Do people hated Styx in the 70s?
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Topic: Do people hated Styx in the 70s?
Posted By: yogev
Subject: Do people hated Styx in the 70s?
Date Posted: July 17 2022 at 05:40
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I just watched an episode of that 70s show and one of the characters (eric forman) wanted to go to a Styx concert. Throughout the episode people laugh at him for loving Styx, like listening to them is an embarrassing thing to do. Yeah they were't the best band that played that kind of music in the united states around that time, and yeah they're may be a bit cheesy sometimes, but they're still pretty great, so I wonder if there were actually some sort of a gag around them?
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Replies:
Posted By: Grumpyprogfan
Date Posted: July 17 2022 at 05:52
| No gag that I'm aware of. I never was enthusiastic about Styx. As you said, cheesy AOR. REO Speedwagon was another similar band. |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: July 17 2022 at 06:50
I can't remember who or what it was that first Put Me On to the music of Styx, but I'm O.K. with them. Styx may not be the Best Thing that's ever happened to prog, but a Styx album A Day is perfectly fine for A Man Like Me. I only have two Styx albums in my CD collection - Babe: The Collection and Paradise Theater - but one day, when I have Too Much Time on My Hands, I may decide it's High Time I gave all of their albums a listen. After all, there's a First Time for everything and I'll Never Say Never again. The melodic Pomp Rock of Styx certainly beats getting Heavy Metal Poisoning from the likes of Megadeath and Metallica, so the answer to your question is an emphatic "No", I don't know anyone who hates Styx or considers it embarrassing to like them. On the other hand though, if Styx doesn't exactly Light Up your life, you can always appreciate the fabulous artwork on their colourful album covers with their name up in Lights above the Paradise Theater. 
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Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: July 17 2022 at 07:23
From Toronto & Montreal's perspective during the 70's, Styx was no laughing matter and thought of +/- cool (at least the albums Equinox, Crystal, Illusion and Pieces). Things started souring once Cornerstone and the song Babe hit the airwave, and most males (roughly 75% of the concert audience) started reneging them. Paradise Theatre made things worse (concept albums had became ridiculous after The Wall) and Killjoy  made them the laughing stock (Mr Lobotto)Sooo if Styx became the butt of jokes, it was mostly because of the 80's... Which tends to show that the writer of That 70's Show probably didn't really live through the decade. REO was unknown to the wider public before they struck the charts with their album High Infidelity Ditto for Journey: they were relatively cool until they were forced to hire their  singer or lose the contract they'd signed with Columbia/CBS in 73.------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Grumpyprogfan wrote:Posted By: JD
Date Posted: July 17 2022 at 08:43
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I think the vocals had a lot to do with the impression of 'cheesy'. But tunes like this get gravely overlooked when the proginess is questioned. ------------- Thank you for supporting independently produced music |
Posted By: Heart of the Matter
Date Posted: July 17 2022 at 08:58
| I used to listen to Sing For The Day on the radio in those days, and it was a good moment for me. Journeys' Wheel In The Sky was also good, but REO Speedwagon not so much. |
Posted By: Grumpyprogfan
Date Posted: July 17 2022 at 09:18
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Styx, REO Speedwagon, and Loverboy are currently touring the States together. If memory serves, Styx and REO toured together a lot in the 70's. Was called "Summer Jam" in my neck of the woods. All day festival at stadiums - several bands would play. |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: July 17 2022 at 09:54
The only song I remember by REO Speedwagon is "Take It on the Run", which was played endlessly on the radio back in the early 1980's. It's a nice song and a nice video too, unlike the Lufthansa Terminal song below, which is a Nice Video, Shame About the Song. |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: July 17 2022 at 11:13
I don't know, but it was another Eric (Eric Cartman) from another show that made me willing to come sail away with Styx. ------------- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXcp9fYc6K4IKuxIZkenfvukL_Y8VBqzK" rel="nofollow - Duos for fave acts |
