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Styx: Difference between revisions
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Although they began as an artsy prog rock band, Styx would eventually transform into the virtual arena rock prototype by the late [[The Seventies|1970s]] and early [[The Eighties|1980s]], due to a fondness for bombastic rockers and soaring power ballads. The seeds for the band were planted in another Chicago band during the late [[The Sixties|1960s]], the Tradewinds, which featured brothers Chuck and John Panozzo (who played bass and drums, respectively), as well as acquaintance Dennis DeYoung (vocals, keyboards). By the dawn of the 1970s, the group had changed its name to [[TW 4]], and welcomed aboard a pair of guitarists/vocalists, James "JY" Young and John Curulewski -- securing a recording contract in 1972 with Wooden Nickel Records (a subsidiary of RCA). Soon after, the group opted to change its name once more, this time to Styx, named after a river from [[Classical Mythology]] that ran through "the land of the dead" in the underworld.
The band had a string of top 40 hits throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, including such mainstays as "Come Sail Away", "Renegade" and "Snowblind". Internally, the group was wracked with tension. DeYoung, who had begun to take onto himself the role of "band leader", attempted to steer Styx into a dramatic, almost operatic direction. This brought him into direct conflict with most of the rest of the band, who were more interested in a harder, rocking sound than the soaring balladic style DeYoung envisioned. The tensions came to a head in the form of the tour for ''[[Kilroy Was Here (
In the middle 1990s the hard feelings had faded enough for Styx to reunite to tour and record again, but DeYoung's control freakery began to raise its head once more not long after. Unwilling to put up with it, the rest of Styx expelled him from the band. They now tour as Styx with a new lead vocalist/keyboardist---Lawrence Gowan, formerly a major Canadian solo act in his own right back in the 80s---while DeYoung tours with an orchestra performing Styx songs and new material more in keeping with his personal artistic vision.
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* [[The Band Minus the Face]]: After Dennis DeYoung's departure(s)
* [[Broken Pedestal]]: "Fallen Angel".
* [[Concept Album]]: ''Pieces of Eight'', ''The Grand Illusion'', ''Paradise Theater'' and ''[[Kilroy Was Here (
* [[Control Freak]]: Dennis DeYoung. A nice enough one, but a control freak nonetheless. (It's outright confirmed in [[VH
* [[Culture Police]]: ''Kilroy Was Here'' and its Majority for Musical Morality.
* [[Determinator]]: "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" is about an desperate unemployed man who is willing to work as long and as hard as he can to hold a steady job.
* [[Drugs Are Bad]]: "Snowblind" is about the ups and downs of cocaine addiction.
** Inverted with "Heavy Metal Poisoning", in which the singer encourages drug use: "Get the lead out, go for broke/Up your pills and drink and smoke/Shoot those chemicals in your veins/Anything to ease the pain". Of course, JY ''was'' playing the bad guy.
* [[Eenie Meenie Miny Moai]]: The [[
* [[Forgiveness]]: "She Cares".
* [[Fun
* [[Gratuitous Japanese]]: Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto...
** Especially in the mini-film of Kilroy breaking out from prison, from the poor Roboto he hits with a [[Groin Attack]].
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