Unbiased - what songs do you prefer

[Toph]

Given Yogi's inherently biased list (like She Cares in the "lighter" option), I thought I'd throw out something a bit more balanced.

Set #1
Foolin Yourself
Show Me The Way
Lights
Don't Let It End
The Best Of Times
Too Much Time On My Hands
Babe
Nothing Ever Goes As Planned
Sing For The Day
Love At First Sight
Crystal Ball
Just Get Through This Night

Set #2

Shooz
Renegade
Lords Of the Ring
Borrowed Time
Blue Collar Man
Great White Hope
Miss America
Put Me On
Queen of Spades
Miss America
Castle Walls
Love Is The Ritual

[Archetype]

2. Mostly for Queen of Spades and Castle Walls

[StyxCollector]

Better balanced, but still a touch unrealistic. Ideally, both sets would have a mix of rockers and ballads.

[Saint John]

One ... but just barely!

[StyxCollector]

If you want fair and balanced, try these on for size; they balance out rockers, ballads, and deep cuts with one JY tune per set. There are tunes in each guaranteed that some Styx fans dislike

One
Grand Illusion
Fooling Yourself
Babe
Suite Madame Blue
Born for Adventure
Mr. Roboto
Man in the Wilderness
Miss America
Too Much Time On My Hands
Best of Times
Renegade

Two
A.D. 1928/Rockin' the Paradise
Lady
Lorelei
Blue Collar Man
Crystal Ball
Show Me The Way
Borrowed Time
Don't Let It End
Half Penny, Two Penny
Castle Walls
Come Sail Away

[nate]

Allan's two sets, in one night, with a 15 minute intermission. And a cool tshirt, followed by the announcement of a new album. :D

[StyxCollector]

Allan's two sets, in one night, with a 15 minute intermission. And a cool tshirt, followed by the announcement of a new album.

LOL my point was to pick one since both are not skewed to ballads or rockers. They have hits. They have some of the ones you'd expect, but you don't see all the big hits in one set. So far the other lists haven't done that ...

[Everett]

set 2 only for half penny two penny

[nate]

OKOK! :)

UM, Set number two, but very close. If Too Much Time On My Hands was in set number two, I'd have chosen set number1!

[Boomchild]

If you want fair and balanced, try these on for size; they balance out rockers, ballads, and deep cuts with one JY tune per set. There are tunes in each guaranteed that some Styx fans dislike

One
Grand Illusion
Fooling Yourself
Babe
Suite Madame Blue
Born for Adventure
Mr. Roboto
Man in the Wilderness
Miss America
Too Much Time On My Hands
Best of Times
Renegade

Two
A.D. 1928/Rockin' the Paradise
Lady
Lorelei
Blue Collar Man
Crystal Ball
Show Me The Way
Borrowed Time
Don't Let It End
Half Penny, Two Penny
Castle Walls
Come Sail Away

In this case I would pick set 2. Mainly because I don't care for the live version of Roboto. Also, I feel Babe has been beaten to death which could also apply to Come Sail Away. It's not that I don't like those songs.

[brywool]

I'd go with 2, but LOTR would have to go. Dumb song.
Seeing Shooz, Put Me On, and Love is the Ritual would be cool. Good songs.
All the other ones have been played to death.

[Toph]

I'd go with 2, but LOTR would have to go. Dumb song.
Seeing Shooz, Put Me On, and Love is the Ritual would be cool. Good songs.
All the other ones have been played to death.

Come on Bry, you are losing your progressive rock cred, dude!
Lords of the Ring is totally progressive thematic type song that I would have sworn you would like.

Shooz, Put Me On, and LITR - maybe you are more of a metal head than a progressive fan....

[brywool]

I'd go with 2, but LOTR would have to go. Dumb song.
Seeing Shooz, Put Me On, and Love is the Ritual would be cool. Good songs.
All the other ones have been played to death.

Come on Bry, you are losing your progressive rock cred, dude!
Lords of the Ring is totally progressive thematic type song that I would have sworn you would like.

Shooz, Put Me On, and LITR - maybe you are more of a metal head than a progressive fan....

Actually, the progressive deal doesn't matter too much to me Toph. I'm definitely not into Styx for that. As for the other tunes, I really like songs that ROCK and have killer harmonies in them. It's kind of what I like. As for how many notes a band can play in a given measure... eh, doesn't thrill me too much, though it is an enviable skill coming from a guy that'll never be able to play fast guitar solos.

"Lords of the Ring" musically is fine for me. It's the lyrics (and JYs delivery vocally) that don't work for me. I don't know about you guys, but this has always reminded me of the "One Tin Soldier" song. Same story line- A kingdom fought and protected and handed down something that basically amounted to a Hallmark card at the end of the tune.

Everybody join hands now...

"Peace on Earth was all it said..."

This is probably before most of your time, I'm so freakin' old...

Dennis's other songs on that album are great though ('cept for The Message) . I don't think he would agree though. From all the interviews I've heard, he's never been really fond of that album, though I don't get why really.

[masque]

overall I prefer set 2 even though set 1 has four of my all time favorite styx songs (fooling yourself, lights, crystal ball and the best of times).

[yogi]

Your 'unbiased' sets have no rhyme or reason to them. My sets had a reason.

What you and Styx Collector have posted may very well turn up on Styx's Greatest Hits Volumes 64 & 65 by USUX Records & Tapes( Styx's new label).

Fair and Balanced what the hell does that mean? My sets were DDY's got to modernize( get soft & poppy) or Styx's dies, VS earlier Styx will die if they put out these type of songs post 1979.

You two just made up another soon to be Styx Greatest Hits Package. What is the reasoning behind these sets???

[Toph]

Your 'unbiased' sets have no rhyme or reason to them. My sets had a reason.

What you and Styx Collector have posted may very well turn up on Styx's Greatest Hits Volumes 64 & 65 by USUX Records & Tapes( Styx's new label).

Fair and Balanced what the hell does that mean? My sets were DDY's got to modernize( get soft & poppy) or Styx's dies, VS earlier Styx will die if they put out these type of songs post 1979.

You two just made up another soon to be Styx Greatest Hits Package. What is the reasoning behind these sets???

When you put She Cares and It Takes Love in one set and nothing overtly crappy in the other set, clearly you have an agenda.....

And PS....soft and poppy Styx existed before 1979....Foolin Yourself, Sing For the Day, heck I'd even argue that Lorelei, Light Up, Mademoiselle fall under that banner....

[FormerDJMike]

I just wish they would play all of Cornerstone!

[cittadeeno23]

So Yogi,
what are your favorite Styx Songs Post P08?? Basically from Cornerstone, PT, Kilroy and Edge? I like the early stuff better too, but what would you chose from these albums?
Mine would be in no particular order:

Borrowed Time
Love in the Midnight
Rockin the Paradise
Snowblind
Half Penny Two Penny
Lonley People (although I wish they could replace the horns with more guitars)
Heavy Metal Poisoning
Love is the Ritual
Show me the Way (I'm not a ballad guy, but this is a great song)

And if you included Brave New World I'd throw in "Heavy Water" and "Everything is Cool".

[Everett]

I just wish they would play all of Cornerstone!

Followed by kilroy

[pinkfloyd1973]

And if you included Brave New World I'd throw in "Heavy Water" and "Everything is Cool".

Definitely love the title track of that album

[yogi]

From Cornerstone: 1. Love In the Midnight
2. Lights
3. Borrowed Time

Paradise Theatre: 1. The Best Of Times
2. Snowblind
3. Half/Penny Two Penny
4. Rockin The Paradise

Kilroy Was Here: 1. Just Get Through This Night

Edge Of The Century: 1. World Tonight
2. All In A Days Work
3. Show Me The Way
4. Edge Of The Century
5. Love Is The Ritual

Others that I really liked: On My Way, Paradise, Little Suzie, Dear John


From Cyclorama: These Are The Times, Kiss Your Ass Goodbye, One With Everything, Killing The Thing That You Love, Do Things My Way

I really like all of the above post 1978 Styx songs.

[Toph]

From Cornerstone: 1. Love In the Midnight
2. Lights
3. Borrowed Time

Paradise Theatre: 1. The Best Of Times
2. Snowblind
3. Half/Penny Two Penny
4. Rockin The Paradise

Kilroy Was Here: 1. Just Get Through This Night

Edge Of The Century: 1. World Tonight
2. All In A Days Work
3. Show Me The Way
4. Edge Of The Century
5. Love Is The Ritual

Others that I really liked: On My Way, Paradise, Little Suzie, Dear John


From Cyclorama: These Are The Times, Kiss Your Ass Goodbye, One With Everything, Killing The Thing That You Love, Do Things My Way

I really like all of the above post 1978 Styx songs.

Love In The Midnight Sucks.

[yogi]

Love In The Midnight is my favorite off the entire album.


By faarrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!

[Toph]

Love In The Midnight is my favorite off the entire album.


By faarrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!

Well that says a lot.....

[yogi]

Dennis stated that 'It Takes Love' had to be on Greatest Hits Volume ll or he didnt want it released. He said that it was a GREAT song.

Swap out Roboto for She Cares. I wanted some Tommy songs in there that is why She Cares was chosen.

[pinkfloyd1973]

Dennis stated that 'It Takes Love' had to be on Greatest Hits Volume ll or he didnt want it released. He said that it was a GREAT song.

I love that song

[StyxCollector]

Your 'unbiased' sets have no rhyme or reason to them. My sets had a reason.

What you and Styx Collector have posted may very well turn up on Styx's Greatest Hits Volumes 64 & 65 by USUX Records & Tapes( Styx's new label).

Fair and Balanced what the hell does that mean? My sets were DDY's got to modernize( get soft & poppy) or Styx's dies, VS earlier Styx will die if they put out these type of songs post 1979.

You two just made up another soon to be Styx Greatest Hits Package. What is the reasoning behind these sets???

Doing a set of all songs like "It Takes Love" and "She Cares" vs. a rocker set is pretty much laughable, which is the point. Your post showed no sign of reality.

If you wanted to be real about things, you would do what I did here: mix hits, rockers, ballads, etc. You need to split the songs up that people would want to hear and they have to make a choice between hearing and not hearing songs. And the ratio of hits to non-hit songs has to be pretty reasonable, too. Good examples: CSA in one set and Renegade in another and force people to choose. No set by Styx or any other band would eschew all of the hits or just play all b-sides (unless it was a show advertised as such). As a Styx fan I honestly wouldn't want to see either of your sets because not only were they unrealistic, but both would suck. No pacing, no thought behind them. Just a list of songs.

Sets are as much about psychology and taking people on an adventure for however long a band is on stage as they are about musicianship. Anyone who puts together a set knows how to elevate the crowd and bring them down to a simmer when they need to. Going balls out all the time or wimpering all the time just isn't good.

[yogi]

That is NOT the point of my sets. The point was(is) Pre Pieces Of Eight VS post Pieces Of Eight.

Shit wake the hell up!!!!!

[StyxCollector]

That is NOT the point of my sets. The point was(is) Pre Pieces Of Eight VS post Pieces Of Eight.

Shit wake the hell up!!!!!

You need to wake the hell up - you picked all ballads pretty much. I didn't see songs like "Rockin' the Paradise" in there. You also ignored the Wooden Nickel era which if you're going to put rockers in, you skipped obvious shit like "Young Man".

And I still don't see the point of your lists - while interesting for a show or two maybe, I think a 78 or earlier set only would get boring at this point. One of the good things about Styx - like it or not - IS their diversity. I know I don't love every song off of every album - and we are all like that. But you can't just dismiss that much of their career just because.

[Boomchild]

That is NOT the point of my sets. The point was(is) Pre Pieces Of Eight VS post Pieces Of Eight.

Shit wake the hell up!!!!!

You need to wake the hell up - you picked all ballads pretty much. I didn't see songs like "Rockin' the Paradise" in there. You also ignored the Wooden Nickel era which if you're going to put rockers in, you skipped obvious shit like "Young Man".

And I still don't see the point of your lists - while interesting for a show or two maybe, I think a 78 or earlier set only would get boring at this point. One of the good things about Styx - like it or not - IS their diversity. I know I don't love every song off of every album - and we are all like that. But you can't just dismiss that much of their career just because.

Allan is exactly right. Styx was a band with diversity in their music. I think the fans that wanted rockers all the time were listening to the wrong band and wanting Styx to be something they were not.