My mother went to college in the 80s and was very into the rock music scene. Lucky for me, she collected vinyl of her favorite bands, and still has them to this day. When I read the blog post for this week, I simply walked downstairs pulled out all her records and started listening to the bands with the most interesting covers. She of course asked why I was playing Styx at ten in the morning on a Tuesday, then happily started listening with me. The two bands from her collection that I really enjoyed the most were Styx and Loverboy. For the blog I’ve focused on Styx but recommend looking into Loverboy too! I've included pictures of the album covers in the post as well because I was so drawn to and intrigued by the art that I think it might inspire someone else to listen to them too!
Styx was a Chicago based rock band from the 1970s. The band is known for their combination of rock elements like electric sound and synthesizers, which they combined with an acoustic piano and guitar on some power ballads. The original band members were two brothers, Chuck and John Panzano, and their next door neighbor, Dennis DeYoung, growing up and eventually all attending the same college. The band slowly formed and took shape over the boys’ college years gaining and losing members before being discovered at a music venue in Western Springs, Illinois. The band decided on the name Styx in a writing session because, according to lead singer Dennis DeYoung, it was “the only name none of us hated”. Under their label Wooden Nickel Styx released four albums that started to develop their signature blended rock and progressive rock sounds. While the band had success with their first few albums, even recording “Lady” which held a #6 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 list. Riding off their success, the Styx moved record labels and soon after lost a band member. During the early 70s, Styx released many more albums to relative success but in 1977 the band released the album that would solidify their place in history.
On July 7, 1997, Styx dropped The Grand Illusion, which went triple platinum. The band had many successful albums throughout the 80s including Paradise Theater, which was the album I pulled out of our family collection. The band, however, did face their fair share of troubles along the way, most notably when a parent council accused them of creating satanic music, saying when you played the record backwards it has secret messages telling fans to worship the devil. The band found this hilarious stating, “we had enough trouble to make the music sound right forward”.
Styx went on to have another platinum album, Kilroy was Here before breaking up in 1984. After taking time off to focus on family and their solo careers, the band came back together in 1990. During the 90s, Styx faced many problems including their record company being sold resulting in the band getting dropped by the buyers despite their 15 year history with A&M records. However, they went on to create two more certified triple platinum albums. In 1999 after another decade of success, bassist Chuck Palazzo, who was one of the founding brothers of Styx, had to leave the band due to complications with HIV. Through the 2000s, Styx toured with Def Leppard, received a lifetime achievement award and kept recording new music. If I'm being honest, Styx has too much rich history in the music industry to fit into one blog so I will leave you with this to remember:
The Styx are best known for their top ten chart hit, Mr. Roboto, yes, THAT song, as well as the hits Come Sail Away and The Best Of Times. The band had great success over their career that garnered them 8 top ten radio hits as well as 4 consecutive albums that were certified platinum. Styx is still together touring the country and will be making a stop in Cleveland, Ohio on August 4th - if anyone is inspired to see them live.
Below I've included the links to two of their songs, the hit “Come Sail Away”
As well as
And for fun I've also thrown in a hilarious cover of “Too Much Time On My Hands” by Paul Rudd of all people.
I did not realize until recently the difference between listening to a record and streaming music, these are good songs, so its cool that you listened to them in their original form! I found it interesting what you wrote about the parent councils...rock had a lot of obstacles. I have heard of parental advisories but not because of backwards play.
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