Styx: ancient river, cheesy 70s band, or?
Came across an amusing article on Salon the other day – “Why it’s OK to love Styx” – Hmmm.
So for me, this band hit it big about the time I was attending Cub Scout Camp around 6th grade – we were all ‘Renegades‘ that summer to be sure – there were of course the obligatory older Boy Scouts around with at least a few boom boxes blasting this out nonstop (along with Queen and the rest – what would American junior high schools have been without ‘We Will Rock You‘? I submit – unsuccessful at most sports! And to think, all those conservative hicks were cheering a song written by THE most flamboyant – in every sense of the word – rock singer of all time – Fredde Mercury – the man who wrote the book on ‘mustache‘ – life works in strange ways, no? :))
Anyway, back to Styx. This article uses too many big words (zeitgeist? This is STYX, for pete’s sake) to get across a great point – F the people who criticize your music taste! And AS one of those critics for nearly all of the time I’ve loved music (ask Kerewin about the never-ending slagging of Huey Lewis and Oasis – the latter being no-talent poseur turds who really DESERVE slagging) I certainly have no room to judge. There were some rocking Styx tunes, although later stuff like the attempted apocalyptic/Orwellian Mr. Roboto was done far better, later, by Queensryche and others – Styx was simply too cheesy.
Every so often one of their songs comes up though – semi-regularly over in K-Land where a local cover band plays at least ‘Come Sail Away’ every night I’ve seen them – and plays it well, despite lack of keyboards. I’m convinced ‘Suite Madame Blue‘ is a Judas Priest ripoff but whatevs. Steal from the masters, not from losers, I always say.
candybowl