It's hilarious, given DeYoung actually pulled off being a rocker better before he cut his hair/beard. But then he does so immediate when he begins playing the role of ROCK MUSIC ITSELF.
I love that there are comments trying to justify Dennis DeYoung pronouncing "modern" as "modren", but no one tries to justify his mangled pronunciation of "mannequin"
Mannequin would make sense he's trying to rhyme it with Japan, so yeah a bit of creative freedom there, but the Modren is just stupid, there's no second line to rhyme it with, in fact it's the second to the last word of the verse, so I dunno why he tried to pronounce it like that lmfao.
@@uukyspuuky3121So; it just says "modren", on purpose? Even though "modren"; isn't actually a word that people have ever actually used like before, in actual, REAL sentences, ever? Or as other people have been trying to justify, that line(or song), sounding like something the cast of It's Always Sunny; would make.
My favorite thing about this premise (learned long after I first heard the opening song) is that "Kilroy Was Here" was a meme started in the 1940's where American GI's would doodle this little dude in odd places with the words "Kilroy was here". What it means is unclear, but it's bathroom graffiti that people in the 80's *might've* known or remembered, maybe seen in odd places at school or work. They certainly wouldn't have thought Kilroy was a hero or a savior or even thought enough about him to "forget what you know." Kilroy was a bald dude with a big nose that peeked at you in that locker room the high school hasn't remodeled in 40 years. Truly, an unsung hero of rock and roll.
I had that doodles on the griptape of my skateboard in 1986 having no clue of the history of it back then. Saw it spray painted on a wall under a bridge.
In the book Rails, by legendary train photographer Don Ball, there's a picture of a Union Pacific 9000 blasting around the curve at the station in Lawrence, Kansas in 1955, at dawn. In the foreground, "Kilroy Was Here" and the cartoon guy appear on a relay box. It's one of only maybe a half-dozen pictures I've ever seen with Kilroy in it. Apparently, Kilroy was so ubiquitous that people didn't think to photograph it. Ironically, so were steam engines, once.
The best theory I've encountered is that the Kilroy message originally came from an inspector at a Navy yard, who used the phrase to mark parts and compartments he had finished inspecting. Soldiers would have seen the incongruous phrase in odd spots inside troop transports, where painting the interior was a relatively low priority in the crush of early-war production. It's an inherently kind of memorable phrase, so it's easy to see it becoming a meme for soldiers to graffiti in out-of-the-way spots, and the doodle would probably been added later. It reminds me of that Old Norse runic inscription up near the top of some cathedral in Istanbul that says something like "this is really high".
I've never heard this album beyond Mr. Roboto. I thought the album was about a robot becoming sentient and wanting to connect with humans through music...I feel so disappointed now...
In an earlier episode homer likes Styx. It’s when he goes to a record store. Idk the direct quote. Sum like “oldies this is good music” sum shit like that.
@@msoileau83In terms of bands in 1983 who would have been believable saviors of rock, I would totally pick AC/DC. Unlike Styx, AC/DC were properly mom-scaring Hard Rockers (so they would have made sense as enemies for a Rock-hating "moral majority" dictator), but they were still catchy and fun-loving enough that they make sense as the good guys. Plus they're Australian, and if Mad Max taught me anything it's that Australia is the place to be in the apocalypse. Twisted Sister would also be believable candidates, given that they're best known for anthems about rock and rebellion ("I Wanna Rock" and "We're Not Gonna Take It" would both totally fit on a concept album with the same themes as Kilroy) and Dee Snyder actually testified against the PMRC's campaign for music censorship in the 80's. Ultimately, just about any rock band who didn't insist on being as softcore and palatable as Styx did at this point would fit the concept better. The theme song for the villain who hates rock is the hardest rocker on the whole album! In a world where Rock and Roll were outlawed, Styx wouldn't become the outlaw heroes of rock, they would have just become a lounge act.
ac dc while a great hard rock band do not think the big thinks so these concepts would beyond them. in this story styx doesn't save rock two fictional characters join up do try.
13:29 Todd: There's a song about leading a double-life... Styx: LEEEAADDIING A DOOUUBBLE LIIIIIFE Lyrical mastery there, that's more on the nose than any of Hannah Montana's songs.
Cyberpunk exists in a sleep-deprived state of delirium you can only reach by smoking a lot of pot while Blade Runner and Johnny Mnemonic play somewhere in the background
It's like a boring alternate universe version of the dystopian future in Rush's 2112. In 2112 made you want to rise up against the Priests of Syrinx and bring rock and joy back to people's lives. Kilroy Was Here makes you *want* the bastards to stop the music.
In a better world, "renegade" was a letter Kilroy wrote on death row, and when a Mr Roboto that was sent to take him to the gallows comes and malfunctions, Kilroy uses its parts as a disguise to escape. Also Heavy Metal Poisioning would've had church organ for its music
That was what I first thought too when I thought about what would be appropriate for Dr. Righteous. The fact that people like us can fill in gaps with potential ideas shows how thrown-together this album is.
Clearly he was saying Modron Man, refering to the Modrons from Dungeons and Dragons. They're clockwork automatons that come from an alternate dimension that is a fully mechanical universe, both in the sense of everything is a machine and in the sense that physics there operates in such a way that the uncertainty principle does not hold. Y'know, this comment started as a joke, but the further I got the more serious it seemed. And yes, Modrons are a thing, and they were around from early D&D editions so the timing is eerily plausible.
I mean yeah, considering that the multiverse I think was originally introduced in second edition. Maybe 3rd. Modrons are from the plane of law, or lawful neutral if you wanna go full alignment chart
Modrons are a real D&D monster, but even though some 70s bands had D&D ties, this is highly unlikely to be a connection. Modrons were introduced in the Monster Manual II, which was released in 1983. Since Kilroy Was Here was released in February 1983, it is HIGHLY unlikely that Styx read it, rewrote their lyrics, and recorded and released within a month.
roguishpaladin yes, but Dennis Deyoung was personal friends with Gary Gygax, so who knows, he might have playtested them in 1982! (Note: this comment is complete fiction.)
This is why he was replaced with Lawrence Gowan, a man whose prior career was casting his New Wave singles in the most musical theatre manner possible.
@@digitaljanus Gowan had *many* big Canadian hits in the eighties, most memorably "Strange Animal." Styx actually perform some of his old solo songs in concert, especially when they're performing in Canada.
An interesting thought I had is that The Buggles had intended to make a song that sounded dated and old, and created something timeless, while Styx tried to make something futuristic and modern, but ended up making an album so dated it hurts.
I guess timelessness just can't be forced. Watch any kids movie from 3 years ago, and its drowned in so many pop culture references in an attempt to be relevant that it becomes dated beyond repair
I can never get over how a band that sounds like Styx took such an absolutely metal name. Like, when I hear them I don't think of the river of the underworld
I could see this album being revived as an actual broadway show. Just shuffle the song order a little (move "Living a double life" to the beginning for example), add more Styx songs to fit in with the story (the "Renegade" example Todd uses is perfect), and embrace the cheese of the story, because, let's face it, when will this type of story be taken seriously, especially now.
it kills me because DeYoung always said Mr. Roboto was supposed to be the prologue to everything, but Todd is right, it's a prologue that just dumps you in the middle of the story without any context. This could work. And Double Life has KILLER moody intro and outro synth solos by Dennis that would work as an opener
@@ninjabluefyre3815 Queen doesn't own the concept of a jukebox musical, and given that wikipedia tells me "We Will Rock You" was universally panned, I think it'd be the height of comedic irony if a Styx musical outdid it in every conceivable measure.
To be fair, Styx had been around for 14 years at this time and released 11 albums by 1983. They were getting tremendous pressure from A&M Records to ‘change things up’ to sound relevant in the new wave era, and make music that appeals to 13 year olds; while most of the band members were closer to 40. It wasn’t completely all Dennis DeYoung…the label had a lot to do with it. It’s their one album that did not age well and is forgettable; however in 1983 it succeeded very well (selling multi-platinum) and Mr. Roboto was on radio and MTV all the time!
I wonder if it was "unfinished" because the record company rushed it along. Not that I think a "completed" Kilroy Was Here would have been great. (And I *like* Styx.)
Lol their "one album that did not age well"??? O_o Someone's an utterly brainwashed Styx fan. 🤣 Aside from a few admittedly banging singles their entire discography is absolutely fucking TERRIBLE!!! And that's the widespread critical consensus, not even a bizarre out there take. 🤷
It was successful - it appealed to me as a 13-year-old, but not because of the music (people would call it mid now), but because suburban public schools were a dystopia run by people who seemingly were against anything the kids liked.
It's a concept album that wants to be a rock opera, but they made the mistake of separating music from the story telling. Instead of a chronological story about R.O.C. Kilroy's escape and the mission to save rock and roll music, they just gave us a couple of songs in any old order that could describe things that happen in the universe the intro film shows us.
@@witherblaze ^ This. It was all DeYoung. The band just wanted to write normal songs, do their usual tours, but DeYoung kept badgering them to make these grandiose rock operas, never once taking into consideration that no one else wanted to pursue his dream of making the next Tommy or The Wall, nor the fact that he was really, _really_ bad at it.
This was not a Styx creation, it was a Dennis Deyoung grand standing, prima donna production. That's why the band broke up. Tommy wasn't hired to act so he hit the road. Just my opinion but Dennis Deyoung was a raving maniac.
My sure-to-be-unpopular theory: James Young is James Hetfield's arena rock alter-ego and any material he wrote that Lars and Cliff Burton vetoed became Styx tracks.
Coming from a person who enjoys a Styx concert as a religious experience, I love this video. When you called Dennis a "Walgreens manager" I had to pause I was laughing so hard. I love Styx, but I can appreciate everything you're saying here.
Do you know when you listen to a band's song (usually their biggest hit ever) and it's so good it leaves you wanting more, so you go to their discography, listen to a couple of their albums and none of the songs they make are as good/like the ones you heard initially? Yes, that's styx. When I listened to renegade and come sail away, I was shocked and in love with them, then I looked styx's other songs and yeah...
@@ianbailey8778 they are so bland. Probably is not my mood, but that doesn't seem the case since I like Crosby Stills and Nash. They are perfect performers, but really average songwriters. At least for me. If we were in a discussion if greatest bands, I wouldn't take you seriously if you bring Eagles
@@NyQuilDonut If a joke is repeated over and over again it is a meme. The wikipedia defenition of meme is "A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture-often with the aim of conveying a particular phenomenon, theme, or meaning represented by the meme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices, that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures."
lasoogneypubes Actually the “Kilroy was here” graffito is often considered one of the first memes in the modern sense. It isn’t really a joke per se - there’s not a punchline, there’s no humor inherent in it other than the metatextual repetition of a nonsensical image paired with its seemingly unrelated phrase. It’s just an idea that somehow multiplied and spread. It’s no more a joke than that weird angle S thing. Thus “meme” is a more accurate term for said graffito. In this essay I will
So when's Maroon 5 gonna do a touring scifi rock-n-roll stage show that every member except Adam Levine has to begrudgingly go along with? I'm onboard.
If anything they aren't a band anymore. Maroon 5 is now basically Adam Levine as a EDM solo act with the rest of the members now relegated to simply being his back up tour band.
Then it should be easy for him to strong-arm the rest of them into accepting his vision of a future where streaming services are outlawed and one judge from The Voice has to stand up to it all
‘Modren’. According to a dictionary it is basically another way of saying ‘Post-Modern’ On the other hand I don’t see how anyone is meant to know this.
@@Rubycon99 And in some Midwestern and Canadian dialects I've heard this pronunciation from a few UA-camrs like Phelous and Musical Hell (in her accent pattern even becomes patteren)
I remember when this album came out, and thinking "WTF?" Being a Japanese-American gal, I got so many first line shouts as a greeting when this came out. But I bought Paradise Theater (that laser art y'all) in middle school. "The Best of Times" was *the* slow dance song when I was a kid... So basically? Thank you for breaking down this wild album. I never new why the hell Styx went with this vibe, so your breakdown was exactly what little me needed.