Posted By: nick_h_nz
Date Posted: July 17 2022 at 11:35
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^ I had never even heard of Styx, until that South Park episode. Im not sure their music ever made it to NZ, and if it did, it definitely did not feature on the radio stations down my way. 🤷🏻♂️ ------------- https://tinyurl.com/nickhnz-tpa" rel="nofollow - Reviewer for The Progressive Aspect |
Posted By: The Dark Elf
Date Posted: July 17 2022 at 11:58
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Meh. They were not on my playlist in high school. Never bought an album, as I heard more than enough on the radio. They were a vacantly bland AOR band. There were simply too many great and innovative bands at the time to waste time listening to Styx. ------------- ...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology... |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: July 17 2022 at 15:30
I was going to say... a pretty good imitation of early Kansas ,but that was recorded a year before Kansas first ,lp  Any way they did some solid tracks on the earlier lps up through Pieces of 8. ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: mathman0806
Date Posted: July 17 2022 at 15:48
| From my perspective, 79 to 82, as middle school-aged, D&D playing needs, Styx had some appeal with their pseudo-fantasy. Allegorical lyric and semi-prog approach to music, but would definitely not be 'cool' with the older hard rocking teens. That puts it past That 70s Show time period but maybe there was some of that. Styx was kind of weak in the "rock" spectrum. In particular, once the insipid "Babe" came out and then there was the shark-jumping Mr. Roboto. I would think the writer had that hindsight inind ad Sean Trane mentioned. |
Posted By: BrufordFreak
Date Posted: July 17 2022 at 17:42
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NO! We LOVED Styx in the 1970s! Their concerts were often in the big stadiums with the likes of Boston, Foreigner, and REO Speedwagon! They were BIG, and they were popular (in the American Midwest). ------------- Drew Fisher https://progisaliveandwell.blogspot.com/ |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: July 18 2022 at 02:52
I don't know about stadiums in Canada (even in the Midwest), but at least filled hockey arenas for sure. (Saw them for the Po8 tour - Toronto's MLG if memory serves). But because of their catastrophic cheesy 80's and MTV things, I won't openly admit to "loving" them until I cited some 200 acts beforehand. I'd say that I wouldn't listen to an album of theirs (even the classic ones) or even a track (unless on the radio) for the rest of my life and I voluntary missed the "recent" European tours with Kansas. ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: Blacksword
Date Posted: July 18 2022 at 05:52
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I'm no authority on Styx, but The Grand Illusion is a very good album. ------------- Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy! |
Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: July 18 2022 at 05:57
Yes, The Grand Illusion and Pieces Of Eight were about as good as it got, before Cornerstone compromised their artistic integrity... ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: Steve Wyzard
Date Posted: July 18 2022 at 13:32
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Pre-Grand Illusion: an occasional good song. The Grand Illusion: masterpiece! Pieces of Eight: masterpiece! Cornerstone: "Babe" isn't the problem - "First Time" is! Paradise Theater: not bad, not great, just all right. Kilroy was Here: only Tommy Shaw's songs are worth hearing. Post-Kilroy was Here/Pre-The Mission: don't bother. The Mission: masterpiece!
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Posted By: mellotronwave
Date Posted: July 18 2022 at 16:36
I agree |
Posted By: Trickster F.
Date Posted: July 18 2022 at 21:22
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Found the video the OP mentioned: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6e21bb The comments at the end really illustrate the points Sean Trane and others in the topic made. ------------- sig |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: July 20 2022 at 12:59
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Styx were terribly popular in the States. Take that as you will. ------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: uduwudu
Date Posted: December 24 2022 at 02:50
It did, Grand Illusion and onward. They had their moments, good / great AOR prog but 50:50 ideas like Mr Roboto sent things down. Someone lacked judgement unlike the audience...
