StyxCollector wrote:Monker wrote:And, none of your examples are "Babe"....or even close to as much of a syrupy ballad song.
That has nothing to do with the price of fish. Dennis wrote "Rockin' the Paradise" and co-wrote songs like "Born for Adventure", too. So what? The bottom line is that it seems like two of the three writers in Styx had a softer spot. "Babe" was at least commercially viable as a song to be a hit; "Boat on the River" didn't here in the uSA. At the end of the day, the band is about making themselves and the record company money. Or perhaps people forget that. Artistic integrity is a crock of crap. Had Styx continued on the GI/Po8 path, they would have died a quick death soon thereafter. Much like Journey changed after their first three albums to remain commercially viable. "Open Arms" is about as syrupy as it gets - waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more than "Babe", but you don't see folks over in the Journey camp say it ruined them much.
John Lennon wrote "Imagine". Is he a pussy because of it?
Ballads are not the devil.
It's such a fucking ridiculous argument.
The only band who you could even argue these days kept their integrity all along was Rush. They synthesized new influences and made them ytheir own. The record company wanted hits, they delivered 2112 because it may have been their last hurrah. Bands like Journey and Styx did what they needed to do. Even Mr. Schon realizes not playing "Open Arms" live is a stupid idea even if he hates it.
Ballads are not the devil. However, when a writer decides that that's pretty much all he's going to do from that point on, then he's in the wrong band. I don't think that "the ballads" got Dennis kicked out of the band. I think it had more to do with Dennis' personality and its being in direct opposition to the rest of the band. It's not just ballads vs. rockers, it was a lot more than that yet we kind of black and white it.
And yeah, Jy REALLY needs to get a vocal coach. He seems to be falling down vocally on this tour.

