Dennis defends songs

[Rockwriter]

You know, I've seen Dennis say this before, and I totally agree. It's a great irony to me that critics missed the boat so completely with Styx, REO, basically ALL of the popular bands of that era. Even Led Zep got bad reviews. Even Queen. So, are the huge number of us who bought these records all stupid and only a scant handful of critics are right? Or are they a bunch of elitist jerks who deliberately cultivate different tatses from those of the "unwashed masses" so that they can continue to tell us how superior they are? They touted the wonders of bands that sold really quite poorly for the most part, so it's amusing when they turn around and say that those bands are the most influential. Who did they influence, the hundred thousand people who bought their records? You can take the sales of The Modern Lovers, the Cramps, Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, basically all of that critically-lauded crap and add it up and it doesn't equal one Styx, one Journey, one Van Halen. To try and argue differently is absurd. The masses have spoken over and over and over and over, and the critics were so busy jerking off to Clash records that they didn't realize it.
They are taking their own pulse, not that of the record-buying public.

Pardon me for ranting, this happens to be a pet peeve of mine, LOL. In the immortal words of Frank Zappa, "Most writers are second-rate hacks. Most MUSIC writers are FIFTH-rate hacks." LOL, painfully true, and it's because of those guys that I have to work harder to prove I am not a jerk.

I hope all is well.


Sterling

[ek88]

They are taking their own pulse, not that of the record-buying public.

EXACTLY. It's amazing that there's still work available out there for critics. Does anybody really have any interest in what they say????

[LordofDaRing]

Most critics are frustrated muscians who never made it. They think most of the arena bands were over night success stories (so untrue). They also are the worst case for group think, find one critic who has ever dissed Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan. If you ever read a critics review of a Styx album, it does not take long to realize that they did not actually listen to it at all.

[ek88]

If you ever read a critics review of a Styx album, it does not take long to realize that they did not actually listen to it at all.

Yeah, no kidding. I know this is more recent and probably not considered true Styx by many, but I got a kick out of the Rolling Stone review of Cyclorama that bashed Kiss Your Ass Goodbye as some sort of war in Iraq anthem. A few listens to that track and it's obvious that it's a description of the state of affairs when someone dies (albeit a touch tongue-in-cheek). As you said, it didn't take me long to figure out the critic didn't listen to it at all.

[bugsymalone]

Just from my own perspective -- I find I will sometimes weigh what a movie critic or television critic (or several of them) have to say about something. If they all pretty much agree that something is good, or really bad, it usually is. This isn't always true, but many times it is.

I have NO faith in music critics. I usually run the other direction from their consensus on a song or album.

If you ever read a critics review of a Styx album, it does not take long to realize that they did not actually listen to it at all.

Gosh is this ever true!! I have read so many review that simply talk about what they LOOK like or how they behave onstage or what they did in the past -- completely unrelated to the recording at hand. They just blatantly show their ignorance in that regard. But we already knew that anyway....

Bugsy

[LordofDaRing]

I can actually remember when I was in college reading a review on Paradise Theater. The guy spent most of the article making fun of their photos on the album. He did compliment the songs and tight production then gave the album 2 out of 4 stars, because of the direction the band was going in....for gods sake!

[Rockwriter]

Most critics are frustrated muscians who never made it. They think most of the arena bands were over night success stories (so untrue). They also are the worst case for group think, find one critic who has ever dissed Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan. If you ever read a critics review of a Styx album, it does not take long to realize that they did not actually listen to it at all.

Boy is that ever true! I interviewed Howard Bloom, who was Styx' publicist for PT. That was about the only era where they got some respect, due in no small part to his work in turning things around with the press. I wish they had stayed with him. Bloom was the most successful PR guy of that era, he's also a world-famous social scientist, which is why he was so able to predict how people would react to a given artist or project.

Anyway, we talked about this very thing, and Howard says that the so-called "Rock Crit Elite", led by Robert Christgau, were a pack of sheep. Rolling Stone, the Village Voice and the New York Times were the leed sheep, and the others simply got in line. No one wants to get thrown out of the club, and you could lose your magic decoder ring for admitting to liking Styx more than, say, Iggy and the Stooges. And when a band like Styx came to national attention AFTER it had already built a substantial touring base of fans, it meant the critics could not "make" the band. So their only power over it was to try to destroy it. Same goes for ALL of the journeyman bands of that era.

Many of the reviews were comically, obviously slanted. Remember the RS review for PO8 written by Lester Bangs? It ended with the line, "If these are the champions, gimme the cripples", which still gets quoted today. It's a memorable line. Problem is, Styx never claimed they were the champions. Queen did. But Lester was a savvy enough writer to know that rock and roll reviews are a sound byte medium, and he wanted to work in his quotable tag line. So he manaed to work Queen into the review by way of pretzel logic, referring to the entire genre and pulling out-of-context lyric lines to support a position that he made up out of thin air. Thus he managed to get his tag in. He never did actually manage to REVIEW the album, but then, that was never his intention. Same with the writer who wrote "Styx S-T-Y-N-X" or the one who compared the music to a parking lot full of whale vomit. Their agenda was to come up with something that could be rememered and quoted, not to serve the needs of the reader. Slanted journalism at its worst.

If these are the cripples, gimme the champions!


Sterling

[yogi]

Sterling or Anyone who knows,

I would love to know what some of the reviews for Equinox said. I dont think I have ever seen any.

Styx moved from Wooden Nickle to A&M and produced what I feel is one of the most brilliant rock albums EVER.

The only review I ever heard of this album was not about the album but about the song Suite Madame Blue. It was called A Stairway To Heaven ripoff. I dont even know where I read that, but I did.

How could ANY person who likes good rock music not TOTALLY embrace this album?????