I’m not a Styx fan, although I like Tommy Shaw. I don’t like DeYoung’s voice at all. But I’m thankful for the reminder this thread has provided about Lester Bangs. I have a copy of Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung that I need to dig up. He was an entertaining and totally undisciplined writer who could be hilarious. I will never agree with him about James Taylor or Astral Weeks, but his essay on The Troggs was priceless, and I’m sure there are other ones I have forgotten.
I’ve given variations on this screed before, but I’ll do it again.
Critics loved to call Styx “pompous” and “pretentious.” Hell, they loved hurling those epithets at ALL art-rock and prog-rock bands. But did Styx really merit those epithets? Let’s see…
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Even if you accept the critics’ basic, flawed premise (that rock songs have to be under 3 minutes and have to address real world issues), Styx was NOT a pretentious group. They weren’t rich English art-school wankers, after all- they were blue collar guys from Chicago. And they didn’t write 30 minute songs about the Meaning Of Life, either. Their most popular songs were about mundane things like girls (“Lady,” “Babe,” et al.) or serious working-class concerns like unemployment and layoffs (“Blue Collar Man,” “Too Much Time on My Hands”).
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“Pompousness” and “Pretentiousness” are NOT styles of music. They are states of mind. Hence, you don’t become pompous when you add an organ or mellotron to your band, nor is simple music necessarily less pompous than elaborate music… Let’s face it, coffee houses are FILLED with unbearably pompous musicians who play 2 minute songs on a mere acoustic guitar.
Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” album was stark and simple. It was also pompous and arrogant and preachy and boring beyond description. On their worst day, Styx could never record anything as pompous as “Nebraska” or “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”
Heh…I still remember the letters that article generated – teary fanboys shredding the reviewer for being soooo meeeeeean!! in a “if you didn’t like it, just say so up front wah wah wah!” manner. Hilarious stuff, it was…
Well spoken, sir or ma’am! I agree with everything you said, save your assessments of the Springsteen albums, which I do love (especially Nebraska).
I bet there is room for a "Do you like Styx and what does this say about your definition of Rock?’ type of thread. If Rock is the music of teenage rebellion, then it *must *have some pomposity in it - have you dealt with a rebellious teenager? 
The question is if your pomposity overlaps with that artists’ pomposity. Folks who love Nebraska - or Dylan, etc. - are likely *not *going to be the ones who dig the rockin’ commentary contained with Renegade or Paradise Theatre…
To me, this thread was just about RS nicely reporting on Styx, then leaving a whoopie-cushion link in the middle of the article…
Why are you mentioning a Christopher Cross song in a thread about Styx?
Did he like Astral Weeks or hate it? Because if he hated it, that would really be inexplicable and weird.
He loved Astral Weeks.
One of my favorites, too.
OK, my worldview is intact. I couldn’t imagine Lester Bangs not liking that record. (Which is an awesome record, indeed.)
As impish as closing with this comment from Shaw?
It was said in the context of re-inviting DDY to tour again, but I can’t help feel it speaks to dedicating your career to recording covers of Aerosmith songs and touring with your old band.
I think you may be giving RS too much credit. I suspect it was linked formulaically by someone who didn’t even read the Bangs, and the dissonance was accidental. I assume they use a search utility to find news items and reviews in their archives relating to the subjects of all their articles, and that links to these are inserted as a matter of course.
You’re thinking of “Sailing”. “Come Sail Away”, is, in fact as Styx song. And yes, the Cartman version of it is pretty special. It’s on my iPod in regular rotation.
woodstockbirdybird will surely give me shit for this the next time I see him, but I don’t mind Styx so much. I’d take them over Journey any day of the week. Yeah, they could be over wrought and showy, and decidedly un-rock and roll. But they could write a damn catchy melody, and that counts for something, I think.
The NY Times recently credited Styx with composing “arguably the finest song ever written about robot prison guards.” Domo arigato!
I suspect you are right - i.e., they didn’t intend it - but I still thought it was funny - kinda like reading Google ads at the bottom of an SDMB thread that are related to the OP, but somehow off…
Yup, I’ve seen him on tour with them several times in the past couple of years. He’s pretty hammy on stage – he plays a synth keyboard mounted on a turntable / pedestal, allowing him to swing and twirl around while he plays.
I haven’t read the essay on Astral Weeks for many years, but my memory tells me that love is too mild a word.
Yes, Bangs was downright in awe of Astral Weeks. I do think his interpretations of some of the lyrics were a bit on the imaginative side.
Well, to be fair, he was almost certainly high when he wrote it.
Anamorphic, we all have our uncool musical preferences. I have too much Rush and Britney Spears on my iPod to judge anybody else.
That’s nothin’. I had a Partridge Family song pop up on mine today.