And on the 5th Day of Styxmas

[Toph]

Hock NEW music online,if you cant get a label. Shi t, JY did it out of his basement 20+ yrs ago with his BIG TALL Blond Guy from Styx CD.

Their Brave New World Tour was AWESOME. They Blew REO & Journey off the stage when they played with them doing 3-4 cuts from Cyclorama every show. So what if their new material it doesn't sell huge #s, who cares, you may create your best work EVER. Best hard rock song ya ever did, best prog piece ya ever did. You will never know unless you try. Its not like they are a bunch of hacks up there. They are ALLLL tremendous musicians, that know each other inside and out.

Its not like they ALL don't have the coin to ante up. Sell it off your website through downloads & CDs. Its not that expensive to do. They all have home studios. They did it with Revitalization or whatever the hell that was. Sack up and create something GREAT. God knows they have got the talent & the $$$, all they are lacking is the management & the guts.

I think you are making the assumption that these guys could actually create something great....

[yogi]

They ABSOLUTELY could.

Everything All The Time was a great rocker. Cyclorama was an AWESOME album. These Are The Times was one of JY's best EVER led songs. One With Everything was a GREAT prog rocker. They created a GREAT idea(concept) with the Grand Illusion/ Pieces Of Eight back to back albums concert. With ALL the talent this group has they easily could come up with a BRILLIANT album.

Give DDY credit for surrounding himself with very good musicians.

[Boomchild]

They ABSOLUTELY could.

Everything All The Time was a great rocker. Cyclorama was an AWESOME album. These Are The Times was one of JY's best EVER led songs. One With Everything was a GREAT prog rocker. They created a GREAT idea(concept) with the Grand Illusion/ Pieces Of Eight back to back albums concert. With ALL the talent this group has they easily could come up with a BRILLIANT album.

Give DDY credit for surrounding himself with very good musicians.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda. Not going to happen. This is like beating a dead horse. They clearly could care less about making any new music. With Styx, that subject is closed. I don't know how more clear they could make it.

[yogi]

I get it and that is why I have chosen to go to New Orleans this summer over sailing away with them. My wife was 100% stunned that I declined this offer. It wasn't even worth it to explain my reasoning to her as to why. I just said that Id rather do something else, so we chose a vacation in New Orleans instead.

I have seen them 4 times since seeing their Cyclorama tour with REO & Journey( which I saw twice and loved). Since then, it's the same tired show with a few VERY minor wrinkles.

Why on earth would they only do their Grand Illusion/Pieces Of Eight tour a handful of times??? I don't get that. What a GREAT concept, but shi t no lets only do it 10 times. Why???? I would do some major travel if possible to see that show, but I'm sure for them its tooo damn much work and not near cost effective enough.

I'm sure what they are doing now they only need a few hundred balloons, a 1/2 dozen beach balls and some added towels, guitar pics & drum styx.

It's an ABSOLUTE shame that great artists refuse to create.

I also know that if you beat a dead horse long and hard enough you can get it to move.

[Toph]

They ABSOLUTELY could.

Everything All The Time was a great rocker. Cyclorama was an AWESOME album. These Are The Times was one of JY's best EVER led songs. One With Everything was a GREAT prog rocker. They created a GREAT idea(concept) with the Grand Illusion/ Pieces Of Eight back to back albums concert. With ALL the talent this group has they easily could come up with a BRILLIANT album.

Give DDY credit for surrounding himself with very good musicians.

But you forget - the new material was created with Glen in the mix. Since he left, we've had Just Be and that other ballad Difference in This World - neither of which knocked the world's socks off.

[yogi]

Everything All The Time was a GREAT song. Difference In The World wasn't too bad either.

[Toph]

Everything All The Time was a GREAT song. Difference In The World wasn't too bad either.

I would have liked to have heard a studio version of Everything All The Time. The CYO version was OK, but limited by the natural acoustics of a live recording.

