MR

This is the response I received from Bill Levenson at Universal Music regarding Styx Re-Masters.....


Unfortunately, there are no plans to re-master the A&M Styx albums at
this time.

Though they still sell relatively well, sales are not enough these days
to justify a re-mastering campaign.

Regards,

Bill Levenson

Grotelul wrote:This is the response I received from Bill Levenson at Universal Music regarding Styx Re-Masters.....


Unfortunately, there are no plans to re-master the A&M Styx albums at
this time.

Though they still sell relatively well, sales are not enough these days
to justify a re-mastering campaign.

Regards,

Bill Levenson

Was this your question to Suzanne and Dennis?

Dennisdeyoung.com wrote:July 2007 will be the anniversary of Grand Illusion. Will there finally be (a long overdue) CD remaster of the album for its anniversary?

Dave

Dear Dave,
Universal Music owns all our masters. Please call Bill Levitson (I think he's in New York.) or any one who is in charge of re-releases at the record company. They WILL listen if enough fans are interested. Please let us know if YOU hear of any of our masters being re-released. We are the last to know.

Suzanne

[quote="styxfansite"][quote="Grotelul"]This is the response I received from Bill Levenson at Universal Music regarding Styx Re-Masters.....


Unfortunately, there are no plans to re-master the A&M Styx albums at
this time.

Though they still sell relatively well, sales are not enough these days
to justify a re-mastering campaign.

Regards,

Bill Levenson


Was this your question to Suzanne and Dennis?



No it wasn't me but I did see that and decided to email him.

Grotelul wrote:This is the response I received from Bill Levenson at Universal Music regarding Styx Re-Masters.....


Unfortunately, there are no plans to re-master the A&M Styx albums at
this time.

Though they still sell relatively well, sales are not enough these days
to justify a re-mastering campaign.

Regards,

Well, I got that answer years ago and have said it for awhile. I stopped asking. Although you should edit the post to not include his personal info.

StyxCollector wrote:

Grotelul wrote:This is the response I received from Bill Levenson at Universal Music regarding Styx Re-Masters.....


Unfortunately, there are no plans to re-master the A&M Styx albums at
this time.

Though they still sell relatively well, sales are not enough these days
to justify a re-mastering campaign.

Regards,

Well, I got that answer years ago and have said it for awhile. I stopped asking. Although you should edit the post to not include his personal info.

I guess I don't buy that answer he gave. Why do we get re-masters from all these lesser bands? How much effort is involved in re-mastering these things? What is a re-mastering campaign? I don't recall a Rush re-mastering campaign and they just sort of appeared.

Grotelul wrote:I guess I don't buy that answer he gave. Why do we get re-masters from all these lesser bands? How much effort is involved in re-mastering these things? What is a re-mastering campaign? I don't recall a Rush re-mastering campaign and they just sort of appeared.

Same reason the new Squeeze 2CD remasters are not being released. The cost involved in remastering the catalog (the actual remastering process, artwork, etc.) isn't so insanely expensive, but if the record company is footing the bill, they're not going to see a big return on their investment. They may sell a few thousand copies a year at most, which is not enough to remaster in their eyes.

In some cases, the bands themselves pay for the remastering/upgrade of the catalog, so all the record company has to do is press them. It's very little cost/risk to just change the discs in the pipeline. The new Genesis CD/SACD sets are like that.

Rush actually had a promotional campaign behind the remasters. I remember it. Same with Journey (especially the '96 remasters). For a more major band like Styx, to get the groundswell of people to buy them, there's got to also be some promotion behind them. That costs some money, too.

Right now the record companies are not sinking money into things that are not guaranteed revenue. I know for a fact as confirmed by Bob Ludwig in my interview that the tapes are in good shape.

The other X factor here which none of us knows is that Styx may contractually control what gets released. If they don't feel like they need to be remastered or are not willing to shoulder some of the cost, they won't get done. It's a theory with nothing to back it up.

Bottom line is that we're probably never going to see 'em unless Universal Japan does what they did to the Joe Jackson catalog recently.

StyxCollector wrote:

Grotelul wrote:I guess I don't buy that answer he gave. Why do we get re-masters from all these lesser bands? How much effort is involved in re-mastering these things? What is a re-mastering campaign? I don't recall a Rush re-mastering campaign and they just sort of appeared.