Yeah, this was a weird, weird song on the radio in the spring of 1983. I was a Paradise Theater fan (and the laser art on the vinyl was so cool!). Had they lost their minds, or was this any good? I did play it a lot, and saw them in concert. But they broke up, and me and music moved on. ....And thanks Todd in the Shadows for a hilarious take on this bizarre album from my high school years.
A few notes about this (keep in mind I'm a die-hard Styx fan who knows way too much about the band and actually loves this album. I guess I can't be a music critic.): -Paradise Theatre was their first concept album (ignoring their questionable The Serpent is Rising album). Kilroy Was Here is somewhat of a pseudo-sequel to Paradise Theatre. It wasn't their first attempt (although it was certainly their last, at least until this year). -The album Kilroy Was Here wasn't exactly what caused the band to break up, even though it's commonly attributed to that. It was actually the tour for the album and the live album from that tour, Caught in the Act. There are plenty of clips from it in this video, and it was basically Dennis DeYoung trying to turn a rock concert into a Broadway production. That's why so many people, including Styx fans, grew to hate it. The studio album was an easy target for their hate, but the "tour" is what really "tore" the band apart. (I'm so sorry.) If you aren't convinced, listen to the only studio-produced track and single from that live album, "Music Time". It's by far the most ridiculous Styx song in existence (including "Plexiglas Toilet" and "Bourgeois Pig"). Tommy Shaw even refused to show up in the video for it except in one short scene. -The band reunited without Tommy Shaw in 1990. He was too busy killing it in the supergroup Damn Yankees, all thanks to DeYoung delaying the reunion for his solo album Boomchild. Eventually Tommy came back and Dennis got booted out for the same reasons they broke up in the first place. He got too ambitious around the time of their 1999 Brave New World album and was leaning in a more Broadway-focused direction. For whatever reason, certain Styx "fans" are demanding that DeYoung be brought back, even though these are the same people who blame DeYoung's blunders during _Kilroy Was Here_ for the band breaking up in the first place. Plus, he's more than happy touring with his band "The Music of Styx", and both them and the actual Styx offer different enough setlists to seem like unique acts. You'll never hear Styx perform "Mr. Roboto" or "Babe" or "Don't Let It End" ever again, but they've had 3 studio albums since DeYoung left, plus some of Lawrence Gowan's 80s work like "A Criminal Mind" (He was DeYoung's replacement). And DeYoung still performs songs from his solo albums, like "Desert Moon". -"Cold War" and "Don't Let It End" literally have nothing to do with the story of the album. I would question why they were on the album at all if I didn't think they were the 2 best songs on it. Also the album doesn't really have a clear ending. Kilroy and Jonathan Chance sort of just swear to keep rock alive and we don't know if they defeated Dr. Righteous or not. "Double Life" and "Just Get Through This Night" seem to be the climax of the story, but nothing really happens in them. The live album doesn't clear this up either. -I think they made up for the Kilroy blunders completely with the album they released this year, The Mission. It's yet another concept album, but this time without the influence of DeYoung. It's absolutely brilliant if you enjoyed their 70s albums like The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight (which I know you didn't, TitS, but Styx fans certainly did). It's definitely worth a listen, and it seems like concept albums may be coming back into fashion since we've gotten things like Halsey's hopeless fountain kingdom and Camila Cabello's upcoming album that was gonna be called The Hurting, The Healing, The Loving until it was changed a short while ago. Honestly I was worried that this video was gonna be super negative but I'm glad it wasn't. It was very informative and I just thought I'd offer some additional (useless) knowledge about this album and where Styx has gone since. I'm glad that the cheese of this album has grown on you, Todd. And in case anyone is wondering, yes, "Heavy Metal Poisoning" is absolutely as hilarious as he said it is.
MattChats dang that's a lot of Styx knowledge. I've always thought of them as a cool rock band, but never as on my radar as Queen or Aerosmith or Journey. It's cool to see someone who's a big fan of them though, I can definitely see both their appeal and why some people don't like them. I think Todd pretty fairly critiqed them here. All that being said, one thing you can't fault Styx for is their ambition. You could call it pretentious, and obviously the band could never quite form a clear vision, but when that results in something as wonderfully cheesy and memorable as "Domo Origato Mr. Roboto" you have to appreciate it.
Holy- “Plexiglas Toilet” was actually by THIS band Styx? I always- ALWAYS- just thought it was a different band who happened to have the same name! Now that’s a sauce that burns thee heart! Thanks for clearing that up for me- I haven’t heard “Plexiglas...” since I was about 8 or 9 years old- I can’t wait to tell my sister. She loved that song as much as I did!
*Paradise Theater* was not Styx's first concept album, that honor goes to *The Grand Illusion* ... Also, Dennis DeYoung was fired because he was refusing to allow Styx to tour without him, even for some of the shows. The guys were tired of DDY holding them back with touring, so they decided to go with out him.
Hey MattChats, as a fan, maybe you can speak to this. I was under the impression that Dennis DeYoung had an eye problem that didn't allow him to be in bright lighting, and that was the reason why the band opted to continue without him. Obviously, he's performing now, as you said, but I just remember seeing something about that in a Behind the Music episode. Do you know anything about this?
Wish you had the footage from that Texas stadium show where Styx started their costume Kilroy “live action intro” and the crowd started throwing things and almost rioted.
If "That 70s Show" has taught me anything, it's that everyone pretends to hate Styx, but secretly likes them. Edit: Oh, and also what weed does to you.
My parents were massive Styx fans, and they forced us to listen to this on a family road trip. I remember wanting to jump out of the car. I was a dramatic teen.
I remember this album being a huge hit with lots of big radio singles. So it's kind of weird to identify it as their Trainwreckord... yet, yeah, it was. The basically racist paranoia about Japan presented as incisive socio-economic commentary was such a deeply 1980s thing.
In August 1982, I went with my family to the Lake County (Indiana) Fair. I was 16 at the time. We heard these loud metallic bashing noises from far away, and went over to investigate. There was a rectangular fenced-off area, about 20 x 30 feet, like you'd normally have around a small ride. But this wasn't a ride. It was a dead mid-70's Japanese car. It was impossible to tell what year, make, or model it was, because of the nature of the attraction. For $5, anyone who wanted to could take a sledgehammer and bash the ever-loving rhino shit out of the car, for as long as he wanted, or til he couldn't any more. There were several sizes of hammer available, down to normal ball-peen hammers, so kids could play, too. No, I'm not making that up, I saw two kids, maybe aged 8 or 10, banging on the car with ball-peen hammers. They and the hammers were too small to do any damage, but they leaned into it with everything they had, encouraged by their dads. I don't remember any chicks beating on the car, though. It would be interesting to know why that was. The attraction was billed as a Bash Japan thing of some kind. I don't remember the name of it. I really wish I had pictures of it, but we didn't find it til dusk, and the lighting wasn't bright enough. At the time, I insisted that all my cars would be American 20-foot tanks of 1959-72 vintage, which I somehow managed to sustain until 1999. I swore I'd never own a foreign car, not from nationalism or anything, but simply because Honda didn't make the 1968 Plymouth Fury III Wagon. But even then, as I watched a dozen people bang on the Japanese car, I thought "That's fucking stupid. That car didn't do anything to anyone. That car took someone to work, took the kids places, the wife took it to the store for food. That car might've been the centerpiece of a whole family's life. And now it's here." Over a hundred people were cheering for this. Not me. I wondered if the car's former owners would've considered this a proper reward for a job well done. I certainly didn't. My family didn't, either. I thought of that car 38 years later, when I drove my 1995 Honda to the towing company that had the remains of my 2007 Toyota that was totaled when some jerkoff hit her. I signed her over, removed everything from her that belonged to me, took my customary funeral pictures, and then kissed her hood and said "You're a great car. Thank you."
The other thing too is that Styx was an example of a 70s band trying to go all 80s. Rush managed to do it alright with Moving Pictures, but for the most part when 70s bands tried to go 80s, it was just embarrassing: dad bods and dad 'staches in shoulder-padded red jumpsuits and headbands, adding synthesizers to their guitar formula, etc. And of course there's the fact that Mr Roboto was blatant yellow-face (silver face?) at a time when there was a national panic about the Japanese taking over everything with technology. For those too young to remember, yeah, that was a real thing in the first half of the 80s.
Egos are nothing new in rock, but DeYoung hijacked what was basically an average 70's hard rock band and turned it into his own Vegas show-esque vanity project. He's one of the dorkiest frontmen I can think of.
@@robwalsh9843 You need a bit of an ego to work in showbiz. To be turned down, and if you are successful, to believe in yourself and tune out the baseless haters.
I think it's the only time that "Kawasaki" and "Scrotum" were spoken aloud in the same sentence. And Kawasaki is a global manufacturer of crotch rockets.
If I had a nickel every time a band tried to do a concept album and wound up with 'what if there was a world in which... horror upon horrors.... rock and roll was illegal' I'd have three nickels.
I totally love Mr. Roboto. Like it is totally pretentious but also so campy that I find it charming. Though, have actually ever REALLY listened to "Come Sail Away?" Because that song is totally about aliens. So, Styx doing a werid sci-fi album doesn't seem that left field to me.
Exactly. If you've listened to their other stuff it's...kind of a logical progression really. And the fact that the "angels" are actually aliens is kinda my favourite part of Come Sail Away! XD
It's such a hilariously dramatic song. Like the moment it comes on you're like OH HEY IT'S DOMO AREGATO MR ROBOTO! It's the flashing multi-colored spotlight way to start a song.
Broadcast on nation wide radio, to millions of commuters in their cars, at work, etc. Ugh, if you hate technology so much go Amish for Christ’s sake. Don’t use technology to complain about our hyper tech world. It’s like smokers complaining about lung cancer- whatever ills it brings your getting it to.
I always thought that was just Justin's West Virginian accent kicking in, but now you have me questioning if it's been incredibly subtle Styx goof the entire time. Especially considering that type of weird, long-con, goof is exactly the kind of thing those boys would pull.
I mean, "modren" also gets used in the opening number of The Music Man (or they pronounce it that way on the original cast recording at least). I always figured it was just an old-timey way of saying modern ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Allison Holley // me too, but modren means the digital or technologically advanced age. So the modern age is the twentieth century and the modren age is the twenty first century.
shadowlinkbds I had been waiting for a second episode. I never even knew this existed or that Styx made the cheesy "Come Sail Away". This was interesting! 👍
I had to Google that "modren" shit... I found this: "modren” is actually the English letters for the simplest Japanese translation of “modern”. They mean exactly the same thing. Dennis DeYoung used this word as an acknowledgement to Japan, where their last tour had been a great success.
The idea behind the Mr. Robotos is that Japan designed an automaton to help do housework. This became popular in America because we hate doing housework. But the American Government hijacked the software to use them to spy on the citizens. So it's not really Japan that's the villain, but I agree that it causes the villain to look Japanese.
@@xcmledder3420 but at least sounds like another language. Modren looks like they are flubbing their lines. Like saying goat instead of gate. "I have the keys to the goat if your heart"
Wouldn't "modān" have been a better match for "modern" since the "er" sound is usually replaced by a long "a" (pronounced "ah") vowel in Japanese loanwords?
This video has just answered a life-long question for me. When I was a very young boy, I saw something on TV that disturbed me. Weird robots chanting "Kilroy... Kilroy...". I asked my parents to explain what we had just watched and they could not. Now I know it was just a crappy prog rock band destroying their career once and for all. Thank you, Todd.