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Posted By: BrufordFreak
Date Posted: December 24 2022 at 08:49
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Despite it's massive hit "Lady" being the reason I bought it, the album Styx II was quite critical to my prog-development. Songs like "Little Fugue in G" and "Father OSA" incorporated all kinds of classical influences that expanded my horizons of what was possible within rock music. (It wasn't until two years later that I heard Yes Fragile for the first time.) Also key were those early Chicago Transit Authority, Blue Φyster Cult, Grand Funk Railroad, Jeff Beck Group, Bachman-Turner Overdrive ("Blue Collar"), Nektar Journey to the Centre of the Eye, Duane Allman-era Allman Brothers, Doobie Brothers (long before Michael MacDonald joined them), The Eagles (including 1975's One of These Nights) and REO Speedwagon (especially the 1973 album Ridin' the Storm Out) albums. In my opinion, it was only after these bands became super famous that their musics turned cheesy-corny. ------------- Drew Fisher https://progisaliveandwell.blogspot.com/ |
Posted By: Jacob Schoolcraft
Date Posted: January 17 2023 at 19:34
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Styx definitely had Pop sensibilities which I noticed as a teenager when Styx II was released. Their melodies and harmony vocals sometimes felt comparable to bands like Queen and 10CC. Around this time and onward I had the impression that national American bands with recording contracts began imitating British Progressive Rock bands note for note and it was a real turn off for me. I had the first 4 Kansas albums and I liked the vocals and the musicianship, but other times it just felt like they were copying ELP. ..literally copying and surely not just being influenced to recreate its essence like the second wave of Prog bands did in the late 70s. Happy The Man were influenced by Gentle Giant, Yes, Genesis, and Mahavishnu Orchestra, but they had beautiful originality and they were quirky, odd, and put that stamp on their sound. Styx seemed to fall into that category not unlike Kansas and Starcastle. I'm sure they've all recorded amazing pieces that I am unaware of. During that time period I felt these bands were contrived. Probably because I was exposed to many British Progressive Rock bands and the revelation was that they appeared first in my life. Many of them fused Classical with Rock which was new to teenagers because to us..that hadn't been invented before. Keith Emerson and Jon Lord were responsible for 2 nationally known outlets for the American musicians. Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore gave people ideas to cement that Classical sound in Hard Rock. Keith Emerson influenced just about every keyboard player I've met. As a teenager I remember music teachers and students acting overwhelmed by the aforementioned talents and American teenagers began imitating everything they played. By the time Styx began circulation on the national circuit I had the impression that they were merely copying the British bands. Maybe I was being snobby..A good portion of the Classical community reacted to Keith Emerson as if he was disgraceful to Classical music because he used a synthesizer and he made noise when he tinkered with it..and to them it was disgraceful or it sounded like a herd of elephants interrupting Mozart. And so the shoe did not fit. Well that won't do. It's a Rock band |
Posted By: Argo2112
Date Posted: January 18 2023 at 07:27
| I thought Styx had some good moments. ARO/Pop rock with some prog flavor. Like a lot of bands around that time they got more pop as time went on. I think by Paradise Theater they had defiantly started to jump the shark. |
Posted By: mellotronwave
Date Posted: January 18 2023 at 11:10
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not me I was not a big fan but Istill listen to some of their works : Grand Illusion or Peaces of eight for example They were rather 'mainstream' Today, I would be happy if the radio-stations offer me this kind of music instead of their formatted and boring "turnips" |
Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: January 18 2023 at 15:53
I've never gotten the notion of "wannabe ELP" from Kansas, especially their debut. The guitar tandem of Kerry Livgren & Rich Williams negated that with ease. Kansas were influenced by a lot of their prog predecessors but have always sounded more decidedly "American" to me. Steve Walsh was a vocal powerhouse in those days, and dare I say a much better singer than Greg Lake. ELP's musicianship had few equals among their peers but Kansas were always better songwriters. ------------- https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay |
Posted By: dougmcauliffe
Date Posted: January 19 2023 at 03:10
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Honestly I don't see how Kansas sounds like ELP whatsoever, out of the main 70s prog bands I would say that's the one that's probably least present in their sound. Kansas was always closer in my head to a band like Gentle Giant but even then, they're kinda their own thing. ------------- The sun has left the sky... ...Now you can close your eyes |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: January 19 2023 at 05:13
RTBF's Classic Rock 21 should be your thing, then. You sometimes get some Styx (and Kansas) hits - some of it from GI and Po8
Probably Jacob meant Yes, not ELP.   Their first two albums have strong Yes influences (it sort of wanes with Masque & Overture), though slightly harder-sounding. This is also quite heard into early Starcastle albums, where they are strongly derived from Yes and Kansas.
It really started with Cornerstone & that awful Babe track , but the rest of the album, though not commercial (less so that TGI and Po8) was quite mediocre. Paradise Theatre was also not well perceived, despite being a vast improvement over CS), but it was also a concept album.... as was Killroy with that laughable Mr Lobotto single .
------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: Nogbad_The_Bad
Date Posted: January 19 2023 at 05:50
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From what I remember in the UK in the 70's they were just another American AOR band even smaller than Foreigner, or REO Speedwagon.