Same reason the new Squeeze 2CD remasters are not being released. The cost involved in remastering the catalog (the actual remastering process, artwork, etc.) isn't so insanely expensive, but if the record company is footing the bill, they're not going to see a big return on their investment. They may sell a few thousand copies a year at most, which is not enough to remaster in their eyes.

In some cases, the bands themselves pay for the remastering/upgrade of the catalog, so all the record company has to do is press them. It's very little cost/risk to just change the discs in the pipeline. The new Genesis CD/SACD sets are like that.

Rush actually had a promotional campaign behind the remasters. I remember it. Same with Journey (especially the '96 remasters). For a more major band like Styx, to get the groundswell of people to buy them, there's got to also be some promotion behind them. That costs some money, too.

Right now the record companies are not sinking money into things that are not guaranteed revenue. I know for a fact as confirmed by Bob Ludwig in my interview that the tapes are in good shape.

The other X factor here which none of us knows is that Styx may contractually control what gets released. If they don't feel like they need to be remastered or are not willing to shoulder some of the cost, they won't get done. It's a theory with nothing to back it up.

Bottom line is that we're probably never going to see 'em unless Universal Japan does what they did to the Joe Jackson catalog recently.

I think some of it comes down to this: if JY and Tommy were sitting around inactive, then re-mastering the catalog would be an attractive option to them, along with a boxed set, release of the old live album, and all of that stuff. But they are trying to promote the current band and that is where their efforts are going to remain, for now. We'll get a remastered back catalog when the hard touring years are over. Not to mention, Dennis probably still has a say in how his songs from those years are re-packaged, so it would require trying to build consensus where consensus is pretty unlikely at this time.

The other thing to consider is this: certain other bands' catalogs sell better than Styx in part BECAUSE they continue to promote the catalog. With Styx, a few years ago you could go into any music store and find at least the bigger titles on the shelf. Now when you go in, you usually find nothing but greatest hits and other compilations. So you can't buy the old albums even if you want to, at least not as an impulse buy, which is how older records sell. Why? Because there have been so many compilations that it has done two things. It has 1)placed the focus more and more on the hits while wringing the last nickel from them, and 2)finally managed to de-value the rest of the catalog. Why should retailers even bother stocking the albums when there are so many hits packages to stock?

Sterling

Rockwriter wrote:I think some of it comes down to this: if JY and Tommy were sitting around inactive, then re-mastering the catalog would be an attractive option to them, along with a boxed set, release of the old live album, and all of that stuff. But they are trying to promote the current band and that is where their efforts are going to remain, for now. We'll get a remastered back catalog when the hard touring years are over. Not to mention, Dennis probably still has a say in how his songs from those years are re-packaged, so it would require trying to build consensus where consensus is pretty unlikely at this time.

There could be another conspiracy theory ... I mean aspect to this - they want to minimize the income to DDY. New remasters even if they all agree would mean a spike of income to him because the die hards would buy it all over. So if one or more people didn't want to see the guy who makes the most money to begin with make more than they think he should, it could be a proverbial cock block. Again - no inside info here, just thinking out loud.

Rockwriter wrote:The other thing to consider is this: certain other bands' catalogs sell better than Styx in part BECAUSE they continue to promote the catalog. With Styx, a few years ago you could go into any music store and find at least the bigger titles on the shelf. Now when you go in, you usually find nothing but greatest hits and other compilations. So you can't buy the old albums even if you want to, at least not as an impulse buy, which is how older records sell. Why? Because there have been so many compilations that it has done two things. It has 1)placed the focus more and more on the hits while wringing the last nickel from them, and 2)finally managed to de-value the rest of the catalog. Why should retailers even bother stocking the albums when there are so many hits packages to stock?

I would agree multiple compilations over the past 10 years has hurt the catalog. A compilation like Gold/Come Sail Away (same thing; just renamed) has more than enough for the casual fan to not have to buy any albums, and pisses off the die hard enough because it's more than just the 1 disc compilation and has album cuts.

The other thing is that in the competition for shelf space for CDs which is harder and harder to get, is a place going to stock a catalog release or the hits compilation that's going to sell? That's easy math.

Rockwriter wrote:

StyxCollector wrote:

Grotelul wrote:I guess I don't buy that answer he gave. Why do we get re-masters from all these lesser bands? How much effort is involved in re-mastering these things? What is a re-mastering campaign? I don't recall a Rush re-mastering campaign and they just sort of appeared.