@@Crumpet_Central_ They still had a lot of great songs, but they really started a down turn around the time of ‘Cornerstone’. They also shifted from radio-friendly Prog Rock to pure Arena Rock for the most part around that time as well. The last two albums were a great return to form if you prefer the 70s Styx.
I had a few similarly weird experiences as a kid--so weird, in fact, that one of them became a recurring nightmare that haunted into adulthood because I just couldn't understand why those stairs looked like that, or why that dentist's office was lit entirely in neon blue. And because I was a small child in the 1980s, it could have been anything--a random commercial, a shopping mall display, a short-lived attraction at a theme park--and there would be very little documentation. Some I figured out; the cartoon skull screaming "unicoooooorn" was from the movie The Last Unicorn, the wooden teddy bears were a Gummi Bears overlay on a Disney ride, etc. Others were just too weird and obscure. I'm now imagining myself finding out, decades later, that one of my weird fragmentary memories from early childhood was Styx. I don't know whether that would make it better or worse.
@@DrZuluGaming It won multiple music related Razzies, in fact. Like the Razzie for "Worst Musical About Robots", "Worst Bohemian Rhapsody Ripoff", "Most Racist/Japanaphobic Premise", "Worst Concept Album", "Worst Music To Actor Transition", "The Room Of Bad Music Videos/Bad Dinner Theater", and many, many more, that I totally DIDN'T make up for laughs; I swear.
11:56 I have no idea why, but the image of an escaped convict threatening a robot by going "you got no rhythm eh? You got no rhythm" has been forever sealed into my brain. I worry if I ever get into a fight for real that I'll actually say that and get my ass kicked
I always thought Mr Roboto was the theme song to some old 80s cartoon. Surprised it wasn't made into a cartoon. The Rubix cube was made into a cartoon so why not.
The rubix cube cartoon existing never fails to make me exhale air from my nose - goes together with Denver the Last Dinosaur as one of those "this feels like a stereotypical parody of the decade" things.
@@Zulf85 very true how can the rubix cube be a story let alone a series? The irony is the cube is more an adults toy. I cant see many kid kids being into it like say Transformers My Little Pony Thubdercats He Man Strawberry Shortcake.
Now where have I heard the concept of music being controlled, banned, outlawed and a protagonist who tries to bring it back to the masses? Oh yeah 2112!!
@@ScorpionViper1001 Compared to anything by Styx, 2112 is definitely good... but, well, suffice to say, Styx weren't influenced by goddamn Ayn Rand. 2112 is only respectable because the music itself is so powerful--even though it suffers from some filler. I think, in fact, Hemispheres is the best "Rush suite" there is, because there's no filler, and because there's none of the "scary communists are scary" subtext. But Rush became way better when they quit the conceptual stuff and just embraced more concise songwriting, and Peart started to lose the "let's change the world through rock 'n' roll!" schtick and wrote some truly moving lyrics like Losing It, Afterimage and The Pass. Rush matured in the best way possible: instead of trying to be "bigger", they just worked on being better.
2112 wasn't really "influenced" by Anthem though. Neil Peart came up with the lyrics and then realized they sounded a lot like Anthem, so Peart put an attribution in the liner notes just so they wouldn't get in trouble for plagerism. That liner note has since been taken out in reissues of 2112 as Peart's political views went far away from that of Ayn Rand, for good reason.
I find it funny how all these 70s/80s band imagined some sort of 1984-esque world without rock music, because it's so powerful a weapon that it had to be banned by big brother, when the reality is that we're probably heading towards a world without rock and roll, not because of government censorship, but because the kids got bored with it.
Useful Vidiots Except the shit music has been rock for at least 10-15 years. When was the last huge, mainstream rock album that a large amount of the pop audience felt the need to purchase... Green Day’s _American Idiot?_
osp80 I’d disagree. There were plenty of big-name rock bands post-grunge/alt rock. _Every_ type of pop art changes, mutates, flows with the times, but ultimately comes around again. The rock/metal I’ve been listening to over the past several years isn’t big in the sense of how Guns ‘N Roses, Metallica, RATM and other huge bands were in the pop culture landscape, but is just as good if not better.
Useful Vidiots lol no. You’re just a bitter old shit who refuses to accept the fact that music and music tastes evolve and compensates by telling yourself that everyone else is stupid rather than admit you’re just out of touch and have an incredibly stale taste in music.
I feel like anyone who likes music, but can't understand why Mr.Roboto is a fun listen and unique enough to stick around in the public consciousness, needs to reevaluate what makes music so magical. Its catchy and fun to sing the nonsense. Why does it have to be more than that? Its legacy proves its potency.
Hey, Todd, maybe it's the Chicago accent. You made the same complaints about Dennis DeYoung, Tommy Shaw, and J.Y.'s voices that you did for Peter Cetera.
I know that this isn't the intended interpretation by the creators, but my interpretation of the Music Video is that it is about a person in a dystopian future, that goes to an abandoned rock museum. Mr. Roboto is a delusional robot that thinks he is a real person. Over the time that the place was abandoned he became sentient. Once he sees the human, he becomes really excited and breaks out into a musical number. Thinking he is also a human, Mr. Roboto attempts to remove his mask. It is then revealed that he is just a robot. The human is confused and passively moves on.
@@JulioHernandez-wy8nh Also Zappa's Joe's Garage. Then when they made the intro film they thought, well we're ripping off a bunch of stuff we might as well rip off The Great Rock and Roll Swindle and Rock and Roll High School too.
11:19-11:56 So you may be wondering why there were anti-Japanese messages in this video made as late as 1983. Well, when American factory jobs started disappearing in the 70s, it was because the Japanese were able to make all sorts of products that were cheaper than their American counterparts. It was thought that Japan would soon dominate the world and become stronger than the USA. One could argue that they did, but it did not last long since the Japanese economy plummeted starting around 1993 in what is known as The Lost Decade. You can see evidence of this old mindset in Back to the Future II in which the Marty McFly from 2015 has a Japanese boss or in the 1993 movie The Good Son where the father of Elijah Wood's character goes to Japan so he can be set for life.
SAME. I thought it was making fun of something like Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, or other similar dystopian concept albums. A lot of those albums are great, but they’re still full of cheesy 70s ridiculousness, ripe for parody. But god damn, they totally were just tearing apart this album, and damn their target was too easy
@@christopherwall2121 Chewbacca's family is fine, who needs to be hanged is the guy who decided it was a good idea to have the grandpa watch softcore porn in the living room during what is basically Christmas.
@@christopherwall2121 He just wanted to scare children by putting horrifying Wookiees on a garish variety show. Chewbacca is like Clark Gable next to the rest of his family.
Why? Bruno Mars does that on every single. It's not that difficult and it doesn't even come close to making up for the massive departure from her excellent first three albums.
Yeah, as if to say "I'm still edgy! I'm still raw! Even as I write songs tailor-made for hokey rom-coms starring Jennifer Garner, I can still be raw and edgy!" All it did was remind us of what could have been.
Eh, I just like the way it happens in that song because it's so unexpected. But that's coming from someone who had no idea who Liz Phair was when they first heard it and has no real attachment to her music either way.
i know nothing about styx, but mr roboto is a jam, and i could feel the dread piling up as it started fading in. dang it todd, i havent disagreed with you before!
actually imo the chorus is the worst part, it's kind of questionably racist, it's the "i've got a secret i've been hiding under my skin' verse that's super catchy
mr roboto is really only a jam because of the lyrics. structurally, the song is a mess and it's delivered by someone who sounds like a wet carpet. It's why I never really liked the song until The Protomen covered it, because they put something resembling emotion into the lyrics.
Watching this made me realize that Footloose was really missing a musical number where John Lithgow's character expresses how much he hates rock and roll music by... playing a rock and roll song about how much he hates rock and roll music.
I would absolutely 112% watch this as a stage musical. Give it to me Broadway, in all its 80's glory. Also the lead singer is trying so hard to be Freddie Mercury it's embarrassing.
Yeah that's the big problem I notice here that I think is why Todd hates Dennis De Young's voice. He apes the Freddie Mercury style so much but he just can't hit those crazy notes so it doesn't work at all
Dennis Deyoung and Freddie Mercury should never be in the same sentence together. Even that one. Just... let's all just stop talking about Dennis Deyoung.
Never realized it, but the concept of the plot of the Queen musical "We Will Rock You" is pretty much identical to "Kilroy." But at least that has the advantage of being QUEEN.
Advantage. Queen is remembered, Styx is a side note. Poor Styx. I tend to not know I'm listening to a Styx song until someone tells me I'm listening to a Styx song. And then I promptly forget.
Mr. Roboto was used to great effect in the opening to one of the Train Man (Densha Otoko) adaptations, and much like DAICON IV's use of Electric Light Orchestra, it was a perfect introduction to the Train Man narrative which made way more sense attached to a romantic comedy soap opera about anime nerds in Japan than it ever did on Kilroy Is Here.
WAIT!!! Did I just hear... DAICON IV?!? You, my friend, are a true patrician. Since you know about that, I'd assume you also know who I am, correct me if I'm wrong.
Todd talking about his feelings towards Styx at 2:26 reminds of the episode of That 70's Show where Eric tries to get the gang to go to a Styx concert on Thanksgiving night, ("I'm a DJ. I can't be seen at a Styx concert. It's in my contract")
@@nickrustyson8124 Almost all of Styx's best songs were by Tommy Shaw. That, plus growing up with Lawrence Gowan's music as a Canadian '80s kid, is why I'd still be up for seeing them in concert even if they don't have their main lead vocalist.
9:16 hmm a concept album about rock being outlawed and it being suppressed by a tyrannical government hmmmm that sounds vaguely familiar. *Listens to 2112 in the background*
@@markwoollon Ooh! Ooh! Let me try! Ahem... "Hmm...a concept album about an authoritarian government outlawing rock? That sounds vaguely familiar." *listens to 2112*
Hey there. As an old dude who became a Styx fan in junior high with "the Grand Illusion," I can give you my perceptions of "Kilroy Was Here" when it came out. At first, I hated it. I thought it was dumb, and I was a geek who liked SciFi. I had previously taken a while to warm up to "Paradise Theater," but I was finding nothing about "Kilroy Was Here" to like. A friend who collected albums as his hobby got the album, we read the liner notes, and we listened to it with that as a background. Okay, we got the idea and could piece it together as intended, but we were not crazy about it; however, as radio does, they kept playing it, and it stuck in our heads. Since we had already liked Styx, we got on board and tried to like it. When the live show came to town and we finally got a chance to catch them playing in concert, we went to see it at the Civic Arena (a large venue) in Pittsburgh. We had a lot of fun with the show and enjoyed it, mostly because the majority of the show was the Styx tunes we actually wanted to hear, but we were not opposed to the theater despite it robbing us of an opening act. After about ten years and discovering much better music completely alien to progressive stadium rock, my enjoyment of Styx waned. Certain albums and/or tunes would remain in the occasional play list, but the one album that would not resurface was "Kilroy Was Here." While it was better than the majority of the early Styx (pre-Grand Illusion), it just had no staying power and nothing enjoyably memorable. It was a product of the time and thankfully gathering dust. Cheesy is a perfect description of this album. Considering DeYoung later went into writing musicals, it adds up that he was trying to come up with a story and musical approach back with Styx. I wish him well but have no interest in it or seeing Styx again these days. I'm no longer a teenager in the late 70s/early 80s.
I always found this album to be a particularly strange stumble for a mainstream band. I've always had the suspicion that Styx was never quite satisfied with their market audience, as they had several times tried to cross over into the Progressive Rock crowd. They always had the technical chops, but their writing was kind of too stilted to quite make the leap for Prog, but their American hits are generally more complex than most of their radio contemporaries. Kilroy Was Here always seemed like their "go big or go home" of being a respected experimental group. They had most likely witnessed Pink Floyd's similar career trajectory of being cutting edge but still garnering a mainstream appeal, which culminated in 1979's mega-hit The Wall. Kilroy Was Here is an incredibly confusing attempt at copying the success of The Wall in its' dark concept album roots, but in such as ass-backwards way that alienated nearly anybody who heard the damn thing. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on this Todd, I always wished that more people observed this strange monument in music history.
