🎵 AotW Dennis DeYoung - DESERT MOON (SP-5006)

[LPJim]

Dennis DeYoung
DESERT MOON
A&M SP-5006

A1 Don't Wait For Heroes 4:46
A2 Please Lead Vocals – Rosemary Butler 4:21
A3 Boys Will Be Boys 5:42
A4 Fire 3:46
B1 Desert Moon 6:08
B2 Suspicious 4:57
B3 Gravity 4:50
B4 Dear Darling (I'll Be There) 4:29

• Licensed From – A&M Records, Inc.
• Phonographic Copyright (p) – A&M Records, Inc.
• Manufactured By – RTB Records

• Producer, Arranged By – Dennis DeYoung
• Words By, Music By – Dennis DeYoung (tracks: A1 to A3, B1 to B4), Jimi Hendrix (tracks: A4)

Track 2 is a duet with Rosemary Butler
Track A4 is a cover of the Jimi Hendrix track.

Entered the Billboard Top 200 on October 6, 1984
Charted for 25 weeks and peaked at # 29
Available as CD 5006


JB

 

[Dave]

Pretty much the Styx lead singer, still sounding like a Styx lead singer, over a Bee Gees-level of material... And even the Hendrix cover seems tame--what else after "Foxy Lady" can you do as well as Jimi?


-- Dave

 

[toeknee4bz]

I remember being initially thrilled that Dennis was putting out a solo lp after Styx decided to break u( I mean, take a hiatus... ), only to be somewhat disappointed. This album was too pop to be rock and roll, and too loud for synthpop. The whole first side just about pounds your brain in, and on the second side only slightly less. The ultra stupid and cheesy sounding "Boys Will Be Boys", along with the contrived cover of Hendrix's "Fire" are both downright embarrassing (and I'm not even a Hendrix fan). The closer, "Dear Darling" is just far too sweet for the overall mood of this record, the synths and over-reverberated vocal intros are extremely dated, and the lyrics were incredibly juvenile sounding for an artist in his late 30s at the time (for example: "Here I am, sitting in my room again... I play my records and think of you...").

On the plus side, the title track was great, obviously the standout... along with the bluesy "Suspicious", "Gravity" and the rocker duet, "Please". I can tolerate "Don't Wait For Heroes" at times, although it's one I have to be in the mood to hear, definitely not my favorite by any means.

All in all, it's an ok as far as debuts go, three out of eight tracks which were stellar, another two which were at least listenable at best. But the better works in his solo catalogue were yet to come, with the subsequent A&M album BACK TO THE WORLD in 1986, the MCA album BOOMCHILD in 1988, and the Atlantic album 10 ON BROADWAY in 1994.

 

[toeknee4bz]

Great cover, though. Very elegant. But then again, not very appropriate for a pop/rock album of this caliber. Looks like a concert pianist or something. Screwy marketing in the design, what with the Times New Roman font and the italicized title font. Not very 'rock & roll' at all.

 

[Rudy]

This album? It is what it is. Some tracks I find embarrassing (like "Boys Will Be Boys"), and side two of the album does play better than the first at times. The title track is the most Styx-like of the set. Overall a good set, very much of its time, so it hasn't aged well in some respects. In a way it sort of follows up Cornerstone which was more relaxed and acoustic (organic) in nature.

Tommy Shaw's Girls With Guns is a good companion to this one. The sound is more like Journey on that one however, since it was produced by Journey producer Mike Stone and has that cavernous reverb throughout. Surprisingly synth-heavy at times.

A few tracks from each of these solo recordings could have been part of a greater Styx album, IMHO.

Spoiler: DDY interview excerpt

AH: Okay. So, making the leap to a solo career, how difficult was that for you?

DDY: I only did it because Tommy quit the band, and I didn’t know what I was going to do, and we had an option in our contract that allowed me to make a solo album. So I went in and recorded Desert Moon. I had never had any ambition to make a solo record. In fact, after Pieces of Eight, I believe JY and Tommy had batted around the idea of them doing solo albums, and it was one of the times, I believe –Derek Sutton and I agreed though I could be wrong, I can’t be sure. My opinion was we shouldn’t do that. We had just established ourselves as an entity, right?

AH: Right.

DDY: And we should try to take advantage of that and not splinter off into different directions.

