off-and-on-again member of Nazareth and wrote some absolutely killer songs for them. At the time, though, all I knew was this guy laid it out cold with the opening cut, "Baby Come Back," then proceeded to lay down one killer tune after another bef...
Post a Comment
Read more

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTO's Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) - so who knows, maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust. It seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight-ahead pop or rock. It was leaning toward the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough, the vocals rem...
5 comments
Read more