Styx - Paradise Theatre
- FaceOff - עימות חזיתי
- Jan 16
- 4 min read
Written By: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 16.01.1981
“A disastrous day is a day of change, and a day of change is a disastrous day,” sang Eran Tzur as a paraphrase of Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Gabirol’s poem “My throat trembles when I call out.”
About a decade and a half before “B’Kislev” was written, the American rock band Styx had already embodied that very idea. Formed in 1972 in Chicago, Illinois by Dennis DeYoung, Steve Young, John Curulewski, and brothers Chuck and John Panozzo, "Styx" began as a hard rock and progressive rock band. However, the hit “Babe”, written by singer and keyboardist Dennis DeYoung toward the end of the decade, completely changed the band’s trajectory.
DeYoung, who enjoyed the chart success, decided to shift direction and lead "Styx" toward a more melodic sound, ignoring the wishes of guitarist and songwriter Tommy Shaw (who joined the band in 1975), and guitarist and vocalist James "JY" Young, both of whom wanted to remain faithful to the band’s original style. As if that were not enough, “Boat on the River”, written by Shaw, also became another hit from the album "Cornerstone".
The disputes between the parties led to DeYoung’s temporary dismissal, but upon his return, Styx proved they still had a few tricks up their sleeve, just before heading toward the sunset, with the release of the concept album "Paradise Theatre" on January 16, 1981.
The album presents a fictional portrayal of the “Paradise Theatre” in Chicago, from its opening in 1928 to its closure in 1956 (it was later demolished), serving as a metaphor for America’s changing times from the late 1970s into the 1980s.
Dennis DeYoung, who envisioned and developed the entire concept, explained that the album’s theme is a theme of hope and renewal in the spirit of the American people, to understand the problems facing the world and this country, and to find solutions to those problems on their own. Do not rely on others to do things for you, but do them yourself. If you hate your job but have a dream, chase it. Just do not sit around and complain.
The songs on the album deal with people who are out of sync with themselves and with their surroundings.
The idea connects rapid decline with a lament for a bygone golden age, symbolized by the theatre that was built on the eve of the Great Depression in 1928 and died in the mid-1950s. This concept resonated strongly with America’s economic struggles of the late seventies and early eighties.
Musically, the album blends rock tracks with more melodic songs, and the tension between DeYoung’s approach and that of Shaw and Young is clearly felt.
The album opens with “A.D. 1928”, which serves as an intro to “Rockin’ the Paradise”, a song in which DeYoung urges the American people to return to the hard work that once made America great.
That line of thought continues with “Too Much Time on My Hands”, which tells the story of an unemployed man who spends all his time at the local bar, complaining about everything happening in the world without the ability to look at himself in the mirror, pick up the pieces, and leave the bar to earn his living again. The song was written by Tommy Shaw, inspired by his experiences at a local bar in Niles, Michigan.
The album continues with a song filled with hard-earned wisdom, “Nothing Ever Goes as Planned”, or as it is often paraphrased in a faith-based Hebrew version, “Man plans, and God laughs.” The song was inspired by the 1979 novel "Good As Gold" by Joseph Heller and reflects Murphy’s Law in musical form. Dennis DeYoung explained: “The song is about three characters who make plans, and then something unexpected happens that completely derails those plans.”
The next stage is the realization that the world is changing, and not for the better, and that the way to endure is through love, as DeYoung sings in “The Best of Times”, which was the album’s first single and became a massive success on the American charts, peaking at number three.
With “Snowblind”, "Styx" faced condemnation from fundamentalist Christian groups who failed to understand that the song was a warning sign about cocaine addiction. Instead, they believed the track supposedly contained a satanic message and encouraged drug use, completely missing its cautionary intent.
The song “Half Penny, Two Penny” deals with themes of financial corruption that led America to its troubled economic state at the time.
Beyond the concept itself and the internal tug-of-war between the band’s dominant creative forces, "Styx" also demonstrated clear forward thinking. The band produced three music videos for three singles from the album, a move that proved highly effective. When MTV went on air in August 1981, the channel aired those three singles frequently, a factor that helped "Styx" gain a large new audience of young fans during that period.
In the end, Paradise Theatre marked the end of an era, not only for the theatre or for America of the seventies, but also the approaching end of "Styx" themselves.
"Justice for money what can you say, we all know it's the American way"
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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