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TOUR UPDATE (6/11/2016)

written by REO Speedwagon June 11, 2016

Hi friends, cruising at 36,000 feet above the Great Plains, immersed in my familiar in-flight routine of munching warm cashews while reading Rolling Stone magazine, my gaze lands upon a list of Marky Ramone‘s five favorite punk songs. Check it out…four of those five songs were also on my teenage garage band Fushia’s set list.

Right about now I am feeling very fortunate to have come of age in the 1960s, an era when the roots of rock’n roll were first beginning to bear pop fruit. It was a time when all us future rockers could tune in our transistor radios and discover a wildly diverse Top 100 on stations like WLS in Chicago, then hitch our wagons (pun intended) to the bands which moved us most.
Yes, Marky Ramone and I, even though we would wander to seemingly remote ends of the rock music spectrum, have a deep rooted commonality in the music of The Kinks, Love, The Trashmen, and Music Machine.

We were both blown away by the sound of Dave Davies’ distorto rhythm guitar on “All Day and All of the Night”, the intricate yet melodic arrangement of “7 and 7 is”, the nasty/crazy/catchy songwriting of “Surfin’ Bird”, and the black gloved punk metal pop of “Talk Talk”… (Music Machine’s bass player Keith Olsen would go on to produce numerous hit records, including our own “Here With Me”).

Heartfelt songwriting paired with soulful vocals and powerful playing equals genre defying music. It can help mend our broken hearts, give us the strength to carry on, make us twist and shout. Music comes from a place pure and deep within its creators and connects with that same place in its listeners.

So yeah, me and Marky Ramone, a musical odd couple…or maybe not?

– kc

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