COME SAIL AWAY: THE STYX ANTHOLOGY
Forget about the thirty-plus years of music in the STYX catalog for just a moment, and let's focus on something slightly more significant; leather boots. You don't realize how truly cheesy this band (and let's face it, a lot of bands who have survived for this long) looked in its earlier years. There's one shot in the
Come Sail Away booklet that shows guitarist James Young with his pants tucked into the biggest, brownest pair of leather boots you've ever seen on a walking upright man.
Yessir, those boots are the epitomy of rock.
OK, enough silly talk. While I'm not the world's biggest Styx fan, I've always had an appreciation for their songwriting ability. I think the first album I ever owned was
Kilroy Was Here, and it was because I heard "Mr. Roboto" and thought it was the coolest song I'd ever been exposed to (I was NINE... cut me some slack). Getting a gig in classic rock radio introduced me to "Renegade", "Lady", "Don't Let It End" (which for some reason, was left off this collection), "Blue Collar Man", and of course "Come Sail Away" (which would later be resurrected by a young Eric Cartman in
South Park). Some tunes from the band's early days on the Wooden Nickel label are also featured on this anthology. Styx is one of those career bands that you just won't see anytime soon, simply because the business isn't (and hasn't been) equipped for artist development. They were given a few years to develop, and they ultimately developed into a long-running career band. Just try and find a major label to take a chance on developing an unknown band today. Nope. Not happening.
While I was pretty well-versed with the band's older material, I really didn't know much about any of their newer music...especially anything recorded after 1990 (with and without original singer Dennis DeYoung). I also had never heard anything featuring Lawrence Gowan, so I was very curious to check out "One With Everything", which features some amazing keyboard lines (and here I was thinking DREAM THEATER were the first guys to include noodling keyboard solos in their songs... yeah, I know... I'm a jackass).
The thirty-five tracks on
Come Sail Away are an accurate representation of the band's career, and a solid addition to any fan's collection. Even if you're not a die-hard Styx fan, this would be a good set to have in your stash, or even in rotation in your iPod/MP3 player. These discs are going to sit in my CD changer for a while, that's for sure.
...and just because we feel like being nice, the nice folks at Universal Music sent over these STYX video links:
"Babe"
WindowsMedia
RealMedia
QuickTime
"Come Sail Away"
WindowsMedia
RealMedia
QuickTime
"Mr. Roboto"
WindowsMedia
RealMedia
QuickTime
"Blue Collar Man"
WindowsMedia
RealMedia
QuickTime
