The last few years it’s been impossible to avoid classic rock acts reworking their old hits. The Beatles’ “Strawberry Milkshake Forever” as well as the whole White Album being renamed the Multicultural Album, are just the tip of the iceberg. Brexit has been lampooned by Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Leave Is” and Paul Simon’s updated lyric of the folk riddle that is “Scarborough Fair”.
And now it’s the turn of REO Speedwagon, whose 1980 song Take It On The Run is being tweaked in response to Boris Johnson’s comments about Coronavirus.
“I know we’re an American band,” REO singer Kevin Cronin explained, “and that one or two Brits will say how dare they say this to our prime minister, but you gotta remember our own president is saying the same sort of rubbish, and when I heard this remark, I thought of this song right away.”
He could almost have been quoting Nigel Farage, who stuck his head into our office to say almost word-for-word what Cronin just said, in spite of the fact that we’ve put up notices to forbid him entry after the last time.
The original song, which made the top 5 in the US and top 20 in the UK, was written by the band’s late guitarist Gary Richrath and dealt with an unfaithful partner. The chorus went:
You take it on the run baby, if that’s the way you want it baby,
Then I don’t want you around.
I don’t believe it, not for a minute,
You’re under the gun and you take it on the run.
The new chorus lyrics, adapted by Cronin, goes:
I take it on the chin baby, if that’s the way you want it baby,
Then I don’t want you around.
I don’t believe it, not for a minute,
That we should give in, and take it on the chin.
“It’s just such an easy change of lyric,” Cronin explained. “I’m sure Gary would have approved. It’s so difficult to strike the right note with a song about illness. Either you have something mild and you have to play it for laughs, or it’s something fatal and you have to be completely respectful in case someone hears it who’s going through the same thing. So I was glad that the angle for the lyrics was not at the expense of the people suffering from the virus.”
Cronin was quick to deny the rumours that another REO hit, his own “Can’t Fight This Feeling” was also being reworked. “That would fall into the comedy category,” he said, “and like I said we’re not going down that road.”
The new single “Take It On The Chin” will be in the shops on Friday 13th of March.