Head East- Never Been Any Reason REACTION AND REVIEW

[@JulianKeller-om6wz]

Got to hang out with these guys after their concert at our state fair way back when this song hit the charts. They were great guys. Partied until the sun came up and they had to "Head East" for their next gig that evening. They actually did have to go east. This is just a fun, catchy track. I played in a band for 30 years, and we played it all 30 years. Never got old and always got the crowd going.

[@glennthompson1173]

I remember seeing Head East and Uriah Heep and April Wine on a triple bill years ago. It was a really good night of music.

[@randyteta9170]

Nice to see you’re almost at 40,000 subs.

[@julief7090]

Head East played at one of our high school proms back in the 70's. What a time, and this is a great song!

[@richardtodd6843]

This song brings to mind two things I 𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙣'𝙩 see one day in the late '70s, around 1978 or 1979. One was Head East. The other was a woman getting killed. Some college friends and I went to an annual music festival known as Chicagofest planning on seeing Head East, among other acts. For reasons unknown to us, Head East didn't play that day, at least not when and where we expected. WXRT radio disk jockey Terri Hemmert was emcee that day, but didn't mention Head East. It being pre-internet times, I never found out why they didn't play, or why our schedule was wrong, or just what happened. (If it was 1978, they did play during the festival). On the way back from the event, we got on the El (in its Downtown subway section), and saw the doors to the car close on a young woman who was getting on after us. The train started moving, dragging the young woman in the direction of a huge concrete pillar. Fortunately, multiple people pulled the emergency stop cords, and the train came to a halt before the woman smashed into the pillar. The woman's boyfriend rushed to hep her, but beating hm to the woman's aid was Terri Hemmert, who had also just boarded the train. The woman appeared to have little or no injury, but I wonder if she's ever totally gotten over that experience. Terry Hemmert went on to be the first woman disk jockey to host a morning show in Chicago rock radio, and one of the most famous Chicago DJ's of all time, and is STILL at WXRT part-time, after 51 years there. As far as this song goes: Head East is an Illinois band and this song got tons of Chicago airplay back in the day. I've always loved the dueling lead vocals, in large part because the second vocalist to come in, which Wikipedia says is lead vocalist John Schlitt (following drummer Steve Huston), sounds kind of funny to me. Those are two strong sounding voices.

[@keithbk]

John Schlitt (lead singer of Head East) later went into recovery following a bout with drug/alcohol addiction and became lead singer of Petra. You might want to listen to something off the album "Jekyll and Hyde" by Petra (Jekyll and Hyde, Stand, or Test of Time) for something really special.

[@michaelfrank2266]

One of my Army buddies was a Head East fan back in the day. I am certain it is there I first heard the song. Great song.

[@159awi]

I loved it when these bands brought out the Moog. It was pretty new back then and folks were like, what's that?

[@roberttee9790]

Love the live version of this! Good track. 👍

[@sarahzentexas]

I love that you’re reacting to this banger from my childhood ❤

[@BigC.]

Saw them when they opened for Angel in 1979. Great live act.

[@randyteta9170]

Great song always one of my favorites

[@David-j6r5i]

Great , great song. The bass was the glue that held this song together

[@sandymiller3577]

One of those songs that brings back a simpler time in life. I haven't heard this in many years. Thanks JP and those that recommended it.

[@JulianKeller-om6wz]

You are so right Ma'am. Life was so much simpler and better. And the music. Ohhhh the music. I wish someone would invent a time machine that really works. Send me back forever!

[@floydshambles]

My favorite version of this on you tube is from Chicago school of rock all-stars. Kids are having so much fun it's contagious.

[@garycontois9237]

My friend played this for me out of the blue one day. I never forgot it.

[@jeffp3415]

A Champaign Illinois band, they were a popular act in the Chicago area in the early 70's.

[@bobholtzmann]

Great party cruising song. I have their album's original pressing, with the album artwork of a pancake stack. Head East hails from central Illinois, further east from Champaign where REO Speedwagon come from. I never partied in central Illinois, but there are lots of colleges and universities there, including SIU in Edwardsville, which every summer had the Mississippi River Festival outdoor concerts, which hosted all the big groups and artists, including Yes and The Who.

