Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings

Customer Response

The band that was Styx
I can't believe someone gave this collection 3 stars just because there were no lyrics included! What the hey? As for Mr. 2 star---YES, you have to be a Styx fan to truly appreciate this collection. Obviously a four-album compilation of a band you can't stand is going to seem like a ripoff-duh? This is for die-hard Styx fans. This material is pre-Tommy Shaw. There was another member, John Curulewski, who tended infuse a more progressive, left-leaning element into the music. For the lighter fan, this will be an acquired taste, but he was integral to the early incarnation of Styx. If you are expecting Come Sail Away, or Blue Collar Man, walk away man, just walk away. Me, I'm pretty hard core. One of the first Styx albums I bought after the mandatory Grand Illusion was the Serpent album. At first I thought I had bought the wrong band. The album sleeve said Styx. The members had the same names as those on my favorite Styx albums, but the sound was just way too different. After a moment of panic, I listened to the lyrics a little more closely and to James Young's delivery on Witch Wolf and Dennis DeYoung's on The Grove of Eglantine and I was once again on familiar footing. Here's a breakdown of my favorite (but not necessarily yours!) favorite bits on four albums that were once upon a time very very hard to find:
Styx I--Great opener, Movement For The Common Man, then there's Right Away and Best Thing. Next to Equinox and Cornerstone, this album will sound crude to many of the lighter Styx fan contingents out there.
Styx II--Aka the Lady album. Awesome opener, You Need Love-the guitar work on this song is sonic ear candy; everyone pretty much knows the Lady song-it's what got so many of us hooked onto Styx in the first place; A Day is one the most sadly overlooked songs-this is Styx at some of its most progressive (and jazzy); Father O.S.A. seems to go over well with a lot of younger listeners-I played this song to some in a restaurant I used to work at.
Unfinished Song is just plan gorgeous. Great lyrical imagery.
The Serpent is Rising--As mentioned, Witch Wolf and Grove of Eglantine are powerful songs. Jonas Psalter is a great narrative. As Bad As This starts out really dour but then segues into the hilarious Plexi-glass Toilet song.
Man of Miracles--After the highs of the Serpent album, this album as a whole is more evenly paced and harder rocking. There are some moody moments such as Song for Suzanne and Golden Lark, but I'd have to lean towards the one-two punch of Christopher, Mr. Christopher and the mind-blowing and majestic Man Of Miracles (awesome vocal by James Young). You, dear reader, know the rest of the story: platinum, platinum and more platinum. Sadly, in their later albums (after Killroy), gone were the adventurous, hard-rocking and experimental elements that made Styx so appealing in the first place. Gone were the gypsies, sailing voyages, crystal balls, renegade outlaws, and even robots. Yep, when I listen to those first four Styx albums (and the other classics!!), I wonder if it would have been so bad for the Styx of today to have repeated their earlier incarnation even just for a little bit. Like a good cast, a good song is worth repeating.

A "No-Brainer" buy for Styx fans
For any die-hard Styx fan, 35 songs for just under $15 bucks is a helluva deal.

This vintage set from Wooden Nickel Records shows the roots of Styx's signature vocals and harmonies, not to mention the vast creative range of songs and styles. Even though I have all of these songs on vinyl (but alas - no way to play them anymore) I'm thoroughly enjoying this 'blast from the past'.

And what early Styx fan can ever forget the segue within "As Bad As This" (from the "The Serpent is Rising" and within this collection) to the latin/caribbean-flavored "Don't Sit Down on the Plexiglass Toilet"?

Best $15 bucks I've spent in a long time.

3/4 good
Out of the 4 early albums contained in this 2 CD set, there is the equivalent of about 3 good albums. Oddly, there was no clear pattern evident about either increasing or decreasing quality as time went on with this band. The first album is fairly short and deserves to be split in half, with its second half (4 songs) quite solid, if not quite as densely composed and produced as later Styx works. Most disappointing to progressive rock fans is the "long" Movement for the Common Man, which is a loose pastiche of 4 disparate elements - the most substantive of which is the soft DeYoung ballad, "Mother Nature's Matinee." The album is from 1972.

Styx II is by far the best album of the early Styx, and unfortunately, people's attention seems overly fixated upon their first radio hit, "Lady," which appeared on this album. The opening track, however, entitled "You Need Love," is a densely compact and impressive work with non-stop energy, and the 8.5 minute "Father O.S.A" (including an introductory fugue by Bach) is surely the best of the group's early attempts at lengthy epics. A very nice softer work, "A Day," with a fast instrumental section in its center, another dense and energetic song "Earl of Roseland" with lots of catchy melodies, and a less innovative but still lively short song round out this strong 1973 album - definitely their best until Equinox (and better than the subsequent Crystal Ball album), was the highlight of their early period and alone is quite possibly worth the cost of this set.