Same reason the new Squeeze 2CD remasters are not being released. The cost involved in remastering the catalog (the actual remastering process, artwork, etc.) isn't so insanely expensive, but if the record company is footing the bill, they're not going to see a big return on their investment. They may sell a few thousand copies a year at most, which is not enough to remaster in their eyes.

In some cases, the bands themselves pay for the remastering/upgrade of the catalog, so all the record company has to do is press them. It's very little cost/risk to just change the discs in the pipeline. The new Genesis CD/SACD sets are like that.

Rush actually had a promotional campaign behind the remasters. I remember it. Same with Journey (especially the '96 remasters). For a more major band like Styx, to get the groundswell of people to buy them, there's got to also be some promotion behind them. That costs some money, too.

Right now the record companies are not sinking money into things that are not guaranteed revenue. I know for a fact as confirmed by Bob Ludwig in my interview that the tapes are in good shape.

The other X factor here which none of us knows is that Styx may contractually control what gets released. If they don't feel like they need to be remastered or are not willing to shoulder some of the cost, they won't get done. It's a theory with nothing to back it up.

Bottom line is that we're probably never going to see 'em unless Universal Japan does what they did to the Joe Jackson catalog recently.

I think some of it comes down to this: if JY and Tommy were sitting around inactive, then re-mastering the catalog would be an attractive option to them, along with a boxed set, release of the old live album, and all of that stuff. But they are trying to promote the current band and that is where their efforts are going to remain, for now. We'll get a remastered back catalog when the hard touring years are over. Not to mention, Dennis probably still has a say in how his songs from those years are re-packaged, so it would require trying to build consensus where consensus is pretty unlikely at this time.

The other thing to consider is this: certain other bands' catalogs sell better than Styx in part BECAUSE they continue to promote the catalog. With Styx, a few years ago you could go into any music store and find at least the bigger titles on the shelf. Now when you go in, you usually find nothing but greatest hits and other compilations. So you can't buy the old albums even if you want to, at least not as an impulse buy, which is how older records sell. Why? Because there have been so many compilations that it has done two things. It has 1)placed the focus more and more on the hits while wringing the last nickel from them, and 2)finally managed to de-value the rest of the catalog. Why should retailers even bother stocking the albums when there are so many hits packages to stock?

Sterling

This is just another example of the greed that JY/Tommy have that is ruining the "brand" name of Styx. Ironic that a band that once was a major "album rock" band have decided to water those great albums down with multiple greatest hits/live collections and thereby causing those great albums to be unavailable at record stores. In the Styx bin, instead of Paradise Theatre and Grand Illusion you get Styx Extended Versions and At the Rivers Edge. Unreal.

Did Dennis have any say on "Come Sail Away/Gold?" I would think he would have to, but if memory recalls I don't think he did. Otherwise I think you would have seen more DDY songs on that Anthology. The fact that DLIE was left off and stuff like LITR, OWE, and those songs were included made no sense at all.

rajah2165 wrote:In the Styx bin, instead of Paradise Theatre and Grand Illusion you get Styx Extended Versions and At the Rivers Edge. Unreal.

At The Rivers Edge is Styx, but stuff like Extended Versions is the record company milking a catalog they own (i.e. the live recordings) with no band involvement. There's a difference. Many labels do similar things just to get some ROI. Extended Versions devalues RTP, which can't make the band happy.

rajah2165 wrote:Did Dennis have any say on "Come Sail Away/Gold?" I would think he would have to, but if memory recalls I don't think he did. Otherwise I think you would have seen more DDY songs on that Anthology. The fact that DLIE was left off and stuff like LITR, OWE, and those songs were included made no sense at all.

It's a full career anthology, so it makes sense. Many "ultimate" type of best-ofs cross labels and eras these days. Again, later songs being included fits into that world and one representative track is just fine.

LITR was a single and deserves to be there. DLIE should have most likely been on there, but there's very little I can complain about with Gold/CSA as no compilation is perfect for any band and it's as complete as you'll ever get for Styx. I would have also added Everything Is Cool as well.

No one knows the details of what the legal agreement is, but it seems DDY has limited input on the back catalog releases like Gold/CSA. Unless someone divulges the information, we'll never know completely.

StyxCollector wrote:

rajah2165 wrote:In the Styx bin, instead of Paradise Theatre and Grand Illusion you get Styx Extended Versions and At the Rivers Edge. Unreal.