Maybe I need to re-listen to 2112 cause when I first listened to it years ago I really didn't get the hype (the fact that I knew of the hype probably didn't help), but everyone swears by it.
@@NorEasterReaper I'm a big Rush fan and I don't get the hype either. The album has its moments, but there's too much filler, and the band doesn't sound totally confident. I think their first great album is Hemispheres, and then it's killer after killer until Grace Under Pressure. The rest of the albums are still good, but that stretch is just sublime.
I hate that I love this album, It’s basically if “Wish You Were Here” was “Lake Placid”. I can’t get enough of it, it’s so bad that I can’t stop listening to it.
When this album came out, no one I knew, not even Styx fans, wanted anything to do with it. So other than the irritating Mr. Roboto single, I had no idea what a bombastic joke this album had been. If only we had seen the entirety of the _Kilroy Was Here_ introduction film on MTV every fifteen minutes then I'm sure we could have appreciated Dennis DeYoung's insights into censorship, totalitarianism, and dehumanization of modern technology. Apparently it all leads to greatest possible crime against humanity: the ban of rock 'n' roll music! If only we had known, we surely would have held up our Kilroy Was Here album covers whenever a right wing politician or evangelical television preacher threatened to censor our music! A few months later, MTV began airing Michael Jackson's _Thriller_ video/short film every fifteen minutes. I bet DeYoung was furious that MTV was wasting air time on something that had no message for their young viewers.
"Robots are to this album as breast cancer is to The Room"
That's just incredible.
I almost spit out my drink lmao
You are tearing me APART Lisa!!!
I got the results of the test back. I definitely have robots.
@@Lagmire Now, excuse me while I tell you about how you're wrong about your love interest and never mention the robots again.
Phil Collins Hill why are you so hysterical?
Every time a fictional character on TV decides to write a rock opera, it comes out sounding like this album.
Like the puppet show Mabel Pines put in in Gravity Falls?
Dayman, aaaah aaaaaaaah
@@louisduarte8763Exactly my first thought when i read his comment
I literally thought of Todd's rock opera in BoJack Horseman. Funny because true I suppose
Even the Kafka’s Metamorphosis rock opera from Home Movies
"This character, played by a guy who looks like a Walgreens manager, is the physical enbodiment of rock."
Legendary quote
Best line of the video
😅😅😅😅😅😅
It's hilarious, given DeYoung actually pulled off being a rocker better before he cut his hair/beard. But then he does so immediate when he begins playing the role of ROCK MUSIC ITSELF.
The head of my middle school was named John Amato. You can bet that for years we all greeted him with "Domo Arigato, Mr. Amato".
Ha...yeah...I've lived with that for quite some time....
@@ontheroadwithyode390 Doran Arigato, Mr. Amatto
"Why are you thanking me, I haven't done anything yet?"
I had the same thing, but his name was Mr. D’Amato.
Us too man. RIP Hoppy
I love that there are comments trying to justify Dennis DeYoung pronouncing "modern" as "modren", but no one tries to justify his mangled pronunciation of "mannequin"
Mannequin would make sense he's trying to rhyme it with Japan, so yeah a bit of creative freedom there, but the Modren is just stupid, there's no second line to rhyme it with, in fact it's the second to the last word of the verse, so I dunno why he tried to pronounce it like that lmfao.
Man a can
Weirdly, the lyrics on the back of the album say "modren", it's not a mispronouncing
@@uukyspuuky3121So; it just says "modren", on purpose? Even though "modren"; isn't actually a word that people have ever actually used like before, in actual, REAL sentences, ever? Or as other people have been trying to justify, that line(or song), sounding like something the cast of It's Always Sunny; would make.
@@shawnfields2369the reddit manchild has made his appearance. Stick to your menial job my little friend, you're too soft for the world
My favorite thing about this premise (learned long after I first heard the opening song) is that "Kilroy Was Here" was a meme started in the 1940's where American GI's would doodle this little dude in odd places with the words "Kilroy was here". What it means is unclear, but it's bathroom graffiti that people in the 80's *might've* known or remembered, maybe seen in odd places at school or work.
They certainly wouldn't have thought Kilroy was a hero or a savior or even thought enough about him to "forget what you know." Kilroy was a bald dude with a big nose that peeked at you in that locker room the high school hasn't remodeled in 40 years. Truly, an unsung hero of rock and roll.
I mean,i heard Killroy scared the shit out of Hitler and sended troups to try to find him,so maybe they were inspired by that?
I had that doodles on the griptape of my skateboard in 1986 having no clue of the history of it back then. Saw it spray painted on a wall under a bridge.
In the book Rails, by legendary train photographer Don Ball, there's a picture of a Union Pacific 9000 blasting around the curve at the station in Lawrence, Kansas in 1955, at dawn. In the foreground, "Kilroy Was Here" and the cartoon guy appear on a relay box.
It's one of only maybe a half-dozen pictures I've ever seen with Kilroy in it. Apparently, Kilroy was so ubiquitous that people didn't think to photograph it. Ironically, so were steam engines, once.
The best theory I've encountered is that the Kilroy message originally came from an inspector at a Navy yard, who used the phrase to mark parts and compartments he had finished inspecting. Soldiers would have seen the incongruous phrase in odd spots inside troop transports, where painting the interior was a relatively low priority in the crush of early-war production. It's an inherently kind of memorable phrase, so it's easy to see it becoming a meme for soldiers to graffiti in out-of-the-way spots, and the doodle would probably been added later. It reminds me of that Old Norse runic inscription up near the top of some cathedral in Istanbul that says something like "this is really high".
@@gazeboist4535 whoa, I haven't heard that one before and it does make the most sense. Cool!
I've never heard this album beyond Mr. Roboto. I thought the album was about a robot becoming sentient and wanting to connect with humans through music...I feel so disappointed now...
That would have been MUCH better.
That’s basically Neil young’sTrans, made about the same time and marginally better
Yeah, I always though it was like a blade runner thing where the artificial life form has become more conscious and human than what it was expected
Shit we need to make a concept album
I always thought Mr. Roboto shouting "I'm Kilroy" meant that he was going on a killing spree. Kind of wish he was now.
This whole album feels like something The Gang from It's Always Sunny would write
Charlie wrote the "modren man" lyric
"Dayman ahhhhhhh fighter of the Nightman ahhhhhhh"
It's ironic seeing as how the keyboardist is a guy named Dennis
@@CustodianVirgilOH MY GOD
You mean Charlie writes it, and the gang’s musically inexperienced asses make it even worse.
Fun Fact: I was named Domo after Mr. Roboto and my brother's middle name is Jonathan Chance because my dad is that much of a Styx Stan
I'm so sorry
That wraps back around to being cool again, imo 👍
Fun are you sure?
@@jpalexander292 ye
That sents the bar so low that is back to cool again
"Ah! It really is hell!"--Homer Simpson, when forced to listen to Styx's music going down the River Styx.
What episode was that from
@@zevaronxz7288 "Tales from the Public Domain," specifically the segment that retells Homer's Odyssey.
In an earlier episode homer likes Styx. It’s when he goes to a record store. Idk the direct quote. Sum like “oldies this is good music” sum shit like that.
In the background the skeletons and zombies have their lighters in the air.
@@jetliketheplane yeah, and in the episode Team Homer [S07E12] he sings "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto. - You can do it, Otto!"
The idea that Styx would be the band to save rock and roll once the apocalypse came is just psychotic.
Maybe the story & lyrics weren't amazing, but the actual music of the songs sure was.
What is your idea then?
Should’ve spelled it $tyx.
See there’s your problem 🤷♂️
@@msoileau83In terms of bands in 1983 who would have been believable saviors of rock, I would totally pick AC/DC. Unlike Styx, AC/DC were properly mom-scaring Hard Rockers (so they would have made sense as enemies for a Rock-hating "moral majority" dictator), but they were still catchy and fun-loving enough that they make sense as the good guys. Plus they're Australian, and if Mad Max taught me anything it's that Australia is the place to be in the apocalypse.
Twisted Sister would also be believable candidates, given that they're best known for anthems about rock and rebellion ("I Wanna Rock" and "We're Not Gonna Take It" would both totally fit on a concept album with the same themes as Kilroy) and Dee Snyder actually testified against the PMRC's campaign for music censorship in the 80's.
Ultimately, just about any rock band who didn't insist on being as softcore and palatable as Styx did at this point would fit the concept better. The theme song for the villain who hates rock is the hardest rocker on the whole album! In a world where Rock and Roll were outlawed, Styx wouldn't become the outlaw heroes of rock, they would have just become a lounge act.
ac dc while a great hard rock band do not think the big thinks so these concepts would beyond them. in this story styx doesn't save rock two fictional characters join up do try.
13:29 Todd: There's a song about leading a double-life...
Styx: LEEEAADDIING A DOOUUBBLE LIIIIIFE
Lyrical mastery there, that's more on the nose than any of Hannah Montana's songs.
Hannah Montana writer: Write something that's a mix between country and hip-hop.
Hannah Montana: COUNTRIFY, THEN HIP-HOP IT
I just had this image of Living A Double Life set to footage of Hannah Montana living a double life, and now this shitpost must be made.
all of these lyrics are so literal and awful, oh my gosh
Sure, but Van Halen’s cover of Hannah Montana’s “Best of Both Worlds” is excellent.
@@seandevine3695 you made me actually look it up
listened to the whole song though, so i'm not complaining
I wonder if this exists in the same universe as Billy Idol’s Cyberpunk.
Cyberpunk exists in a sleep-deprived state of delirium you can only reach by smoking a lot of pot while Blade Runner and Johnny Mnemonic play somewhere in the background
KingOfGreyfell So like..... every night?
@@ElimGarakSpoonHead Every night of it's life, all in one night. Avoid ultraviolet hosts on the matrix, chummers...
KingOfGreyfell K.
It's like a boring alternate universe version of the dystopian future in Rush's 2112. In 2112 made you want to rise up against the Priests of Syrinx and bring rock and joy back to people's lives. Kilroy Was Here makes you *want* the bastards to stop the music.
In a better world, "renegade" was a letter Kilroy wrote on death row, and when a Mr Roboto that was sent to take him to the gallows comes and malfunctions, Kilroy uses its parts as a disguise to escape.
Also Heavy Metal Poisioning would've had church organ for its music
So somebody other than me knows renegade
@@gecttakhla4249 Of course, it's the only good Styx song
@@gecttakhla4249 Pittsburgh Steelers fans probably reliably know Renegade.
That was what I first thought too when I thought about what would be appropriate for Dr. Righteous. The fact that people like us can fill in gaps with potential ideas shows how thrown-together this album is.
@@Ostrumite42 Yes, probably because we arent' doign this under duress.
I’m surprised Todd didn’t mention that the album is only 9 songs. That’s hilariously short for a rock opera
Bat Out Of Hell only has 7 songs.
@@AdamLB that's not a rock opera though
@@thebasedgodmax1163 it is
@@AdamLB how is it a rock opera? none of the songs form a narrative story. that's what one is (i.e. Tommy or this album).
I mean you're missing most of the Kilroy experience
You're supposed to witness Tommy and Dennis attempt to act
Weird Al needs to make a concept album.
That would be amazing, just look at his longer songs like biggest ball of twine, Albuquerque, and trapped in the drive-thru.
He's been doing it for years. Making fun of everyone else. LOL!
He did, he just made it into a movie, UHF.
Weird Al: Polka Was Here
That...............is the best idea anyone has ever had.
