Styx in, um, happier days...well, they don't look happy but at least they were together. Later Tommy Shaw (middle) would leave leading to two of my all time favorite videos of the 80'sAlthough I started on a Saturday, I thought it would be fun to play videos on Friday nights just like in High School when I would watch Friday Night Videos on NBC. I didn't have MTV so programs like Bay Area Hot Rocks, Friday Night Videos, Solid Gold and reruns of The Saturday Night Special got me through many dateless weekends. So to pay tribute to those late nights drinking Coca Cola and making endless mix tapes here's two videos I got into through the old NBC program.
The two videos hail from members of the Windy City band Styx. Styx represented everything that was wrong in 70's rock and I loved them for it. Bombastic beyond all reason, Styx was as epic as Arena Rock got with their high pitched harmonies, dual guitar attack and squiggly synthesizer solos. But all good things had to come to an end (particularly since DeYoung insisted on making concept albums that Shaw couldn't stand) so Shaw left for a solo career in 1984. Styx continued for a second before Dennis DeYoung started making solo albums of his own.
Tommy Shaw struck first with one of his best songs, the fired up beat happy "Girls With Guns". Shot in black and white with an amazingly hyper drummer, the video had a sense of fun lacking from Shaw's Styx material. Maybe he was happy because he no longer had to butt heads with Styx leader Dennis DeYoung and his Broadway singing style. The song wasn't a big pop hit and soon Shaw found himself singing movie soundtrack songs for movies like Remo Williams: The Adventure Continues (it didn't) until Styx reformed in the mid-90's. Shaw is now the leader of a DeYoung-less Styx, rockin' one Blue Collar Man at a time.
Meanwhile, Styx released a double live album called Caught In The Act along with one studio cut, "Music Time". Without Shaw, Styx became all about Dennis DeYoung leading to one of their worst songs and videos that I can't help but like in it's awesomely craptastic way. I was going to feature Dennis DeYoung's "Don't Wait For Heroes" but couldn't find it so I'm putting the spotlight on a song so bad that Styx's star power could only push it to #40 on Billboard's Pop Charts. Back then if you told DeYoung that one day he would be out of Styx and the band would be run by Tommy Shaw, he probably would have laughed. How times have changed.
So here it is, the dream we all dream of. Tommy "Styx is my band now" Shaw against Dennis "I'm the real Styx" DeYoung. And while I poke fun at Dennis DeYoung for singing like Liza Minnelli while dressing like a stock broker, I am a die hard fan of the "Babe" crooner. I just wish I could find "Don't Wait For Heroes", then you would have seen the full destructive power of this fully operational battle station! (Went on a slight Star Wars tangent there).
Tommy Shaw "Girls With Guns"
Styx "Music Time"
3 comments:
They were ALL kinda not rock star looking, weren't they? I love Tommy Shaw. Never liked Dennis DeYoung. He's way funny looking and his voice is too sappy. He's too sappy. For some reason (don't laugh, now) he reminds me of that dude from Chicago. The castrato fellow, what was his name? Peter Cetera, that's it! Maybe they are related. Just kidding, Dennis isn't quite that bad. HA!
Good one about Dennis DeYoung and Peter Cetera. I originally wrote a joke about them and Aaron Neville but later thought I was being a little too harsh (some harshness is OK, but I went a little overboard.) Your joke I liked much better!
Actually, I thought the Aaron Neville joke was funny. Harsh, but funny. :)
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