Paradise Theatre/Cornerstone as one album

[ChicagoSTYX]

Here is a little rewrite of history……
Combine Cornerstone and Paradise Theatre into one album. It would have given DDY time to record a solo album with Babe, First Time, Nothing Ever Goes As Planned, Lonely People and a few other new songs. It would have given the band a break from each other and the road and given DDY an outlet for his softer side. It may also have given DDY much greater success as a solo artist and kept the band together. ….. Discuss.

Paradise Theatre (New Version)
Side 1
Rockn’ The Paradise
Lights
Snowblind
Why Me
Boat On The River

Side 2
Borrowed Time
Too Much Time On My Hands
Best Of Times
Love In The Midnight
Half-Penny, Two-Penny

[FormerDJMike]

Hmmm... For me Paradise is a perfect album, don't think i would add anything to it from Cornerstone with the exception of maybe Borrowed Time. Might be the only song that fits the concept.

[StyxGuy]

I agree that each is better as they are...

Also in terms of how things were done then, you only have approx 22 minutes per side of vinyl and if you include the AD 1928/1958 parts, the second side is about 4 minute too long... and I'd probably also want State Street Saide which is another 30 seconds.

AD 1928/Rockin Paradise - 4:43
Lights - 4:38
Snowblind - 5:00
Why Me - 3:54
Boat On The River - 3:10

21:25

Borrowed Time - 4:58
Too Much Time - 4:31
Best of Time - 4:19
Love in Midnight - 5:25
Half-Penny / AD 1958 - 7:00

26:13

Total playing time - 47:38

[ChicagoSTYX]

I agree that each is better as they are...

Also in terms of how things were done then, you only have approx 22 minutes per side of vinyl and if you include the AD 1928/1958 parts, the second side is about 4 minute too long... and I'd probably also want State Street Saide which is another 30 seconds.

AD 1928/Rockin Paradise - 4:43
Lights - 4:38
Snowblind - 5:00
Why Me - 3:54
Boat On The River - 3:10

21:25

Borrowed Time - 4:58
Too Much Time - 4:31
Best of Time - 4:19
Love in Midnight - 5:25
Half-Penny / AD 1958 - 7:00

26:13

Total playing time - 47:38

In that case, I would drop Love In The Midnight to have it fit onto the vinyl.
I think it would have given DDY a big boost as a solo artist to put the other songs on a solo album in 1979 and then Styx come back with this album in 1981. Also think it would have kept Styx together had DDY had another outlet.

[Grotelul]

I would have rather seen them take a year off after the PT tour. Those guys could have done solo records and cooled off a bit by being away from each other. But, if they had still done Kilroy as it was after that, I still think it would have split the band. Dennis should have kept the goofy, sappy stuff for his solo records and left the rock stuff for Styx.

Cornerstone was a big downer for me when it came out. I can understand moving away from the prog stuff but Cornerstone went too far soft for my taste. I remember seeing Cornerstone for the first time in the record bin. The cover looked cool...still kind of proggy, but then I saw the label on the record saying ...Includes the songs Babe, Lights and I don't remember. Babe? Really? What happened to the band that produced The Grand Illusion and POE? There are three Styx records from the A&M years that I never play. Cornerstone, Kilroy and Edge.

It's funny, but the spell correct keeps changing Kilroy to Pile Of......hmmmm.

[StyxGuy]

I would have rather seen them take a year off after the PT tour. Those guys could have done solo records and cooled off a bit by being away from each other. But, if they had still done Kilroy as it was after that, I still think it would have split the band. Dennis should have kept the goofy, sappy stuff for his solo records and left the rock stuff for Styx.

Cornerstone was a big downer for me when it came out. I can understand moving away from the prog stuff but Cornerstone went too far soft for my taste. I remember seeing Cornerstone for the first time in the record bin. The cover looked cool...still kind of proggy, but then I saw the label on the record saying ...Includes the songs Babe, Lights and I don't remember. Babe? Really? What happened to the band that produced The Grand Illusion and POE? There are three Styx records from the A&M years that I never play. Cornerstone, Kilroy and Edge.

It's funny, but the spell correct keeps changing Kilroy to Pile Of......hmmmm.

Dennis has always maintained that Babe was recorded purely as a song for his wife for her birthday and he had no intention of it being a Styx song. The record company demanded it be included on the album and he said 'OK'. No other band member has ever refuted this, but they have complained about the song plenty.

In terms of 'what happened to the band that produced GI and POE' well.. as Dennis has also said, he writes the best songs he can at the time. He came to the table with what he had and the rest of the band (Tommy, JY) came to the table with what they had as well. A break may have been a good move, but remember it was GI that shot them into stardom.. taking a break just a few years after becoming a big success usually isn't in the cards for most bands.

[masque]

no break was all that necessary. tons of bands ride the flame for as long as they can when the fire ignites.

the bottom line was that after PT, styx did an album that did not resonate with the total fanbase the way previous albums had. bands and writers change. they wrote what they could at the time and sure, DDY's concept may have backed them into a bit of a corner as writers, but it is what it is.

look at all the bands that fizzled eventually in the 80's;

kansas fizzled first
then styx
foreigner and REO kind of did at the same time
journey was the last of those bands like from the late 70's that faded.

but styx and kansas were also the ones who had bigger success in the 70's before the others above did......styx broke in 75 and kansas in 76. so they broke sooner and flamed out earlier.....but all of their runs were very similar with maybe journey's being a bit longer and bigger.

you could even add queen to the list too......blew up in 75 and fizzled in america by 83.

it's just the cyclical nature of popular music. doesn't mean these artists werent still good....but the public's interest had shifted. and let's face it, would anyone say kilroy was better than grand illusion? raised on radio over escape? the works over a night at the opera? drastic measures over leftoverture? so the reality is that while we love styx and most of those bands, the quality of their output was not as good as when they were at their height of popularity.

most of these artists all had 6-8 year long runs with their best output and most popularity.