Clearly he was saying Modron Man, refering to the Modrons from Dungeons and Dragons. They're clockwork automatons that come from an alternate dimension that is a fully mechanical universe, both in the sense of everything is a machine and in the sense that physics there operates in such a way that the uncertainty principle does not hold.
Y'know, this comment started as a joke, but the further I got the more serious it seemed. And yes, Modrons are a thing, and they were around from early D&D editions so the timing is eerily plausible.
I mean yeah, considering that the multiverse I think was originally introduced in second edition. Maybe 3rd. Modrons are from the plane of law, or lawful neutral if you wanna go full alignment chart
Wow. Mr Roboto is even cringier now. Thanks!
It seemed so plausible from the beginning that I was confused. I didn’t know if you were informing or trolling!
Modrons are a real D&D monster, but even though some 70s bands had D&D ties, this is highly unlikely to be a connection. Modrons were introduced in the Monster Manual II, which was released in 1983. Since Kilroy Was Here was released in February 1983, it is HIGHLY unlikely that Styx read it, rewrote their lyrics, and recorded and released within a month.
roguishpaladin yes, but Dennis Deyoung was personal friends with Gary Gygax, so who knows, he might have playtested them in 1982!
(Note: this comment is complete fiction.)
Coincidentally, this video has inspired me to name a Spotify playlist Heavy Metal Poisoning. It’s a metal playlist with a wide spectrum of metal on it
Hell yes. 🤘
Please tell me that the actual Heavy Metal Poisoning song is on there somewhere
@@jam_plays_games It's funny to think one of the best songs in that album is the villain song. Just like a Disney movie!
Dennis DeYoung's voice was always better suited for Broadway than for something that, you know, rocked.
This is why he was replaced with Lawrence Gowan, a man whose prior career was casting his New Wave singles in the most musical theatre manner possible.
I believe the last thing he mentioned in Styx: Behind the Music was producing a Liza Minelli album, so yeah..it doesn't get more Broadway than that.
@@digitaljanus Gowan had *many* big Canadian hits in the eighties, most memorably "Strange Animal." Styx actually perform some of his old solo songs in concert, especially when they're performing in Canada.
That's what made DeYoung and Meatloaf stick out on late 70s radio
Dennis ruined the prog rock rep styx was famous for
An interesting thought I had is that The Buggles had intended to make a song that sounded dated and old, and created something timeless, while Styx tried to make something futuristic and modern, but ended up making an album so dated it hurts.
*modren
Living in the Plastic Age is a great song
I guess timelessness just can't be forced. Watch any kids movie from 3 years ago, and its drowned in so many pop culture references in an attempt to be relevant that it becomes dated beyond repair
It helps that the Buggles were a talented pair.
I'm half convinced Kilroy Was Here comes from that dystopian future The Buggles dreamed up.
I think “Haven’t We Been Here Before” is just Shaw trying to remind DeYoung about the previous concept album.
😂
😂😂😂
I can never get over how a band that sounds like Styx took such an absolutely metal name. Like, when I hear them I don't think of the river of the underworld
Had the same thought, "Styx" sounds like thrash metal. This band should be called "Chicago Transit Authority" or something like that.
It's like KISS.
They're called Styx because when you see/hear them you want to go back to wading through Lethe
I could see this album being revived as an actual broadway show. Just shuffle the song order a little (move "Living a double life" to the beginning for example), add more Styx songs to fit in with the story (the "Renegade" example Todd uses is perfect), and embrace the cheese of the story, because, let's face it, when will this type of story be taken seriously, especially now.
It may be too late since We Will Rock You kinda stole the premise, but it certainly could work.
And make it maybe a fraction less racist lmao - I could dig it
Just let Andrew Lloyd Webber cough on it and it'll work.
it kills me because DeYoung always said Mr. Roboto was supposed to be the prologue to everything, but Todd is right, it's a prologue that just dumps you in the middle of the story without any context. This could work.
And Double Life has KILLER moody intro and outro synth solos by Dennis that would work as an opener
@@ninjabluefyre3815 Queen doesn't own the concept of a jukebox musical, and given that wikipedia tells me "We Will Rock You" was universally panned, I think it'd be the height of comedic irony if a Styx musical outdid it in every conceivable measure.
To be fair, Styx had been around for 14 years at this time and released 11 albums by 1983. They were getting tremendous pressure from A&M Records to ‘change things up’ to sound relevant in the new wave era, and make music that appeals to 13 year olds; while most of the band members were closer to 40. It wasn’t completely all Dennis DeYoung…the label had a lot to do with it. It’s their one album that did not age well and is forgettable; however in 1983 it succeeded very well (selling multi-platinum) and Mr. Roboto was on radio and MTV all the time!
I wonder if it was "unfinished" because the record company rushed it along. Not that I think a "completed" Kilroy Was Here would have been great. (And I *like* Styx.)
Lol their "one album that did not age well"??? O_o Someone's an utterly brainwashed Styx fan. 🤣 Aside from a few admittedly banging singles their entire discography is absolutely fucking TERRIBLE!!! And that's the widespread critical consensus, not even a bizarre out there take. 🤷
It was successful - it appealed to me as a 13-year-old, but not because of the music (people would call it mid now), but because suburban public schools were a dystopia run by people who seemingly were against anything the kids liked.
@@senton412and teens. But adding dont let it end which wasn't part of of the albums concept
they tried too hard to make a concept album while at the same time not caring at all about making a concept album
that's quite the feat
It's a concept album that wants to be a rock opera, but they made the mistake of separating music from the story telling. Instead of a chronological story about R.O.C. Kilroy's escape and the mission to save rock and roll music, they just gave us a couple of songs in any old order that could describe things that happen in the universe the intro film shows us.
Less lazy and more "DeYoung, we don't know what the f--- you are talking about."
@@witherblaze ^ This. It was all DeYoung. The band just wanted to write normal songs, do their usual tours, but DeYoung kept badgering them to make these grandiose rock operas, never once taking into consideration that no one else wanted to pursue his dream of making the next Tommy or The Wall, nor the fact that he was really, _really_ bad at it.
It's like if The Wall only had In the flesh and Don't leave me now and the other tracks are just different versions of Young lust
This was not a Styx creation, it was a Dennis Deyoung grand standing, prima donna production. That's why the band broke up. Tommy wasn't hired to act so he hit the road. Just my opinion but Dennis Deyoung was a raving maniac.
The album equivalent of a movie that ended up on MST3K.
It's like the Asylum knockoff of Rush's 2112.
"Jonathan Chance" should have been named "Blast Hardcheese."
@@zombiedodge1426 Or "Slab Rockgroin".
@@zombiedodge1426 Or Bob Johnson...no, wait...
My sure-to-be-unpopular theory:
James Young is James Hetfield's arena rock alter-ego and any material he wrote that Lars and Cliff Burton vetoed became Styx tracks.
Somehow you just made me a fan of both bands with that backstory.
And george harrison
Coming from a person who enjoys a Styx concert as a religious experience, I love this video. When you called Dennis a "Walgreens manager" I had to pause I was laughing so hard. I love Styx, but I can appreciate everything you're saying here.
This Is Not My Name that Walgreens Manager comment is so good
Dennis DeYoung is _not_ a Walgreen's manager.
He's a *Jewel-Osco* manager. World of difference there.
:p
I don't think anybody that isn't from Chicago would know about Jewel-Osco.
@@nicholastosoni707 test
@megan Erin
"It's an album that tells a story, Gene, a Rock Opera. Though I think they called it a 'rocksperience,' which... is worse."
-- Bob Belcher
That album was very explicitly this one.
Let my people rock!
"I bet to differ"
-Gene Belcher
"His name is Rebel. He's.. a rebel."
Do you know when you listen to a band's song (usually their biggest hit ever) and it's so good it leaves you wanting more, so you go to their discography, listen to a couple of their albums and none of the songs they make are as good/like the ones you heard initially?
Yes, that's styx.
When I listened to renegade and come sail away, I was shocked and in love with them, then I looked styx's other songs and yeah...
That's me with Eagles
Styx writing Renegade is like the ur-example of one of my favorite subgenres: Shit Artists with One Random All-Time Banger
@@joaquinlezcano2372 eagles are good okay WHY DO PEOPLE NOT LIKE THEM
@@ianbailey8778 they are so bland. Probably is not my mood, but that doesn't seem the case since I like Crosby Stills and Nash. They are perfect performers, but really average songwriters. At least for me. If we were in a discussion if greatest bands, I wouldn't take you seriously if you bring Eagles
Me, I like "Too much time on my hands".
Why did Todd not mention that in addition to being incoherent this album is named after a random WWII era graffiti meme?
Because it matters about as much as why they named it that. XD Do you know why it's called that?
BLACKIESBOY It’s almost like the album title is pretentious as the album itself.
Lmao WW2 graffiti meme? Has the word "joke" been replaced by "meme" or something?
@@NyQuilDonut If a joke is repeated over and over again it is a meme. The wikipedia defenition of meme is
"A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture-often with the aim of conveying a particular phenomenon, theme, or meaning represented by the meme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices, that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures."
lasoogneypubes Actually the “Kilroy was here” graffito is often considered one of the first memes in the modern sense. It isn’t really a joke per se - there’s not a punchline, there’s no humor inherent in it other than the metatextual repetition of a nonsensical image paired with its seemingly unrelated phrase. It’s just an idea that somehow multiplied and spread. It’s no more a joke than that weird angle S thing. Thus “meme” is a more accurate term for said graffito. In this essay I will
So when's Maroon 5 gonna do a touring scifi rock-n-roll stage show that every member except Adam Levine has to begrudgingly go along with? I'm onboard.
Champiness Probably never. Adam Levine is the personification of focus group marketing.
If anything they aren't a band anymore. Maroon 5 is now basically Adam Levine as a EDM solo act with the rest of the members now relegated to simply being his back up tour band.
Then it should be easy for him to strong-arm the rest of them into accepting his vision of a future where streaming services are outlawed and one judge from The Voice has to stand up to it all
Hopefully itll end them too
Champiness I sincerely think Styx is better than Maroon 5
That “Who?!” at 8:02 is legitimately flawless
I was nine years old when this came out. I remember thinking "Mr. Roboto" was a total banger, *and* completely confusing.
I'm more of a Pots-Modren man.
you get a internet trophy today
Avocado Smash ‘trohpy’
Pots Modren......better not let Ed Sheeran turn that into a hit LOL
Post-Modern Man, right?
@@TimeTravelinc no pots modren
‘Modren’. According to a dictionary it is basically another way of saying ‘Post-Modern’
On the other hand I don’t see how anyone is meant to know this.
It's also "modern" in Scots. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@Rubycon99
And in some Midwestern and Canadian dialects
I've heard this pronunciation from a few UA-camrs like Phelous and Musical Hell (in her accent pattern even becomes patteren)
I always thought he was saying “margarine” as a metaphor for fake or synthetic, then again I only really listened to it when I was a kid so...
Urban Dictionary, maybe!?
It also sounds like "modron", a dungeons and dragons outer planar race of machine people.
I remember when this album came out, and thinking "WTF?" Being a Japanese-American gal, I got so many first line shouts as a greeting when this came out. But I bought Paradise Theater (that laser art y'all) in middle school. "The Best of Times" was *the* slow dance song when I was a kid... So basically? Thank you for breaking down this wild album. I never new why the hell Styx went with this vibe, so your breakdown was exactly what little me needed.
Yeah, this was a weird, weird song on the radio in the spring of 1983. I was a Paradise Theater fan (and the laser art on the vinyl was so cool!). Had they lost their minds, or was this any good? I did play it a lot, and saw them in concert. But they broke up, and me and music moved on. ....And thanks Todd in the Shadows for a hilarious take on this bizarre album from my high school years.
