Tag: REO Speedwagon

Thursday’s Theme Music

Clear night last night, after a quasi-balmy day. That’s a day when warmth and cold — spring and winter — have repeated rounds, looking for victory. Walk in sunshine and it’s so warm, and yeah, baby, spring is almost here. Then, stepping into the shadows, wintry winds slash your cheeks and hands and you’re, like, geez, that’s friggin’ cold. Even the smell between these experiences is different, with one offering a definite winter scent to the air.

Back to last night, it was clear, feeling like winter settling in for the night, but I was out, looking for stars and the moon. No moon was found, which made me cycle through what I remembered from seeing the moon (oh, yeah, we had that big full moon weekend earlier this month) (was that this month?) (how many weeks ago?). Then I spotted her, a waning crescent, by my guess, just peeking past trees, houses, and mountains, shy, like she’s uncertain of her role here.

All that released song lyrics into the stream. I had to strike a pose to remember. (Something about the moon and crossing…who was that?) I vaguely heard the guitars and vocalist…the voice seemed familiar.

More lyrics were found, and then I remembered, that’s REO Speedwagon. With a little more coaxing, other lyrics came, and finally, the name, “Ridin’ the Storm Out”.

Here’s the initial verse that I was trying to recall regarding the moon (thanks, Metrolyrics.com)

And I’m not missing a thing
Just watchin’ the full moon crossing the range
Ridin’ the storm out, ridin’ the storm out

Wikipedia.org says it’s from 1973. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

I was at a dinner, a fund-raiser featuring bids on wine and various gifts and donations, all to raise money to help expand cultural awareness and help people with the cost of higher education. I was chatting with a friend when the bidding was about to commence. He said, “Oh, time for me to fly,” and went off to bid.

Boom, here came REO Speedwagon’s 1978 song, “Time for Me to Fly”. The song is all about giving up on a relationship that hasn’t worked out, and then leaving. Naturally, my buddy thought of the leaving context, as in time to get to another place in a hurry. I’ve always thought of it more simplistically, as in time to spread my wings, do stuff, and get things done.

It’s all in the way that you look at it, hey?

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

I suppose that it won’t surprise anyone to learn that today’s song, “Can’t Fight This Feeling” by REO Speedwagon (1985) came about from a food fight. I was fighting with myself about eating something. Not anything critical (chocolate was involved), it wasn’t that big a deal, a restriction that I put upon myself. The climax came when I said, “Screw it, I can’t fight this any more, I’m eating it!” That opened the stream to one of the Speedwagon’s hits from its multi-platinum album, Hi Infidelity. The song’s not really my cuppa – too soft, really – but it’s soothing on the ears.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

I was chuckling to myself as I read about the Le’Veon Bell debacle with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I read a comment that said, “Don’t let him go,” which opened me up to streaming “Don’t Let Him Go” by REO Speedwagon, 1981. I like the song’s hammering insistence of guitars and dreams, and the impassioned pleas, “Don’t let him go.” I later learned the song was supposedly about asking girlfriends to be patient with their boyfriends.

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Friday’s Theme Music

REO Speedwagon’s Hi Infidelity album was big news when we arrived to serve at Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan, in 1981. I’d written about that album and a few of their songs off that album before.

REO had been around awhile, and I’d like some of their earlier music, so their success pleased me. This song, “Roll With the Changes,” was one of their earlier songs that I enjoyed. First, it’s from the album, You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can’t Tuna Fish. Yeah, silly title, but it appealed to my silly nature.

The refrain from that song, though, “Keep on rolling,” became one of my personal battle cries as things happened in the military and in my life. Yeah, shit happens, but keep on rolling. Adapt and adjust, and keep on rolling. Short story submitted and rejected? Keep on rolling. Mission issues? Keep on rolling. Typhoon? Keep on rolling. Writer’s block?

You get the idea.

 

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