The Grand Illusion: Love, Lies, and My Life with Styx is an autobiography written by Styx’s founding bassist Chuck Panozzo (with Michele Skettino). If you are looking for a book that goes into minute detail about Styx, this is not the book you’re after. Instead, this book is the heartfelt story of Chuck Panozzo’s life, starting back in childhood where he knew he was “different” from the other boys. His tenure with Styx was definitely a highlight of his life and career, but it’s his struggle after the original band’s run that forms the most interesting part of the story. His twin brother John’s battle with alcoholism (which he lost), his own battle with his sexual identity, and other outside factors are all part of the story. By the end of the book, Chuck has finally decided to “come out” as an openly gay man, no longer hiding his true self as he had earlier in life. If you are worried about any explicit details, you need not worry–he speaks more about relationships than anything else. Chuck’s story is, more than anything, inspiring: living proof that you can overcome any obstacle in your way if you are true to yourself. This book, while short, is a great read, and I’m giving it 4-1/2 out of 5 stars! Click here to view this book at Amazon.
Yearly Archives: 2009
Review: Antonio Carlos Jobim on CTi
I’ve owned the A&M/CTi albums Wave and Tide for years, when I first discovered them from A&M’s Audio Master Plus reissue series. A few years ago, I picked up Stone Flower, which was released on CTi after distribution moved over to Columbia. Two of these three are favorites, and all three work well as a trilogy of sorts, allowing Jobim to spread out stylistically.
Beatles Remasters Coming 9/9/09
The music news wires are abuzz about one of the bigger reissue developments in years: the remastering of the Beatles catalog on CD. This time around, there will be both stereo and mono versions of the albums released. The stereo discs will be available separately as well as in a boxed set, and apparently, the mono albums (ten of them) would be only in its own collector’s edition box set. Past Masters will now be a single 2-CD set, rather than two separate discs, and the mono set will have its own equivalent set available. Release date is September 9, 2009, the same day that the Rock Band video game series will release their Beatles title.
If they get it right this time, this could be the Beatles set to own. I have all of the original CDs, the Toshiba/EMI “Abbey Road” from Japan, “Rubber Soul” and “Help!” from Canada (which used a different stereo mix than the U.S. CDs), and the U.S. “Capitol Albums” releases. Hopefully the sound quality will be improved–the original U.S. CDs are harsh. As long as they lay off the compression and the noise reduction, and poor EQ choices, they should sound fantastic. The “LOVE” project sounded quite good, and according to the official press release, a lot of thought went into this series.
The full news release can be found at The Beatles website.
The Zune Loader’s Tale
I’ve officially created a new title for myself: ” Zune Loader.” One who spends a couple of months loading up and perfecting the content on his or her Zune. I’m guilty as charged! I’ve had the Zune almost two months now, and am still amazed by how much it does, and how well. I never counted on using it for video, and yet I keep a couple gigs of videos loaded to watch late at night. As you can imagine, though, loading up a 120GB media player is a lot of work. Just how much?
Review: Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass – “Lost Treasures”
OK, I have to admit it: I have actually dreamed about going to record stores, looking for an elusive “lost” Tijuana Brass album. No, I’m not making this up! I would go into a store, see other favorites, and start looking frantically for a TJB album that I apparently knew by its cover. Only thing is, I’d never buy it…so I’d never even hear it. In my mind, though, the album would sound something like a Going Places Vol. 2, sort of an upbeat party album with a dozen great songs on it. I guess in some weird way, karma played its part, and I sort of got my wish fulfilled.
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