At The Rivers Edge is Styx, but stuff like Extended Versions is the record company milking a catalog they own (i.e. the live recordings) with no band involvement. There's a difference. Many labels do similar things just to get some ROI. Extended Versions devalues RTP, which can't make the band happy.

rajah2165 wrote:Did Dennis have any say on "Come Sail Away/Gold?" I would think he would have to, but if memory recalls I don't think he did. Otherwise I think you would have seen more DDY songs on that Anthology. The fact that DLIE was left off and stuff like LITR, OWE, and those songs were included made no sense at all.

It's a full career anthology, so it makes sense. Many "ultimate" type of best-ofs cross labels and eras these days. Again, later songs being included fits into that world and one representative track is just fine.

LITR was a single and deserves to be there. DLIE should have most likely been on there, but there's very little I can complain about with Gold/CSA as no compilation is perfect for any band and it's as complete as you'll ever get for Styx. I would have also added Everything Is Cool as well.

No one knows the details of what the legal agreement is, but it seems DDY has limited input on the back catalog releases like Gold/CSA. Unless someone divulges the information, we'll never know completely.

Of course DLIE should have been on there - a major screw up. It was one of their biggest hits - went all the way to #6. I for one thought the anthology sucked. Where was Why Me? Nothing Ever Goes As Planned? Love At First Sight? All legitimate singles. What the hell was Shooz on there for? It was obviously done by JY/Tommy to maximize their contributions to the band while short sighting Dennis. GH 1 and 2 are much more realistic viewpoints of their career, but even they didn't get it right (no Why Me, no NEGAP but First Time? First Time should never had been on there.)

rajah2165 wrote:Of course DLIE should have been on there - a major screw up. It was one of their biggest hits - went all the way to #6. I for one thought the anthology sucked. Where was Why Me? Nothing Ever Goes As Planned? Love At First Sight? All legitimate singles. What the hell was Shooz on there for? It was obviously done by JY/Tommy to maximize their contributions to the band while short sighting Dennis. GH 1 and 2 are much more realistic viewpoints of their career, but even they didn't get it right (no Why Me, no NEGAP but First Time? First Time should never had been on there.)

I think you're reading a bit much into a tracklisting and are off base on this one. I like Shooz, and have no issues with it on there. While NEGAP was a single, it wasn't very popular. I can see why. Each album is pretty well represented, and you only have so much space. As I said, no compilation is perfect and any fan or casual fan would pick out a few songs he or she would prefer to see.

Gold/CSA is not complete, but is definitely pretty balanced and has some early stuff, too. Was it a necessary release? Probably not, but it's about the only sonic upgrade we're getting.

If you wanted to claim Rockers was current Styx trying to show they rock, I'd give you that, but not with the 2CD set.

rajah2165 wrote:

Rockwriter wrote:

StyxCollector wrote:

Grotelul wrote:I guess I don't buy that answer he gave. Why do we get re-masters from all these lesser bands? How much effort is involved in re-mastering these things? What is a re-mastering campaign? I don't recall a Rush re-mastering campaign and they just sort of appeared.

Same reason the new Squeeze 2CD remasters are not being released. The cost involved in remastering the catalog (the actual remastering process, artwork, etc.) isn't so insanely expensive, but if the record company is footing the bill, they're not going to see a big return on their investment. They may sell a few thousand copies a year at most, which is not enough to remaster in their eyes.

In some cases, the bands themselves pay for the remastering/upgrade of the catalog, so all the record company has to do is press them. It's very little cost/risk to just change the discs in the pipeline. The new Genesis CD/SACD sets are like that.

Rush actually had a promotional campaign behind the remasters. I remember it. Same with Journey (especially the '96 remasters). For a more major band like Styx, to get the groundswell of people to buy them, there's got to also be some promotion behind them. That costs some money, too.

Right now the record companies are not sinking money into things that are not guaranteed revenue. I know for a fact as confirmed by Bob Ludwig in my interview that the tapes are in good shape.

The other X factor here which none of us knows is that Styx may contractually control what gets released. If they don't feel like they need to be remastered or are not willing to shoulder some of the cost, they won't get done. It's a theory with nothing to back it up.

Bottom line is that we're probably never going to see 'em unless Universal Japan does what they did to the Joe Jackson catalog recently.

