Great Rock Albums of 1978: REO Speedwagon- You Can Tune a Piano But You Can’t Tuna Fish
Forget about the ballads form the 1980s because back in the 70’s REO Speedwagon were a true hard rock outfit. Their seventh album, “You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can’t Tuna Fish” is a prime example of this. This album exudes rock all the way through with some great rocking tunes like “Roll With the Changes.” In this song, Gary Richrath shows exactly why I included him as one of the great guitarists of the 70s and his talents are still under appreciated today. I dare any true rocker to listen to this song and not say that they had a rocking vibe throughout.
In my last post, I stated that “How You Gonna See Me Now” was the first true power ballad. If that’s the case, then “Time for Me to Fly” would be the second. The problem was that I didn’t hear the song until 1980. Like your traditional ballad, it starts with the accoustic intro and builds up before exploding with heavy chords and reinforced by a killer solo from Richrath. Another triumph that makes this album so cool.
Track Listing:
1. Roll With the Changes
2. Time for Me to Fly
3. Runnin’ Blind
4. Blaze Your Own Trail, Again
5. Sing to Me
6. Lucky For You
7. Do You Know Where Your Woman Is Tonight
8. The Unidentified Flying Tuna Trot
9. Say You Love Me or Say Goodnight
REO Speedwagon
Kevin Cronin- vocals, rhythm guitar
Gary Richrath- lead guitar
Bruce Hall- bass
Neil Doughty- keyboards
Alan Gratzer- drums
Before they found the billboard singles charts, REO Speedwagon was a true hard rocking band. This classic album proves this.
Next post: The Cars
To buy Rock And Roll Children, go to www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/RockAndRollChildren.html
Also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Froogle
This entry was posted on February 14, 2012 at 10:11 pm and is filed under 1978, Heavy Metal, Music with tags Classic Rock, Gary Richrath, hard rock, Heavy Rock, REO Speedwagon, Rock And Roll Children, The 1970s, You Can Tune a Piano but You Can't Tuna Fish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
4 Responses to “Great Rock Albums of 1978: REO Speedwagon- You Can Tune a Piano But You Can’t Tuna Fish”
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February 14, 2012 at 11:02 pm
Oh Mike, they were a truly great band. It really is a shame that most people think of them as a ballad band. Although I think they easily wrote the best ballads in rock ( apart from the Crue’s “Going Home”) gonna have to check that out on youtube later-thanks for the reminder.
As for ” Can’t Tuna Fish”. A really nice album, but one of the best album titles ever.
Peace dude, hope everything’s going ok for you.
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February 18, 2012 at 10:56 pm
Thanks John, everything is going well, hope you like Time For Me to Fly
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February 18, 2012 at 10:46 pm
A Hard Rock band of the 70’s indeed… and now REO Speedwagon is undeniably one of the most well known of the “Classic Rock” bands from both the 70’s & 80’s.
Cool post… and “keep on rolling!” \m/
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February 18, 2012 at 10:57 pm
Thanks Stone, I intend to keep rolling for a long time
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