The "Flute" you think you're hearing is actually a synthesizer ( keyboards ). This was written by Tommy, and he sang lead on this one. He also sang lead on Mademoiselle and Shooz. I highly recommend you listen to both of these!! 🎸🎶🔥 He wrote or shared writing on 5 of the 7 tracks. This was also his first album with the band. He was 23 when Crystal Ball was released in October of 1976.
Tommy Shaw, the pride of Montgomery, Alabama. This was a song he brought into Styx that he had already written. I have a friend from Montgomery who knew him. The first time my friend heard "Crystal Ball," he was at a mutual friend's house, and a 19-year-old Tommy Shaw played this for him, their friend, and their friend's mom on acoustic guitar, sitting at her kitchen table.
Tommy Shaw’s vocals on this one are awesome! He goes from soft, ethereal to belting out those later lyrics! Tremendous mix of musical instrumentation too!
Tommy was playing this song with a band called Harvest in Montgomery AL in the early 70's. We used to sneak in to Keglers Kove on the Atlanta Hwy to watch them (mostly him) play.
A great Tommy Shaw lead vocal song is "Man In the Wilderness", which he wrote after touring with Kansas. The lyrics to that one are really deep. Wicked guitar solos too! (God, could you imagine seeing Styx AND Kansas at the same show?? Those were some lucky fans!!) edit: Nearly forgot: "Dear John". A tribute song they wrote for drummer and founding member John Panozzo, after he died. SO good!
RE: Seeing Styx & Kansas together: I was fortunate to do just that on their 1996 "Return To Paradise" tour--and yes, it was AWESOME! Probably the best concert I've ever seen. Unfortunately, they had just lost drummer John Panozzo (RIP), but the replacement did a fine job and both bands were still amazing as ever.
That song is by far the deepest, lyrical wise that Tommy ever wrote. He wrote that after his brother came home from the war with PTSD. The lines " ten thousand people look my way, but they can't see the way I feel" and " I'm dying of thirst in the middle of the ocean" hits me everytime.
I DID see Styx & Kansas at the same show! It was totally mind-blowing. I believe it was in the mid-90's at the Riverport Amphitheater in St. Louis. We had lawn tickets and I was so afraid it was gonna rain. When Styx finished their encore, wish I could remember what it was, the sky opened up and it poured. The storm held off until the show was finished. Between Tommy Shaw and Steve Walsh it was a night to remember!
Love Crystal Ball. Other great Styx songs: The Grand Illusion, Fooling Yourself (Angry Young Man), Don't Let It End, Light Up, Lorelei, Miss America, Love is the Ritual.
Tommy Shaw is a good songwriter. He and the drummer, John Panozzo were close friends and after John's death in the mid 90's, Tommy Shaw wrote probably one of his best songs as a tribute. It's called "Dear John." You would probably love that one as well.
This song was a huge hit for Styx, and the album Crystal Ball started to get them into the mainstream. Their follow up album a year later Grand Illusion was a monster, and propelled them into a different level of popularity. Tommy Shaw is an underrated singer/songwriter, and was responsible for many of the Styx hits. Thank you guys for this reaction, a great song indeed
It wasn't a hit at all. It didn't even make the charts. They had already had three top 40 hits in the US, although oddly none in the UK. As for albums, the previous album (Equinox) outsold Crystal Ball. But yeah, Grand Illusion is the one that really made them megastars. I'll agree with you on that one.
On the live album, Caught in the Act, Dennis mentions how Grand Illusion was their first big album. I never heard Crystal Ball on the radio, but it should have been played." Lady" and " suite madame blue" were the only Styx songs I heard before Grand Illusion
@@eclecticexplorer7828 The single "Crystal Ball" was released but didn't break the top 100 on the charts. Kind of hung around at 108. So it did chart. Just not top 100. "Mademoiselle" was a single from the "Crystal Ball" album and did indeed chart in the top 50, somewhere around 36. "Jennifer" was another single released from the album, but it didn't chart at all.