I think some of it comes down to this: if JY and Tommy were sitting around inactive, then re-mastering the catalog would be an attractive option to them, along with a boxed set, release of the old live album, and all of that stuff. But they are trying to promote the current band and that is where their efforts are going to remain, for now. We'll get a remastered back catalog when the hard touring years are over. Not to mention, Dennis probably still has a say in how his songs from those years are re-packaged, so it would require trying to build consensus where consensus is pretty unlikely at this time.

The other thing to consider is this: certain other bands' catalogs sell better than Styx in part BECAUSE they continue to promote the catalog. With Styx, a few years ago you could go into any music store and find at least the bigger titles on the shelf. Now when you go in, you usually find nothing but greatest hits and other compilations. So you can't buy the old albums even if you want to, at least not as an impulse buy, which is how older records sell. Why? Because there have been so many compilations that it has done two things. It has 1)placed the focus more and more on the hits while wringing the last nickel from them, and 2)finally managed to de-value the rest of the catalog. Why should retailers even bother stocking the albums when there are so many hits packages to stock?

Sterling

This is just another example of the greed that JY/Tommy have that is ruining the "brand" name of Styx. Ironic that a band that once was a major "album rock" band have decided to water those great albums down with multiple greatest hits/live collections and thereby causing those great albums to be unavailable at record stores. In the Styx bin, instead of Paradise Theatre and Grand Illusion you get Styx Extended Versions and At the Rivers Edge. Unreal.

Did Dennis have any say on "Come Sail Away/Gold?" I would think he would have to, but if memory recalls I don't think he did. Otherwise I think you would have seen more DDY songs on that Anthology. The fact that DLIE was left off and stuff like LITR, OWE, and those songs were included made no sense at all.

To be fair, the live compilations that came from Sanctuary were probably the label's decision, rather than the band's. The band was touring like crazy but not active in the recording side of its career for several years after BNW, and so the label came up with the idea of marketing live albums to try to continue to justify its investment in the band. Not a great decision on either side, in my opinion. But not totally JY and Tommy's call, either. There is shared blame there, as well as with Universal for putting out the Come Sail Away/Gold compilation twice under different names, and some of the other really needless re-packages. But still, in the end the result is that the classic albums just don't have the same individual value that they once did.

I think part of the deal they made with Dennis is that he still has a degree of say over how his old songs get used. I don't think he can FORCE their use, obviously, but I think he has to agree when they get used. So he had some ideas for that that JY did not want to go with, and DLIE was one of them. They kinda battled to a draw and that tracklisting was the result. He's pretty well-represented, but the collection does not slant toward him anywhere near as heavily as their hits did, obviously. But that's to be expected. I agree that the average fan who bought that probably does not know or care about "Love is the Ritual", "One with Everything" or "Dear John", and I also thought putting "Rock and Roll Feeling" was stupid since it's not very representative of early Styx, but hey, whatever.

Rockwriter wrote:I agree that the average fan who bought that probably does not know or care about "Love is the Ritual", "One with Everything" or "Dear John", and I also thought putting "Rock and Roll Feeling" was stupid since it's not very representative of early Styx, but hey, whatever.

Whatever, indeed.

Even apart from the silly notion that chart success should be the only determining factor in what makes a band's "best of" compilation, I don't understand how any more-than-casual fan could possibly be upset about the choices for such a track list when they already own all of the material anyway, and are therefore very unlikely to purchase the compilation.

Indeed.
When was a compilation/best of ever perfect.

stabbim wrote:I don't understand how any more-than-casual fan could possibly be upset about the choices for such a track list when they already own all of the material anyway, and are therefore very unlikely to purchase the compilation.

Unless you're a completist

StyxCollector wrote:

stabbim wrote:I don't understand how any more-than-casual fan could possibly be upset about the choices for such a track list when they already own all of the material anyway, and are therefore very unlikely to purchase the compilation.

Unless you're a completist

Yeah, but freaks like that are gonna buy it no matter what...along with all the reprints, remixes, international cover variants, the special Greek package that included an official signed obolus....they're on the hook regardless, they got nothing to bitch about.

stabbim wrote:Yeah, but freaks like that are gonna buy it no matter what...along with all the reprints, remixes, international cover variants, the special Greek package that included an official signed obolus....they're on the hook regardless, they got nothing to bitch about.

Ha. You ain't seen nothin' yet. And do you hear me bitching?

StyxCollector wrote:And do you hear me bitching?