A few notes about this (keep in mind I'm a die-hard Styx fan who knows way too much about the band and actually loves this album. I guess I can't be a music critic.):
-Paradise Theatre was their first concept album (ignoring their questionable The Serpent is Rising album). Kilroy Was Here is somewhat of a pseudo-sequel to Paradise Theatre. It wasn't their first attempt (although it was certainly their last, at least until this year).
-The album Kilroy Was Here wasn't exactly what caused the band to break up, even though it's commonly attributed to that. It was actually the tour for the album and the live album from that tour, Caught in the Act. There are plenty of clips from it in this video, and it was basically Dennis DeYoung trying to turn a rock concert into a Broadway production. That's why so many people, including Styx fans, grew to hate it. The studio album was an easy target for their hate, but the "tour" is what really "tore" the band apart. (I'm so sorry.) If you aren't convinced, listen to the only studio-produced track and single from that live album, "Music Time". It's by far the most ridiculous Styx song in existence (including "Plexiglas Toilet" and "Bourgeois Pig"). Tommy Shaw even refused to show up in the video for it except in one short scene.
-The band reunited without Tommy Shaw in 1990. He was too busy killing it in the supergroup Damn Yankees, all thanks to DeYoung delaying the reunion for his solo album Boomchild. Eventually Tommy came back and Dennis got booted out for the same reasons they broke up in the first place. He got too ambitious around the time of their 1999 Brave New World album and was leaning in a more Broadway-focused direction. For whatever reason, certain Styx "fans" are demanding that DeYoung be brought back, even though these are the same people who blame DeYoung's blunders during _Kilroy Was Here_ for the band breaking up in the first place. Plus, he's more than happy touring with his band "The Music of Styx", and both them and the actual Styx offer different enough setlists to seem like unique acts. You'll never hear Styx perform "Mr. Roboto" or "Babe" or "Don't Let It End" ever again, but they've had 3 studio albums since DeYoung left, plus some of Lawrence Gowan's 80s work like "A Criminal Mind" (He was DeYoung's replacement). And DeYoung still performs songs from his solo albums, like "Desert Moon".
-"Cold War" and "Don't Let It End" literally have nothing to do with the story of the album. I would question why they were on the album at all if I didn't think they were the 2 best songs on it. Also the album doesn't really have a clear ending. Kilroy and Jonathan Chance sort of just swear to keep rock alive and we don't know if they defeated Dr. Righteous or not. "Double Life" and "Just Get Through This Night" seem to be the climax of the story, but nothing really happens in them. The live album doesn't clear this up either.
-I think they made up for the Kilroy blunders completely with the album they released this year, The Mission. It's yet another concept album, but this time without the influence of DeYoung. It's absolutely brilliant if you enjoyed their 70s albums like The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight (which I know you didn't, TitS, but Styx fans certainly did). It's definitely worth a listen, and it seems like concept albums may be coming back into fashion since we've gotten things like Halsey's hopeless fountain kingdom and Camila Cabello's upcoming album that was gonna be called The Hurting, The Healing, The Loving until it was changed a short while ago.
Honestly I was worried that this video was gonna be super negative but I'm glad it wasn't. It was very informative and I just thought I'd offer some additional (useless) knowledge about this album and where Styx has gone since. I'm glad that the cheese of this album has grown on you, Todd. And in case anyone is wondering, yes, "Heavy Metal Poisoning" is absolutely as hilarious as he said it is.
MattChats dang that's a lot of Styx knowledge. I've always thought of them as a cool rock band, but never as on my radar as Queen or Aerosmith or Journey. It's cool to see someone who's a big fan of them though, I can definitely see both their appeal and why some people don't like them. I think Todd pretty fairly critiqed them here.
All that being said, one thing you can't fault Styx for is their ambition. You could call it pretentious, and obviously the band could never quite form a clear vision, but when that results in something as wonderfully cheesy and memorable as "Domo Origato Mr. Roboto" you have to appreciate it.
Holy- “Plexiglas Toilet” was actually by THIS band Styx? I always- ALWAYS- just thought it was a different band who happened to have the same name! Now that’s a sauce that burns thee heart! Thanks for clearing that up for me- I haven’t heard “Plexiglas...” since I was about 8 or 9 years old- I can’t wait to tell my sister. She loved that song as much as I did!
*Paradise Theater* was not Styx's first concept album, that honor goes to
*The Grand Illusion* ... Also, Dennis DeYoung was fired because he was refusing to allow Styx to tour without him, even for some of the shows. The guys were tired of DDY holding them back with touring, so they decided to go with out him.
I find it ironic that their best concept album (The Mission) was the brainchild of Tommy Shaw and DeYoung had nothing to do with it.
Hey MattChats, as a fan, maybe you can speak to this. I was under the impression that Dennis DeYoung had an eye problem that didn't allow him to be in bright lighting, and that was the reason why the band opted to continue without him. Obviously, he's performing now, as you said, but I just remember seeing something about that in a Behind the Music episode. Do you know anything about this?
"ya motha was a Toyota!" best insult known to man
And your father smelled of elderberry!
Ya got no rhythm uh, YA GOT NO RHYTHM
@@joaogomes9405 Riddum*
Mrs. Toyota living in Tokyo... raising her kids like " your mother was a Ford"
Gerald Ford, "I fell down again"
I know nothing about cars so those insults immediately fly over my head
Wish you had the footage from that Texas stadium show where Styx started their costume Kilroy “live action intro” and the crowd started throwing things and almost rioted.
Can you post the link to that footage? I really want to see it, but I can't find it on UA-cam
If "That 70s Show" has taught me anything, it's that everyone pretends to hate Styx, but secretly likes them.
Edit: Oh, and also what weed does to you.
Like my comment if you like Styx, secretly or not.
That’s what Family Guy taught me about Barry Manilow
@@RobertMischief Night Court was responsible for the Barry Manilow hate.
Renegade is a banger, I dont care about anything else they did tbh
That 70s Show was how I first learned about Styx, and now I'm a fan
My parents were massive Styx fans, and they forced us to listen to this on a family road trip. I remember wanting to jump out of the car. I was a dramatic teen.
Domo arigato, mr dramato
I remember this album being a huge hit with lots of big radio singles. So it's kind of weird to identify it as their Trainwreckord... yet, yeah, it was.
The basically racist paranoia about Japan presented as incisive socio-economic commentary was such a deeply 1980s thing.
In August 1982, I went with my family to the Lake County (Indiana) Fair. I was 16 at the time. We heard these loud metallic bashing noises from far away, and went over to investigate.
There was a rectangular fenced-off area, about 20 x 30 feet, like you'd normally have around a small ride. But this wasn't a ride. It was a dead mid-70's Japanese car. It was impossible to tell what year, make, or model it was, because of the nature of the attraction.
For $5, anyone who wanted to could take a sledgehammer and bash the ever-loving rhino shit out of the car, for as long as he wanted, or til he couldn't any more. There were several sizes of hammer available, down to normal ball-peen hammers, so kids could play, too. No, I'm not making that up, I saw two kids, maybe aged 8 or 10, banging on the car with ball-peen hammers. They and the hammers were too small to do any damage, but they leaned into it with everything they had, encouraged by their dads. I don't remember any chicks beating on the car, though. It would be interesting to know why that was.
The attraction was billed as a Bash Japan thing of some kind. I don't remember the name of it. I really wish I had pictures of it, but we didn't find it til dusk, and the lighting wasn't bright enough.
At the time, I insisted that all my cars would be American 20-foot tanks of 1959-72 vintage, which I somehow managed to sustain until 1999. I swore I'd never own a foreign car, not from nationalism or anything, but simply because Honda didn't make the 1968 Plymouth Fury III Wagon. But even then, as I watched a dozen people bang on the Japanese car, I thought "That's fucking stupid. That car didn't do anything to anyone. That car took someone to work, took the kids places, the wife took it to the store for food. That car might've been the centerpiece of a whole family's life. And now it's here."
Over a hundred people were cheering for this. Not me. I wondered if the car's former owners would've considered this a proper reward for a job well done. I certainly didn't. My family didn't, either.
I thought of that car 38 years later, when I drove my 1995 Honda to the towing company that had the remains of my 2007 Toyota that was totaled when some jerkoff hit her. I signed her over, removed everything from her that belonged to me, took my customary funeral pictures, and then kissed her hood and said "You're a great car. Thank you."
The other thing too is that Styx was an example of a 70s band trying to go all 80s. Rush managed to do it alright with Moving Pictures, but for the most part when 70s bands tried to go 80s, it was just embarrassing: dad bods and dad 'staches in shoulder-padded red jumpsuits and headbands, adding synthesizers to their guitar formula, etc. And of course there's the fact that Mr Roboto was blatant yellow-face (silver face?) at a time when there was a national panic about the Japanese taking over everything with technology. For those too young to remember, yeah, that was a real thing in the first half of the 80s.
And then Japan's economy cratered.
@Mark Gibson I didn't say it was everyone, now did I?
@Mark Gibson and ZZ Top.
I raise you Foghat’s excellent new wave period.
@@rockdirector Wow, had no idea that even existed, thanks!
DeYoung basically always wanted to be an overacting theater performer who just happened to front a band.
His looks matches that description too well.
Egos are nothing new in rock, but DeYoung hijacked what was basically an average 70's hard rock band and turned it into his own Vegas show-esque vanity project. He's one of the dorkiest frontmen I can think of.
@@robwalsh9843 You need a bit of an ego to work in showbiz. To be turned down, and if you are successful, to believe in yourself and tune out the baseless haters.
I always wondered what was up with his outfits, he dressed like Pinocchio.
That could be good. Unfortunately its not
"Mom can we listen to Queen?"
"Don't worry we have Queen at home"
Queen at home:
This is the most latino shit ever hahahha 🥰
To be fair Freddie would write something like Mr. Roboto and it would work because he didnt take himself seriously
@@soulbrother5435 it would work because he was a better songwriter lol
@@soulbrother5435 I mean.. [gestures at the Flash Gordon soundtrack]
@@1000huzzahs I mean.. Queen has a song called "Ogre Battle".
11:33 "This is all kind of racist, yes."
This is a perfect reaction sound clip for multiple scenarios.
I think it's the only time that "Kawasaki" and "Scrotum" were spoken aloud in the same sentence. And Kawasaki is a global manufacturer of crotch rockets.
I am a Modren man. I see Todd, I watch immediately.
I see TITS, I watch immediately
Modron man sounds more like Primus than Styx.
Oh, you meant Todd In The Shadows! I thought you meant Todd Sucherman, STYX's bassist as of 1996. *embarrassed*
What an intellectual
thesultan 5757 oh my goodmess
If I had a nickel every time a band tried to do a concept album and wound up with 'what if there was a world in which... horror upon horrors.... rock and roll was illegal' I'd have three nickels.
This album, 2112 and The Astonishing?
I totally love Mr. Roboto. Like it is totally pretentious but also so campy that I find it charming. Though, have actually ever REALLY listened to "Come Sail Away?" Because that song is totally about aliens. So, Styx doing a werid sci-fi album doesn't seem that left field to me.
Exactly. If you've listened to their other stuff it's...kind of a logical progression really. And the fact that the "angels" are actually aliens is kinda my favourite part of Come Sail Away! XD
It's such a hilariously dramatic song. Like the moment it comes on you're like OH HEY IT'S DOMO AREGATO MR ROBOTO! It's the flashing multi-colored spotlight way to start a song.
Dennis De Young also made a rock opera about war of the worlds. pretty good!
Robin Chesterfield that's my favorite part to. It's such a WTF moment when you listen to it for the first time.
kenterminatedbygoogle 2016 was a terrible year for pop
"The problem's plain to see/too much technology" is such an ironic line being in such a synth-heavy song like Mr. Roboto.
