Live: You Get What You Play For

Live: You Get What You Play For is a live album by rock band REO Speedwagon, released as a double-LP in 1977 (and years later as a single CD omitting "Gary's Guitar Solo" and "Little Queenie"). It was recorded at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building in Kansas City, Kansas, the Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, Kiel Auditorium in Saint Louis, Missouri and Alex Cooley's Electric Ballroom in Atlanta, Georgia. It peaked at number #72 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1977.^[2] The album went platinum on December 14, 1978.

This album's live version of the song "Ridin' the Storm Out" (an earlier studio version of this song appeared on the band's third album Ridin' the Storm Out) reached #94 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, and has since become a classic rock radio staple. The song refers to the band being stuck in a harsh winter blizzard, after a show in Boulder, Colorado at a bar named Tulagi (now closed). The band had decided to prank its tour manager by intentionally getting lost, but then inadvertently became genuinely lost as a dangerous winter storm approached.^[3]

Producer John Stronach was fired by the band after his mix of this album "sounded like a studio album". The band then did its own mix of this album, which became their first album to sell over a million records. Afterward, the band continued to mix its own albums, all of which reached either gold or platinum sales results.^[4]

The Japanese CD reissue, released in 2011, restores the album and songs to its original full length by including both "Gary's Guitar Solo" and "Little Queenie", which were omitted in the original single CD release due to time constraints. Sony Music also released the unedited double LP Epic master on its Legacy Label for Compact Disc in 2011 as well.

All songs written by Gary Richrath, except where noted.

Side one

1. "Like You Do"  – 6:43
2. "Lay Me Down" (Neal Doughty, Alan Gratzer, Terry Luttrell, Gregg Philbin, Richrath^[a])  – 3:34
3. "Any Kind of Love"  – 3:33
4. "Being Kind (Can Hurt Someone Sometimes)" (Kevin Cronin)  – 6:27

Side two

5. "Keep Pushin'" (Cronin)  – 3:59
6. "(Only A) Summer Love"  – 6:06
7. "Son of a Poor Man"  – 5:25
8. "(I Believe) Our Time Is Gonna Come" (Cronin)  – 4:46

Side three

9. "Flying Turkey Trot"  – 2:34
10. "Gary's Guitar Solo"+  – 6:10
11. "157 Riverside Avenue (Doughty, Gratzer, Luttrell, Philbin, Richrath)  – 7:35
12. "Ridin' the Storm Out"  – 5:34

Side four

Encores

13. "Music Man" (Cronin)  – 2:29
14. "Little Queenie"+ (Chuck Berry)  – 4:45
15. "Golden Country"  – 8:12

Total length  – 77:18

(+) Appeared on the original double-LP release of the album, but omitted from the original single CD release. They are included on the 2011 Japanese "remaster" two-CD release.

• Kevin Cronin – lead vocals (except on "Only a Summer Love"), rhythm guitar
• Gary Richrath – lead guitar, lead vocals on "Any Kind of Love" and "Only a Summer Love"
• Neal Doughty – keyboards
• Gregg Philbin – bass, backing vocals
• Alan Gratzer – drums, backing vocals

Production

Production as listed in album liner notes.

• John Stronach - production, engineering
• John Henning - production, engineering, mixing
• Gary Richrath - production, mixing
• Bruce Hensal - engineering
• Pete Carlson - engineering
• Jack Crymes - engineering
• Kelly Kotera - engineering
• Rick Sanchez - engineering
• Mike Klink - engineering
• Vartán Kurjian - illustration
• Justin Carroll - illustration
• Tom Steele - design
• Lorrie Sullivan - photography