Monday, February 12, 2018

Music Monday (Styx/The Serpent is Rising, Side 2)

After covering side one of The Serpent is Rising here, it is now time to critique the flip side and hope things get better. Here's a hint: they don't. Before that though, let's take a look at what the 1980 re-issue cover looks like:


As the previous albums before, it also gets a new name. The title gets shortened down to simply Serpent. In this case I think I actually prefer the original though.

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5) Winner Take All - If there is anything close to a single from this album it's this song. Actually this is a very good song even if JY sings it. I found no charting information, but I do have two different singles of this song that were released. One has "Best Thing" on the flip side with Best of Styx as the credited album so that one was probably from the release of the Wooden Nickel compilation album in 1977. The other has "You Need Love" from Styx II as the A side and I'm guessing that was the release of that single after "Lady" hit it big (I talked about that here).

You've got to be strong if you're going to make it baby
You've got to stand tall if you're going to survive
So just take my hand and I'll show you how to feel alive
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Winner take all that's the way I play it
Playing my cards as the world goes by
Winner take all that's the way that I get high

You live your own life always needing someone baby
Then I appear to answer your call
Together I know we can ride the highway past them all
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Winner take all that's the way I play it
Playing my cards as the world goes by
Winner take all that's the way that I get high

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6) 22 Years - This is a simple little rocker where DDY and JY share vocals, kind of like on "Best Thing". Not an awful song at all. I love how you can tell it's so "70's" because they refer to their women as "mamas".


I've got a crazy little mama, Lord, she's my heart and soul
I don't even have to tell ya she knows how to rock and roll
Well this crazy lovin' mama makin' everything all right
I don't even have to tell ya she makes things seem outta sight
all right

Whenever I'm down and nothings going right at all
I just think about my baby and all I've got to do is call
When the evening's looking pretty and the day's hanging out too long
I know my baby cares about me right or wrong

It took a long time to find her
It took a lot of laughs and tears
It took a long time to find her
It took me 22 years

I've got a crazy little mama said, Lord, she's my heart and soul
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
I don't even have to tell ya she know's how to rock and roll
Well this crazy lovin' mama makin' everything all right yeah
I don't even have to tell ya she makes things seem outta sight all right

It took a long time to find her
It took a lot of laughs and tears
It took a long time to find her
It took me 22 years
Oh my

22 years...

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7) Jonas Psalter - You know what? Side two hasn't been too horrible so far. Wait, the next song is about a pirate? Welp, so much for that. Back to that medieval stuff. Surprisingly there is nothing dark about this song. The music is very "clean" sounding and tight. JY sings this song written by DDY.

When Captain Jonas Psalter sailed his ship to sea
Anne Bonny kept him company
The skull and crossbones flew above the ocean blue
The captain's men where a pirate's crew
The ships they sought to take were of the Spanish Main
A gift from Ferdinand of Spain

And though you rob and kill to find your dream
Your crimes are hardly what they seem

Tortuga held the treasure of a thousand kings
So Jonas planned to steal everything
Two hundred men stood guard around the fortune's nest
But Psalter's steel slew all the rest

And when the smoke had cleared and bloody bodies lay
Everyone could hear the minstrel play

Woo woo Jonas Psalter you've captured every prize
There is to dream of in one life
And so we wonder why we found you in your bed
With that bullet in your head

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8) The Serpent is Rising - Of course it is. Now this is the darkness that we have jumped right back in the middle of. JC sings this one and I just think it's awful. I guess it matches up with the "vagina song" from side one? The guitar solo in the middle is quite good however. 

In the abyss of space
From the center of time
A superman race
Moves the Serpent to climb

The journey has lasted
Seven ages or more
Life after life
Must pass through the door

The secret revealed
When you leave your cave
Is a glory of thunder
And life from the grave

The Serpent is rising
Uncoiling in your spine
Bringing you light
From the depths of your mind

The people have massed
In the center of town
We drink from a glass
And the world turns around

The Serpent is rising
Uncoiling in your spine
Bringing you light
From the depths of your mind

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9) Krakatoa/Hallelujah Chorus - I am glad that these are here together because I always think of them as one piece anyway.

"Krakatoa" is more like a spoken poem than an actual song. It is about a volcanic island situated between the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. The name is also used for the surrounding island group comprising the remnants of a much larger island of three volcanic peaks which was obliterated in a cataclysmic 1883 eruption, unleashing huge tsunamis (killing more than 36,000 people) and destroying over two-thirds of the island. The explosion is considered to be the loudest sound ever heard in modern history, with reports of it being heard up to 3,000 miles from its point of origin.

Krakatoa you've changed your ways from evil days.
Oh I know a once violent isle and gentle smile.
When the dust and lava cooled
You were sterile as the rock from which the earth was tooled.
Was man's beginning a wind borne spore to fly no more?
Nature's winning her docile spree has set her free.
Seeds were wafted on the wind
Forming heavy undergrowth for species winged and finned.
Tangled mangles rebuilt your soil from age dead toil.
Sheltered bay coves protecting life from Satan's knife.
Grow and island in the sun
Where the hell fire belching earth had destructively left none.

The most amazing part of this piece is actually the keyboard sounds in the background which crescendos in something everyone has heard before. Many years later that passage would be used by filmmaker George Lucas as the sonic logo for his THX theatre sound system. I know, right!

After "Krakatoa", what would be a fitting culmination to this magnificent album? If you thought "The Hallelujah Chorus" you would be right. The vocals are done by all the guys in the band, which in itself is impressive.

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In all seriousness though, this album is awful, with only a few highlights worth even mentioning. Only hardcore Styx fans would want to own this. It "peaked" at #192 on the Billboard 200, their second-lowest charting album, and has sold less than 100,000 copies worldwide (I have two!). Every now and then I have this fantasy of starting a grass roots campaign to get this album platinum status.

Like I said previously, there are times I actually like this album. I will play it around Halloween. It totally works.

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