AH: So, did you have a lot of the songs for Desert Moon already written in those six months, or did –

DDY: None of ‘em. I wrote ‘em all on the spot. I didn’t have any of them. You know, I didn’t really – I love being part of the team. ...

(Interview from http://www.styxcollector.com/ .)

 

[Made In America]

I recently saw Dennis DeYoung in concert and the only solo song he plays in his set is "Desert Moon". He uses this song to give his guitar player a very lengthy solo. Sadly, it was pretty much the only song in the concert that the entire audience wasn't singing along with. Everyone hears those classic Styx songs on the radio all of the time but not much airplay devoted to his solo career.

 

[Rudy]

As much as I listened to this album when it came out, I seriously can't remember anything but bits and pieces of the songs.

The whole DDY/Styx situation is so petty. I wouldn't see Styx without DDY as his sound (keys and vocals) was so central to the band. (Same as I won't see Earth Wind & Fire unless Maurice White is out front.) Kind of ironic that Styx originally grew out of a band comprised of DDY and the Panozzo brothers, and now, none of them are in the band. It's not that I don't like some of Tommy Shaw's songs, and JY's rockers, but that would be only half of the Styx "experience" for me. When we listened to Styx albums back in the day, many of us gravitated towards DDY's songs like "Come Sail Away."

I'd probably be happier at the DDY solo concert, to be honest.

 

[Made In America]

I probably wouldn't turn down the opportunity to see/hear Tommy Shaw's version of Styx in concert since he sings lead on some of my favorite Styx songs. But without question, Dennis is the guy I wanted to see and hear the most. In fact, I have seen him in concert twice in the past 10 years and the shows are simply amazing. The audience is amazing. Dennis heard the entire audience of 1000's of people singing every word to every song and when the "Come Sail Away" intro started, he told the audience to take it away as he listened in awe on stage. Incredible moment I will never forget.

 

[AM Matt]

Best song by Dennis De Young "Turn Off CNN" (from 2006)!!! Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Mike Blakesley]

We actually saw a Styx concert in the summer of 2013 and I was blown away by it. Very energetic. I like the DDY songs, but my favorites are mostly the Shaw tunes like "Crystal Ball," "Man in the Wilderness" and a few others. They have another keyboard player who sounds very much like DDY so his songs are given a good treatment.

I also saw Styx during their heyday (Paradise Theatre tour) and they were excellent back then.

It's too bad they can't patch things up and get together, but more and more we're going to have to listen to "substitute" lead singers for our favorite bands as the original singers (a) get too old to hit the notes or (b) check into that great recording studio in the sky or (c) have falling-outs with their bandmates. Another 10 or 15 years and all we'll have left are tribute bands, so catch'em while you can folks.

As for this album -- it's one of many albums I have heard, but have no recollection of in the slightest. I probably played it in the store, and wound up not liking it (and not selling it either). I stopped being a fan of new DDY songs after that gawd-awful Mr. Roboto album came out, which he bore the most responsibility for. Also I agree with those who think this was a bad marketing concept for the album cover -- I can see he wanted to ditch the Styx mysticism but he took it too far the other way.

 

[Rudy]

Kilroy wasn't too bad of an album, but the concept tunes ("Roboto," "Heavy Metal Poisoning") did not age well. There are some decent yet unspectacular songs hidden on side two. It certainly wasn't up to the standard of Grand Illusion or even Paradise Theatre, though. Sifting through a lengthy 2009 interview with DDY, he acknowledged the album wasn't as big of a success (partly due to A&M's interference as to which singles to release such as putting out the filler tune "High Time" vs. "Haven't We Been Here Before", and also due to the album not having a real rocker like "Renegade" on it), and that the 12 minute concept film didn't quite capture what he was after. The central idea (censorship and rock music) was foreboding, though, as it wasn't long after that some meddlers from Washington decided we all needed to have warning stickers on our albums. And that of course came out of the accusation that the song "Snowblind" (from PT) apparently had some satanic backwards-masked lyrics in it. (As JY put it in concert, "...the devil had nothing to do with this song..." ) And DDY's thing was to get the band on film, as this album happened just prior to MTV.

The live concert from Kilroy had the film in it, and the story line, but once you get past that it's a fairly good concert recording (even better on video with the added visuals).

Although I can safely say that anything on the solo album, or Kilroy, is far better than this:

 

[Rudy]

New vinyl smell...