Looking at their chart positions they seem to be a purely USA phenomena
------------- Ian Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/ |
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Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: January 19 2023 at 07:17
No Canadian figures in your chart, but the classic 4 (Equi/Crys/Illu/Eight) were big sellers (especially the latter two that might've been charts top 5), but Cornerstone, Paradise & even Killroy were quite atop the charts. However most Ontarians probably had no idea that Suite Madame Blue & Light Up was on their fifth album when both became big radio hits. ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: January 19 2023 at 10:19
I kinda think, and thought (at the time) that Styx was a "pop musik" alternative on the FM radio bands. For fans of ranked music by Variety or Yteirav ... it made sense since some of their stuff was a bit longer than the less than 3 minutes that the AM Radio band in America was giving you! Sadly, the one thing that it did, was to bring the "wrong" audience to the FM radio band, that all of a sudden is not playing as much new stuff as it is also playing other stuff. Some other folks, for example, BREAD was also played, and eventually Eric Carmen's solo album was also played ... but by then, Elton John had already busted up the waves and he was massively played on AM Radio, though his best stuff was always on the FM Radio, specially new stuff. The early days of FM radio in the USA, up to 1973 or 1974, was magic ... pure magic ... and the list of material was incredible, and something that folks HERE TODAY can not imagine, and the words "commercialism", did not quite exist then on that dial ... which means that you heard a lot of different things ... and they were all far out in their own way. A lot of "today's" progressive music BS is simply play three songs, play one of the well known band, to make sure that you have your "audience" ... and FM radio later did just this ... to make sure they did not lose their audience they played more Led Zeppelin and more The Who, right after the Allman Brothers Band, Lynard Skynard, and Neil Young ... and Frank Zappa ... and many others ... none of the "progressive" wanna be shows has the guts to even try that mix in one 30 minute segment ... excuse me, it will be way under 30 minutes because none of those wanna be shows knows music ... they only know songs under 4 or 5 minutes!
------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: Jacob Schoolcraft
Date Posted: January 21 2023 at 11:23
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In 1979 I would listen to WXPN after hours radio shows every chance I got. They aired long stretches of Progressive Rock and many of its sub genre..They would begin (for example) , with Van Der Graaf Generator A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers..playing the entire piece and no editing! When that piece ended you'd hear something from Camel Moonmadness..and who knows what you'd hear next? Eventually they began playing The Residents and Univers Zero or they'd have a special on the band GONG and JADE WARRIOR where experts discussed the history of these bands. They covered a wide range of the obscure presented in art form along with historical documentation, opinions, the history of the band members etc. Very fascinating radio program. If you wanted to hear a wide selection of Krautrock bands it was a must tuning into that station after midnight. In the daytime regular Rock stations in the tri state area played ELP, Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Styx, Kansas, Starcastle, U.K...but never bands like Popol Vuh and Guru Guru until late evening. That was a restriction. A rule applied based on the unappealing nature produced through underground bands to the pathetic close minded eardrums of the mass who were conditioned by commercially viable music. That hurts business right? |
Posted By: Jacob Schoolcraft
Date Posted: January 21 2023 at 11:49
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In 1974 right around the time that Robin Trower released Bridge Of Sighs ...Rock Music (generally speaking) began to change. It changed in direction of how it could of been described in 1972. Rock radio began promoting Stadium Rock exclusively and it changed the content in Rock ...good points and bad points. In the late 60s and very early 70s Rock bands like Savoy Brown, Spooky Tooth, Juicy Lucy, were eclectic by adding horns and jazzing it up a bit. Stadium Rock seemed to blast that idea to Kingdom Come. Foghat had ex members of Savoy Brown. They were the son of Savoy Brown..but they weren't eclectic. Bad Company were the son of the band Free. Bad Company were definitely more commercial sounding than Free. Styx combined the Classical influences with Rock and they were seasoned musicians and very creative at combining the two. This time period revolved around putting pressure on Progressive Rock bands to sell out. At first it was subtle..then after ELP toured with an orchestra the heat was on to sell out. Certain Progressive Rock bands had power to refuse this or it was a matter of being a pet band of the record company. Styx were actually impressive in combining Pop with Progressive. They were one of the better bands |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: January 21 2023 at 19:13