[@blitztim6416]

I always liked this song. Got plenty of airplay in SoCal.

[@michaelgray5100]

All of this album is very good! This song was a big hit. This song reminds me of my freshman year in College. About every 3rd dorm room was playing this song it seems. LOL!

[@ethelwulfmountbattenderoth2286]

I really like the clean and slick production of this song. I thought the producer might be some current big shot that did this early in their career. I was wrong. It was the Synth player, Roger Boyd. He's still around and he's an interesting guy.

[@williamjones6031]

This was the last song played at a nightclub I used to go to. NEBRASKA😎 "Lovin' from a woman is better than a white line". The white line is cocaine. This song is very poppy for being about a near fatal drug overdose.

[@mightyV444]

Such an old song, but it was only three years or so ago when I'd heard it for the first time and via one of those 'School of Rock' performances of a bunch of music students doing a cover - which I actually liked better than the original! 😅 The synth is also pretty cool here, though 😁

[@jeffrichard9338]

A certified Barn Burner. Used to work for bands that played this, it was always a crowd favorite.

[@JulianKeller-om6wz]

@@jeffrichard9338 It still is.

[@gaiaeternal5131]

Hi JP. DP from UK. Don't Know Much About Geography (in the States at least) but I reckon if you Head East you may be going in the direction of Boston. Never heard of this band, but as they were around in the early 70s, were they an influence on Boston and the great late 70s & 80s US rock acts? I liked this song, and would like to hear more. P.S. my song ref Don't Know Much About Geography is a lyric from Wonderful World by Sam Cooke.

[@Drummingvulture]

A very popular song off of a pretty popular album. I never owned the album until around twenty years ago when a co-worker was asking me if I could burn him a copy. Seeing as how I did have a massive CD (and album and cassette) collection, he assumed I had this one. I broke down and bought the CD, and was somewhat pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as boring as I remembered it being from a few plays my buddy back in the mid-seventies did while we all hung out, getting stoned. I saw this band back in '78 as the middle band (Sammy Hagar first and Nazareth third), and was very disappointed at how horrible they were live. At least when I saw them they were. You may like a couple of songs off of their third album, 'Gettin' Lucky', "Don't Let Me Sleep In The Morning" and "Sands Of Time". Both pretty good tunes. Otherwise, I kinda lump this band into the same catagory as bands like REO Speedwagon and the Grateful Dead, which is boring. At least to me. But this song kinda kicks ass. Unfortunately, after a number of years of listening to it, it pretty much loses its luster and becomes more background noise than something you pay attention to. Except when it's played in a bar, then you're gonna have every drunken patron singing along at the top of their lungs. Especially in my neck of the woods, which is where Head East is from.

[@a.k.1740]

It's reminiscent of a lot of bands from the 70s (in a way, it reminds me of Styx on their first four albums and also the band Utopia in their pop-rock period). Not unpleasant, but rather unremarkable.

[@illegal_space_alien]

No, it's not a great driving song. It's the song you were playing in the car when you see cop lights behind you and realize you were going 85, because the song is just so good.

[@delorangeade]

A band and a song that meant nothing in the UK, so it took me a moment to remember why I've heard of them at all. This sounds very mid 1970's American that makes some kind of sense if you have sunshine and open roads, but it's raining here, I'm deciding between turning on the heating or putting on an extra jumper, so this song isn't really saying much to me.

[@pentagrammaton6793]

I'm currently sat inside a cloud in Wales, so this resonates particularly strongly.

[@delorangeade]

@@pentagrammaton6793 That is a very good description.

[@paulcollins5586]

Great song but that snare sound is so tinny. No power to it.

[@jtenaz]

OK song.

[@pentagrammaton6793]

Not half bad, but man that production is terrible, baking tray drums and where the hell is the bass??

[@paulcollins5586]

Just what i thought. Didnt hear much bass and those drums are awful.

[@illegal_space_alien]

The bass was near the end, in the dropoff. Otherwise, yeah, the bass track was mixed by Lars Ulrich.

[@pentagrammaton6793]

@@illegal_space_alien hahaha