Nope...and that was kinda my point, yo.

stabbim wrote:

StyxCollector wrote:And do you hear me bitching?

Nope...and that was kinda my point, yo.

It's all good. Let's just say no site updates does not equate to no collecting lol

How could they justify remastering the Wooden Nickel albums nad not the basic catalog?

styxfanNH wrote:How could they justify remastering the Wooden Nickel albums nad not the basic catalog?

The Wooden Nickel albums were mostly out of print, and the material on them not already represented through a billion and one compilation packages?

StyxCollector wrote:

rajah2165 wrote:Of course DLIE should have been on there - a major screw up. It was one of their biggest hits - went all the way to #6. I for one thought the anthology sucked. Where was Why Me? Nothing Ever Goes As Planned? Love At First Sight? All legitimate singles. What the hell was Shooz on there for? It was obviously done by JY/Tommy to maximize their contributions to the band while short sighting Dennis. GH 1 and 2 are much more realistic viewpoints of their career, but even they didn't get it right (no Why Me, no NEGAP but First Time? First Time should never had been on there.)

I think you're reading a bit much into a tracklisting and are off base on this one. I like Shooz, and have no issues with it on there. While NEGAP was a single, it wasn't very popular. I can see why. Each album is pretty well represented, and you only have so much space. As I said, no compilation is perfect and any fan or casual fan would pick out a few songs he or she would prefer to see.

Gold/CSA is not complete, but is definitely pretty balanced and has some early stuff, too. Was it a necessary release? Probably not, but it's about the only sonic upgrade we're getting.

If you wanted to claim Rockers was current Styx trying to show they rock, I'd give you that, but not with the 2CD set.

How can you say Shooz was more popular than NEGAP. Shooz never got a smidge of airplay. At least NEGAP was heard on the radio.

rajah2165 wrote:How can you say Shooz was more popular than NEGAP. Shooz never got a smidge of airplay. At least NEGAP was heard on the radio.

I never said Shooz was more popular. Reading is fundamental. Here's what I said:

StyxCollector wrote:I think you're reading a bit much into a tracklisting and are off base on this one. I like Shooz, and have no issues with it on there. While NEGAP was a single, it wasn't very popular.

I love NEGAP - one of my faves on PT. But just because it was a single doesn't mean it deserves to be on a hits compilation. "Snowblind" is more well known than NEGAP. Hell, "Music Time" and DLIE both charted higher and are not on there. But NEGAP should be? No way.

StyxCollector wrote:

rajah2165 wrote:How can you say Shooz was more popular than NEGAP. Shooz never got a smidge of airplay. At least NEGAP was heard on the radio.

I never said Shooz was more popular. Reading is fundamental. Here's what I said:

StyxCollector wrote:I think you're reading a bit much into a tracklisting and are off base on this one. I like Shooz, and have no issues with it on there. While NEGAP was a single, it wasn't very popular.

I love NEGAP - one of my faves on PT. But just because it was a single doesn't mean it deserves to be on a hits compilation. "Snowblind" is more well known than NEGAP. Hell, "Music Time" and DLIE both charted higher and are not on there. But NEGAP should be? No way.

I guess I would claim that there is no good reason for Shooz to be on this album, most folks here can think of 20 other songs more deserving or representative of Styx for an anthology. Shooz is not one of them, whether you like the song or not. Clearly Don't Let It End should have been on it, whether you like the song or not. That said, the CD isn't too bad for song selection; however in my opinion, a person would be better off buying the two greatest hits single CD's.

rajah2165 wrote:

StyxCollector wrote:

rajah2165 wrote:In the Styx bin, instead of Paradise Theatre and Grand Illusion you get Styx Extended Versions and At the Rivers Edge. Unreal.

At The Rivers Edge is Styx, but stuff like Extended Versions is the record company milking a catalog they own (i.e. the live recordings) with no band involvement. There's a difference. Many labels do similar things just to get some ROI. Extended Versions devalues RTP, which can't make the band happy.

rajah2165 wrote:Did Dennis have any say on "Come Sail Away/Gold?" I would think he would have to, but if memory recalls I don't think he did. Otherwise I think you would have seen more DDY songs on that Anthology. The fact that DLIE was left off and stuff like LITR, OWE, and those songs were included made no sense at all.

It's a full career anthology, so it makes sense. Many "ultimate" type of best-ofs cross labels and eras these days. Again, later songs being included fits into that world and one representative track is just fine.

