Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Styx
Label: A&M Records / Interscope
Release: 1983
Length: 40:41
Rating: 3.5/5
Something awkward yet hilarious happened to the guys in the legendary American arena/prog rock outfit Styx in 1983, right after they’d strung together no fewer than four multi-platinum albums in a row (still a record of its own kind) that rocketed them to the top of the radio charts of the day. That year they put out their eleventh studio album, the conceptually hyper-pompous rock opera »Kilroy Was Here«, and thanks to a pretentiousness that went a bit past the edge of good taste this time, they basically killed arena rock dead and shoved it into oblivion for quite a while. Even though the tour promoting it was a complete financial disaster, the album was a commercial success and nearly matched the numbers of its predecessors, but the disagreements between band members meant Styx fell apart right after the tour and only came back in 1989.
The main culprit for the temporary breakup was surely keyboardist and singer Denis DeYoung, the mastermind behind one of the most pretentiously pompous concepts of all time, which even got a megalomaniac stage production on the »Kilroy Was Here« tour. They even played a short introductory film, while individual band members acted out the main characters of the concept. It was the peak of DeYoung’s pompous kitsch, comparable to King Arthur and his faithful knights dancing on ice in a solo production by legendary Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman way back in 1975, which still stands as a kind of pinnacle of conceptual stage overkill, at least where progressive rock is concerned.
»Kilroy Was Here« tells a socially critical story about a former rock star named Robert Orin Charles Kilroy (played on stage by DeYoung), who lives in a dystopian future where robots have become part of everyday human life. A fascistoid totalitarian regime rules the people with an iron fist through its robots and its supreme propagandist, the religiously deranged evangelist ‘Doctor Righteous’, Everett Righteous (played on stage by guitarist and singer James Young, with the Panozzo twin brothers keeping him company as his bodyguards), who never stops preaching about the depravity of heavy metal. The regime has accordingly banned every form of music, especially rock, which corrupts the youth.
Japanese-made police robots set off to hunt down the rebel Kilroy, who keeps playing music and tries to fool the tyrannical regime. Doctor Righteous catches him and throws him in a cell, but he manages to escape. With the help of a robot mask and a cybernetic suit of armor, Kilroy then disguises himself as one of the robot jailers and takes the name Mr. Roboto, so he can slip unrecognized into a safe zone. By the way, all the robots in the fascist regime’s service are called Robotos. To this day, plenty of popular media crack jokes about this goofy name. The toy corporation Mattel even named one of its Masters of the Universe figures Roboto not long after the album came out, while The Simpsons later borrowed the title of this cult song as well. At the end of the story Kilroy meets a young musician named Jonathan Chance (played on stage by guitarist and singer Tommy Shaw), who is on a special mission to bring rock music back to life. And so new hope blossoms for a decisive uprising against the regime.
It’s more than obvious that DeYoung partly took his cue for the concept from Frank Zappa’s masterpiece »Joe’s Garage« (1979), where music was banned as well, although every further comparison falls apart right there. He also drew inspiration from the crusade a certain circle of American congressmen was waging against all forms of ‘immoral’ rock music, and their obsession with subliminal messages, which was going on at full force at the time. By the way, ‘Kilroy Was Here’ is a popular phrase Americans have used since the Second World War, when it first appeared, to label a certain type of graffiti showing a bald little man with a long nose and hands hanging over a wall.
Goofy, thoroughly chewed-over Orwellian concept or not, »Kilroy Was Here« as a whole is not a bad album at all. There are quite a few excellent pieces on it, and even the moments where the band seems to have outdone itself in almost absurd inflation of pomp rock muscle, going beyond good taste, still offer plenty of good fun and even laughs after the test of time. The notorious cult classic »Mr. Roboto« mentioned above fits that description right away. By far the most recognizable creation and the lead single of the album, with its experimenting with synths, goofy ‘stomp’ rhythms and dreadful lyrics, it’s so kitschy, so dumb, so absurd that it ends up actually being good. The repetitive synthesizer lines with their electronic sound pull off an ambience of total robotization, while DeYoung’s theatrical vocal performance, led by the hypnotic ‘domo arigato Mr. Roboto’ chorus, is among the best of his career. Needless to say, the guitars were completely cut out of the production here. It’s hard to believe that this notorious Styx classic is nowadays, especially among Americans, practically a cultural phenomenon, almost on the level of Chuck Norris.
