Nine Lives

This was perhaps the pinnacle of REO Speedwagon and their commitment to driving rock music before they succumbed to Pop with the release of the Hi Infidelity album. Nine Lives has several great hit songs including “Meet Me on the Mountain,” “Back on the Road Again,” and “I Need You Tonight.” They do a great job on the cover of “Rock & Roll Music;” the whole album is very good.

I have been looking for this disc in local cd stores for easily 15+ years...they have all their other stuff, but this one eluded me...this is the most underappreciated REO album ever...and I really can't figure out why! The songs ROCK! Nothing from this disc ever makes it onto 'greatest hits' comps except 'Only The Strong Survive,' and maybe 'Back On The Road Again.' Shameful...'Heavy On Your Love' and 'Drop It' are just begging to be played at full volume, and remain 2 of my favorite RSW songs ever...I normally don't like ordering things on-line, but I just had to in this case...the time it took to get my order was a heck of a lot faster than I thought, and the disc arrived in pristine condition. This is a great disc, and thanks to Amazon for great service. And, if anyone actually reads these reviews, I have a band to suggest to you if you love REO - check out Firetown, especially their 'The Good Life' cd. Well, gotta go and crank up 'Meet Me On The Mountain'...

This is REO's best album. A great rocker. The song Easy Money is one of the greatest unknown songs that I know of.Notice I said Album though, because I must warn you that the CD is a bad conversion. I really hope that someone remasters it. I noticed that on my cd that some of the guitars were hard to here and some seemed to be missing all together. So I played it in a different player with headphones and discovered that about a third of the way through that the left track was kicking out. So, thinking that I had a bad copy, i ordered another and was bummed to find the same problem. I cant praise the album enough, BUT if you know this album you will really notice the missing sounds.

I still remember being 14 years old and listening to FM104 Fridays at midnight when they played a new release in its entirety. One week it was Speedwagon's Nine Lives. I loved every song and couldn't wait to go out and buy the album. All these years later and listening to a CD hasn't dulled my adoration for Nine Lives. This was REO when they were a rock band, before they found out how many radio hits they could have by writing treacly ballads. This CD rocks hard from the opening song to the brilliant "Back on the Road" that ends it. Good songwriting and absolutely killer guitar work from the underrated Gary Richrath. The solos here will blow you away. "Heavy on Your Love", "Meet Me on the Mountain" and "Only the Strong Survive" are strong tracks as well as the aforementioned "Back on the Road Again".

"Nine Lives" is a solid effort by REO following the "Tuna" album. This album is by far one of REO's most hard rocking albums. Gary Richrath shines on this album by penning 2 awesome songs " Only the Strong Survive" and "Easy Money". He lays down some especially killer guitar work on "Meet me on the Mountain" I consider "Nine Lives" to be a send-off for the Richrath fronted REO; a hard rocking unit of the 1970's. After "Nine Lives", lead singer Kevin Cronin would steer the band into AOR, Pop-Ballad territory,and REO would never quite sound the same again.

Good quality shirt

This is one of the bands very discs...no question. Kevin sounds so gritty on the tunes and a few of my catalog faves of theirs...lie right here on "Nine Live".

1979's "Nine Lives", is almost perfect. With a great remaster job done by ROCK CANDY, this is hard rock REO, not the MOR of later years. Here you get a nice story on the making of the album and upgraded sound, not found on the domestic release. Two thumbs up!

Nine lives indeed.. the bands 8th studio album and 9th release in all, finally rattled the charts across the USA with the top notch Hit Single 'Back On The Road Again, if you hadnt noticed new Bass player Bruce Hall on the previous disc then you couldnt miss him now,what a fantastic track,first Speedwagon track i ever heard.The rest of the album rocks from start to finish'.. arguably their heavest of the late 70's early 80's releases. There is not a bad track here,personal fave 'Heavy On Your Love','I need You Tonight' and 'Only The Strong Survive'.As per usual quality audio and excellent booklet/line notes.

I've had this on vinyl since I was in my teens and loved it then but wanted to be able to play my favourite tracks like 'Back on the road again' in the car. The only reason I've given this 4 stars insted of 5 is that it does have a tendency to not play sometimes which means I have to eject and reload it. This did make me wonder whether this was actually a good copy rather than the genuine article but it works fine most of the time

REO Speedwagon at their very best, a classic album

Great band, great album! Well pleased.

Nel 1979 il gruppo è in piena forma e maturità , questo è il loro disco più energico, grande rock compresa "rock'n roll music " grande classico di Chuk Berry ovviamente in versione aggiornata e potenziata, manca però a mio parere un brano lento , una power ballad come ce ne sono negli altri loro dischi. I brani migliori sono per me l'iniziale "heavy on your love " la più dura e "only the strong survive " e "i need you tonight " appena più leggere e orecchiabili, "captchy " direbbero loro . Acquisto arrivato puntuale , tutto a posto a parte il fastidioso adesivo che avrebbero potuto mettere anche sulla facciata posteriore .