The REO Motor Car Company and its Speed Wagon might be little remembered by other than automotive enthusiasts, were it not for that fateful autumn day in 1967 at the University of Illinois at Champaign. That was when Neal Doughty walked into his History of Transportation class and there, on the blackboard at the front of the classroom for any aspiring musician in need of a band name, were the words ‘REO Speed Wagon.’ Keyboardist Doughty and bandmate Alan Gratzer would take that name to incredible heights over the following decades, forging a band that, more than 50 years later, is still going strong.
Gratzer had been playing drums and perfecting his craft in bands like The High Numbers and The Barbarians since high school and was studying aeronautical engineering at Champaign, about 150 miles southwest of Chicago. He’d been performing at various joints in central Illinois and around 1965, The High Numbers released a self-financed single (‘I’m a Man’/‘High Heel Sneakers’) on their own Ocean label. Doughty had just started his studies in electrical engineering in the fall of 1966 when, on his first night at the university, he met Gratzer. That very night they jammed in the basement of their dormitory, the Illinois Street Residence Hall. Doughty, who’d taken trumpet lessons as a child and was part of his high school marching band, had taught himself to play his parents’ piano. He often attended Gratzer’s shows over the 1966-1967 school year and occasionally sat in with the band.
Around May 1967, as the school year drew to a close, Gratzer, bassist Mike ‘Smokey’ Blair, and guitarist Joe Matt were ready to start a different band that would include Doughty on keyboards. The members of the newly formed combo went their separate ways over the summer. They regrouped as planned in the fall and immediately started rehearsing. At this point, the yet- unnamed band was a four-piece: Gratzer on drums and vocals, Doughty on keyboards, Blair on bass and some vocals, and Matt on guitar and vocals. It was Doughty’s first official band.
They were now a proper musical group, but to secure gigs they needed a name. The same day in 1967, they decided to find a name was the day Doughty spotted ‘REO Speed Wagon’ on his classroom blackboard. The vehicle was a marvel in its day, a flatbed delivery truck boasting an unusual combination of speed and power (perfect for use as a fire truck, among other things), which fit the fledgling band’s intentions. The band made Speed Wagon into one word (which even the motor company sometimes did) and decided to use the separate initials R.E.O., rather than pronouncing it ree-oh, the way the motor company did.
As for the original vehicle, the REO Speed Wagon was named after its creator, automobile industrialist Ransom Eli Olds, who had previously been responsible for the Oldsmobile. In 1904, Olds departed Olds Motor Works after numerous disputes with his son, and founded the R.E. Olds Motor Car Company (later REO Motor Car Company). Various models of the Speed Wagon were produced from about 1915 until the 1950s. The well-known logo for the band is based on the vehicle’s logo of an encircled ‘REO’ with wings spread to the sides. Sometime in 1971, around the time of REO’s first album release, General Motors authorized the band’s use of the name and logo.
With the band name decided, the band soon played their first o
