America Keeps On Loving Rock Song Thirty Years Since It Topped The Charts
Don’t try to tell me you don’t like this song. Don’t try to say that it’s too earnest and simplistic or that the big dumb chord progression is too big and dumb or that Kevin Cronin sounds too much like a dweeb or that his clothes or his acting in this video are too ridiculous for you to take anything he’s ever done seriously ever. Don’t try to tell me that you never wrote this song’s lyrics into a love note to an old ex-girlfriend you were trying to win back. Don’t try to tell me that you don’t turn up the volume and sing along aloud every time it comes on the radio when you’re driving in a car by yourself. I won’t believe you. Because it’s just too perfect, this song. It's just too good at what it's trying to do to make you do anything but give in and swear your allegiance. And because you’re an American, and you lied about having lost your virginity before you actually lost it. 30 years ago this week, REO Speedwagon’s “Keep On Loving You” was the number one song in the country. And when you really think about, if you’re honest with yourself, it’s pretty much stayed that way since.
On behalf of Champaign, I apologize.
For Hum, Champaign is always forgiven.
I just drove down Honorary REO Speedwagon Way today in downtown Champaign. I also apologize, except for the part where I'm not sorry, because you're right about this song. I love it. I can't stop myself. Also, freetzy: YES, THAT SONG.
Followed by "Woman"/John Lennon, "The Best of Times"/Styx, "9 to 5"/Dolly Parton and then "Crying"/Don McLean
Don't forget "Feel Like Making Love"/Bad Company.
I don’t like this song. It's too earnest and simplistic: the big dumb chord progression is too big and dumb, Kevin Cronin sounds too much like a dweeb and his acting in this video is too ridiculous for me to take anything he’s ever done seriously ever. I have never written this song’s lyrics into a love note to an old ex-girlfriend I was trying to win back. I don’t turn up the volume and sing along aloud every time it comes on the radio when I'm driving in a car by myself.
In your face, Dave Bry.
(Re the last point: 1. It has never come on the radio on any station I have ever listened to. 2. I do, however, sing along to several old Billy Idol singles when they come on the radio. Billy Idol is adorable.)
I wasn't going to say anything, but I can't fight this feeling anymore: I think you're making love out of nothing at all here.
Now THAT I will sing every time the rays of the sun are streaming through the waves in my hair.
Have to say, I'm a big fan of this sort of cheese ("Give A Little Bit," etc.), but this one in particular doesn't do anything for me. If I had to choose, "I Can't Fight This Feeling" comes out ahead. In this one he just hits the bad rhymes too hard. HI I'M SURLY.
These things are such a mystery. I will champion "Keep On Loving You" forever, but I strongly dislike "I Can't Fight This Feeling" (and most other songs of this sort, I think.) Who knows why one melody pleases for someone when another grates? I always wonder whether if I ever learned how to play or read music, or understand brain science, it would seem less mysterious. Like, 'Oh, yes, this particular ascending scale of notes has been proven to trigger the release of serotonin in the brains of people with blood type O+' or something. That's probably pretty stupid of me to think.
Oh. Also a super-awesome song of this kind: Cheap Trick's "The Flame."
I just re-ripped my Essential Cheap Trick set for the third time — my computer would love me not to love them, apparently.
SOMEBODY must have studied pleasure-generating chord progressions, right? I know I'm a sucker for anthem-rock/hair metal harmonies, ranging from Santana's "Winning" to –ahem — "Bringing on the Heartache." There was something wonderful about randomly hearing them on the radio … having them on my iTunes whenever I want just isn't quite the same. Drunk YouTubing (I'm amazed how many parents do this in place of a night out) is a nice compromise.
Agreed: "Bringing on the Heartache" rules.
(Gosh, maybe I don't dislike most songs of this sort. The lasting effects of a New Jersey childhood.)
No there's nothing really that scientific about music.
Outside of Jazz, you can describe the important intervals on your hand (thirds,fourths,fifths etc), and Pythagoras did some nice work about 2500 years ago which pretty much summed it up.
It's far more memory based, with certain songs bringing up certain associations and serving as memory cues for positive and negative emotions.
Def Leppard, yes.
I agree that there is probably a good neurobiological explanation for 80s power ballads, but I'm also willing to bet that what the ear/brain really likes is a sort of serial monogamy for earworms, if that makes any sense? To really REALLY love a song for, oh, two or three months, and then want to take, oh, thirty years off from it…
Hmm. That's interesting. But I feel like the way it works for me is more like once I'm hooked, I'm hooked forever. But much in the when-it-comes-on-the-radio way mentioned above. Certain songs, I just can't turn the dial away from.
T REX
I'd like to say that you Americans have dreadful taste in music but this was a hit in England too. Oh, the shame.
Are 'More Than A Feeling' and 'Feels Like The First Time' in this category? Because both those get me nodding my head and biting my top lip in white boy ecstasy. When no one's looking of course.
Yes, Boston most certainly counts. (But for whatever reason, "Feels Like the First Time" never really did it for me the same way.)
Also, not being able to sing along to songs like this on the car radio is, seriously, one of my bigger regrets about living in New York City as opposed to somewhere where I'd need to own a car.
This song always reminds me of the early 80's sex comedy "The Last American Virgin", and the fact that the two times I watched it were the nights Al Gore conceded and Chris Christie won their respective elections.
So many bad memories.
I heart this thread, but feel like it needs some Air Supply.
Thanks a lot, Clarence, now I'm going to have "All Out of Love" stuck in my head all day.
I gotta go with Mr. B: always hated it. I was a senior in high school when this topped the charts, and there was a girl I was into, and there were maybe three or four minutes when I thought maybe this song could get me somewhere with her, but that fell apart pretty quick and I never thought about it again.
I should also say that it was bands like this, as well as Styx and Foreigner and Kansas and Molly Hatchet and Supertramp and all the other late-70s/early-80s crap-rock, that set me on the path to discover punk and new wave and alternative and indie and whatever else you wanna call it. It was only after I'd gotten at least a decade away from it all that I was able to finally, fully appreciate Led Zeppelin and the other truly important rock bands of the era.
Amen, passenger. It would be an interesting study to examine the good rock/crap rock divide of the 1970s. It was always so clear to me back then.
Good rock bands were all born in the 60s and didn't give a shit about radio singles. They were successful despite not having many AM radio hits because they focused on making superior albums rather than singles. Every song on each album sounded like something they worked hard on and tried to make good, and they were innovative and tried to break new ground rather than copy successful formulas of the past. The good rock bands of the 70s included Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Allman Bros., Traffic etc.
Crap rock bands were very "corporate" sounding … they seemed like the songs were assembled in a corporate board room from scraps of catchy hooks and sounds scavenged out of good rock songs of the past, but recycled and given a sterile, commercial sheen. These bands focused on being shallow and commercially successful, and they sucked. They included REO Speedwagon, Asia, Foreigner, Styx, Kansas etc.
Good rock bands dominated the first half of the 70s. Crap rock dominated the second half.
Like C_Webb, I would go with "I Can't Fight This Feeling" over "Keep on Loving You," but I actually like both songs. A lot. I'm huge into cheesy stuff like this, and I am not afraid in the least to admit it.