Any of the million people who have recently gone online to see a 73-year-old Dennis DeYoung effortlessly sing the Styx hit “The Best of Times” like a young pomp-rock buck of 19... well, at that point you’re won over and ready for the man’s first solo album in 13 years, a record that delivers all the magic that made Styx great in their heyday, sprung from a logic-defying fountain of youth.
26 East: Volume 1 is all that and more, DeYoung collaborating with a man of equal top-shelf talent, namely Jim Peterik, the two of them crafting lush powerful pop, a bit of heaviness, a bit of prog, some poignant balladry and a number of surprises along the way, including a duet with Julian Lennon.
The record is deliberately autobiographical, charting DeYoung’s roots in the music biz stretching all the way back to 1961. “Yeah, but we weren’t really serious,” says DeYoung, dismissively. “We didn’t become a rock band until we saw The Beatles, and that took a couple of years. Before that I played the accordion. I didn’t play rock music. So we didn’t get serious about music until after The Beatles, and then really serious until after the five originals ended up in the same place in 1970. And that’s when we started doing demos. But before that, no, we were just making money, playing gigs, having a laugh.”
So that history is referenced, and then the arrival of fame, when DeYoung found out Styx was to have a lot of enemies — cue this record’s “With All Due Respect.”
This story is from the August 2020 edition of GOLDMINE.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 2020 edition of GOLDMINE.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
THE GRAND POOBAH!
SINCE THEIR INCARNATION in the early 1970s, the band Poobah have recorded over a dozen albums with various lineups, while openi ng for some of rock and roll’s biggest names.
THE MAKING OF PEARL
JANIS JOPLIN IN 1970: A NEW B AND AND THE MAKING OF HER CLASSIC ALBUM, PEARL.
There Must Have Been Something in the Water
If The Beatles never happened, if the British invasion never occurred, then music fans around the world would more than likely never have been exposed to some of the finest white blues singers that the U.K. produced between 1964 and 1970.
The SAGA Continues
SAGA WERE NOT THE ONLY band to make an album during the pandemic — far from it.
Ten Years After MORE THAN 50 YEARS LATER
DRUMMER RIC LEE TALKS TO GOLDMINE ABOUT A TEN YEARS AFTER DELUXE EDITION OF THE A STING IN THE TALE ALBUM AND HIS RECENTLY RELEASED MEMOIR, FROM HEADSTOCKS TO WOODSTOCK.
SUZI QUATRO IS BACK!
WITH A NEW ALBUM, THE DEVIL IN ME, THIS PIONEERING FEMALE ROCKER REMAINS AS DRIVEN AND DETERMINED AS EVER
RE-SHAKE & RE-MAKE
WITH THE RERELEASE OF THEIR DEBUT ALBUM, SHAKE YOUR MONEY MAKER, THE BLACK CROWES FLY HIGH BY REFLECTING ON THEIR ROOTS.
LOVE FOR PEARL
2021 will be a big year for fans of Janis Joplin. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is curating a special exhibit devoted to her that is scheduled to open in May.
Q&A WITH JANIS' SIBLINGS, LAURA AND MICHAEL JOPLIN
Q&A WITH JANIS’ SIBLINGS, LAURA AND MICHAEL JOPLIN
CHERISHING CITY TO CITY A timeless classic by GERRY RAFFERTY
It’s early 1978 and the new single by Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty, “Baker Street,” is blasting out on the airwaves on my small transistor radio.