[Boomchild]

I also know that if you beat a dead horse long and hard enough you can get it to move.

Just imagine if you could strong arm an artist or band to write and release new material. How good would it really be? They would be doing it simply because of pressure and not for the love of creativity and craft. Their hearts really wouldn't be in it and therefore the quality of output would most likely show it. Just look at some of the results where some artists\bands were strong armed into producing an album by their record label to fulfill a contract obligation.

[yogi]

Wonder who strong armed Tommy into his 'What If' masterpiece, and who muscled JY into doing the brilliant 'Out On a day Pass' album??

Had to be someone with some MAJOR stroke!!!!

Not being an artsy type person it just blows my mind how they don't want to create something new.

How many times can you draw the same picture???

[Boomchild]

Wonder who strong armed Tommy into his 'What If' masterpiece, and who muscled JY into doing the brilliant 'Out On a day Pass' album??

I would think the poor results on What If were not from TS being strong armed. It was due him being strung out on drugs and alcohol. At the time of JY's ONADP, he was still into wanting to create new music and wasn't muscled into it. I think it's clear to just about everyone that song writing was never JY's strong suit. Without having someone to collaborate with that had better song writing abilities the results suffered.

[yogi]

NO ONE has ever been that wasted.

As for JY he should have taken a page from George Costanza and aside from his remake of 'Young Man' he should had done the opposite of everything he had thought of for that album. It would have then been brilliant.

[Boomchild]

NO ONE has ever been that wasted.

Well I choose to disagree with that. I feel that album is a good example.

As for JY he should have taken a page from George Costanza and aside from his remake of 'Young Man' he should had done the opposite of everything he had thought of for that album. It would have then been brilliant.

Personally, I think your giving JY too much credit in the area of musical creativity.

[masque]

here's the thing.........pretty much everything these guys do these days from both camps is not going to satisfy all of us wanting to find a time machine and see them recreate the past.

I have not paid to see styx one time since the POE/GI tour. and dont have nay plans to do so anytime soon again......I had a chance to see them 5 times this past year and simply was not motivated enough to do it.

I have not even bothered to purchase the DDY dvd either......I have seen several clips of the show and they are not bad.....but seeing him in that environment and setting and seeing basically the same songs he has played for years is pretty much something that doesnt motivate me either.

DDY does seem to have a bit of energy these days but that energy seems to be focused on showing what few people who still care that he can deliver a classic styx show. good for him......but what does that do for any of us wanting to see "new creativity"???

with these guys all in the mid to late 60's I think it's no surprise that they are "coasting" to the end of their careers......how motivated do you guys honestly believe these old men should really be at this point in their lives with what they have achieved???? both camps.

to me DDY is better with styx........styx is also better with DDY in there as well.......so thats what I would love to have........

but I dont think either camp is really doing jack shit these days to show great creativity and I doubt they either of them will do much in that department in the future.

it's sad, I will admit........but it's also been sad to see the decline of parents over the past few decades as well.

EVERYBODY NEEDS TO REMEMBER THAT FATHER TIME IS UNDEFEATED. even if these guys mustered up the strength to record an all new album of new material its unlikely to be a masterpiece and would likely still be highly criticized by all of us.......and that goes for both camps.

most of you guys LOVE 100 years from now.......and I think it stinks........but recently I saw a thread praising it again and thought, maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance so I pulled it out to listen again and it was literally cringe worthy at times to me. for the life of me I dont know how anyone could listen to those songs, that production, that mix and remotely think it holds up to anything that DDY did in styx.

i think you could take the whole of all of their solo albums and re-produce them more in the classic styx vein and come up with a couple of more really good styx albums.

none of these guys are "sting"........none of them are capable of carrying on the show as hit making artist on their own for extended periods of time......their pathetic solo careers proves that point.

none of that doesnt mean I dont love them....I do......including most of their solo work......but at the end of the day, we're dealing with a group of guys that needed each other to achieve the success they did.

on their own at their current age basically is a recipe for exactly what we are getting and I dont know why anyone is pissed about it or surprised about it.

