References: Barry Manilow—’Super Trouper’—Billy Joel—Edward Kennedy
After two triple-platinum albums in a row, the stresses of stardom begin to show on long-player #9 from Styx, Cornerstone.
This album is also notable because it features the most controversial (at least among band members) song—”Babe.” “It was a real dilemma,” guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Tommy Shaw told Behind the Music. “It was unlike anything I’d ever anticipated doing in Styx.”
Side One of Cornerstone
“Lights”—Dennis DeYoung and Shaw complaining about stardom. A nice song but one of the limpest openings of a Styx album yet, but the chorus sticks (pardon the pun). This one gets a little funky but it’s pretty much a pure pop song. A year later, ABBA would release a song with a similar lyrical sentiment, “SuperTrouper.”
“Why Me”—Another questioning DeYoung song, along the lines of Pieces of Eight‘s “I’m Okay,” with a catchy pop chorus. “Life is strange,” he tells us. “You’ve got the right to say, ‘Why me?'” Do you, though? This goes against various affirmation I have taped up around my apartment. This one has sax in the middle though so that’s new. And a part where DeYoung sings, “Stop, here comes anxiety,” reminds me of Billy Joel‘s “Pressure.” Backup vocals are extraordinarily wimpy or angelic, depending on your opinion of the band. Down but not out, the sax comes back for one more round.
“Babe”—Here it is. I’m not a fan of this song, its tinkly piano and strained vocal performance (by DeYoung), but I don’t have the violent reaction to it that I have to Pieces of Eight‘s “Renegade.” This strikes me as just a bland, boring pop song, albeit one that set the airwaves on fire in 1979. The airwaves were very flammable back then. The song went to number one in the U.S. for two weeks; it went to the same spot in Canada for six weeks.
“Never Say Never”—Hurry up, get some electric guitar in there quick, we have an emergency! Too bad they couldn’t find a more powerful rocker to follow-up the momentum-killing “Babe.” This DeYoung/Shaw number is all right, I guess, but it sounds like a lot of other, better songs.
“Boat on the River”—This Shaw number has a vaguely Celtic rock flavour, which is… interesting? I don’t know. Again, we’re hearing about the complaints of millionaire rock stars who just need to get away from it all. This was a big hit in Europe, apparently. Next, please.
Side Two of Cornerstone
“Borrowed Time”—”Don’t look now but here come the ’80s,” DeYoung tells us, which is as prescient as you could hope for in the waning days of 1979. It’s especially apt coming from a band that is so quintessentially ’70s. (Amazingly, Styx would survive into the next four decades!) The song is just dumb fun, in a Van Halen kind of way, as DeYoung looks back on the carefree days of pre-stardom from the arena stage. A big thumbs-up for this one.
“First Time”—Not good. A DeYoung ballad with less personality than “Babe,” if such a thing is possible. When the band sings “Don’t be afraid of love,” any rock ‘n’ roll cred they had evaporates like so much dry ice in an empty arena. A big symphonic ending doesn’t help. As Shaw was quoted in Behind the Music, “The band was big enough already. We didn’t have to stretch out into Barry Manilow‘s territory.”
“Eddie”—The only song written by original member James Young, whose songwriting is getting shorter and shorter shrift with each new record. It’s also about the only track with balls. They’re ’70s balls, though; young dumb and full of cum. The song is about “Eddie, a bootlegger’s son,” who is actually Edward Kennedy, according to Wiki. Whoever it’s about, it’s pothole filler. I wonder if it even made it to the stage.
“Love in the Midnight”—From the title you’d think DeYoung was going to attempt to out-“Babe” himself again, but this is a Shaw song. It opens with acoustic guitar and vocals and about a minute in the full band comes in. The song improves moderately but it still sounds like the band is stretching a thin idea way past its breaking point. Although it does feature the lines “I’m a ravenous man/You better chain me up.” It may be about lycanthropy.
Facts about Cornerstone
• according to DeYoung, it’s the record company’s (A&M) fault. He originally wrote “Babe” for his wife Suzanne , but when the record company heard the demo he recorded “they wanted it to be on the album,” he told Naples Daily News in 2016. “It was done without any intent for the radio or the public.” Not to cast aspersions on this claim, but why was DeYoung playing the demo for the record company in the first place if this was the case? Discuss.
• the Celtic-flavoured “Boat on the River” became the band’s biggest European hit, according to Wiki.
• like the previous two, this one went triple-platinum. It’s hard to imagine today, but at this point in its career, Styx was one of the biggest bands in the world. IN THE WORLD. Take a minute to let that sink in.
• Young named the album, as he had done for Man of Miracles and Equinox.
• the original back cover artwork features a barn-door opening down the middle to reveal printed lyrics on both interior half-sides and a shiny, futuristic silver LP sleeve.