Comments on: Death by Power Ballad: REO Speedwagon, “Keep On Loving You”

By: EightE1

EightE1 — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 01:05:00 +0000

That’s AWESOME, Dee Dee. Thank you for posting. All the best to Lizard!

By: EightE1

EightE1 — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 01:05:00 +0000

Thanks for posting, Penny. Great to know.

By: Pennypotions

Pennypotions — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:51:00 +0000

I know what happened to Lizard, she is a friend of mine. She’s very well and living in Hawaii…

By: DEE DEE

DEE DEE — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:39:00 +0000

elisaabeth lizard frye is our aunt and is living in one of the Hawaiian islands and is well

By: EightE1

EightE1 — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 21:08:16 +0000

Yeah, whatever became of him? After the Behind the Music thing, I've never seen anything about him.

By: KT

KT — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:04:13 +0000

I miss Gary Richrath!

By: mlk

mlk — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:33:43 +0000

I live in central IL and was about 12 when this song came out. Liked their early work well enough, until that overly sappy I Can't Fight This Feeling thing was overplayed. Saw them in concert a few years ago with Styx. Styx were great. REO was awful. Cheesy backdrop. Cronin told tons of stories. Can't listen to anything of theirs anymore. Had I owned any of their stuff before that, I'd have junked it after.

By: da5id

da5id — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:13:51 +0000

I never took a whole lot of notice of REO until “I Can't Fight This Feeling” came out, and then “In My Dreams”, with it's catchy chorus but (unfortunately) trying to mimic Def Leppard's percussion ala “Love Bites” in the verses. I bought the greatest hits when it came out and still like those songs though.

By: jabartlett

jabartlett — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:11:11 +0000

I'd submit that what REO started with “Hi Infidelity” and “Keep on Lovin' You” in 1980/81 was not so much a golden age of AOR as it was the radio format later to be known as “classic rock.” Foreigner/Styx/Journey et al clearly occupy a rank below that of Led Zeppelin, the Stones, Clapton, Bowie, and other album-rock monsters of the 1970s–but their music was consistently radio-friendly in a way that Zep/Stones/et al were frequently not. As a result, they became staples of the “Superstars” AOR format that was born around the turn of the 1980s–which sounded a lot like your neighborhood classic rocker does today.

By: Eric S.

Eric S. — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:02:32 +0000

For better or worse (and I vote better), it's hard to argue that the album's listed don't define the golden age of AOR. You also see a lot of debate about what was truly the first power ballad (Keep On Loving You, Open Arms, Waiting For A Girl Like You, Babe). Ultimately, this is still the stuff I go back and listen to. While 1981 may have been the peak, I'll argue the five years leading up to this were some of the most productive in rock. Start with the Eagles, Springsteen and Fleetwood Mac's output in 1977 and roll it forward. Throw in debut albums from Van Halen, U2, and that's half a decade that is hard to beat.