It is late at night in the early ’70s.
You are listening to your local FM rock station.
A song comes on, its crunchy intro mixing some nasty wah-wah guitar with a little Hammond organ. Halfway through, there’s a pretty cool guitar solo.
Then you listen to the lyrics.
Well, your blacks are dyin’, but your back is still turned
And your freaks are cryin’, but your back is still turned
You better stop your hidin’, or your country will burn
Whoa. This is a protest song!
Then, in the last minute, there’s another pretty cool guitar run.
“Golden Country,” REO Speedwagon, from “R.E.O. T.W.O.,” 1972.
That’s Gary Richrath on lead guitar. He wrote “Golden Country.” He left the band in 1989.
That’s Neal Doughty on the Hammond organ. He’s the last original member of REO still with the band.
Check out the rest of Side 2 over at our other blog, The Midnight Tracker.
AM, Then FM 
I have seen REO Speedwagon in concert four times and never have they “mailed it in.” They give it everything they’ve got, leaving it all out on the concert stage. My favorite REO concert was in Green Bay in the fall of 1984. They had just released “Wheels Are Turning” which had the hit “Can’t Fight This Feeling.” Yeah…they played that, but they also played “Like You Do,” “Golden Country,” “Back on the Road Again,” and, of course “Ridin’ the Storm Out.” Just recently, I re-discovered “Variety Tonight” a minor hit from spring 1987 in which the music video was REO Speedwagon performing in concert in Green Bay. Did REO wimp out and make Top 40 love songs and other dreck after 1980? Of course…but they never forgot about their fans from the 70s and the music that first got them on the radio.
Check out REO’s MySpace page at: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=100890339&MyToken=49fa613d-2625-4e16-9c0f-ce183265d6d2.