Welcome back to the STYX LIST!
With this update; we’re exploring The Blues! Perhaps the very bedrock of Rock ’N Roll, no doubt these songs will continue to inspire and influence Rock ’N Roll music for the ages.
You don’t have to have the blues to enjoy these great songs by these legendary artists.
Read more about this STYX LIST Installment here:
Tommy Shaw on B.B. King: "Listening to B.B. King's "Sweet Little
Angel" reminds me of growing up in Montgomery, Alabama and playing that
song as a teenager. It stirred something in me that I was just beginning
to figure out how to call upon. Later on, "The Thrill Is Gone" would serve
as the last song of the evening in a band called MS Funk, and by then, I
had really gotten a handle on that thing that "Sweet Little Angel" had
awakened."
"B.B. and I never met, but as a muse, he always reminded me to keep it
simple and straight from the heart. He also showed how important live
performing was for the spirit of those who found that joy in it, and that
there was never an age limit to tapping into that joy. Thank you
B.B. King for the great music, and influence. God Speed."
Tommy talking about the video Styx shot for their cover of
"Can't Find My Way Home": "Styx shot their travelogue video for their cover
of Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home" (found on 2005's Big Bang
Theory) while on tour in Europe. "When you have a location like that - oh,
man!" exclaims Styx guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw. "A lot of it was done
in Nottingham, some of it was in Berlin, and I can't remember if we used
anything from Amsterdam. We also did it on the ferry at Dover. And that's
such a great red rain jacket I've got on there too!"
"Much of the "Home" footage was shot with Styx co-founding
guitarist/vocalist James "JY" Young's compact digital movie camera.
Clarifies Tommy, "We were down by the Thames one afternoon [in London],
just walking around. I had the song on my iPod, and that was our playback.
We saw those ladies sitting there at the bus stop and we asked, 'Do you
mind?' I don't know if they ever really understood what we were doing!"
Tommy Shaw on Son House's "John The Revelator": James Young turned me on to Son House's "John The Revelator" around the time we performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Festival in in Dallas in 2004. I loved it so much I went searching and that's when I came across Blind Lemon Jefferson and it all struck that same nerve that gospel music did when I was a child and heard it on TV every Sunday in our house. That was a lot more fun to me than church, where I usually ended up in big trouble when we got home, for being so fidgety during the sermon."
