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The Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings

Styx - The Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings Audio CD

A fair review of the Styx "The Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Styx reviews here, or go back to the Styx tabs.

Band: Styx
Title: The Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings
Rating:

Release Date: 2005-02-15
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Movement For The Common Man 2: Right Away 3: What Has Come Between Us 4: Best Thing 5: Quick Is The Beat Of My Heart 6: After You Leave Me 7: You Need Love 8: Lady 9: A Day 10: You Better Ask 11: Little Fugue In "G" 12: Father O.S.A. 13: Earl Of Roseland 14: I'm Gonna Make You Feel It 15: Unfinished Song 16: Witch Wolf 17: The Grove Of Eglantine 18: Young Man 19: As Bad As This 20: Winner Takes All 21: 22 Years 22: Jonas Psalter 23: The Serpent Is Rising 24: Krakatoa 25: Hallelujah Chorus 26: Rock & Roll Feeling 27: Havin' A Ball 28: Golden Lark 29: A Song For Suzanne 30: A Man Like Me 31: Lies 32: Evil Eyes 33: Southern Woman 34: Christopher, Mr. Christopher 35: Man Of Miracles

A "No-Brainer" buy for Styx fans

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. For any die-hard Styx fan, 35 songs for just under $15 bucks is a helluva deal. 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
Oddly, there was no clear pattern evident about either increasing or decreasing quality as time went on with this band. Out of the 4 early albums contained in this 2 CD set, there is the equivalent of about 3 good albums. 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
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. 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. 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
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. What a treat to get all of this great music (4 seperate recordings) on a 2-disc compliation.

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.

Styx fans will appreciate this thoughtful packaging of the early years
Don't get me wrong, though, there is some good rock n' roll here. The Amazon customer-review average of 5 stars, across nearly 50 reviewers, ludicrously overstates the merits of this music, effectively proclaiming it a must-have masterpiece.

A third of the tunes could be compiled to comprise a highly recommended, great work of 70s AOR, with plenty of guitar crunch, pounding keyboards, amped up vocals and soaring harmonies. Add to that some proggish tendencies in composition and lyrics and some of the over-the-top style of arrangment and production they'd become well known for.

Half the tunes make for extremely satisfying listening for Styx fans and a solid listen for most fans of 70s-style, straight-ahead, AOR. The other half consists of weak-to-middling stuff that comes from a band in its formative years working out kinks and discovering strengths. Styx fans will find most of that "other half" a decent, intriguing listening experience.

Many will make it a habit to skip "As Bad as This" by John Curlewski and his "Krakatoa" as well. "Bad" seems intended to be an interlude in the "Serpent" album, providing a jarring shift from a meditative mood to a presumedly humorous take on Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat" (?!). This tune will only annoy the listener who is already in the groove of this album.

Curlewski, while offering the highly enjoyable, moody and mellow "A Day," has a thin voice and a delivery that pales in comparsion to the vocal powers of Dennis DeYoung and James Young. After hearing these recordings, I feel his soon-to-be departure from the band is not much of a loss, particularly given the future addition of Tommy Shaw. This is not a commentary on Curlewski's guitar chops, which are strong, but Shaw and James Young will have no problem in this area.

These early albums are definitely a highly entertaining and interesting look at a landmark group's formative years, particularly in it's ventures into proggish and hard-rock territory. There is already a strong tendency towards the lush, dramatic arrangments and lyrics they'd be known and loved (and hated by self-righteous critics) for. The vocal harmonies are in place but the tunesmithing isn't quite as refined as it would become.

The project-like care and remastering that went into this album of music, makes for a handsome, enjoyable and, for huge fans of Styx only, essential package. Whatever you do, though, do not purchase this with 5-star expectations.

You can see a complete list of all Styx discography, or go back to the Styx tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.