»Cold War«, where Shaw takes over the lead vocals, is a kind of mix of classic and ‘synthetic’ Styx, with hefty guitar phases and drum fills plus ‘Nintendo’ accompaniment on the synthesizers. Experimenting with the then-innovative synth technology was hugely popular in this period, so quite a lot can be forgiven them on that front today. DeYoung’s sugary love ballad »Don’t Let It End«, which has all the typical hallmarks of this legendary keyboardist’s songwriting and singing approach, was the second hit single from the album after »Mr. Roboto«. Despite the saccharine lyrics, it has a pleasant melody fronted by symphonic arrangements and an epic chorus crowned with a nostalgic atmosphere, and the guitar harmonies are truly excellent this time around too.
The melodic rocker »High Time«, the third single from the album, is yet another mid-tempo piece, with horn arrangements as well, and it’s among the less inspired moments of the record, where the excellent vocal harmonies under DeYoung’s command impress most. The aptly titled hard-hitting hard rocker »Heavy Metal Poisoning« comes off all the more fun, a vocal parody by Young of the fake moralism of American religious zealots and the supposed satanic subliminal messages in rock. The epic chorus is accompanied by mighty vocal harmonies, massive drum fills and a hefty guitar riff. Another of the album’s better moments is the epic power ballad »Just Get Through This Night«, which opens as an acoustic soul-baring on waves of piano under Shaw’s melodic vocal lead, until a switch into a more spirited section follows, with no shortage of a mouthwatering guitar solo either.
»Double Life« is another excellent hard rocker that could even be called the album’s hidden gem, with epic vocal harmonies under Young’s thunderous and Shaw’s melodic vocal baton, and a mighty guitar riff enriched with witty synthesizer arrangements and playful horns. »Haven’t We Been Here Before« is another Shaw melodic rock ballad with ethereal piano and acoustic guitar arrangements, where Styx once again show off their always astonishing mastery of epic vocal harmonies. »Don’t Let It End (Reprise)« is a somewhat unimaginative finale to this conceptual achievement since, as its title says, it repeats the central »Don’t Let It End« motif as well as the central »Mr. Roboto« motif with altered lyrics and Shaw in the triumphant role of lead vocalist and conceptual rock star Jonathan Chance.
»Kilroy Was Here« is, without a shred of doubt and in all its conceptual absurdity, the most entertaining experiment in the story of the legendary Chicago arena rockers, who used it to perform a ritual suicide of pretentiousness and vanish from the top of the American melodic rock scene for quite a while. It’s the most controversial album in the Styx story, one that still stirs up plenty of mixed feelings and heated debates among the band’s followers, with at least as many detractors as defenders. For better and for worse, DeYoung’s hyper-pompous concept is the millstone around the neck of an otherwise musically very solid effort that you can enjoy without any trouble, as long as you don’t take it too seriously. As for what the remaining members, Shaw and Young, who still carry on the Styx name, think of it, the best clue is that since DeYoung’s departure in 1999 they haven’t played a single song from it live, and they stick to that to this day.
Lineup
Dennis DeYoung – keyboards, vocals as Kilroy
Tommy Shaw – guitar, vocals as Jonathan Chance
James Young – guitar, vocals as Dr. Righteous
Chuck Panozzo – bass guitar, backing vocals as Lt. Vanish
John Panozzo – drums, backing vocals as Colonel Hyde
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Dan Barber – horn
Steve Eisen – saxophoneMike Halpin – horn
Michael Mossman – horn
Mark Ohlson – horn
Production
Styx
Tracklist
1. Mr. Roboto
2. Cold War
3. Don’t Let It End
4. High Time
5. Heavy Metal Poisoning
6. Just Get Through This Night
7. Double Life
8. Haven’t We Been Here Before
9. Don’t Let It End (Reprise)