Hi, Nice to hear a bit of the history of the FM radio for Progressive Music ... it is something that is lacking, with a lot of folks not believing history means anything, because it ain't pop music! Santa Barbara, had Guy Guden and his Space Pirate Radio show (Sunday Nights) which is still an appreciated show on Twitch these days ... that it has lasted 50 years (anniversary next week!!!!!) is insane and I have tapes of shows going back to 1974 of his show. The listing of materials is incredible, and Guy probably had more bands played than we can imagine, and I once posted somewhere else a listing of the stuff played in 1974 alone, from the shows that I had recorded, and it was over 60 or 70 bands, and in many cases, the full sides were played (Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream for example) ... and while Santa Barbara was not exactly LA, we were aware of others in LA, like KNAC (I have to check that to make sure!!!) which played things all day long, although I do not know, or ever heard how they mixed what they played ... but we knew that Genesis, Golden Earring, Focus, Pink Floyd, Can, Gong, Hawkwind, Nektar, Man, PFM, Banco and Le Orme ... were also played, although I can not exactly verify this. It did bring about Jem/Passport as one of the importers of the albums around 1972 or so, and Archie Patterson (from Portland and Eurock) can tell us more about that, but he seems to not enjoy the limelight much, and remains away from most of this ... His periodical (Eurock) was by very far, one of the most incredible things about European music, and it actually allowed the artists to talk on their own, and although trying to make sense of Richard Pinhas and his ideas is ... very tough ... in the end, you felt like you knew something about the bands and went after them. He distributed and sold a lot of this stuff, and had exclusives for the sets from Klaus Schulze (for example) which sadly I could not afford. I got to see Styx here in Vancouver WA with my roomie, as it was one of his faves as he was growing up, and they were fine, but it showed me, how different this was from everything else I listened to ... and a couple of years later I took him to go see King Crimson, and the comment he had at the end? That gives a new meaning to what music is! I am not sure folks realize how badly we need a place that is non-commercial for the playing of "progressive music", so the freedom to explore will come back ... other than Guy's show these days, there is no show that really gives you new things consistently ... and Guy seems to add one or two each and every show. And, even sadder for me? On PA, yet another JT posting, another Yes posting, another this or that posting and too much of the new stuff is ignored. Without folks hearing it properly, not just 4 minutes of it ... I doubt that we can have a great appreciation for (not only) new music, but progressive, and in this theme, something like Styx is fine with me ... although not something that I would play, myself. I like to say, it has been played enough. And it's time for the children and other artists to be remembered. ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: Jacob Schoolcraft
Date Posted: January 22 2023 at 14:36
A good example would be the center section of "Songs For America " which is a bit too emulation of the center section of "Take A Pebble ". Kansas are outstanding writers and impeccable musicians. Steve Walsh has an outstanding voice. There are always times when musicians slip up and it comes across like they are copying somebody else. It's nature's way of saying bite the big one. Brand X sounding like Mahavishnu or Dixie Dregs sounding like Kansas on the WHAT IF album. It's perfectly natural |
Posted By: Jacob Schoolcraft
Date Posted: January 22 2023 at 15:01
(Ifjdtrdt Archie Patterson was a very important person in the history of Progressive Rock and Electronic Music. His interviews with innovators from the Golden age of Progressive Rock and Electronic are really interesting and through journalism he reviewed albums remarkably revealing important facts to know about the artist. His interviews with such artists reveal a lot of fascinating information. Archie Patterson was determined and ambitious regarding the respect he wanted the artists to receive...to promote a bit..create a magazine...a mail order business..a catalog which listed the availability of this music. ..helping to spread the word. There's probably a lot he accomplished that many of us are unaware of. His contributions and or efforts to the world of underground European Progressive Rock and Electronic Music may have a great deal to do with its foundation and absolute part of its empire. |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: January 23 2023 at 13:38
 ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: January 24 2023 at 07:42
Hi, I find this really sad ... and comparing Steve Walsh to Greg Lake is grossly misguided and not right. Greg was not a "singer", but more of an actor with his voice and his inflections were perfect for the kind of material that ELP did and how they did it. A straight singer with ELP would have ruined that material and ability ... "don't tell me lies" can't be sung ... has to be acted out! So comparing SW to GL is not wise. Or as the late Meatloaf said ... I'm just an actor that happens to sing. You have a problem with that? If all you want out of "music" is songs, you can have KANSAS. While I am more into the compositional and classical side of things, for me ELP showed a side of our young generation of what we could do with music that no one else did ... and LATER, Kansas came around, with what was just a song ... not a major compositional effort. Just a song and the FM radio dial took it, because it was good ... not going to say it wasn't. But if we are to compare apples and oranges for the sake of an opinion, the sad fact is that ELP is important to the "progressive music" history, and Kansas is not as much. Regardless of how good a voice SW had. If it were by Kansas alone, "progressive" would have died a long time ago ... well, not that some folks here would love that so their favorite band could get the honors!
------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |