Where did the time go? 21 years ago

[FormerDJMike]

21 years ago Oct 9 or so I bought my first Styx album on the day it was released. Not the first album ever, just the first one on the actual DAY of release. I bought it on cassette at Turtle's Music and then went to Camelot and bought the CD. I even bought it on vinyl that day from The Record Bar.

Go back a few years to 1987 or so and I heard a song called "Follow You" by Glen BurtniCk. I loved the song and bought "Heroes & Zeros" based on that one song. When it was announced that he was replacing Tommy I thought I was the only person who knew who he was and I was excited for him to be a part of the band. All of them were on Rockline and the previous month Tommy dropped the bombshell that Styx was indeed getting back together but wouldn't announce who was taking his place.

There was no internet so most fans had no other info than the 976-STYX snail mail newsletters that were mailed out periodically.

I am talking about "Edge Of The Century". While not the best Styx album this one holds a special place with me because it was the first actual Styx album released when I was an adult. I love to listen to this one around this time of the year. I like to go back and watch the Rick Dees and Arsenio performances.

This is when I started to actually "meet" other fans and I found out that I was NOT the last Styx fan on the planet after all. Glen had big hair... I think even Zan had big hair. I remember seeing pictures of fans from this time period and I seem to remember one of Zan. I had several myself but have no idea where they are now that I took while we were in Chicago. There were no digital cameras. No cell phones with cameras. Just VHS bootleg recordings.

Time to go give "Edge" a listen again. I love that album!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpkTNgATR1g

[yogi]

GREAT post, GREAT GREAT album!!!!

[gr8dane]

Nice one Mike.My first album I bought on release date was Grand Illusion.
I was home sick from school with a cold.I kept calling to hear weather it had been unpacked yet,
and I must have been driving them nuts.Eventually it was on the shelf,and I got dressed and jumped on my moped
and drove to the store about 20 minutes away.Got home and put it on my big tape player 2 times in a row.
That way I could lie in bed and listen to it twice uninterrupted.Rewind and repeat countless times.

Edge I bought in Quito Ecuador when I was travelling South America for 4 months.Travelled with my walkman and 2 tiny speakers.
By month 3 I was so sick of my tapes and needed something new.Spotted a small music kiosk that only sold cassettes.
Got it and was fine for another week or so.

Time is ticking away and on.

[mrbluesman]

Great post and topic.

First bought on release date was Paradise Theater in 81. I was in high school (10th grade) and remember running to the Mall to buy it. At the time, Styx was one of my 3 favorite bands. I had played the hell out of "Cornerstone," "GI," and "Pieces of Eight." I seem to recall it being a Monday on a very cold January day. I didn't drive yet and didn't turn 16 until September so my mom drove me. I remember there being a Paradise Theater cardboard display or poster at the record store. I also remember that I bought REO's "Hi Infidelity" at the same time. I think REO's album had been out for a couple of months at the time, but, I had wanted it and bought them both. I think I spent the next 2 or 3 months listening to both those albums at least once a day. I must have stared at the PT album jacket a million times, looking for differences between the front and back covers.

It seems like a million years ago. How amazing, though, life was back then. All it took to make me happy was buying a new album (probably for about $5.99). Also, makes me really miss my mom (she died 3 years ago). I will never forget how it felt to buy a new album and listen to it all the way through. There was no way to fast forward it, and, with Styx, no way that I would have skipped through a song, anyway.
The music business and radio was so different then. There was such a sense of wonder hearing a new song on FM radio or listening to a new album.

Saw the PT Tour that March (I think) at the old Cleveland Coliseum in Richfield (now gone the way of the Paradise Theater-built to last forever it was open only 20 years and then demolished a few years after that).

Anyway, great post and you have me feeling all nostalgic now.

[Babyblue]

21 years ago Oct 9 or so I bought my first Styx album on the day it was released. Not the first album ever, just the first one on the actual DAY of release. I bought it on cassette at Turtle's Music and then went to Camelot and bought the CD. I even bought it on vinyl that day from The Record Bar.

Go back a few years to 1987 or so and I heard a song called "Follow You" by Glen BurtniCk. I loved the song and bought "Heroes & Zeros" based on that one song. When it was announced that he was replacing Tommy I thought I was the only person who knew who he was and I was excited for him to be a part of the band. All of them were on Rockline and the previous month Tommy dropped the bombshell that Styx was indeed getting back together but wouldn't announce who was taking his place.

There was no internet so most fans had no other info than the 976-STYX snail mail newsletters that were mailed out periodically.

I am talking about "Edge Of The Century". While not the best Styx album this one holds a special place with me because it was the first actual Styx album released when I was an adult. I love to listen to this one around this time of the year. I like to go back and watch the Rick Dees and Arsenio performances.

This is when I started to actually "meet" other fans and I found out that I was NOT the last Styx fan on the planet after all. Glen had big hair... I think even Zan had big hair. I remember seeing pictures of fans from this time period and I seem to remember one of Zan. I had several myself but have no idea where they are now that I took while we were in Chicago. There were no digital cameras. No cell phones with cameras. Just VHS bootleg recordings.

Time to go give "Edge" a listen again. I love that album!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpkTNgATR1g

Great post Mike: Love the music & always will.

[Everett]

Man you guys were lucky. Too bad i was only at the end of kindergarten at the time of this release

[Baron Von Bielski]

I was in high school at the time and Styx was playing at the Paso Robles Mid State Fair and I remember hearing them while cruising for chicks. Man a lot of time has passed. I miss those days.

[FormerDJMike]

Great post and topic.

I remember there being a Paradise Theater cardboard display or poster at the record store.

I have a friend who still has that cardboard display! I think he has the Roboto one as well.

Mike

[totobob]

I first heard the band on the Old Grey Whistle Test just after the release of The Grand Illusion, when they played Fooling Yourself. Completely blew me away and I immediately went out and bought the album, which still nestles in my top 10 albums of all time.

[Monker]

The Internet didn't exist, but GENie, Prodigy, and AOL did. I wasn't on AOL until later, and really not in any Styx forums. But, GEnie and Prodigy were interesting. I remember there being a bit of a rivalry between Donna (from 976-STYX) and Cheryl Chaimberlin for Styx knowledge, and stuff. Then Dayle entered the forums who I became friendly with Dayle pretty quick, even visited her for a week and say DY in Sacremento...aa and she was/is friends with Donna...So, it added this huge soap opera sorta atmosphere, since I was friendly with Cheryl and she somewhat hated Dayle and that crowd. That's why I grew to hate cliques...there are always good people on both sides, but people refuse to see that. Though, back then, the Journey cliques were MUCH worse then the Styx ones.

Edge and DY were out at the same time, and touring at the same time. There were fan rivalries, just as there are today...except, back then, they were no where near as vile and damning...and there were a LOT more people involved in them too. That, quite frankly, is what makes me feel that there are less people who care - because the extremes on both sides have the loudest voices.

I always felt Edge was very mediocre...but the DY debut is a classic rock album where every song is incredibly good. Other people felt the opposite. No big deal, we all mostly talked about we liked, not what we hated. Once in a while, wires would get crossed and people would go on a rampage...but usually everybody tried to get along.

There are others I remember from back then...Dayle's friend Susan in Utah, Dayle's best friend in Va...but I can't remember her name. A bit embarrassing since I met her, too, along with Becky Hunter from the Journey forums. I also remember a guy named Jay Hendren who started off in Journey forums, but started getting into Styx because everybody said he looked EXACTLY like Tommy Shaw. There were others from Journey who crossed over to Styx/DY, too.

But, that was a long time ago...most of those people are off the forum. I know Dayle would never come to a forum like this, but posts to the Styx mailing list once in a while but is more involved in being a published author. Donna went on to do some creative work for various scifi/fantasy TV shows. She's way past Styx...but if you read interviews, it comes up sometimes. Last Ime I looked up Cheryl "Desert Moon" Chamberlin, she was all into cat breeding. When "SuiteMadameblue" first started posting, I thought she was Cheryl.

21 years ago Oct 9 or so I bought my first Styx album on the day it was released. Not the first album ever, just the first one on the actual DAY of release. I bought it on cassette at Turtle's Music and then went to Camelot and bought the CD. I even bought it on vinyl that day from The Record Bar.

Go back a few years to 1987 or so and I heard a song called "Follow You" by Glen BurtniCk. I loved the song and bought "Heroes & Zeros" based on that one song. When it was announced that he was replacing Tommy I thought I was the only person who knew who he was and I was excited for him to be a part of the band. All of them were on Rockline and the previous month Tommy dropped the bombshell that Styx was indeed getting back together but wouldn't announce who was taking his place.

There was no internet so most fans had no other info than the 976-STYX snail mail newsletters that were mailed out periodically.

I am talking about "Edge Of The Century". While not the best Styx album this one holds a special place with me because it was the first actual Styx album released when I was an adult. I love to listen to this one around this time of the year. I like to go back and watch the Rick Dees and Arsenio performances.

This is when I started to actually "meet" other fans and I found out that I was NOT the last Styx fan on the planet after all. Glen had big hair... I think even Zan had big hair. I remember seeing pictures of fans from this time period and I seem to remember one of Zan. I had several myself but have no idea where they are now that I took while we were in Chicago. There were no digital cameras. No cell phones with cameras. Just VHS bootleg recordings.

Time to go give "Edge" a listen again. I love that album!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpkTNgATR1g