To be fair, they were using stacks of analog synths on the song, which isn't quite technology so much as babysitting :)
Broadcast on nation wide radio, to millions of commuters in their cars, at work, etc. Ugh, if you hate technology so much go Amish for Christ’s sake. Don’t use technology to complain about our hyper tech world. It’s like smokers complaining about lung cancer- whatever ills it brings your getting it to.
Something about the the way Tommy Shaw says "you can't stop the music you bastard!" Makes me laugh my ass off
Tommy shouldve said that to dennis. For that matter HE is the REAL kilroy, NOT dennis
"An advice show for the modren era" -MBMBAM
"I am the modren man" -Styx
I always thought that was just Justin's West Virginian accent kicking in, but now you have me questioning if it's been incredibly subtle Styx goof the entire time. Especially considering that type of weird, long-con, goof is exactly the kind of thing those boys would pull.
I mean, "modren" also gets used in the opening number of The Music Man (or they pronounce it that way on the original cast recording at least). I always figured it was just an old-timey way of saying modern ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Allison Holley // me too, but modren means the digital or technologically advanced age. So the modern age is the twentieth century and the modren age is the twenty first century.
KE Clarke Thanks for clearing that up. I never would have thought it was different from modern, except in spelling.
scrolled through the comments looking for this joke
So you are continuing this series. Good. I think this trainwreck is an interesting series for your channel Todd.
shadowlinkbds I had been waiting for a second episode. I never even knew this existed or that Styx made the cheesy "Come Sail Away". This was interesting! 👍
I hope he keeps them coming, I just can't get enough of this series!
shadowlink I love this series.
@@MrKenichi22 I must see rehab, I'm going through trainwrecords withdrawal
Brandie Van I here ya
I had to Google that "modren" shit... I found this: "modren” is actually the English letters for the simplest Japanese translation of “modern”. They mean exactly the same thing. Dennis DeYoung used this word as an acknowledgement to Japan, where their last tour had been a great success.
But wouldn't the Japanese fans get kinda pissed they're pictured as the bad guys? Then again I don't think they react too bad to that kind of stuff
The idea behind the Mr. Robotos is that Japan designed an automaton to help do housework. This became popular in America because we hate doing housework. But the American Government hijacked the software to use them to spy on the citizens. So it's not really Japan that's the villain, but I agree that it causes the villain to look Japanese.
Kinda reminds me of Lady GaGa rhyming "in her pocket" with "en su bosillo"
@@xcmledder3420 but at least sounds like another language. Modren looks like they are flubbing their lines. Like saying goat instead of gate. "I have the keys to the goat if your heart"
Wouldn't "modān" have been a better match for "modern" since the "er" sound is usually replaced by a long "a" (pronounced "ah") vowel in Japanese loanwords?
This video has just answered a life-long question for me.
When I was a very young boy, I saw something on TV that disturbed me. Weird robots chanting "Kilroy... Kilroy...". I asked my parents to explain what we had just watched and they could not.
Now I know it was just a crappy prog rock band destroying their career once and for all.
Thank you, Todd.
XD this is hilarious omg. i cant add to it, its just so funny
They were a great overly pompous prog group who turned to cinders after the release of Killroy
@@Crumpet_Central_ They still had a lot of great songs, but they really started a down turn around the time of ‘Cornerstone’. They also shifted from radio-friendly Prog Rock to pure Arena Rock for the most part around that time as well. The last two albums were a great return to form if you prefer the 70s Styx.
Monsters aren’t so scary as adults. Except for that WGBH Boston logo on PBS. That shit makes you sleep with a shotgun next to your bed
I had a few similarly weird experiences as a kid--so weird, in fact, that one of them became a recurring nightmare that haunted into adulthood because I just couldn't understand why those stairs looked like that, or why that dentist's office was lit entirely in neon blue. And because I was a small child in the 1980s, it could have been anything--a random commercial, a shopping mall display, a short-lived attraction at a theme park--and there would be very little documentation. Some I figured out; the cartoon skull screaming "unicoooooorn" was from the movie The Last Unicorn, the wooden teddy bears were a Gummi Bears overlay on a Disney ride, etc. Others were just too weird and obscure.
I'm now imagining myself finding out, decades later, that one of my weird fragmentary memories from early childhood was Styx. I don't know whether that would make it better or worse.
"You can't stop the music, you bastards!"
Great, now they're stealing lines from The Village People.
In this case, I wish the bastards would stop the music.
@@robwalsh9843 "You CAN stop the music. In fact, we insist."
Ah yes, from the award-winning classic "Can't Stop The Music".
Razzie award winning that is.
@@WobblesandBean "Ah, yes please, for the love of god, stop the damn music, or someone please, get me the hell out of here".
@@DrZuluGaming It won multiple music related Razzies, in fact. Like the Razzie for "Worst Musical About Robots", "Worst Bohemian Rhapsody Ripoff", "Most Racist/Japanaphobic Premise", "Worst Concept Album", "Worst Music To Actor Transition", "The Room Of Bad Music Videos/Bad Dinner Theater", and many, many more, that I totally DIDN'T make up for laughs; I swear.
11:56 I have no idea why, but the image of an escaped convict threatening a robot by going "you got no rhythm eh? You got no rhythm" has been forever sealed into my brain. I worry if I ever get into a fight for real that I'll actually say that and get my ass kicked
I always thought Mr Roboto was the theme song to some old 80s cartoon.
Surprised it wasn't made into a cartoon. The Rubix cube was made into a cartoon so why not.
President Kudsi if they had gotten licensed to make Mr. Roboto toys, I guarantee it would have gotten a tv show.
That's true
The rubix cube cartoon existing never fails to make me exhale air from my nose - goes together with Denver the Last Dinosaur as one of those "this feels like a stereotypical parody of the decade" things.
@@Zulf85 very true how can the rubix cube be a story let alone a series?
The irony is the cube is more an adults toy. I cant see many kid kids being into it like say Transformers My Little Pony Thubdercats He Man Strawberry Shortcake.
Now where have I heard the concept of music being controlled, banned, outlawed and a protagonist who tries to bring it back to the masses? Oh yeah 2112!!
Heck if you wanna stretch it, Footloose was similar and better than this Killroy
@@ScorpionViper1001 Compared to anything by Styx, 2112 is definitely good... but, well, suffice to say, Styx weren't influenced by goddamn Ayn Rand.
2112 is only respectable because the music itself is so powerful--even though it suffers from some filler. I think, in fact, Hemispheres is the best "Rush suite" there is, because there's no filler, and because there's none of the "scary communists are scary" subtext. But Rush became way better when they quit the conceptual stuff and just embraced more concise songwriting, and Peart started to lose the "let's change the world through rock 'n' roll!" schtick and wrote some truly moving lyrics like Losing It, Afterimage and The Pass. Rush matured in the best way possible: instead of trying to be "bigger", they just worked on being better.
Also We Will Rock You.
@@FernieCanto In my opinion Moving Pictures is practically a perfect album. I like every song on it.
2112 wasn't really "influenced" by Anthem though. Neil Peart came up with the lyrics and then realized they sounded a lot like Anthem, so Peart put an attribution in the liner notes just so they wouldn't get in trouble for plagerism. That liner note has since been taken out in reissues of 2112 as Peart's political views went far away from that of Ayn Rand, for good reason.
It has now become my life’s goal to restructure this entire album, add some other songs, and turn it into an over-the-top Broadway musical.
DO IT.
3 years on, did you do it?
Todd in the Shadows Was Here
HOLY SHAT A GUY I FOLLOW IN ANOTHER GUY I FOLLOW COMMENTS
Too bad he didn't have a clever thing to say.
TITS was here
Wait, was that episode of My Life as a Teenage Robot a reference to this album?
That's..... genius.
i mean it's a better acronym than robert oren charles kilroy
I find it funny how all these 70s/80s band imagined some sort of 1984-esque world without rock music, because it's so powerful a weapon that it had to be banned by big brother, when the reality is that we're probably heading towards a world without rock and roll, not because of government censorship, but because the kids got bored with it.
You've been dumbed down generationally by shit 'music'. Congrats on zero self-awareness.
Useful Vidiots Except the shit music has been rock for at least 10-15 years. When was the last huge, mainstream rock album that a large amount of the pop audience felt the need to purchase... Green Day’s _American Idiot?_
Useful Vidiots oh shut the fuck up
osp80 I’d disagree. There were plenty of big-name rock bands post-grunge/alt rock. _Every_ type of pop art changes, mutates, flows with the times, but ultimately comes around again. The rock/metal I’ve been listening to over the past several years isn’t big in the sense of how Guns ‘N Roses, Metallica, RATM and other huge bands were in the pop culture landscape, but is just as good if not better.
Useful Vidiots lol no. You’re just a bitter old shit who refuses to accept the fact that music and music tastes evolve and compensates by telling yourself that everyone else is stupid rather than admit you’re just out of touch and have an incredibly stale taste in music.
I feel like anyone who likes music, but can't understand why Mr.Roboto is a fun listen and unique enough to stick around in the public consciousness, needs to reevaluate what makes music so magical.
Its catchy and fun to sing the nonsense.
Why does it have to be more than that? Its legacy proves its potency.
Hey, Todd, maybe it's the Chicago accent. You made the same complaints about Dennis DeYoung, Tommy Shaw, and J.Y.'s voices that you did for Peter Cetera.
Then again, he’s liked The Smashing Pumpkins.
And then there's Cheap Trick
Tommy Shaw is from Alabama though..
@@jodyserner1229so is my mom who's right now 92 years.
I know that this isn't the intended interpretation by the creators, but my interpretation of the Music Video is that it is about a person in a dystopian future, that goes to an abandoned rock museum. Mr. Roboto is a delusional robot that thinks he is a real person. Over the time that the place was abandoned he became sentient. Once he sees the human, he becomes really excited and breaks out into a musical number. Thinking he is also a human, Mr. Roboto attempts to remove his mask. It is then revealed that he is just a robot. The human is confused and passively moves on.
PR Fo The video I saw seems to be exactly that and for that the song almost makes more sense. But man, Tommy looks bored when Dennis is singing!
Your idea is far better than the shite Styx put on that record.
Feels like Dennis DeYoung saw The Wall and said “I can do that!”
More like 2112 by Rush
@@JulioHernandez-wy8nh Also Zappa's Joe's Garage. Then when they made the intro film they thought, well we're ripping off a bunch of stuff we might as well rip off The Great Rock and Roll Swindle and Rock and Roll High School too.
11:19-11:56 So you may be wondering why there were anti-Japanese messages in this video made as late as 1983. Well, when American factory jobs started disappearing in the 70s, it was because the Japanese were able to make all sorts of products that were cheaper than their American counterparts. It was thought that Japan would soon dominate the world and become stronger than the USA. One could argue that they did, but it did not last long since the Japanese economy plummeted starting around 1993 in what is known as The Lost Decade. You can see evidence of this old mindset in Back to the Future II in which the Marty McFly from 2015 has a Japanese boss or in the 1993 movie The Good Son where the father of Elijah Wood's character goes to Japan so he can be set for life.
i mean, yeah, it does have a reason but it doesn't mean it's less weird/racist for a modern person
...I was too oblivious of Styx's work to realize that that Bob's Burgers laser show episode was actually making fun of Styx. I HAVE BEEN EDUCATED!
SAME. I thought it was making fun of something like Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, or other similar dystopian concept albums. A lot of those albums are great, but they’re still full of cheesy 70s ridiculousness, ripe for parody.
But god damn, they totally were just tearing apart this album, and damn their target was too easy
"He ROLLS a ROCK to save ROCK n ROLL!! They uh... weren't subtle."
The robotos were made by Stan Winston in a chain of incidents that led to his creating The Terminator. So, I mean, Styx wasn’t ALL bad.
That's almost like saying butterflies cause hurricanes. But I like the way you think.
