yogi wrote:I have ALWAYS stated that I felt Dennis Deyoung was the true superstar in Styx. Tommy was the star, JY was above average and the Panozzo brothers made up the rest of the team. When Tommy was in Damn Yankees Glen became the star with Dennis still the superstar of the group.
With that said, why is it that I can listen to a Tommy Shaw or Glen Burtnik CD from cover to cover and completely enjoy it. I can do this without having to pause or take a break. When it comes to Dennis I cant listen to song after song of just him. I dont think that I have ever been able to listen to his Ultimate Collection straight thru or his Symphony CD.
I like the majority of the music but I just cant listen to him non stop.
Does anyone else feel this way??
Yes I do. Dennis might be the superstar (not my opinion exactly) but I find that Dennis tends to have not great judgment on what a good song is or what a good song performance is. The funny thing is, he's great at finding what a good Styx song and performance is, but not his solo stuff. Some of the stuff on his first solo album was terrible (Boys will be Boys?? embarrassingly bad), his BNW cuts were either poorly written (High Crimes) or poorly performed tunes (Fallen Angel, Great Expectations).
Dennis is a Killer singer. Killer keyboard player. But I think when he writes, he sometimes does predictable and cliche types of things and sometimes just writes stuff that sounds incredibly dated or even immature. It may have something to do with his arrangements or choice of keyboard sounds.
First Time was like that a terrible song that could've been written by a kid. Awful tune.
Some of Desert Moon was like that.
The 2nd solo album was like that.
A lot of the Hunchback was like that.
However, give him a great song and he's awesome. 10 on Broadway, while being a bunch of Broadway tunes was a great record. Well produced, well sung and he picked good songs for it. He's great on that one. His solo albums have their moments but as a whole, I don't think they stand up (other than 10 on BW)