| R.E.O. Speedwagon | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 1971 | |||
| Recorded | 1970–1971 | |||
| Studio | Connecticut Recording Studios Inc. "Prison Women" recorded at Columbia Recording Studios inChicago, Illinois | |||
| Length | 38:10 | |||
| Label | Epic | |||
| Producer | Paul Leka, Billy Rose II | |||
| REO Speedwagon chronology | ||||
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| Singles from R.E.O. Speedwagon | ||||
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R.E.O. Speedwagon is the debutstudio album by American rock bandREO Speedwagon. Released in 1971, it was the only album recorded with singerTerry Luttrell, who would go on to joinStarcastle.Kevin Cronin joined the band forR.E.O./T.W.O. This album concluded with aprogressive rock song unlike the laterarena rock songs that made them famous.[1]
The album produced the fan favorites “157 Riverside Avenue”, “Sophisticated Lady” and “Lay Me Down”, but sold very poorly, though “Sophisticated Lady” did reach number 122 on the singles charts.[2] “157 Riverside Avenue” and “Lay Me Down” were subsequently recorded on the live albumLive: You Get What You Play For. “157 Riverside Avenue” and “Sophisticated Lady” were both featured on the compilation albumA Decade of Rock and Roll: 1970-1980. In 2007, the British companyBGO Records releasedREO Speedwagon andR.E.O./T.W.O. together (BGOCD775), marking the first time the band's first album was widely available in CD format. For some unknown reason, Epic Records never issued this first album on the cassette tape format (but they did issue an 8-Track Stereo Tape Cartridge version of it).
Record World called the single "Sophisticated Lady" "ultra-energy music of the sort that enlivens top 40 formats."[3]
Record World called the single "Lay Me Down" a "hard, but not too hard, rock number" and "exciting music."[4]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [5] |
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album a somewhat positive review and said, "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 withJethro Tull. As captivating as they are, these are but detours from the main road of straight-ahead blues boogie, a road that hits its highlight early on with the rollicking shuffle "157 Riverside Avenue," a piano-driven rocker that in no way points toward REO Speedwagon's later strengths; if anything it sounds like a leaner Chicago fronted by aRod Stewart wannabe in Terry Luttrell. There are a few other noteworthy moments scattered throughout -- an able aping of theJeff Beck Group on "Lay Me Down," for instance—but this pretty much is generic '70s hard boogie that needed a little more flair in some area, any area, to be memorable."[6]
All songs written byNeal Doughty, Alan Gratzer,Terry Luttrell, Gregg Philbin, andGary Richrath.
REO Speedwagon[7]
Singles -Billboard (United States)
| Year | Single | Chart | Position[8] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | "Sophisticated Lady" | Bubbling Under the Hot 100 | 122 |
| Region | Date | Title | Label | Format | Catalog # |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | October 1971 | R.E.O. Speedwagon | Epic Records | StereoVinyl | E-31089 |
| USA | 1971 | R.E.O. Speedwagon | Epic Records | 8 Track | ET-31089 |
| UK | 1993 | R.E.O. Speedwagon | Epic Records | CD | 9829672 |
| UK | 2007 | R.E.O. Speedwagon /R.E.O./T.W.O. | BGO Records | 2-CD (Digitally re-mastered) | BGOCD775 |
| Japan | 2011 | R.E.O. Speedwagon | Sony Music | CD (DSD-Remaster) | EICP 1480 |
| Germany | 2013 | R.E.O. Speedwagon | Yellow Label | (Coloured) Vinyl | SPV 265961 LP |
