One song, 35 years: The tale of the song that broke Styx

Tucson Daily ^ | 7/19/19 | Cathalena E. Burch

[DallasBiff]

It took the members of Styx 35 years to come to terms with a song that tore the 1970s rockers apart at the seams.

But last year, James “JY” Young, Tommy Shaw and the rest of the band started playing “Mr. Roboto” again in its entirety.

It came down to the fans.

Whenever they bought a T-shirt from the concert merchandise booth or passed the lighting console within earshot of the longtime lighting director, fans would bemoan the fact that the band skipped the song.

“The merch guy who’s worked with us for years selling t-shirts got five to 10 people a night asking for the song,” Young said during a phone call last week to talk about the band’s show Thursday, July 25, at Tucson Music Hall.

[Drew68]

Especially considering that the earlier Jefferson Airplane put out the likes of the awesome Volunteers.

I have a soft spot for Jefferson Starship's Marty Balin-penned 70s yacht rock ballads like "Count On Me" and "Miracles" and I've always liked their early 80s rockers "Jane" and "Stranger" but they lost me during their "Sara" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" 80s schmaltz. But can't deny these pop hits made them swimming pools full of money.

I have a strange relationship with "We Built This City." I HATED HATED HATED IT for 30 years and then one day I heard it and I liked it.

[sheana]

Very cool. Those kids will remember that forever. Thanks.

[Huskrrrr]

“We built this City”

I think Paul Kantner agreed with you.

[WeaslesRippedMyFlesh]

By commercial I assume your refering to Completion Backwards Principal and Outside Inside

They weren’t awful. Love Bomb was awful.

Remote Control was probably my favorite.

Side note, I saw Todd Rundgren this spring and couldn’t belive it, Prairy Prince was the drummer. After the show the band came rushing out the backstage door through the hallway where I was standing. I yelled at Prairy and he stopped to shake my hand. Very cool.

[lefty-lie-spy]

I’ll go with this too. What a horrible pile of trash that song was.

[T.B. Yoits]

Mr. Roboto is a great song. The problem that some of the band and some of the fans had was that they refused to recognize the 1980s had started.

Styx was a 70s band that entered the 80s.

Lady - 1973
Lorelei - 1975
Suite Madame Blue - 1975
Come Sail Away - 1977
Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man) - 1977
Miss America - 1977
The Grand Illusion - 1977
Blue Collar Man (Long Nights) - 1978
Renegade - 1978
Babe - 1979
Too Much Time On My Hands - 1981
Mr. Roboto - 1983

Note that Dennis DeYoung kept his hair short in the 70s while the rest of the band had long hair. In addition to being a founding member and writing many of their hit songs, he recognized the shift in music going into the 1980s. His crime to fans wasn't that he wrote and performed Mr. Roboto, it was that he didn't pass it along to Flock of Seagulls or some other 80s band. Then they would have loved it.

Dennis DeYoung was prescient enough to recognize the threats from computer technology that had already started. The band and the fans wanted to pretend that the world was still long hair, bell-bottoms, open shirts with exposed chest hair, folk rock and marijuana rock. They should have listened to him, both for the influence on music and how the world was changing with risks attached.

You're wondering who I am
Machine or mannequin
With parts made in Japan
I am the Modren Man

I've got a secret I've been hiding under my skin
My heart is human, my blood is boiling, my brain IBM
So if you see me acting strangely, don't be surprised
I'm just a man who needed someone and somewhere to hide
To keep me alive, just keep me alive
Somewhere to hide to keep me alive

I'm not a robot without emotions, I'm not what you see
I've come to help you with your problems, so we can be free

...

I am the Modern Man (Secret, secret, I've got a secret)
Who hides behind a mask (Secret, secret, I've got a secret)
So no one else can see (Secret, secret, I've got a secret)
My true identity

Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto
For doing the jobs that nobody wants to
And thank you very much, Mr. Roboto
For helping me escape just when I needed to

The problem's plain to see
Too much technology
Machines to save our lives
Machines dehumanize

The time has come at last (Secret, secret, I've got a secret)
To throw away this mask (Secret, secret, I've got a secret)
Now everyone can see (Secret, secret, I've got a secret)
My true identity

[mikey_hates_everything]

[Joe 6-pack]

"But when I heard “Mr. Roboto” on the radio in 1983, I stopped buying Styx albums."

I know the feeling. Some of DeYoung's solo stuff afterwards was pretty good. I'm by nature a pretty nostalgic person, and "Desert Moon," can take me back to the days of my youth.

All in all, I have a lot of respect for Dennis DeYoung. He's a devout practicing Catholic and has been married to the same woman since 1970. I'm guessing there are precious few 70s rockers that can make that same claim, or even come close.

[caver]

I don’t agree with your opinion, but that’s OK. I can make a huge list of songs that I think suck, but it doesn’t make it the truth.

None the less, I always enjoy these threads about rock music.

[tbpiper]

OH, that was fun!

[DIRTYSECRET]

No different than Randy Newman doing Short People or Clappner doing I shot the sheriff. Both were noteworthy but not respectful of their real work.

AM crap.

[AppyPappy]

We Built This City was basically just a sugar stick, designed to get stations to customize it and put it in rotation.

[AppyPappy]

“Clappner”
SPEW!!!

Good old Erin Clappner

[Disambiguator]

I like the Tubes’ very early material, especially the live album.

[Charles Martel]

A lot of people forget, or never realized in the first place, that Kilroy Was Here was a concept album about the dangers of censorship and how the government could (abusively) control the future of music. Those concerns certainly solidified just a few years later with the formation of the Parents' Music Resource Center and the Senate hearings which did initiate the "parental advisory" stickers that were added to music packaging. Dennis DeYoung was ahead of the curve in raising that concern.

Concept albums don't always work out well. Certainly, the cheesy stage play that the band performed during that tour to set up the various songs didn't thrill the fans - but the album itself isn't bad. Yes, DeYoung has a flair for the theatrical, but it didn't merit the tantrum that his band mates threw back then.

[NorthMountain]

A lot of people forget, or never realized in the first place, that Kilroy Was Here was a concept album about the dangers of censorship and how the government could (abusively) control the future of music.

Good point. I heard the entire album before hearing any of it on the radio and never understood the hate. The movie "Demolition Man" was released 10 years later on the same concept. I like them both.

[FateAmenableToChange]

Especially considering that the earlier Jefferson Airplane put out the likes of the awesome Volunteers.

Just like early Genesis - amazing creative prog rock, and then the 1980s gave us Phil Collins and the popification of the band.

[thepoodlebites]

Never mind Mr. Roboto.

I keep playing this video over and over again.
It’s a Must Watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpYHgbjOIq0
—
Excellent choice, Tommy Shaw and the “School of Rock” style concert.
Here’s another gem from Daryl’s House: Renegade.

https://youtu.be/cikuFFJjR64?feature=shared

[Rocco DiPippo]

"Wonderful Christmas Time?" Blech! When it comes on I lunge for the dial and a puke bag. Gruesome garbage, only slightly worse than the pretentious, hokey crap Styx churned out. . .

Incoming! Incoming!

[Rocco DiPippo]

I hear ya! Anything the fake working class construct Bruce Sh#tsteen (as he’s referred to in my house) performs gets an immediate zot when it comes on the radio.