Dennis DeYoung wants to be back in STYX for final tour

HA! I just can't handle the lyric. "Babe" feels more real somehow, though both were likely written for his wife. I know "Babe" was.

Ed

 

"Why Me" was pretty killer, no?



2nd single off "Cornerstone". Could easily fit the previous album with different instrument choice or 2 and mix. Pure DDY... including his humor.

 

Why Me? is a good tune, although my favorites from that record have always been Love in the Midnight and Boat on the River.

 

Re; Babe- I think both u guys maybe right, GCos and Ed.

I believe it was mentioned that Babe wasnt intended for Styx, but ya know, when your in that yearly album, tour cycle,
quality songs are hard to come by.
By the time Cornerstone arrived, thats 8 albums in 8 years, the creative well was probably getting dry, or at least they needed a break.

Teenager at the time, I didnt like the song, part of that due to Mom thinking it was pretty good.
But in hindsight, its a perfectly crafted gem, no doubt about it.

So I get what Ed is saying, and theres no doubt, being a #1 single it gets a huge ovation when played as George mentioned.

I think the issue is what ended up happening after Babe, when the band began to struggle over what direction to take.
And its kind of hard to argue with the guy that just wrote a #1 hit, so off to the Paradise Theatre they went, and that became the biggest album of their career. The 9th studio album in roughly 10 years. Pretty wild when u think about it.

 

I have mixed feelings. Styx already did a reunion tour with DDY in the 90s and it ended in animosity (again). JY and Tommy Shaw proved they don't need Dennis DeYoung to be a kick ass rock band. Geez, they blew fricking Yes off the stage every night back in 2011 and did it handily without Dennis. They still play to fairly big audiences and The Mission was the finest Styx record since Pieces of Eight. Styx don't appear to be ready to throw in the towel just yet, so why bother with DDY? Yeah, they play his songs every night and JY is kind of douche-y, but Dennis isn't exactly the world's most charismatic performer and after years and tours without the guy, they don't really need him. Why would they want him back now? Just to give some fans a warm fuzzy? If JY and Co decide they want him back and/or want to retire after one last hurrah, that's fine by me, I guess. But I don't think they are quite there yet. I'd much rather they do what they're doing right now instead of a cynical cash grab with a guy they can't stand to only play in venues pretty much the same size they're playing in now anyway.

 

Mildly off-topic, but I can’t believe there’s never been any outtakes/alternates issued by this band. [ONE exception I’m aware of: the longer version of Man in the Wilderness]. I’d love to hear some pre-Wooden Nickel material, some alternates/outtakes from their golden era, or even the unreleased follow-up to the (middling) Edge of the Century (vetoed by A&M). And yet ... nada.

Note: it’s my understanding that a Brave New World track had an early version (from the Edge follow-up) issued on an A&M sampler, but I’ve never seen it on eBay/discogs.

 

Oh, let's not bicker and argue over who killed Styx.

 

It was the housewives in the study with the crochet needle!

Ed

 

Guess who I saw tonight.

 

Thank you as that is exactly what I said. Dennis is a first class act and JY is a jerk that should just keep his mouth shut.

 

I agree with what you said but back when all this happened I knew the mgmt and they had a very heavy hand in not letting Dennis get proper health treatment as he had a serious light sensitivity issue and wait for him to get better. Trust me the mgmt they used are a bunch of scumbags who helped to try and make the guys in the band see Dennis as a liability and a pain in the ass. There's more to it that I can't post but it wasn't black and white for sure.

 

Love 'Why Me' and I don't understand why it wasn't on any of the Styx comps.

 

Maybe Styx and DDY could do something ala Spinal Tap where for one show[maybe in Chicago]he could show up unannounced and for an encore come up on stage and sing Mr Roboto or Come Sail Away or one of the other songs he sang lead on while Gowan steps aside for said encore.[there would be your"reunion"].......he came he performed he left.

 

Management will always be in favor of a band hitting the road to make money, and to put touring on hold while DeYoung tended to his health issues won't make the band or management any money, so of course they are not going to recommend that. It's sad, but it's the way it is.

 

do they still have the same management?

 

These assertions that DeYoung was only half or less of the equation to their success are getting ridiculous. Here are all of Styx' top 40 songs.

Babe (1) (DeYoung)
Show Me the Way (3) (DeYoung)
The Best of Times (3) (DeYoung)
Mr Roboto (3) (DeYoung)
Lady (6) (DeYoung)
Don't Let it end (6) (DeYoung)
Come Sail Away (8) (DeYoung)
Too Much Time on My Hands (9) (Shaw)
Renegade (16) (Shaw)
Blue Collar Man (21) (Shaw)
Love at First Sight (25) (Burtnik/DeYoung/Young)
Why Me (26) (DeYoung)
Lorelei (27) (DeYoung/Young)
Fooling Yourself (29) (Shaw)
Mademoiselle (36) (DeYoung/Shaw)
Music Time (40) (DeYoung)

Of these, Dennis DeYoung wrote and sang their 7 biggest hits, and 7 out of 8 of their top 10 hits.

Of the remainder, Dennis DeYoung wrote or co-wrote 5, Tommy Shaw wrote or co-wrote 5, and JY co-wrote 2.

When you are touring at the tail end of your career like Styx, you're mostly touring on the nostalgia of the hits. Which in this case, are far and away powered by the material that DeYoung wrote and sang. To assert that they don't owe their ability to tour mid-sized venues at this point in their career largely to Dennis' contributions is a grand delusion.

 

I agree, but it's interesting to note that the current version of Styx doesn't play 5 of those 6 top hits. Shoot, was Don't Let It End ever played on a Styx tour post-mid 80's?

 

I'm not taking sides (I've already commented on DeYoungs current show) and nobody asked my opinion, but I consider Fooling Yourself and Too Much Time on My Hands (along with whatever damn Yankee song was played on the radio) to be among the worst songs I have ever heard IMO.

 

They should tell Dennis all the shows are scheduled to start at 2pm.

 

I'm not sure.

 

Still sounds good

 

High Enough is probably the Damn Yankees song you are thinking of (it was their biggest hit by far), but they had a bunch of songs that got played on the radio from 1900-1992.

 

Do you know the dynamic between Dennis and the band? Do you know how he was with them? Do you know how they were with him FIRST HAND? If not, we can’t go there.

Management is always heavy handed. Not a revelation by any means. Your are a raging Dennis fan and I get that but we don’t know him or the dynamic of the band.

Ed

 

Looks like it was played in the early 90's and at least once on the reunion tour in the mid-90s.

 

He was fantastic last ntight! I had a great experience.