Chart Week: April 4, 1981
Song: “Take It On The Run” – REO Speedwagon
Chart Position: #27, third week on the chart. Peaked at #5 for two weeks in May/June.
What makes a song great? There are like a million different things we could talk about when breaking that question down. I respect you and don’t want to type up a post that long. So let’s focus on one specific attribute: a powerful set of opening lyrics. Like these, for example:
Heard it from a friend who,
Heard it from a friend who,
Heard it from another you’d been messin’ around
What a fantastic opening stanza! You’ve grabbed the listener’s attention and given them an idea of what’s to come by addressing a universal topic: being cheated on.
I begin with that not to dive into an exploration of songs about stepping out, or to answer the broader societal question of “Why Do People Cheat?” Rather, I start there because “Take It On The Run” is as much about miscommunication, rumors, and the tendency for humans to gossip as the actual (and alleged) cheating Kevin Cronin was singing about.
Those themes can apply to any relationship, not just romantic ones. Friendships. Business partnerships. How you get along with your neighbors. Hell, it can explain why a band that has been making music for nearly 60 years suddenly falls apart. More specifically to our discussion, it is why REO Speedwagon was in the music news last week.
When you think of REO Speedwagon, you probably think of lead singer Kevin Cronin’s voice and Gary Richrath’s guitar first. Richrath, who wrote “Take It On The Run,” left the band in 1989 and died in 2015. His soaring solos were a staple of the REO sound.
Cronin first joined the band in 1972, five years after REO formed, and was fired a year later. He rejoined in 1976 and was the lead singer through their glory days, a stretch that included nine top 20 hits, two of which topped the Billboard pop chart. I wouldn’t call his voice legendary, but it was a great fit for the words he and his bandmates wrote, always conveying the proper emotional timbre.
He remained the face of the band until last year, when he was fired for a second time, in this case because of the dreaded “irreconcilable differences” with bass player Bruce Hall. It seems that they argued about touring; Cronin wanted to keep the band on the road while Hall was done with that part of the business. I’m not sure how Cronin was the one to get fired over that conflict. Seems like you kick out the guy who does not want to continue doing what rock bands are supposed to do. And Cronin, who was in the band longer than Hall, should have had ultimate veto power, right? However, Hall was able to rally the other members of the band to vote out their front man after 48 years.
This conflict resurfaced last week when Cronin posted an angry statement saying he was “deeply disturbed” that he had not been invited to an event this June where most of the other surviving members of REO’s various eras will come together for a show in their hometown of Champaign, IL. Further, he claims that the organizers of the event not only failed to include him, but also specifically picked a date when his new outfit, The Kevin Cronin Band, is scheduled to play a show with Styx in Bend, OR. Jeez.
These squabbles within bands that decide to fall apart in their Medicare years always make me laugh. What else are these jokers going to do at this point other than play music together? I doubt they’re living the high life like in their primes, but it must pay the bills. I know 40, 50, 60 years of baggage can be a lot. You’ve put up with it for this long, though. Get over it, play your tunes for 90 minutes four nights a week, and keep cashing those checks.
Like those broken relationships the band was singing about in 1981, most of this strife is likely based on an inability to communicate directly and relying on the telephone game of words being passed from person to person to person and losing their true meaning along the way. Even guys in their 70s can still act like dumb teenagers sometimes.
I LOVE “Keep On Loving You,” REO Speedwagon’s monster hit that topped American Top 40 two weeks before this show. I’ve written about it many times on this site. You know what? “Take It On The Run” might be a better song. It’s just a little punchier, the guitar work a little more muscular, and a little more traditional in its structure which spools out its drama a little longer. That opening (and closing) sequence is wonderful. Richrath’s guitar work is epic. And even if the protagonist’s anger and accusations are based on misperceptions and half-truths, you can’t deny the bitterness in Cronin’s delivery.
In these two songs, REO, arguably, perfected the massive, power ballad and created a structure pretty much every rock band would follow for the next, what, decade? Two decades? Forever?
REO Speedwagon was one of the biggest bands of their era. Like many acts that fell into their sphere – Journey, Styx, Boston, Kansas, etc. – they often took grief from critics for being too commercial, overly produced, and writing what were basically 20 versions of the same song. That may all be true. When they got everything right, though, they wrote some classics. 8/10
Some of my younger readers might say, “Wow, a band had two big hits in a matter of months with two songs about being unfaithful? That’s kind of wild!” Well, my friends, wait until you hear the name of the album those songs were from: Hi Infidelity. Honest to God. People loved to sing about and listen to songs related to cheating in 1981.
While listening to this countdown, I thought about how I would have reacted if you told me back in 1981 that REO Speedwagon would still be playing music in 2025. Cronin was 30 when “Take It On The Run” was released, which seemed ancient to nine-year-old me. To still be rocking when they were older than my grandparents? Crazy talk!
The Rolling Stones were four months away from releasing their Tattoo You album. That LP and the associated massive tour combined to turn them into rock’s first eternal act. The Stones certainly took a different path from the State Fair/casino circuit so many Seventies and Eighties acts, including REO, eventually landed on. However, until the Stones had that second explosively successful stage in their career while in their 40s, I don’t think anyone, even the artists themselves, viewed playing and recording rock music as something you could do your entire life.
Also, while I was walking to the locker room at the gym Monday, I heard “Take It On The Run” blasting out of the spin studio. I’m not the only one that still likes it!