Talk:Kilroy Was Here (album)

Story?

any thoughts on how the "story" should be formatted? Airbrush 03:48, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Looks okay to me. Perhaps the quotation marks are unnecessary, since the whole section is a quote. Otherwise, they start in the wrong place. 63.25.108.98 19:16, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Fan Site Dead?

The links at mrroboto.info were all dead, and the page itself was missing its images. 63.25.108.98 19:14, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Chronological Inconsistency

This page and the Snowblind song page seem to disagree on the timing of events between the publication of the Kilroy Was Here album in 1983 and the challenge of backmasking on Snowblind (Paradise Theater 1981) from the PMRC... One page seems to indicate that Kilroy Was Here was published in response to the PMRC and the other page seems to indicate that the PMRC debacle was an ironic coincidence occurring after release of Kilroy Was Here...

This article: "The MMM was a fictitious pre-cursor to the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) who would later attack Styx for "backmasking" the word "Satan" in the song "Snowblind" on 1981's Paradise Theatre."

Snowblind article: "They created the concept album Kilroy Was Here as a response to the California ruling." (regarding PMRC's backmasking claim)

Paradise Theatre was obviously released before both of these events, but it's impossible to tell from the articles which statement is accurate.

The PMRC did not form until 1985, two years after the release of this album. I would guess that MMM is a reference to Moral Majority. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 20:58, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Styx themselves explain the issue on the Caught In The Act concert album which followed. In introducing the song Snowblind Dennis DeYoung says it was the California state legislature which denounced the song (among others) as containing backwards satanic lyrics. Unfortunately I do not know what act or bill contained these claims, though it had to have been some time in before Kilroy Was Here. Sir Smedley (talk) 02:09, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Just to be a geek about it, it was James Young who said that in his introduction to the song, not DeYoung. Otherwise, spot on! --Ben Culture (talk) 20:07, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

More about muzzagg!

More about music, guys. Is this about music or what? After reading this article I cannot tell whether this album is punk rock, jazz rock or whatever it is.

Give us more about muzzagg! 78.1.126.102 (talk) 23:15, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

When you see a change that you believe should be made be bold about editing articles! Meaning, edit the article yourself, if you think you can make it better!

Easier said than done, of course, especially since so much new material gets reverted for not having sources. And, to be honest, I don't think there are many great, in-depth articles about the music of Kilroy Was Here. Musically, it's an interesting album; I could certainly write a bit about the melody and chord changes to "Haven't We Been Here Before"; that's a beautiful song. But remember, Wikipedia does not REVIEW music; it collects information about notable works, from reputable sources.

Also, when did we start calling it "muzzagg"? That's a trend I totally missed.

--Ben Culture (talk) 20:12, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

MORE "progressive-rock"?

I have a minor problem with one word in the following long sentence:

While the supporting tour was a financial disaster, the album sold over 1 million copies and peaked at #3 on the US charts; however, it broke the streak of multi-platinum albums for Styx, and ushered in a more keyboard-oriented, progressive-rock direction that would divide DeYoung and guitarists James Young and Tommy Shaw, ultimately leading to their acrimonious split in 1984.

It's the "progressive-rock" part. Styx were always progressive, some albums were more so than others, but really, even from the start ("Movement for the Common Man", track one on their first album), you would definitely call them prog -- whether you thought they were any good or not.

I do know that Tommy Shaw was fed up with the concept-album format, and generally not into the concept of Kilroy Was Here. His songs, however good, contribute nothing to the concept. If anything, this makes the album less progressive, since a concept album that doesn't work is less progressive than one that does.

Stylistically, it's a mixed bag. You've got the synthpop of "Mr. Roboto", but the rest of the album doesn't. You've got the usual hard rocker from James Young, "Heavy Metal Poisoning" (one of his best, IMO). You've got the Dennis DeYoung ballad "Don't Let it End" (is it a "power ballad"? it does bring in some power-chord guitars and a solo). You've got generic rock tunes with "Cold War", "High Time", and "Double Life" (if those are anybody's favorite songs, I apologize, but I'm also surprised). You've got a pair of beautiful Tommy Shaw songs, "Just Get Through This Night" and "Haven't We Been Here Before" (the latter might be categorized as a "power ballad"). And you've got the totally-anticlimactic-and-unworthy ending, "Don't Let it End (Reprise)".

I don't know what to substitute for "progressive-rock" above. The album is, if anything, less progressive than Paradise Theater or The Grand Illusion.

--Ben Culture (talk) 21:02, 29 September 2015 (UTC)