Cassie May wrote:Keep in mind that during the 70s, media was so much different than today. Styx was huge then, but you never read much press on them, unless it was negative and derisive. The only "buzz" I knew about them was what my friends and I all buzzed about! It wasn't cool even then, in junior high and high school to admit you liked Styx, but boy, did I see a lot of shirts around after they were in town (I owned quite a few, myself). Now, I realize a lot of the lack of media coverage was due to Derek; however, as a teen during the glory years, it was frustrating to want to know more about the band and have to rely on the god-awful teen mags and their cheesy "interviews." It was very rare to find a decent article on the band; Circus did one in Dec of 79 that I still have, and Guitar Player had a nice spread on Tommy, Chuck, and JY. Mostly all I could ever find was 16 Magazine and Rockline articles; the bulk of those stories played up Tommy as the hunk of the band. Sometimes I wonder how different things may have been had the Internet been in existence then.
My clearest memory of purchasing a brand-new Styx album is of Paradise Theater. My best friend and I knew the release date had been reported as January 1, 1981; we hounded our local record stores by phone daily, calling and asking repeatedly, "Is the new Styx album in yet?" On January 3, we finally had an affirmative answer and she "borrowed" her father's car, picked me up, and off we raced to the mall. I remember being entranced by the laser etching, and, being an artist, I loved the album's front cover. Beautifully done.
I have to disagree about the lack of media coverage being because of Derek . . . or rather, I agree he is responsible, but I also think he was right.
The reality is, although the members of Styx tend to find it convenient to blame him for that - and yes, he did/does have a stated disdain for the mainstream media - the hard reality is that Styx is/was (especially back then) quite simply one of the most media-tarded bands I have seen in my life. I know an awful lot of writers and others in the business who feel the same way. I also know a bunch of different publicists who have worked directly with the band, and whenever I talk to any of them we all have a laugh about some of the stuff the band has done and said. Being their publicist has got to be one of the worst jobs in rock music.
Consequently, I stand by the notion that Derek was right to limit the exposure of this band to only its target audience. He saw from early on that Styx understood radio very well, and understood touring very well, but was woefully lacking in savvy about the print and electronic media. So he helped them devise a strategy that emphasized their strengths - radio and touring - while trying to protect them from their weaknesses as much as possible. Let's face it, those guys get irritated way out of proportion whenever anything even remotely negative gets printed (especially back then), and then they react by making things worse. They were never, ever, ever going to get on board with Rolling Stone or any other real newspaper/magazine that actually engages in real journalism - i.e., makes a real assessment of strengths and weaknesses. Look at the way they reacted to that 'Rock 'n' Retail' thing . . . they were royally pissed about that, despite the fact that IT'S A POSITIVE PIECE! It was just positive with a slant they didn't like. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why does this band shoot itself in the foot so much?
You made a good point about the magazines that Styx DID work with - those types of "rags" that only offered mostly positive puff pieces, not real journalism. JY even got a little bit pissed at the guy who wrote that series of articles for the Chicago Sun-Times, which was by far the biggest piece of print exposure the band had gotten at that point, and it almost was entirely positive. But the guy quoted JY as saying, "Booze is my bag, let's get loaded," and he did not like that being in print . . . although HE ACTUALLY SAID IT. He didn't deny saying it, he just didn't like it. That's the Styx vs. the media mindset right there: "Don't report us fairly, report us positively." LOL. The question with this band is, "Which came first, the fact that writers don't like Styx, or the fact that Styx has historically dealt poorly with writers?"
The other thing is this: No matter what Derek did or did not do, Rolling Stone and company would have never given Styx good reviews or positive coverage, ever. They hated ALL that type of band, not just Styx. So it's not like Derek was wrong not to try to work with them because it never would have done any good, anyway.
Derek took them from a one-hit wonder band to the largest concert draw in North America in six years, and after they fired him, they have never been anywhere near that level of success ever again. Nowhere close. Yet another harmful thing that band did to itself.
Sterling
Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 5:38 pm