Live: You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish (1978)



  1. Roll with the Changes
  2. Time for Me to Fly
  3. Runnin' Blind
  4. Blazin' 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


 

This was the one where REO Speedwagon finally pulled into the station. With You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can’t Tuna Fish, the band lands squarely on the sound that would carry them to arena-rock royalty in just a few short years. You’d think, then, that this was the one that put them over the top—but it didn’t quite happen that way. Like everything else they’d released up to this point, sales were modest at best. But in hindsight, the timing was just a little off. If someone were to play this album side by side with 1980’s Hi Infidelity, they’d be hard pressed to find much difference. So if you're a fan of the "classic" REO sound, this is essential listening.

This also marked the debut of bassist Bruce Hall, replacing Greg Philbin, who more or less vanished from the music scene after his departure. Hall would go on to make a huge impact on the band’s sound, often writing and/or singing a track or two per album that gave the whole picture a positive jolt. He doesn’t contribute any writing here just yet, but the “classic” lineup is now locked in place.

And what an introduction. The album opens with Roll With the Changes and Time for Me to Fly—arguably two of the best songs REO ever put to tape. Both would’ve been massive hits had they come out a few years later, and both remain concert staples to this day. The former is a driving rock anthem with swirling piano fills, while the latter is one of the band’s first great ballads, the kind that Cronin would later build a career around.

The rest of the album mostly keeps the momentum going. Kevin Cronin, now firmly back in the fold, is clearly stepping into the role of bandleader—not just as a frontman, but as the group’s primary songwriter. His solo contribution Blazin’ Your Own Trail Again is a low-key gem. It’s got a gentle, almost meditative vibe to it, carried along by the band’s newly embraced reverb-heavy production that really gives Cronin’s vocals—and Gary Richrath’s signature guitar tone—a lot of breathing room.

Richrath, for his part, shares writing credits on about half the album, and this time around, his contributions are pretty solid. He co-wrote the dynamic closer Say You Love Me or Say Goodnight with Cronin, and it’s a monster of a track—complete with a full horn section that adds a big, brassy punch to the proceedings. He also shares credit on Lucky for You, which starts off simple enough but gradually builds into a surprisingly effective jam session. The band even throws in an instrumental sequel of sorts with The Unidentified Flying Tuna Trot, a playful follow-up to the previous album’s Flying Turkey Trot. Corny title aside, it works.

Now, it’s not perfect. Runnin’ Blind is too fast and too heavy for its own good, and ends up sounding like it’s tripping over itself. And Do You Know Where Your Woman Is Tonight—aside from having one of the worst titles in REO’s entire catalog—just doesn’t deliver. The lyrics are clunky, and the music isn’t much better. When you’ve only got ten tracks and two of them are throwaways, it stings a little.

Still, at just under 35 minutes, this album packs a lot of punch. Maybe not a “classic” in the strictest sense, but certainly close. Once Hi Infidelity broke the dam, fans went back and picked this one up—and when they did, they weren’t disappointed. This is where REO Speedwagon found their identity, even if the rest of the world took a few years to catch on.





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