Search - Styx - 20th Century Masters on DVD

Styx Music Videos You've Never Seen Before.

J. Lee | Northern, CA USA | 05/18/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Despite Amazon not having the full title or description listed as of yet for some odd reason, this is THE BEST OF STYX: THE DVD COLLECTION. It's collection of Six music videos which are: 1). "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)"2). "Come Sail Away"3). "Too Much Time On My Hands"4). "The Best Of Times"5). "Boat On The River"6). "Mr. Roboto" First of all, Universal should have released STYX's entire music video collection on one DVD, not this small DVD EP collection. Not from a band that's been around for over 30 years and has over 20 music videos, many of which have never even aired in the United States. The first video, "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" is a big disappointment since this video is straight from the "Caught In The Act" video that was released in 1984. Many fans have this video already so I have no idea why Universal decided to release this again, especially since there's vintage music video for this song from 1978 that has rarely been seen by anyone. Fortunately, things get much better with the rest of the videos. Time warp to 1977 and the next video "Come Sail Away" is a great vintage music video. You may have seen brief excerpts of this video when VH-1 aired STYX: Behind the Music. One thing you'll notice is how much facial hair Dennis has. Images of this video are pretty clear, but this video is very old, so it's not going to be like any movie DVD you may have. The third ("Too Much Time On My Hands") and fourth ("The Best Of Times") videos, were also made even before there was an MTV, however the image quality of these two videos are superb, even better than satellite or digital cable offers. The third is video is probably one of my favorites since actually succeeds in being funny for the right reasons. It is part concept and performance video while the next video is mostly a performance video. All of music videos for the album "Paradise Theater" were shot in one day as were the first three music videos for the "Kilroy Was Here" album. The next video for "Boat On The River" is extremely rare, so I was thrilled when was included in this collection. It's another vintage video from 1979 that has Dennis playing his accordion and Tommy with his pint size mandolin guitar. The video reminds me how the band plays performs this song now live on stage "unplugged". Best of all on these two vintage videos, is all the great fashions the band had back-in-the-day. All of these vintage music videos (from the '70s) never aired MTV. The last video is the popular "Mr. Roboto" music video. A well done video for its day, it was played very often in MTV early days. The image quality of this video looks to be a bit fuzzier than some older MTV videos and there's a slight sound skip at the very end of the video that wasn't on this music video when it was on MTV. All of the music videos have great stereo sound. After watching this DVD a few times, you'll probably will also want to get Styx's latest double CD compilation called - "Come Sail Away: The Styx Anthology" for when your not near your television. Universal has said that if this STYX DVD music video collection sells well enough that they will release another volume of STYX music videos and since this collection represents less than one quarter of all of their videos let hope the next volume is much larger. Besides the seven performance, pre-MTV, vintage music videos from the 1970's, there's another rare concept music video for "Haven't We Been Here Before" that has only aired once or twice on late night TV over twenty years ago. Hopefully, this DVD is just a small preview and the next STYX DVD collection will include some of these other videos next time, but for this price you can't go wrong with getting this music video collection."

A Great Collection of Early Styx Videos

Jeffrey T. Munson | Dixon, IL | 02/09/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Back in the late 70s to early 80s, Styx was one of the most popular rock and roll bands of the time, routinely selling out arenas all across the country. This DVD provides a glimpse back into the heyday of this legendary band with these great early videos.

There are six videos on this DVD: "Blue Collar Man", "Come Sail Away", "Too Much Time on my Hands", "The Best of Times", "Boat on the River", and "Mr. Roboto". Most of these are performance videos, taped during an actual concert. "Too Much Time on my Hands" is a compilation video, containing both concert footage and more traditional-style video filming. I was disappointed that "Come Sail Away" was edited as much as it was. Most of the insturmental parts were deleted. "Mr. Roboto" showed very little footage of the band itself. However, it was a very popular video shown during the early days of MTV. It also lead to Tommy Shaw's departure from the band and the beginning of a lenghtly hiatus for the group. They did not re-emerge on the music scene until 1990 with "Edge of the Century", still minus Tommy Shaw. I thought "Boat on the River" was very good, with Tommy playing the mandolin and Dennis on accordion.

I wish this DVD would have contained a few more videos, such as "Show Me The Way" and Tommy's lost "Haven't We Been Here Before", which was only rarely seen on late-night television. None of these videos features the amount of choreography and acting as today's music videos do, but they are still very good, they sound well in stereo, and they give the viewer a look back at some of Styx' more well-known songs.

I highly recommend this great DVD. It is a must for Styx fans. We can only hope that Universal will put out a follow-up disc that contains more great classic songs. Until then, watch this DVD and enjoy a look back to the glory days of a supergroup."

Classic Styx on Video

KMM | Texas | 10/16/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These videos are of varying quality, and reflect various periods in the history of what many consider the Classic Styx era. (That is, when their central vocalist/songwriter, Dennis DeYoung, was still in the group)
"Come Sail Away" is perhaps the poorest quality of this entire group of videos, but it is interesting to see 1977 era Styx performing what is considered their signature song.
"Boat on the River" is a fun treat. Again, not the best of quality and all these "performance" videos are lip synched to the original recordings.
"Too Much Time on My Hands" was one of the few production type videos Styx ever did, meaning it had parts where the guys were not just onstage performing the song. It is actually a humorous video and lots of little silly bits in it.
"Best of Times" and "Mr. Roboto" were huge hits for Styx. Both DeYoung compositions which featured him heavily. Roboto, of course, is an early MTV classic video. Manic and totally out there visually, musically and lyrically.
"Blue Collar Man" is straight ahead onstage action.
If you are a fan of Styx. This one is a must-have."