LITR was a single and deserves to be there. DLIE should have most likely been on there, but there's very little I can complain about with Gold/CSA as no compilation is perfect for any band and it's as complete as you'll ever get for Styx. I would have also added Everything Is Cool as well.

No one knows the details of what the legal agreement is, but it seems DDY has limited input on the back catalog releases like Gold/CSA. Unless someone divulges the information, we'll never know completely.

Of course DLIE should have been on there - a major screw up. It was one of their biggest hits - went all the way to #6. I for one thought the anthology sucked. Where was Why Me? Nothing Ever Goes As Planned? Love At First Sight? All legitimate singles. What the hell was Shooz on there for? It was obviously done by JY/Tommy to maximize their contributions to the band while short sighting Dennis. GH 1 and 2 are much more realistic viewpoints of their career, but even they didn't get it right (no Why Me, no NEGAP but First Time? First Time should never had been on there.)

The title of the CD is ..Come Sail Away: The Styx Anthology.

A little bit on Anthology:

In music, the term refers to a collection of works by an artist with a long and varied career. While the definition would include typical "greatest hits" sets, the term is used as a marketing device to indicate a collection that can include a performer's best-known songs along with lesser known pieces, demos, live recordings, unreleased work, etc such The Beatles Anthology in the 1990s, which also had a television series connected to it.


For the most part I like the song choices but if I had to make changes I would have replaced Rock & Roll Feeling with 22 Years, Shooz with Born For Adventure and Dear John with Don't Let It End.

I, too, was dissappointed at the CSA Anthology. So I made my own. It was pretty simple:

1) Take the Greatest Hits CD released in 1995
2) Take the GH Vol II CD released in 1996
3) Take <B>off</B> Little Suzie and It Takes Love from the latter
4) Add "Everything is Cool", "While There's Still Time","One With Everything" and "These are the Times"
5) Don't add anything from Big Bang - that was an embarrasment (only my humble opinion, of course)
6) Take the above songs and either burn your own CD(s) or add to your Ipod
7) Hit the "shuffle" button
Enjoy!

It really does work.

Cinj

styxfanNH wrote:How could they justify remastering the Wooden Nickel albums nad not the basic catalog?

Styx does not own the Wooden Nickel era recordings and has not one iota of say in how that material gets re-packaged. I'm guessing that, with the success of the greatest hits collections and such, Bill Traut at Wooden Nickel decided he could get one more round of profits out of the same material, so he authorized a re-mastered collection, priced it all together affordably in one package, and gave us "Unfinished Song" for the first time on CD to give added sales incentive. That collection used all old artwork, so it was more than likely almost pure profit for Wooden Nickel. And it's actually a good representation of those years, although a lot of that material doesn't really hold up compared to the later, better-known music, in my opinion at least. Some of it is good, but some of it is very, very bad. But I can understand the philosophy behind re-packaging that. Solely profit-driven, as they all are, but at least it was done well.


Sterling

Rockwriter wrote: Styx does not own the Wooden Nickel era recordings and has not one iota of say in how that material gets re-packaged. I'm guessing that, with the success of the greatest hits collections and such, Bill Traut at Wooden Nickel decided he could get one more round of profits out of the same material, so he authorized a re-mastered collection, priced it all together affordably in one package, and gave us "Unfinished Song" for the first time on CD to give added sales incentive. That collection used all old artwork, so it was more than likely almost pure profit for Wooden Nickel. And it's actually a good representation of those years, although a lot of that material doesn't really hold up compared to the later, better-known music, in my opinion at least. Some of it is good, but some of it is very, very bad. But I can understand the philosophy behind re-packaging that. Solely profit-driven, as they all are, but at least it was done well.


Sterling

I had all of these recordings on CD, plus a copy of Unfinished Song, but it was nice to be able to buy this entire collection this way. The songs sound good and, uneven as these albums were, there is enough good stuff to make this a worthwhile purchase for me. (Geez! I sound like a reviewer!! No. I take that back. I am too positive.)

Bugsy

Rockwriter wrote:And it's actually a good representation of those years,

Since it contains the entirelty of the band's output in those years, I should hope so!

Seriously, though, I agree that it made for a much better statement on the Wooden Nickel era than, say, that Best Of Styx compilation from '77. A great package for both the folks who hadn't heard this material before and those who just hadn't been able to find a decent release of it.