History Music / Styx

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** During the "Grand Illusion/Pieces of Eight" double-header tour in 2012, Gowan would open "Come Sail Away" with a snippet of "Claire de Lune", followed by [[SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud his impromptu impression of crashing waves]]...

The band had a string of top 40 hits throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, including such mainstays as "Come Sail Away", "Renegade", and "Snowblind" (and in December 1975, they replaced Curulewski with [[DeepSouth Tommy]] [[{{Bishonen}} Shaw]], formerly of a local band called MS Funk). Internally, the group was wracked with tension. [=DeYoung=], who had begun to take onto himself the role of "band leader", attempted to steer Styx into a dramatic, almost operatic direction. This brought him into direct conflict with most of the rest of the band, who were more interested in a harder, rocking sound than the soaring balladic style [=DeYoung=] envisioned. The tensions came to a head in the form of the tour for ''Music/KilroyWasHere'', an early-80s concept album cast around a TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture scenario in which MoralGuardians had succeeded in outlawing RockAndRoll. [=DeYoung=] managed to turn the concert into a ''musical'' telling the story of the album; this pleased neither his bandmates (who felt profoundly uncomfortable trying to ''act'' in between songs) nor the fans (who felt they were being cheated). The tour failed miserably, and in its wake the band broke up. In 1990 the band reunited--minus Shaw (who was in Music/DamnYankees around that time)--and hired Glen Burtnik as his replacement. They recorded the album ''Edge of The Century''.

[[caption-width-right:350:From left to right: Tommy Shaw, John Panozzo, James Young, Dennis [=DeYoung=], Chuck Panozzo]]

We climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies''
-->--'''"Come Sail Away"'''

* CoolOldGuy: Styx is one of the few bands that are as tight in concert as on albums, and the remaining members of the classic lineup are near or in their 70s.

* EenieMeenieMinyMoai: The Creator/{{Hipgnosis}} cover of ''Pieces of Eight''.

* NotChristianRock: "Show Me The Way".

* FilkSong: "Come Sail Away" turns out to be about benign space aliens who have come to take the singer to "the skies".
* {{Forgiveness}}: "She Cares".

* BrokenPedestal: "Fallen Angel".

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: As [=DeYoung=] became more operatic and epic in his songwriting, this sort of thing became much more commonplace, but the sort of psychedelic synthesizer sounds heard in, for example, "Come Sail Away" were far less typical among Styx's early pure-rock work. And then there's "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)", the EpicInstrumentalOpener for which is a unique riff that resembles a sailor's hornpipe played on a synthesized calliope and sounds quite different from anything else in the band's repertoire.
** Their novelty song "Plexiglas Toilet" on ''The Serpent Is Rising'' definitely qualifies for this trope. It's a HiddenTrack which plays after "As Bad as This".

Just take your best shot and don't blow it''\\

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: They got up to 5, but [=DeYoung=] could also take them as low as 2 with songs like "Babe".

* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)":
--> ''You're fooling yourself if you don't believe it\\

-->''So if you think your life is complete confusion\\

[[caption-width-right:350:From left to right: Tommy Shaw, John Panozzo, James Young, Dennis Deyoung, Chuck Panozzo]]

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!! Principal members (Founding members in '''bold''', current members in ''italic''):

* BadFuture: The alternate future of ''Kilroy Was Here'', in which rock 'n' roll music is outlawed, BigBrotherIsWatching You and Japanese corporations control everything

* '''Dennis [=DeYoung=]''' – keyboards, lead and backing vocals (1972–1984, 1990–1991, 1995–1999)

* ''Will Evankovich'' – guitar, backing vocals (2021-present)

* CoolOldGuy: Styx is one of the few bands that are as tight in concert as on albums, and most of the members are around 60.

* LongDistanceRelationship: "Babe" and "Nothing Ever Goes As Planned" both talk about the loneliness of the road, staying faithful to someone who's waiting for you back at home.

** Also "Grand Illusion", which warns against comparing oneself to what the media says is normal or successful:

* TwistEnding: The end of "Come Sail Away": [[spoiler:"I thought that they were angels, but much to my surprise, they climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies"]].

* BadassGrandpa: Styx is one of the few bands that are as tight in concert as on albums, and most of the members are around 60.