styxfanNH wrote:I'm gonna go out on a limb because i am still reading Sterling's and waiting for Chuck's to arrive, bu tI think they have different messages. Not one better than the other.
For what my opinion is worth - since I wrote one of them, LOL, and might be biased - I agree that they are wholly different in both intent and execution. My book is a history of the career of Styx, told through interviews and recollections of band members, associates, managers, record company people and so on, coupled with archival reserach. It's about the music and career of Styx, how the music got written, recorded, packaged and sold, and the interaction of personalities that drove the successes and failures of the band.
Chuck's book is purely from Chuck's perspective, a book about Chuck's childhood, his family relationships and how they shaped him, his ostracism from the other kids and how that shaped him, his early awareness of homosexual feelings, his struggle and ultimate acceptance of that, and how being in the closet during the height of Styx' fame made him feel about himself. It's also about his health struggles as well as his dysfunctional relationship with his brother John in trying to help him overcome his alcohol addiction. It's a book about Chuck in which Styx is one of many elements. It has the bonus that when Styx stories are told, they are told from a band member's first-hand perspective. Two very different takes on things.
Thanks, I hope all is well.
Sterling