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| It was a bad idea. |
The Biggest Surprise: Styx was more business than band. According to Tommy Shaw, they rarely hung out.
The Most Famous Line-Up: Dennis DeYoung (keyboards/vox), James J. Y. Young (lead guitar), Tommy Shaw (more guitar), Chuck Panozzo (bass), and John Panozzo (drums)
What You Need to Know
Between 1972 and 1974, Styx put out four albums – Styx, Styx II, The Serpent Is Rising, and Man of Miracles (full disclosure, I skipped the last two) – none of which found traction, but Styx II is the album to keep the eye on. As it happened, Styx had secret fans at WLS, a Chicago radio station with the power to make things happen, and, two years after Styx II came out, a DJ named Jeff Davis gave the album the first boost it over had by playing DeYoung’s ode to his wife/childhood sweetheart, “Lady,” at the same time every day. That singular decision revived interest in Styx (the band) and Styx II (the album), and that started them on the path to stardom. “Lady” also had the effect of convincing DeYoung that he had the magic touch. As he tellingly put it in Behind the Music:
“I always described Styx as a democracy, of which I was the president. But there was always the houses of Congress to deal with.”
The Most Famous Line-Up: Dennis DeYoung (keyboards/vox), James J. Y. Young (lead guitar), Tommy Shaw (more guitar), Chuck Panozzo (bass), and John Panozzo (drums)
What You Need to Know
Between 1972 and 1974, Styx put out four albums – Styx, Styx II, The Serpent Is Rising, and Man of Miracles (full disclosure, I skipped the last two) – none of which found traction, but Styx II is the album to keep the eye on. As it happened, Styx had secret fans at WLS, a Chicago radio station with the power to make things happen, and, two years after Styx II came out, a DJ named Jeff Davis gave the album the first boost it over had by playing DeYoung’s ode to his wife/childhood sweetheart, “Lady,” at the same time every day. That singular decision revived interest in Styx (the band) and Styx II (the album), and that started them on the path to stardom. “Lady” also had the effect of convincing DeYoung that he had the magic touch. As he tellingly put it in Behind the Music:
“I always described Styx as a democracy, of which I was the president. But there was always the houses of Congress to deal with.”
With the band on the edge of fame, their label, A&M Records, made said “Congress” bigger by pushing for a more commercial sound and/or a new guitarist. Styx’s tour manager, Jim Vose, pointed them to Tommy Shaw, a songwriter in his own right, a choice that both added new dimensions to the band’s sound and sowed the seeds of its breakup. Styx didn’t get far on Equinox (1975, “Lorelei” and “Madame Suite Blue”), but the band (and Shaw) pulled all the elements together for Grand Illusion (1977, “Come Sail Away” and “Fooling Yourself (Angry Young Man),” by DeYoung and Shaw, respectively), while it looks like DeYoung threw Shaw the B-side of 1978’s Pieces of Eight with “Renegade” and “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights).” This started a record run of four straight multiple-platinum albums that carried through, significantly, to Paradise Theater (1981) and the crazy stack of hits the (again) concept album lined up (“Too Much Time on My Hands,” “Rockin’ the Paradise” and “The Best of Times”).
