Reo Speedwagon R.e.o. T.w.o (1972){2011, Eicp 1481}

As soon as REO Speedwagon's second album – aptly titled T.W.O. – kicks off with "Let Me Ride," it's clear that the band has made some significant strides in gaining a personality. Part of this is due to singer Terry Luttrell being swapped out for Kevin Cronin, whose keening tenor is markedly different from Luttrell's bluesy gargle, and part is due to three of the songs, dramatic multi-sectioned rockers, being more distinguished than the pedestrian boogie of the debut. That boogie hasn't been abandoned – the group takes the swing out of Chuck Berry's "Little Queenie," which brings it closer to the anonymous thud that characterizes Gary Richrath's "Flash Tan Queen," along with much of the rest of the album.

Due to it's album title, REO Speedwagon's 1976 release, REO, is often mistaken as being the band's debut album–but it was their sixth overall (1971's REO SPEEDWAGON was their inaugural release). The album marked the return of original singer Kevin Cronin, who would eventually help the band scale the top of the charts in just a few short years. But on REO, the newly reinstated vocalist had just begun to help the hard rockin' band hone their craft. "Keep Pushin'" would soon become a perennial concert standard, while other highlights include the hard-edged "Lightning" and "Our Time is Gonna Come."

Due to it's album title, REO Speedwagon's 1976 release, REO, is often mistaken as being the band's debut album–but it was their sixth overall (1971's REO SPEEDWAGON was their inaugural release). The album marked the return of original singer Kevin Cronin, who would eventually help the band scale the top of the charts in just a few short years. But on REO, the newly reinstated vocalist had just begun to help the hard rockin' band hone their craft. "Keep Pushin'" would soon become a perennial concert standard, while other highlights include the hard-edged "Lightning" and "Our Time is Gonna Come."

Due to it's album title, REO Speedwagon's 1976 release, REO, is often mistaken as being the band's debut album–but it was their sixth overall (1971's REO SPEEDWAGON was their inaugural release). The album marked the return of original singer Kevin Cronin, who would eventually help the band scale the top of the charts in just a few short years. But on REO, the newly reinstated vocalist had just begun to help the hard rockin' band hone their craft. "Keep Pushin'" would soon become a perennial concert standard, while other highlights include the hard-edged "Lightning" and "Our Time is Gonna Come."

Although best known for the AOR and radio hits from the early 1980s (which included the number ones 'Keep On Loving You' and 'Can't Fight This Feeling'), R.E.O. Speedwagon's long history goes way back to their formation in Champaign, Illinois in 1967. Initially a covers band playing bars and fraternity houses, the initial line-up of Neal Doughty on keyboards, Alan Gratzer on drums and vocals, Joe Matt on guitar and vocals and Mike Blair on bass and vocals, named themselves after the R.E.O. Speed Wagon, a model of American flat-bed truck. By the time they came to record their debut LP for Epic Records in 1971, the line-up had settled around Terry Luttrell on lead vocals, driving force Gary Richrath on guitar and Gregg Philbin on bass, joining Neal Doughty and Alan Gratzer. Although guitarist Gary Richrath has long been an important and influential figure in the songwriting and musical direction of the band, by the release of second LP, "R.E.O./T.W.O.", the band were joined by Kevin Cronin on lead vocals.

The Deluxe Edition of the album released in 2011 features a nicely crisp remastering job plus a fascinating bonus disc of demos. Before recording the album proper, the band hit a cheap studio in Hollywood and laid down rough versions of nine of the ten songs that ended up on the album (only "Out of Season" is missing). After attempting to recapture the magic they found in the crummy studio in fancy studios, and failing, the band ended up using about half the original demo performances on the final album and added overdubs to the rest. While it might have been fun to hear some of the failed attempts as well, hearing the entirety of the Crystal Demos is a powerful experience and makes this new edition of the album (even more) absolutely essential.

After all those power ballads it's easy to forget that REO Speedwagon started out as a by-the-numbers boogie band with 1971's REO, kicking odes to the "Anti-Establishment Man" and a "Gypsy Woman's Passion." This is a band that's quite different from the arena-conquering rockers of a decade later, but they were no different than their time, embodying almost every cliché of the era from the spacy hippie meditation of "Five Men Were Killed Today" to the numbing nine-minute venture into the heavy jams of the closing "Dead at Last," where a flute is hauled out, presumably to compete with Jethro Tull.

You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish was a breakthrough album for REO Speedwagon in a sense, gelling the guitar craft of Gary Richrath and the vocals of Kevin Cronin with songs that rambled and rolled and never stopped for air. Richrath's style finally formed some catchy hooks, and Cronin's songwriting is solid, while his voice sounds rejuvenated and downright fiery. "Roll with the Changes" and "Time for Me to Fly" only made it to number 58 and number 56 on the charts, but the album's sales trumped all of the chart statistics, giving REO its second platinum-selling album.