Old Enough to Forget

Tommy Shaw. Man, back in the day Tommy Shaw was my favourite part of Styx. Like most kids my age it was The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight that put the band on the map. Not to shit on Dennis, this is about Tommy so it's Tommy's songs that'll get top billing here. I remember hearing "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)" on the radio sporadically, mainly because radio in a small town sucked. Although sometimes at night I could pull in a Vancouver AM station. Then came the big guns "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" and "Renegade" and if that was all he ever wrote that would have been enough. But like they say on TV, "BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!" There was so much more, Cornerstone had the awesome "Boat on a River" Paradise Theatre contained "Too Much Time on My Hands" and um, he played guitar on Kilroy Was Here . I am not sleeping on his debut with the band, Crystal Ball , where as a newbie he was gifted the ti...

I couldn't help myself, this was three bucks, and looked to be in decent shape. Nothing a little bath wouldn't clean up. A few weeks ago I had a hankering for Crystal Ball and it was on repeat in the truck for several days. This was around the time I'd spent a few days spinning Equinox the last album to feature the original line-up. Crystal Ball was one hell of a transition album as it was the one to introduce Tommy Shaw into the mix. His impact was huge and immediate, it still sounded like Styx but more better. A year later Styx returned with The Grand Illusion and the band was a cohesive unit where everything was fitted together. The album opens with the title track and this just felt different. Dennis and Tommy were both front and centre with "JY" offering up the blistering riff monster that anchored "Miss America" to start side two. This was the start of the big run for the band, and while there are some killers on Pieces of Eight , and the band...

Equinox is by far the best album Styx released - by the original line up that is. It was the final record to feature John Curulewski before his departure ushered in the band's next phase with Tommy Shaw. When I started working my way backward through Styx’s catalogue, I always wondered what happened to John. On those early albums, I really enjoyed the guitar interplay between James Young and John (note, I know the drummer was John too, but when I say John I mean John the guitar guy). In fact, I found myself liking a few songs—especially the ones John sang—on the band’s second 1973 release, The Serpent Is Rising . If I’m being honest, my favourite was actually the hidden track, “Don’t Sit Down on the Plexiglas Toilet,” which Curulewski wrote. Apparently, the band hated The Serpent Is Rising , calling it one of the worst albums ever made. Ouch. I guess they forgot to listen to Man of Miracles . Anyway, back to Equinox and why it was such a great album. After four records on the sma...

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock, almost progressive at times who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , "Don...

Styx is one of my favourite bands ever ... if I was to tick off on my left hand my top bands it would often run something like, April Wine, PRISM, Styx, Toto and Cheap Trick. Depending on where I was on the curve some of them would change but Styx was pretty constant. I often forget SAGA and when I remember I just add them to my list and pretend I have more fingers. It's a bit blurry now what I got first - I'm thinking it was the blue vinyl best of I that was a compilation of their Wooden Nickel albums. It was a treasure to me, and when I lost it I was pretty bummed out. I've been looking for another copy. In my junior high school the band room had a great stereo and we were allowed to listen to records when on break. I remember hearing Styx's Grand Illusion , and later Pieces of Eight there. I also remember someone bringing in a John Travolta record and having to sit through Razzamatazz - let's just say it didn't have the same positive impact the Styx albums h...