Styx

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Breakthrough

Styx' seventh Album, The Grand Illusion was released on July 7, 1977 (7/7/77) and became Styx' breakthrough album, reaching Triple Platinum certification. It spawned a top-ten hit and AOR radio staple in the DeYoung-written "Come Sail Away," which reached No. 8 in 1978. Shaw's "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)" was a second radio hit, and reached No. 29 the same year. The title track also received significant airplay.

Through the late 1970s and early 1980s, the band enjoyed its greatest success. Their 1978 album Pieces of Eight found the group moving in a more straight-ahead pop-rock direction and spawned the singles "Renegade" (#16 in the U.S.) and "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" (#21 in the U.S.), plus a minor hit "Sing for the Day" that stopped just short of the Top Forty at No. 41.

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throughout the years the abovementioned two albums have always kept their musical impact on me. Especially "The Grand Illusion" brings back fond memories. 'Fooling yourself' and in particular the brilliant synth intro in it made me buy the album in 1977. The way Styx used and played the synthesizer has always been very refreshing and a treat for the listener.

By the way does anybody here know what kind of synth was used for the intro of "Fooling Yourself"?

Oberheim Eight Voice, at a guess.

Stephen

meanwhile I did some 'research' on several other fora that referred me to the ARP Odyssey and found a cool demo here not knowing the enormous potential of this machine. It is obvious that Vangelis must have used it on his seventies and eighties work as well.

The synth in the picture above looks a bit like a Mk. 1/2 Odyssey (but the angle distorts its proportions a bit), and the Mk. 1 Odyssey (the white-face model) sounds awesome (I´d never have thought I´d like it that much). Its sound is very close to the Oberheim SEM, hence my guess.

The Eight Voice came out around 1976 (the Four Voice plus a box full of additional SEMs; the dual-keyboard monster came in 1977, I think).

Stephen