Also from 1973, "The Serpent is Rising" is a step down, replacing most of the band's progressive rock efforts with James Young driven rockers. Nevertheless, the bulk of it contains some strong material, and I would personally only adjust or ignore or remove 2 to 3 minutes from each half of the album. Most songs are fairly straightforward, although musically competent, and "Young Man" stands out as superior both in terms of its lyric theme and its composition and instrumental work by the band. Grove of Eglantine balances this with DeYoung's characteristic atmospheres. The final, pleasant song in the first half, however, is rudely interrupted by an unnamed track (the Plexiglass Toilet) whose primary function will be to serve as an embarrassing juvenile gimmick at drunken parties and among those with low tastes.... Truly Styx never got "As Bad As This" anywhere but on this album. Also quite embarrassing and deserving of removal is an unnecessary Styx version of part of Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus. The second half of the album, which includes the dramatic and impressive songs "Jonas Psalter" and "The Serpent is Rising" should instead be re-organized so that the menacing tones from "Krakatoa" are used as an introduction to "Serpent." The album is much improved in quality by removing several minutes from each side and reversing the order of tracks 9 and 8 in this way. However, there is still a full 1970s album (~35 minutes) remaining after those adjustments.

With 1974's Man of Miracles, however, we unfortunately again have only half an album of solid Styx material. There are fully 5 short songs that are quite pedestrian in their straightforward presentation of fast but unimpressive verse-refrain work. The core of the album's real contributions consists of the DeYoung duo, "Golden Lark - A Song For Suzanne" on the first half, and also the DeYoung-shaped parts of the second half: "Evil Eyes," "Christopher, Mr. Christopher," and "Man of Miracles." The 5 additional short songs feel utterly trivial, regardless of how well the instrumentals might have been performed at certain points.

Thus, removing half of the first and 4th albums results in a very solid and enjoyable listening experience and provides the equivalent of 3 good albums from Styx's early years. The bonus track on disc 1, "Unfinished Song," is actually a completed work that was originally the B-side for a "Young Man" single, and is a solid-enough DeYoung tune that it helps balance out some of the weaker efforts from this time period. Styx was truly a mixed bag of contradictory tendencies throughout its early years, until "The Grand Illusion" album of 1977 finally saw their act pulled together with consistency. Of the albums prior to that, the strongest are "Styx II" (included in this set) and "Equinox." The others all have fairly serious mis-steps and weaknesses in comparison, but are well-worth checking out so as to salvage some very good stuff. These days, it's very easy, after all, to program one's CD player or assemble the best stuff into a playlist. For the current $15 price of this set, there's definitely enough good material for Styx fans to be pleased, so long as the occasionally awful stuff that also appears here can be suitably ignored!

A must have for Styx fans
These first four Styx albums collectively presented here are essential to have to allow a person to get a true sense of the talent that makes up the band Styx. Although I do have some of Styx's later work like Crystal Ball and Pieces of Eight, I first started listening to Styx with their Serpent Is Rising album. A lot of people who have only heard their later works thought they were rather pretentious and overblown. By listening to these first albums a person can get the sense of their struggle and realise that they earned the big spot lights they later received. This is real ROCK music and they played it with PASSION. If you give these albums a chance I know you'll agree.

Classic Masterpiece
What a treat to get all of this great music (4 seperate recordings) on a 2-disc compliation. Not only can we hear the origins of one of the quintessential rock bands of the 70's and 80's (arguably the decades of the greatest output of rock music) but we get some absolute musical gems that stand alone as testament to the genius of the men behind the band.

From "Quick is the Beat of my Heart" and the funky/bluesy cover of George Clinton's "After You Leave Me", to the quirky "You Better Ask", "The Serpent is Rising", and the always funny "Plexiglass Toilet", we get the evolution of a great band that helped define an entire era of rock and roll. Like them or not, here is the historic struggle that gave STYX the backbone and experience to evolve into one of the best selling rock bands of all time.

This collection is highly recommended for all who love the quirky and turbulent music that is the foundation for all that came later.

Others also Liked

Equinox
Crystal Ball
Kilroy Was Here
Paradise Theatre
Pieces of Eight