He also made Chewbacca's family. Not everything a great artist makes will be great.
@@christopherwall2121 Chewbacca's family is fine, who needs to be hanged is the guy who decided it was a good idea to have the grandpa watch softcore porn in the living room during what is basically Christmas.
@@christopherwall2121 He just wanted to scare children by putting horrifying Wookiees on a garish variety show. Chewbacca is like Clark Gable next to the rest of his family.
Liz Phair's 2003 self-titled album.
That was not a trainwreckord.
That was a goddamn-plane-has-crashed-into-the-mountain album.
True. So much "sold out" about that.
I do like how even in a song as poppy and sugary as "Why Can't I?" she still managed to work an f-bomb in.
Why? Bruno Mars does that on every single. It's not that difficult and it doesn't even come close to making up for the massive departure from her excellent first three albums.
Yeah, as if to say "I'm still edgy! I'm still raw! Even as I write songs tailor-made for hokey rom-coms starring Jennifer Garner, I can still be raw and edgy!"
All it did was remind us of what could have been.
Eh, I just like the way it happens in that song because it's so unexpected. But that's coming from someone who had no idea who Liz Phair was when they first heard it and has no real attachment to her music either way.
i know nothing about styx, but mr roboto is a jam, and i could feel the dread piling up as it started fading in. dang it todd, i havent disagreed with you before!
Roenais If this is the first time you've disagree with Todd after eight years of content, you might *be* Todd
oh god. i never knew. that explains all the hoodies
actually imo the chorus is the worst part, it's kind of questionably racist, it's the "i've got a secret i've been hiding under my skin' verse that's super catchy
mr roboto is really only a jam because of the lyrics. structurally, the song is a mess and it's delivered by someone who sounds like a wet carpet. It's why I never really liked the song until The Protomen covered it, because they put something resembling emotion into the lyrics.
Roenais lol I disagree with him all the time I love him tho
Watching this made me realize that Footloose was really missing a musical number where John Lithgow's character expresses how much he hates rock and roll music by... playing a rock and roll song about how much he hates rock and roll music.
That would’ve been glorious! Forget the context- just the idea of John Lithgow singing heavy rock music is great!
@@millie8943 I need it SO BAD
I would absolutely 112% watch this as a stage musical. Give it to me Broadway, in all its 80's glory. Also the lead singer is trying so hard to be Freddie Mercury it's embarrassing.
cuppajess As a play within a play!!
YESSSSSS
Yeah that's the big problem I notice here that I think is why Todd hates Dennis De Young's voice. He apes the Freddie Mercury style so much but he just can't hit those crazy notes so it doesn't work at all
Dennis Deyoung and Freddie Mercury should never be in the same sentence together. Even that one. Just... let's all just stop talking about Dennis Deyoung.
Calvin Lee Ironically, you just used Dennis De Young and Freddie Mercury in the same sentence.
Never realized it, but the concept of the plot of the Queen musical "We Will Rock You" is pretty much identical to "Kilroy." But at least that has the advantage of being QUEEN.
*the misfortune of being queen
Advantage. Queen is remembered, Styx is a side note.
Poor Styx. I tend to not know I'm listening to a Styx song until someone tells me I'm listening to a Styx song. And then I promptly forget.
I'm not entirely sure, but isn't it also basically the same premise as 2112 by Rush?
It is, though 2112 manages to awesomely deliver on its narrative premise every step of the way.
TBH the 'dystopian future without rock music' premise is a very stock one for concept albums / rock operas. See: Dream Theater's The Astonishing
Will always appreciate the greatest gift this album gave us - the Protomen's cover of Mr Roboto. Just a great piece of work.
Listened to it a couple days ago and absolutely loved it. It’s amazing how much better the song sounds with an actual rock singer fronting it.
Mr. Roboto was used to great effect in the opening to one of the Train Man (Densha Otoko) adaptations, and much like DAICON IV's use of Electric Light Orchestra, it was a perfect introduction to the Train Man narrative which made way more sense attached to a romantic comedy soap opera about anime nerds in Japan than it ever did on Kilroy Is Here.
WAIT!!! Did I just hear... DAICON IV?!? You, my friend, are a true patrician. Since you know about that, I'd assume you also know who I am, correct me if I'm wrong.
I was going to say but you already did. Bravo.
Todd, please do one of these on The Beach Boys "Summer In Paradise". Pretty please!!!
Wish granted!
Done
I think Diva from Musical Hell is the only person who knows what “modren” means.
Well, her and Phelous
"Boo!!! Play 'More than a Feeling' already!"
I love seeing Todd educate us about things he’s actually invested in instead of rolling his eyes at whatever Top 40 schlock is boring him right now.
I genuinely like Styx, but sometimes it's fun to watch a thing you like get ripped apart.
Yep lol that's me with Metallica. :)
@@TheDavidish Yes!! St Anger is my go to anger ballad. I love it but I love seeing it ripped apart more.
This album comes off more like a parody of Rock Operas and concept albums.
That is what Ian Anderson said about 'Thick As A Brick"
@@craigdamage I mean but Anderson did it on purpose, I don't think DeYoung was in on the joke...
If they were being insincere with this, they didn't even do that right.
Ian Anderson already made a perfect parody with TAAB.
It was a lot better than a story about a blind pinball player.
@@TheMICMusicInspirationChannel Tommy is a masterpiece how dare you
5:57 It's doggo, thank you very much
It's DOGE!
I also thought “doggo” xD
Snarky McSne
No, it's doggo
That's "Mr. Doggo" to you!
Fun Fact, the album was so popular with the allied soldiers in WW2 they graffitied Kilroy Was Here on walls all through europe and germany
Todd talking about his feelings towards Styx at 2:26 reminds of the episode of That 70's Show where Eric tries to get the gang to go to a Styx concert on Thanksgiving night, ("I'm a DJ. I can't be seen at a Styx concert. It's in my contract")
"You're a synthesizer band, you hypocrites!" Lol
Honestly I'm starting to grow to love that Heavy Metal Poisoning song as well, it's exactly the sort of cheese you need in a metal playlist.
See Kret, see Kret! I've gotta see Kret!
-Guy who's got an appointment with Kret
Yeah, Dennis missed it last time, so he really has to make the appointment this time.
Honestly, Renegade is an absolute banger in terms of a classic rock song, probably the only Styx song I would be willing to download
Blue Collar Man is pretty good too
@@nickrustyson8124 Almost all of Styx's best songs were by Tommy Shaw. That, plus growing up with Lawrence Gowan's music as a Canadian '80s kid, is why I'd still be up for seeing them in concert even if they don't have their main lead vocalist.
"Mr. Roboto" kinda makes sense considering that "robot" in Japanese is "ロボット (Robotto)"
I'm taking Homer's reaction to crossing the river Styx to heart now...
"Oh God! It really is hell!"
I'm convinced Styx are a real life version of Spinaltap.
"Pompous to the point of Flatulence"...
Damn, that's legit poetry.
I am not ashamed to say that I love Mr. Roboto. The song that is. Not Mr. Roboto himself.
9:16 hmm a concept album about rock being outlawed and it being suppressed by a tyrannical government hmmmm that sounds vaguely familiar. *Listens to 2112 in the background*
@@markwoollon Ooh! Ooh! Let me try! Ahem...
"Hmm...a concept album about an authoritarian government outlawing rock? That sounds vaguely familiar." *listens to 2112*
@@markwoollon Are you seriously trying to review a UA-cam comment?
it’s also the plot of Queen’s Rock Opera ‘We Will Rock You’ lmfao
Hey there. As an old dude who became a Styx fan in junior high with "the Grand Illusion," I can give you my perceptions of "Kilroy Was Here" when it came out.
At first, I hated it. I thought it was dumb, and I was a geek who liked SciFi. I had previously taken a while to warm up to "Paradise Theater," but I was finding nothing about "Kilroy Was Here" to like. A friend who collected albums as his hobby got the album, we read the liner notes, and we listened to it with that as a background. Okay, we got the idea and could piece it together as intended, but we were not crazy about it; however, as radio does, they kept playing it, and it stuck in our heads. Since we had already liked Styx, we got on board and tried to like it. When the live show came to town and we finally got a chance to catch them playing in concert, we went to see it at the Civic Arena (a large venue) in Pittsburgh. We had a lot of fun with the show and enjoyed it, mostly because the majority of the show was the Styx tunes we actually wanted to hear, but we were not opposed to the theater despite it robbing us of an opening act.
After about ten years and discovering much better music completely alien to progressive stadium rock, my enjoyment of Styx waned. Certain albums and/or tunes would remain in the occasional play list, but the one album that would not resurface was "Kilroy Was Here." While it was better than the majority of the early Styx (pre-Grand Illusion), it just had no staying power and nothing enjoyably memorable. It was a product of the time and thankfully gathering dust.
Cheesy is a perfect description of this album. Considering DeYoung later went into writing musicals, it adds up that he was trying to come up with a story and musical approach back with Styx. I wish him well but have no interest in it or seeing Styx again these days. I'm no longer a teenager in the late 70s/early 80s.
I always found this album to be a particularly strange stumble for a mainstream band. I've always had the suspicion that Styx was never quite satisfied with their market audience, as they had several times tried to cross over into the Progressive Rock crowd. They always had the technical chops, but their writing was kind of too stilted to quite make the leap for Prog, but their American hits are generally more complex than most of their radio contemporaries. Kilroy Was Here always seemed like their "go big or go home" of being a respected experimental group. They had most likely witnessed Pink Floyd's similar career trajectory of being cutting edge but still garnering a mainstream appeal, which culminated in 1979's mega-hit The Wall. Kilroy Was Here is an incredibly confusing attempt at copying the success of The Wall in its' dark concept album roots, but in such as ass-backwards way that alienated nearly anybody who heard the damn thing. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on this Todd, I always wished that more people observed this strange monument in music history.
Honestly, this album always seemed like a bad take on Rush´s 2112.
Nah, its Joe's Garage minus the crass humor and sarcasm. Musicianship comparisons are a bit contested, though.
Or it could be like The Lamb lies down in Broadway without the story, complex arrangements or a good singer
They miss what made "The Wall" great though. That album is powerful because of how intense and self-loathing, how intimate and alienating it is.
Killroy is like 2112 minus everything that makes 2112 one of the greatest albums ever made.
It’s Diet 2112.
Maybe I need to re-listen to 2112 cause when I first listened to it years ago I really didn't get the hype (the fact that I knew of the hype probably didn't help), but everyone swears by it.
@@NorEasterReaper I'm a big Rush fan and I don't get the hype either. The album has its moments, but there's too much filler, and the band doesn't sound totally confident. I think their first great album is Hemispheres, and then it's killer after killer until Grace Under Pressure. The rest of the albums are still good, but that stretch is just sublime.
As a Rush fan, I love Mr. Roboto.
@@goldenheart3887 God bless you.
I hate that I love this album, It’s basically if “Wish You Were Here” was “Lake Placid”. I can’t get enough of it, it’s so bad that I can’t stop listening to it.
When this album came out, no one I knew, not even Styx fans, wanted anything to do with it. So other than the irritating Mr. Roboto single, I had no idea what a bombastic joke this album had been. If only we had seen the entirety of the _Kilroy Was Here_ introduction film on MTV every fifteen minutes then I'm sure we could have appreciated Dennis DeYoung's insights into censorship, totalitarianism, and dehumanization of modern technology. Apparently it all leads to greatest possible crime against humanity: the ban of rock 'n' roll music! If only we had known, we surely would have held up our Kilroy Was Here album covers whenever a right wing politician or evangelical television preacher threatened to censor our music!
A few months later, MTV began airing Michael Jackson's _Thriller_ video/short film every fifteen minutes. I bet DeYoung was furious that MTV was wasting air time on something that had no message for their young viewers.