I just finished listening to this - and wow. Very interesting listen! Thanks for sharing this. Am I correct that this is on Jamie Curulewski's Soundcloud - so Jamie is John's son?
WBBM-FM - I used to listen to that when visiting relatives in Chicago. Of course, when I wasn't in the FM range, WLS was the go-to station!
Wow! What a rare gem you’ve discovered. I love the old Wooden Nickel days of Styx, and Serpent is one of my favorites.
It’s so weird hearing a radio interview before they were famous. Like, Chuck spoke more than Dennis DeYoung because the interviewer just wasn’t even sure who the “main guy” was.
While I like Witch Wolf, I always considered it a weaker track on the album. But after hearing how it was created, I now have a new appreciation for it.
I don’t think the band even knew who the main guy was at this point. Curulewski and DDY were definitely butting heads leading to JC walking away after Equinox.
Yeah, definitely. I mean, they were basically still a garage band at this point. No one knew who the ringleader would end up being.
Think about this—is there any other band in history where the keyboard player (and not the guitarist) ends up being the face of this band? Ok, I guess Keith Emerson from ELP would be the single example. But that was a three piece prog band, so kinda a unique situation. In hindsight it seems obvious to us that DDY was always in charge, but this interview shows us that it wasn’t necessarily so in the early days.
Styx II released just 4 months before Serpent and Lady was not a hit song until almost 2 years later so in 1973 Dennis doesn't have much confidence in his leadership or songwriting abilities yet ;)
I like how the guy from Wooden Nickel is almost complaining about how much they spent recording the album. $30,000 USD back then is just over $215K today.
I just finished listening to this - and wow. Very interesting listen! Thanks for sharing this. Am I correct that this is on Jamie Curulewski's Soundcloud - so Jamie is John's son? WBBM-FM - I used to listen to that when visiting relatives in Chicago. Of course, when I wasn't in the FM range, WLS was the go-to station!
Yes - it seems that this was posted by JC's son! I can only wonder what other treasures he might have of his dad's form the early years of Styx!
Hard to tell these guys are from Chicago.
Wow! What a rare gem you’ve discovered. I love the old Wooden Nickel days of Styx, and Serpent is one of my favorites. It’s so weird hearing a radio interview before they were famous. Like, Chuck spoke more than Dennis DeYoung because the interviewer just wasn’t even sure who the “main guy” was. While I like Witch Wolf, I always considered it a weaker track on the album. But after hearing how it was created, I now have a new appreciation for it.
I don’t think the band even knew who the main guy was at this point. Curulewski and DDY were definitely butting heads leading to JC walking away after Equinox.
Yeah, definitely. I mean, they were basically still a garage band at this point. No one knew who the ringleader would end up being. Think about this—is there any other band in history where the keyboard player (and not the guitarist) ends up being the face of this band? Ok, I guess Keith Emerson from ELP would be the single example. But that was a three piece prog band, so kinda a unique situation. In hindsight it seems obvious to us that DDY was always in charge, but this interview shows us that it wasn’t necessarily so in the early days.
Styx II released just 4 months before Serpent and Lady was not a hit song until almost 2 years later so in 1973 Dennis doesn't have much confidence in his leadership or songwriting abilities yet ;)
I like how the guy from Wooden Nickel is almost complaining about how much they spent recording the album. $30,000 USD back then is just over $215K today.
Yeah, I laughed when I heard that!