MR

Yes this is number 4, for those keeping count . Yes I bored, school work done so I'm watching House, not the best episode tonight. So here goes (maybe next time I'll change topic around a little bit more).

Man of Miracles, Styx 4th cd, and the last on the label Wooden Nickel. This is my favorite off that label. Has all the Styx elements in place, rockers, ballads, screamers, over the top vocals, and it is all starting to come together. It still pales to most A&M cds and the newer ones, but it is good. But I have one question, if Lady hadn't taken off when this was released, would it have done better than the others WN cds.
Well, 2 questions, why was Unfinished song put on the re release of the 80's then taken off again for the late 90 re release?

Man of Miracles is a good cd, starts off rockin with a simple rocker called ROCKIN ROLL FEELING, and ends with my favorite song on the cd, a prog metal MAN OF MIRACLES (which I also put in JY's top 5). Again JY IMO is the star of the cd. SOUTHERN WOMAN is my second favorite song on cd.
JY drops the ball on JUST HAVIN A BALL (too repetitive) and A MAN LIKE ME, which goes nowhere, and not quick enough.

Dennis does good on GOLDEN LARK, like the strings in the song, and the lyrics show a softer side of him, that will become all to prominent.
A SONG FOR SUZANNE has a great piano part running thru it, and Dennis's vocals really move the song along.
EVIL EYES again show some good keyboard work from Dennis, but it is the vocal that makes this song shine.
But he does miss the mark with CHRISTOPHER, MR CHISTOPHER, and the end of the song really drags it down. IMO this is the worst song on the cd.
The was JY's last cd to really play a big part on. John C was nonexistent, and Dennis started coming into top form, as did the whole Styx machine.

SO back to the 2 questions
What about UNFINISHED SONG and LIES.
UNFINISHED SONG is a far better song than LIES. LIES seems to be loud without saying anything. Why another remake? UNFINISHED SONG builds slowly and keeps building, and has you singing with it. This could be the best song on the cd. but it is not really on the cd is it?

And would this cd have been a hit, if Lady hadn't taken off from the 2nd cd?-ERIC

OK, Eric. The final one in the WN four.

I do believe this album was coming closer to the classic Styx feel. Not quite there, but very close.

The best rock out song on this one to me is Southern Woman. Great rocker and, again, some amazing keyboard work from DDY.

I do like Rock and Roll Feeling a lot, but cannot say the same about Havin’ a Ball or A Man Like Me. Havin’ and A Man sound almost alike to me and are just sort of mundane rockers. And A Man Like Me has that irritating Mo-Townish “doo DOO” in it. Yuck! JY wrote or co-wrote all of these. He should have left A Man Like Me in the drawer.

The other JY co-write is Man of Miracles and I do like it quite a bit. Very close to the true Styx prog rock sound found on later albums.

The DDY songs have two standouts. Evil Eyes and Golden Lark. His vocals on both of these are terrific.

A Song for Suzanne sure could have been left off of this one in my view. That’s my only comment on that one.

Christopher, Mr. Christopher has interesting lyrics and is sung well, but it is ultimately unsatisfying to me. Not exactly sure why either.

Lies is ok. I sort of liked the original song by the Knickerbockers. Though Unfinished Song was recorded earlier, it would have been nice to include it on this, or the previous, WN release. It really is a good song. WAY better than the Lies cover. I am so glad the WN collection included it.

Enjoyed your four threads, Eric!

Bugsy

Hmmm...This is a tuff one.

I like a few songs on this. Golden Lark is probably one of my favorite songs. I think Dennis does extremely well on it.

I like "Man of Miracles" but only the beginning. I don't like it much after the Vocal parts at the beginning. I don't really know why.

The album as a whole is a good kick off for what was about to happen on the next album.

A pretty good album. Love that dirty wicked monster groan of the Hammond B3 at the beginning of the title track. Golden Lark is good too. More the prog side of Styx that they all but abandoned after this.

DanMan wrote:Hmmm...This is a tuff one.

