This song has been going through my head ever since I heard Gary Richrath died.

R.E.O. Speedwagon was just another faceless Midwestern band slogging it out on the road until “Roll With The Changes” emerged on the airwaves in ’78 and convinced me the band was not only a comer, it had arrived.

I don’t care what anybody says about Detroit, Cleveland or all those towns in Texas with radio acolytes, the truth is the best rock and roll radio of the seventies existed in Los Angeles, California, where there were fully five rockers on the FM dial, it was almost equivalent to today’s satellite radio, if you didn’t like a tune you could just push the button and find another one more ear-pleasing.

On the left-hand of the dial, just above the public radio stations, was KNX, the soft rock outlet. And if you think wimpy rock sucks, you’ve never heard Steely Dan’s “Dirty Work,” which was a station staple. In the seventies we were open to anything and everything, at least until disco came along and rained upon our parade. And we loved James Taylor, J.D. Souther, the Eagles, a bunch of people whose reps have not made it into the twenty first century but soothed our hearts and got us laid way back when.

On the other end of the dial was KROQ, which was a completely different outlet than it is today. KROQ was free-form, back when even WNEW’s playlist had tightened up. You’d hear not only Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, but Deaf School and Flash and the Pan. The deejays boasted of a helicopter that didn’t exist and it truly was the best damn station extant, it’s just that it was trumped by the success of the ROQ of the 80’s format Rick Carroll ushered in after the decade turned.

And just a twitch to the left of KROQ was KWST, the Led Zeppelin station. It was hard rock all the time, before hard was so headbanging that most people didn’t care for the sound.

And right smack dab in the middle of the dial, right next to each other, were KMET and KLOS. The latter survives, but it was the former that dominated. KMET was truly the heartbeat of Los Angeles. And if you made it on KMET, you made it everywhere. All the bands you thought you hated you ultimately found out you loved on Saturday night, when you drove around the city and heard Foghat and the rest of the high energy rockers who owned the playlist on the weekend. Acts like R.E.O. Speedwagon.

We didn’t go for that corn-fed rock. Hell, Rick Nielsen and Tom Peterson were in the unsuccessful Fuse before they reformed as Cheap Trick. But back then, as it still goes today, if you found the right track…

The first one that penetrated the airwaves was “Ridin’ The Storm Out,” back in ’74. You could drive cross-country, which I did many a time, and you’d hear it from city to city. This Gary Richrath composition earned a place in the radio firmament, but you nodded your head and endured it, you didn’t search it out, you weren’t eager to hear it, but it still satisfied. Kevin Cronin wasn’t even the lead singer!

But years later Cronin was back in the band and then came “Roll With The Changes” in ’78.

After that R.E.O. Speedwagon became superstars. There was this little track called…”Keep On Loving You.”

I hated it.

Another rock band gone wimpy to get fans, to garner money and success. But the truth is, at this distance, I can appreciate “Keep On Loving You”‘s greatness. Come on, what an anthemic chorus! You can sing along and enjoy it even if you don’t speak English!

And the album it emanated from, 1980’s “Hi Infidelity,” spawned even more hits. “Don’t Let Him Go” was closer to the sound of yore, despite the pedestrian lyrics, but even though Mr. Richrath wrote “Take It On The Run,” and probably lived on it until he died, it made me puke back then and still does now. I hate those who pander.

But it didn’t work for long. The follow-up to “Hi Infidelity,” “Good Trouble,” spawned a hit with the second-rate “Keep The Fire Burnin'” but the truth is the track was formulaic, the band was trying to imitate its successful sound. And after that… There was one more hit, the execrable “Can’t Fight This Feeling” in 1985, but by this time the band’s hard core rock audience had completely abandoned them and soon their newbie fans moved on to the next flavor of the moment and the band was dead in the water, proving you should play the game, give people what they want, at your peril.

But a strange thing happened as the years passed by. R.E.O. couldn’t sell a record, but they’d had such big hits they were now in demand on the nostalgia circuit, along with their brethren in dreck Styx, and they’ve been touring every summer since, thrilling the fans and making coin forevermore.

That’s right, most rockers ended up hating R.E.O. and Styx. Both of whom started out dedicated to their principles and then sold out. But both of the bands’ hits sound good today.

But not as good as “Roll With The Changes.”

As soon as you are able
Woman I am willin’

But really it’s all about what comes before this, that infectious piano riff and Gary Richrath’s screaming guitar, you’re instantly hooked.

So if you’re tired of the same old story
Oh, turn some pages

Come on, isn’t that the rock and roll ethos? Moving on, taking chances, embracing the new?

I’ll be here when you are ready
To roll with the changes

Are you ready? Your friends are, they’re going to lead you along. You’re gonna get high as Kevin Cronin takes a rest and Gary Richrath positively wails, from back when guitars were king and we played our air axes in front of the mirror.

Keep on rollin’
Oh yeah
Keep on rollin’
Oh, roll with the changes

Oh, baby, you got to roll with the changes. Kevin was singing about love, only most people enamored of this cut didn’t have girlfriends, but this music filled the space, gave them hope, kept them alive until courage and luck paid dividends.

There was so much energy, so much exuberance, and I don’t want to understate the power of Neal Doughty’s keyboard work, without it the track doesn’t soar, but…

Rock and roll is a guitarist’s game. And despite being written and sung by Kevin Cronin, “Roll With The Changes” is Gary Richrath’s track. Another American who saw the Beatles and decided the only way to be happy in this life was to be in a band, who practiced in his bedroom until he was the hottest player in his town, and then went on the road to hone his chops and convince everybody else.

And it was with “Roll With The Changes” that R.E.O. Speedwagon sealed the deal. They grabbed us by the balls, took charge of our heads and hearts and made us pay attention.

This week another soldier died. He was a member of the rock and roll army which ruled this country for years, back when we were all addicted to the radio and music still drove the culture.

We’ve turned some pages. Some are still with us, some are not.

But for those of us button-pushers who spent all our money on music…we can’t get the sound out of our head, we still believe.

Tonight I’m rolling with the changes.

And there are millions of people who know exactly what I mean.

Rhinofy-Roll With The Changes