Dennis DeYoung = Bill Buckner?
I may well have posted on this before, but I just can't help myself. I'm wrestling with the big issues here. Bear with me.
When I was maybe 11 years old or so, I became a Styx fan. My older brother had bought Paradise Theater on LP and I was transfixed. It was a combination of concept, story arc, loud guitars, and singable melodies. I thought that it was possibly the most brilliant thing in the world. To this day, I can sing along with pretty much any of the songs from that record (and recently did so during a long road trip and also quietly sang along in my head when I heard "Too Much Time On My Hands" at the gym).
In the year or two that followed, my brother picked up a few more Styx records: Pieces of Eight, Cornerstone, Crystal Ball, and The Grand Illusion. Even though I was a little brother, I would sneak into his room and put the records on when he wasn't around. It was great.
And then, 1983 brought us Kilroy Was Here, and even at the age of 13, I was aware that somehow, things had gone horribly wrong for the guys in Styx. The toe-in-the-pool approach to the "concept" album that was on display in Paradise Theater was set aside in favor of the complete immersion of the Kilroy story. Mr. Roboto was a symbol of nameless, faceless, um, er, uh....something. And rock 'n roll was outlawed, Kilroy (played by Dennis DeYoung) was leading a rebellion, and I think the rest of the guys in Styx were rolling their eyes at Dennis behind his back. (They had to be.)
It was all pretty much downhill for Styx after Kilroy. Or, perhaps more accurately, the band plummeted to the earth the moment Dennis DeYoung sang:
Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto
For doing the jobs that nobody wants to
And thank you very much, Mr. Roboto
For helping me escape just when I needed to
Fast forward to the present. Dennis DeYoung is now one of those guys who goes around and sings his tunes with the local pops orchestra. So the local orchestra, instead of staging the works of, let's say, Stravinsky, put on the big show, bring in Dennis DeYoung, and tear into "Come Sail Away".
So, here's what I'm wondering: Is "Mr. Roboto" Dennis DeYoung's musical equivalent of Bill Buckner misplaying the grounder during the 1986 world series? You see, Buckner was a fine ballplayer whose legacy isn't what it probably ought to be. He played for 20 years and had over 2,700 hits, which is impressive stuff, although it wouldn't punch anyone's ticket to Cooperstown. Dennis DeYoung had a fine career - good tunes, good band, all around fine work. And then he decides to go all goofy dramatic with Mr. Roboto...and the ground ball rolls by him and the Mets score. And it's all downhill from there.
Domo arigato, Mr. DeYoung.
posted by Kevlar Pinata @ 3:05 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I'm here for you, Pinata. I understand.
Styx is one of the most confusing bands of all time. Totally capable of good, ballsy hard rock, and equally capable of absolute crappy pablum. And NO ONE wants to be capable of absolute crappy pablum.
You can't swing a dead cat in Chicago without hitting Dennis DeYoung and his weird hair and sunglasses. And he plays those shows here with the orchestra, and you'd think that Sinatra was in town. Or Elvis. The media onslaught for his shows is refreakingdiculous. The two weeks before a show you can't turn on a radio talk show without him burstin into an a cappella "Babe I'm Leavin" at the top of his voice. I have destroyed many of my own radios over the years when this happens.
And Billy Buck? He and his mustache won a batting title for the Cubs in, I think, 1979. And believe me when I tell you there weren't many other reasons to watch the team. He was a good player, and sadly, couldn't field the easiest ground ball ever hit in 1986. Wasn't his fault, though. Everyone knew he couldn't move. Shouldn'ta been in the game and the Sox got burned cause of that.
By the way, as for you coming on here and telling the story about breaking into your brother's room to listen to Styx records? Dude, as Colbert would say, you're on notice. That is not a story to ever tell ever ever again, unless you replace the word "Styx" with "Sex Pistols" or "Velvet Underground".
Next thing you know you'll be telling me about your rebellious love of Steve Reich, and that wouldn't be right, would it?
Urgh. I did (do, actually) still love Steve Reich. Believe it or not, I have a CD copy of "The Desert Music" in the car. I wrote an analysis of "Different Trains" in one of my 20th Century comp classes.
You are right, though. I definitely lose cool points by admitting that I broke into my brother's room to listen to Styx. Does it redeem me at all if my first personal cassette purchase was "Never Mind the Bollocks"? My first LP purchase was AC/DC's "Back in Black". However, I did come home and play air guitar to Night Ranger. So there is a balance to it all.
'tis okay to love steve reich. just not in a rebelious nature. as in, breaking into a room to listen to styx is not cool, it just is something that is somehow true.
like, why the need to break into a room to listen to styx? what was on any of those records that was contraband?
never mind. i belabor the point.
i did not own a sex pistols record. and you come so close to redeeming yourself and then....OHHHHH HE falls down again when he talks about air guitaring.
(i'm still right there with you, kevlar, down on the very un-cool ground)
Ah, an important clarification:
I did not break into my brother's room because Styx was contraband; rather, I broke in because it was my brother's room and he would kill me for touching his stuff. If I had been playing his "Sesame Street's Greatest Hits" record, he still would have pounded me.
I was in a punk band for a day. Cool?
Depends on the name of the band.
That is a secret I can not divulge. Mostly because it was not a cool name.
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