I like a few songs on this. Golden Lark is probably one of my favorite songs. I think Dennis does extremely well on it.

I like "Man of Miracles" but only the beginning. I don't like it much after the Vocal parts at the beginning. I don't really know why.

The album as a whole is a good kick off for what was about to happen on the next album.

Thank you DanMan.
That is very close to my opinion too.
IMO Dennis got the best songs here.(and some may say,don't he always???No.
Anyways.JC is almost not there.JY's songs are just to perky, instead of right in your face.Southern Woman is the only corker of his ,here.
Man of miracles ,though is an excellent dual composition(+Brandle).
Of the songs for Suzanne,Song For Suzanne is one of his better ,more edgy,compared to the sappysyropy, we will soon enough have to suffer through.
Not as good as Serpent,better than 2 and equal 1.
AbitEric,good subject.
Bless the Wooden Nickel years,A&M,here we come.

Man of Miracles is my favourite Wooden Nickel album. If you didn't know, you would think it was an A&M album - the sound is very similar to Equinox IMO. And despite the negatives, I actually quite enjoy the song "Christopher, Mr. Christopher". It sounds very dated now, but if you look at the times, I believe there was quite the controversy within the Catholic Church around whether or not St. Christopher was a saint. I guess Dennis being a proper Catholic lad decided to make a statement against the church eliminating that saint. It was a theme that existed earlier with Father O.S.A. I believe that Dennis always struggled with some of the staunch teachings of the Catholic Church.

I love this album! There were a couple of different versions of it released. This was their "last chance" studio album on Wooden Nickel. They recorded "LIES" and released it as a single, hoping for a hit. When they went to WLS, WLS would not play it. Dennis hated the song so "Lies" was later replaced with that stand-by "Best Thing". I believe a copy of Man Of Miracles with "Best Thing" is the rarest Styx find of all, album-wise.

Then, in 1980 the RCA re-issue included "Unfinished Song". When it was finally released by RCA on CD in the earl 90's we were back to "Lies".

I discovered this album when I was 12 years old, in 1983. I had "Best Of Styx" which featured a few tracks from it so I knew it would be a good album as a whole.

R&R Feeling, Jy & JC... Then Havin' A Ball, JY & JC again. Two fun tracks, I love John's drum sound on these songs and Chuck's bass playing at the end of R&R Feeling. Too bad there are no JC vocals on this album.

Golden Lark, such a sad yet beautiful song. I like how it segues into Song For Suzanne.

Musically, they were VERY strong on this album.

Interesting you would say the weakest song is "Christopher, Mr. Christopher" as this is DDY's favorite Wooden Nickel tune, other than "Lady". In 1999 when I interviewed Dennis we talked in great detail about the Wooden Nickel albums (and the interview may still be posted on-line somewhere but I do not know where). He told me he liked the song "Christopher Mr Christopher" from the MOM album.

I have always been a big fan of the Wooden Nickel era. Not a bad album in the bunch if you ask me.

I find myself liking about half the songs on this one.

I think my favorite song off this one is Evil Eyes. Others on this one that I enjoy would be Golden Lark, Christopher Mr. Christopher, and Rock and Roll Feeling.

I am in the minority I realize....but I would have been just as happy had neither Lies nor Unfinished Song been included on this.

Cover art is my favorite out of the Wooden Nickel era albums.

I put "Styx II", "Serpent", and this one into about the same league. There was maybe a little bit of development with each release, but I don't see a huge difference in quality between any of these early albums. "Miracles" might be a bit better, though, as far as the production. It's amazing how much better this band became once they were with A&M.

My favorites here are "Southern Woman" and "A Song For Suzanne".
"Southern Woman" is by far the best rocker the band had before the A&M years. "A Song For Suzanne" might be a little over the top, but I really like the mood of the song. The guitar before the last verse really catches fire, too. It's hard to believe these sentiments would eventually be presented in the style of "Babe" and "Don't Let It End".





I think this album was really a glimpse into the future, as far as the direction that the Styx sound was going to go in.