Styx “Paradise Theatre” 1981. Continuing today with another guilty pleasure. Paradise Theatre used to be in my collection but at some point in the distant past I weeded it out; this copy is a recent replacement. My first acquisition was through the Columbia House record club, and an accident. I’m pretty sure I was trying to order Def Leppard’s Pyromania back in ‘83 but Columbia House kept fucking up the order and sent me Styx, twice, so I ended up keeping it. Until I got rid of it, of course. I don’t think I’ve listened to it since the early 80′s but I have to say I’m thoroughly enjoying it, well some of it anyway. I also don’t remember my original copy having the laser etchings on the B-side of the vinyl but it’s possible. Back then I wouldn’t have known to look for it.

Paradise Theatre was Styx’s 10th album, a concept album chronicling the imagined historical rise and fall of the Chicago Paradise Theatre* (and according to Wiki this was a metaphor for the changes in American society in the late 70′s). It also became the band’s most successful record, hitting #1 on the US album charts with several strong singles. Those singles are also the songs I like the most. The epic and anthemic lite-prog rock track “The Best of Times” was the first single from Paradise Theatre and it went to #3 on the US charts. The second single, “Too Much Time on My Hands,” is my favorite from the album and it hit #9 on the US Hot 100 chart and #2 on the Top Rock Tracks chart. (A couple of years ago Jimmy Fallon and Paul Rudd did a hilarious and spot-on re-creation of the song’s video.) I only vaguely remember the third single, “Nothing Ever Goes as Planned,” which isn’t surprising since it only went to #54 in the US. I do remember the final single, “Rockin’ the Paradise,” which went to #8 on the Billboard Rock Chart. It was also the 10th video aired by MTV when it launched in August ‘81. The rest of the album is kind of bland, again a commercially palatable, prog rock lite sound (though “Snowblind” is super-proggy and “Half-Penny, Two-Penny” is pretty rollicking), technically competent but not much heft or soul to keep me thoroughly engaged for the whole album, which is kind of the point of AOR. Apparently the band was in the midst of some bitter fighting during the writing and recording of Paradise Theatre, with competing songwriters and divergent directions, which explains some of the unevenness of the album’s concept and delivery.

*Since originally posting this, a friend of mine mentioned that her mom used to work as a candy girl at the real Paradise Theatre in Chicago, I’m guessing in the 50′s.