I remembered I had Back To The World on vinyl, purchased nearly a decade ago, but never listened to it. I'd forgotten it was sealed, so I finally cracked it open this morning. Since we won't have it as AOTW for almost two years, I'll just say for now that it's similar to Desert Moon but is more solid, with stronger (perhaps more self-assured) songwriting. One impression is that this sounds like Dennis DeYoung, not Dennis DeYoung of Styx. Like he's found more of his own sound, vs. echoing some of what he'd done with the band. The sound is a little more modern (think mid 80s), but fortunately is not uncomfortably dated like some records are. Nice Sterling-cut vinyl by Ted Jensen.

 

[DeeInKY]

That's one of the strangest things I've ever heard...

 

[toeknee4bz]

As much as I listened to this album when it came out, I seriously can't remember anything but bits and pieces of the songs.

The whole DDY/Styx situation is so petty. I wouldn't see Styx without DDY as his sound (keys and vocals) was so central to the band. (Same as I won't see Earth Wind & Fire unless Maurice White is out front.) Kind of ironic that Styx originally grew out of a band comprised of DDY and the Panozzo brothers, and now, none of them are in the band. It's not that I don't like some of Tommy Shaw's songs, and JY's rockers, but that would be only half of the Styx "experience" for me. When we listened to Styx albums back in the day, many of us gravitated towards DDY's songs like "Come Sail Away."

I'd probably be happier at the DDY solo concert, to be honest.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[Dave]

Great cover, though. But then again, not very appropriate for a pop/rock album of this caliber. Looks like a concert pianist or something.

Maybe if not for Richard Carpenter's fondness for the '60's Thunderbird, he's pictured with on his solo album, he probably should have used the grand piano-keyboard-idea on Time...


-- Dave

 

[jfiedler17]

It's funny, Rudy, I recently just picked up a copy of The Serpent Is Rising at an antique shop - first time I've ever run across an original pressing of the album - and that "Plexiglass Toilet" song is not listed anywhere on the label or cover, so you can't imagine how surprised I was to hear that song pop up at the end of Side One. My immediate reaction was, "what the heck is THIS?". Apparently, from what I could find about the song Online, it's a John Curulewski song that Dennis absolutely HATED and didn't want anything to do with. I'm not sure if the band just snuck it onto the album without him knowing, but in every interview with Dennis where that album comes up in conversation, Dennis is quick to trash the album and admit that he's royally embarrassed by it. (Fittingly enough, given the bad blood between Dennis and the rest of the band, there's a video from 2012 up on YouTube of Tommy, Chuck, and Lawrence Gowan standing around a kitchen jubilantly playing - what else? - "Plexiglass Toilet.") It's a better album than Dennis gives it credit for, though, and it does have a small handful of redeeming cuts ("Winner Take All" is my favorite), but it is admittedly the strangest and least commercial album the band ever made.

As far as Desert Moon goes, yeah, the album's a pretty mixed bag (but then, so are most of the Styx solo albums). I do really like the title track, and "Dear Darling (I'll Be There)," "Suspicious," and "Don't Wait for Heroes" aren't bad, either, but the cheese factor of "Boys Will Be Boys" really takes away immensely from what could have potentially been a really fun album cut (the song's certainly got a great and catchy melody, anyway), and I agree that the cover of Jimi's "Fire" was a really bad idea. If he had taken the two or three gems on this disc and just saved them for inclusion on Back to the World, that really would have made for one heck of a strong solo debut.

And as far as the Styx-DeYoung feud? It's a very petty fight indeed, and yeah, I'm also in the DeYoung camp on this one. I love Shaw as a vocalist and songwriter and, if he were to take his Styx songs and simply just incorporate them into a "Tommy Shaw" solo show, I'd totally be willing to go see that. But there's just something about him and JY continuing to cash in on the Styx name without DeYoung around that just seems to be in really bad taste to me, even if they have a legal right to do it. (It also doesn't help that nearly all of Styx's recorded output over the last fifteen years or so has consisted of an endless barrage of cash-in live albums all featuring more or less the exact same material. Talk about tacky! That kind of thing has really damaged the band's legacy in my eyes, and I'm sure I'm not alone on that, either.) So, as great as though a lot of Tommy's songs are, I'd rather see Dennis solo than go see "Styx" without DeYoung.