🎵 AotW AOTW: Styx - PIECES OF EIGHT (SP-4724)

[LPJim]

Styx
PIECES OF EIGHT
A&M SP-4724

SIDE ONE

Great White Hope (James Young) 4:23
I'm OK (Dennis DeYoung - James Young) 5:42
Sing For the Day (Tommy Shaw) 4:56
The Message (Dennis DeYoung) 1:08
Lords of the Ring (Dennis DeYoung) 4:31

SIDE TWO

Blue Collar Man (Long Nights) by Tommy Shaw 4:03 #21
Queen of Spades (Young/DeYoung) 5:38
Renegade (Shaw) 4:13 #16
Pieces of Eight (DeYoung) 4:45
Aku-Aku (Shaw) 3:00

All selections published by Almo Music Corp. & Stygian Songs (ASCAP)
Produced by Styx/ Production Assistance by Barry Mraz, who engineered with Rob Kingsland

Assistant Engineers: Harry Andronis & Gary Geppert
Synthesizer Programming: Ed Walsh & Dennis DeYoung
Pipe organ on "I'm OK" recorded in the Cathedral of St. James, Chicago IL

Production Coordinator: Jim Cahill
Special Thanks to: George Cooley, Jon's Just Music, D.J.'s Music, Dave Yoshinari
Management Direction: Derek Sutton, Stardust Enterprises

Road Crew:
Tour Manager/Sound: Jim Vose
Lighting Director, Jeff Ravitz
Stage Manager, Judson Phelps
Drums, Etec. "Yaz" Jastrembski
Keyboards, Pat Hinchey
Asst. Tour Manager, Bill Baxter

Released in Sept. 1978. Reissued as SP/CD 3224
Peak Billboard Top 200 position: Number 6; charted for 92 weeks.

JB

 

[AM Matt]

The song "Aku Aku" reminds me of Crash Bandicoot (which debut back in 1996 for Sony Playstation) dear friend who wears a mask & "Uka Uka" is the mean mask which is Dr. Neo Cortex boss!! Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[AM Matt]

The FM station 96 WHNN (which was a rock station back then) played it for the first time back in the middle of September of 1978 in its entirely. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Dave]

Had this on 8-Track and was disappointed in "Renegade" being divided between "Program 3" and "Program 4" and A&M 8-tracks, unlike Columbia products wouldn't repeat it "undivided" somewhere else on the tape, yet there was over 1:00 of silence at the end "to preserve continuity"...

Really disliked how "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" and the lyrics of "Pieces Of Eight": "...It's Six-O-Clock, it's quitting time, I'm done for the day..." reminded me of how I had my first job & it seemed I had to work long hours (& mostly NIGHTS!) to pay for my such pleasures...!



Dave

 

[Actorman]

The woman on the cover of this album always creeped me out as a kid.

 

[Rudy]

Someone told me years ago the "women" on the cover were the members of Styx "made up"...although I don't see it!

This was the first Styx album my buddy and I both owned. We used to crank it through an amplified P.A. speaker at his house when his parents would go out. Not as fond of it today as I gravitate toward Equinox as my A&M favorite, but still has a few good tracks on it.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

This album was a disappointment for me. My favorite Styx album overall is CRYSTAL BALL, and after the excellent Tommy Shaw material on that album, I was sorely disappointed in his material on this one. He regained his greatness with "Man in the Wilderness" from THE GRAND ILLUSION.

That said, the album does have high points. The opening tune "Great White Hope" is one of the best Styx rockers, as is "Blue Collar Man." The rest has faded in interest for me. Well, "Renegade" is OK.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

This was the first Styx album I bought. I liked it a lot. I still love "Sing For The Day", my favorite track, as well as "Renegade" and "Great White Hope". This was the last really good album they put out IMO.



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Mr Bill]

Mr. Roboto is still my favorite...

--Mr Bill

 

[Harry]

Someone told me years ago the "women" on the cover were the members of Styx "made up"...although I don't see it!

This was the first Styx album my buddy and I both owned. We used to crank it through an amplified P.A. speaker at his house when his parents would go out. Not as fond of it today as I gravitate toward Equinox as my A&M favorite, but still has a few good tracks on it.

Just stumbled onto the story behind the cover art of PIECES OF EIGHT:

The story behind Styx's Pieces Of Eight album artwork

Styx commissioned Hipgnosis, the high priests of album art, to provide a cover for their 1978 album Pieces Of Eight. They ended up being bamboozled by artspeak

www.loudersound.com

 

[Rudy]

Wait, I thought this was the original cover...?

 

[Harry]

No, that was pieces of....

 

[Rudy]

That said, the album does have high points. The opening tune "Great White Hope" is one of the best Styx rockers, as is "Blue Collar Man." The rest has faded in interest for me. Well, "Renegade" is OK.

That reminds me that "I'm OK" had the pipe organ interlude in it. For the earlier album The Serpent is Rising, I think that organ on that record (which joins "Krakatoa" to "Hallelujah Chorus") was recorded by running a remote line all the way to a nearby church to record it. Makes me wonder how they recorded this part, as I doubt they were in the small studio in Chicago where they recorded Serpent. My guess is that they probably took a recorded over to a church and recorded it there, then mixed that onto the multitrack. (It didn't need to have the rhythm section matched to it.)

 

[AM Matt]

I wonder if Crash Bandicoot's friend "Aku Aku" (the mask) was named on the last track on Side 2 (when it came out in 1996 for Playstation)??