Certainly one of Styx’s largest, most beloved songs almost didn’t occur. It was 1980 and Styx was on prime of the world. They had been coming off three multi-Platinum albums in a row and had been nearly to document Paradise Theatre, which might turn into their largest but, and their first No. 1. In fact, that they had no strategy to know that but, however on the finish of the yr, a Gallup ballot would declare them America’s hottest band, and it was already fairly clear that there can be quite a lot of ears for no matter Styx put out subsequent.
Tommy Shaw had turn into recognized for contributing at the very least a few high-impact tunes to every album, particularly rockers like “Renegade” and “Blue Collar Man.” However for what would turn into Paradise Theatre, he had solely written one monitor on his personal, the comparatively laid-back love tune “She Cares.” And he was on his strategy to the band’s remaining rehearsal of their new tunes, so it was wanting like that’d be it.
Hearken to Styx’s “Too Much Time on My Hands” now.
As he was driving across the perimeter of Lake Michigan, from his Niles, Michigan residence to the rehearsal studio in Gary, Indiana, fortune smiled upon the singing guitarist. With out warning, the riff that may turn into ingrained within the American psyche as a perennial pop-culture earworm all of the sudden appeared in his head.
It was the hard-pumping hook we now know because the indelible bass line of “Too Much Time on My Hands.” The gears in Shaw’s head began turning as he neared the studio. In a 2016 interview for the band’s web site, Styxworld.com, he revealed, “I turned the car off and ran inside to rehearsal and gathered everybody around and said, ‘Chuck [Panozzo, bassist], play dun-dun dun-dun dun-dun-dun-dun. Do this, and go to this chord.’ And it just unfolded. It was like it came in a package. We took it out and assembled it, and there it is.”
For the tune’s lyrical inspiration, Shaw didn’t need to go too far past his personal yard. Not removed from the farm in Niles the place he was residing along with his horse coach girlfriend there was a blue-collar bar referred to as Mark’s, the place he logged quite a lot of elbow-bending hours when he wasn’t out rocking. “The drinks were good, and the drinks were cheap,” he mentioned. “You could go in there with 20 bucks and be a hero, you know — buying rounds of drinks. And you’d always run into somebody you knew in there.”
Shaw wrote from the POV of an imagined Mark’s common describing the hours whiled away, “sitting on this barstool, talking like a damn fool,” and detailing the shortage of any extra engaging choices. The tune turned out to be a very good thematic match for the Paradise Theatre idea, which used the opening and shutting of a basic Chicago theater to represent the rise and fall of the American dream, chronicling the lives of underdogs struggling for a greater life.
Musically, “Too Much Time on My Hands” was most likely essentially the most au courant monitor Styx had but recorded. A Kraftwerk-worthy synth locks in with the bass line and lends the monitor a definite synth-pop/New Wave vibe. And the fraternal rhythm part of Chuck and John Panozzo places a dab of disco into the groove, making this the closest factor to a dance tune within the band’s repertoire on the time.
All the above helped “Too Much Time” climb into the High 10, which didn’t harm the album’s rise to triple-Platinum standing. The endearingly goofy video boosted the trigger too, alternating efficiency photographs with photographs of the band tenting it up at a cool gin joint.
That video had a second life in 2016 when fan Jimmy Fallon joined along with Paul Rudd to create a loving shot-for-shot remake of the video, bringing a complete new viewers into the fold. When “Too Much Time” was written, going viral was one thing you combated with antibiotics. A long time later, it added arguably as a lot to the Styx legacy as Cartman’s 1998 South Park immortalization of “Come Sail Away.”
Hearken to Styx’s “Too Much Time on My Hands” now.