[Boomchild]

but I dont think either camp is really doing jack shit these days to show great creativity and I doubt they either of them will do much in that department in the future.

This has to be one of the most accurate statements that sums it up.

most of you guys LOVE 100 years from now.......and I think it stinks........but recently I saw a thread praising it again and thought, maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance so I pulled it out to listen again and it was literally cringe worthy at times to me. for the life of me I dont know how anyone could listen to those songs, that production, that mix and remotely think it holds up to anything that DDY did in styx.

I think that saying it "stinks" is a bit harsh. But, to each his\her own. I don't think you can pan the whole album. Of course not all the songs are DDY at his best. I do feel it is the best solo effort he as put out. Sonically, it's not the greatest. I believe that is due to the way it was manufactured. Once completed DDY sent it to the label in the form of audio files. I think that impacted the over all quality of the release. Had it been mastered and produced "the old fashion way" it would have been better quality. But, your not going to get that in this day and age.

[FormerDJMike]

100 Years From Now did nothing for me either. It's OK, but I don't listen to it when I want to hear Dennis. To me, most of it sounded like show tunes. Show tunes with fast beats and guitars.... I like a few of the tracks, but skip most of them. Rain comes to mind as one that sounds like a Broadway tune with guitars.

[Baron Von Bielski]

here's the thing.........pretty much everything these guys do these days from both camps is not going to satisfy all of us wanting to find a time machine and see them recreate the past.

I have not paid to see styx one time since the POE/GI tour. and dont have nay plans to do so anytime soon again......I had a chance to see them 5 times this past year and simply was not motivated enough to do it.

I have not even bothered to purchase the DDY dvd either......I have seen several clips of the show and they are not bad.....but seeing him in that environment and setting and seeing basically the same songs he has played for years is pretty much something that doesnt motivate me either.

DDY does seem to have a bit of energy these days but that energy seems to be focused on showing what few people who still care that he can deliver a classic styx show. good for him......but what does that do for any of us wanting to see "new creativity"???

with these guys all in the mid to late 60's I think it's no surprise that they are "coasting" to the end of their careers......how motivated do you guys honestly believe these old men should really be at this point in their lives with what they have achieved???? both camps.

to me DDY is better with styx........styx is also better with DDY in there as well.......so thats what I would love to have........

but I dont think either camp is really doing jack shit these days to show great creativity and I doubt they either of them will do much in that department in the future.

it's sad, I will admit........but it's also been sad to see the decline of parents over the past few decades as well.

EVERYBODY NEEDS TO REMEMBER THAT FATHER TIME IS UNDEFEATED. even if these guys mustered up the strength to record an all new album of new material its unlikely to be a masterpiece and would likely still be highly criticized by all of us.......and that goes for both camps.

most of you guys LOVE 100 years from now.......and I think it stinks........but recently I saw a thread praising it again and thought, maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance so I pulled it out to listen again and it was literally cringe worthy at times to me. for the life of me I dont know how anyone could listen to those songs, that production, that mix and remotely think it holds up to anything that DDY did in styx.

i think you could take the whole of all of their solo albums and re-produce them more in the classic styx vein and come up with a couple of more really good styx albums.

none of these guys are "sting"........none of them are capable of carrying on the show as hit making artist on their own for extended periods of time......their pathetic solo careers proves that point.

none of that doesnt mean I dont love them....I do......including most of their solo work......but at the end of the day, we're dealing with a group of guys that needed each other to achieve the success they did.

on their own at their current age basically is a recipe for exactly what we are getting and I dont know why anyone is pissed about it or surprised about it.

Good post. Only difference is I think 100 Years is a solid effort. Has some good stuff like Rubicon, but has some duds as well.