This was the first concert I went to. It was in Boise, ID in 1976. Styx's Crystal Ball tour. I think I paid $4.50 for a standing room only ticket. I was just 15 at the time. Styx was an up and coming band then, but with the addition of Tommy Shaw the band took off to the stratosphere! A year later they hit the big time with their seminal album Grand Illusion! It was a super great time for rock back in the 70s and 80s.❤ Nice reaction guys! 👍
Not only did Tommy Shaw play the acoustic guitar intro, but he also played the electric guitar outro. As others have mentioned, a couple of other great Tommy Shaw Styx tunes are "Man in the Wilderness" (where Tommy also plays both an acoustic guitar intro and transitions to an electric guitar solo) and "Fooling Yourself."
Styx fans talk about "Dennis songs," "Tommy Songs" and "John Songs" but Crystal Ball, while it IS a Tommy Song, is also an "everybody in the band song." They all sing.. SING. Great singers sing from their diaphragm rather than their lungs but in the chorus on Crystal Ball everyone in Styx sings from their toes (if you sing you know what I mean... when your toes dig in and you sign from there)! One of my FAVORITE Styx songs ever!
Tommy's first album with Styx (the band's 6th album). Tommy has written some beauties - check out "Man In The Wilderness" and Don't be afraid to check out the earlier albums too. Songs like "Lorelei, Light Up, I'm Gonna Make You Feel It, You Need Love" ALSO: one of the few songs off Kilroy's that I like that has both Dennis and Tommy sharing the vocals: "Haven't We Been Here Before"
There is actually a "lost" third verse to this song that was never performed or heard anywhere until Tommy Shaw sang it in a show he did with the Cleveland Youth Orchestra in 2017 or '18, I don't remember exactly when it was. "If you should see me walking Through your dreams at night, Would you please direct me Where I ought to be. I've been looking for a crystal ball to shed the light, to find a future in me... To find a future in me..."
@dogsdogs8441The song from the Equinox album that convinced Tommy Shaw to join Styx was "Midnight Ride", a real banger with JY, James Young, on lead vocals.
You mentioned them having a medieval sound. You should check out "Castle Walls" - highly underrated song from their Grand Illusions album. Hauntingly beautiful ballad.
Should check out "Light Up". Saw them numerous times back in the seventies. Even with all their great music they came out with, it was always "Light Up" usually at the beginning or end of a show that sent the audience into a frenzy for obvious reason.
This was always one of my favorite Styx songs. Love it! The flute was Dennis DeYoung on keyboards/synthesizer. Tons more great Styx songs to react to - hope you get to more soon!
I went to see Styx....my very first concert back in '77. It was their Crystal Ball tour. I was blown away. Hypnotized....so so glad you got to hear this. Thanks. Blessings from Canada.
My first concert too. My brother was 2 years older than me and a senior in high school at the time. His friends and my friends all went out to the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, NY to see the show. Probably 20 of us. Great memories.
There are no bad songs on the Crystal Ball album, and that title track was a killer. Nice pick. When you're ready for another REALLY BIG BANGER from Styx, go find "You Need Love" from Styx II - it'll make your ears bleed. Thanks for all the great reactions.
So many write off their Wooden Nickel albums saying they were young and made mistakes etc etc. To me that was the Styx that proved they were actually a Rock Band more so then when Dennis kept wanting to take them into Ballroom and Ballerina land.
This song is one of the many reasons I fell in love with this band in high school. I would put my headphones on at night and listen to this and many of their other songs. I would get completely lost in the music. You're first person to mention the medieval times reference that I always felt as well. On the back of one of their albums, not sure which one, but it was one of the first that Tommy Shaw was on, I remember reading the words "hot damn, Tommy Shaw". Hot damn, indeed😊
amber & Jay, here are some other great Styx songs to react to: "The Grand Illusion", "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)", "Lorelei", "Don't Let It End", and "Castle Walls".
Great choice, easily my favorite Styx song. I think you'll really enjoy the live version of this song where styx plays with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra. Wishing y'all a very merry Christmas and all the best in the new year! 🎄
The best word that I can use to describe a lot of Styx is ethereal. Even when the fast, heavy rock comes out, it's still ethereal for me. Love y'all and your channels. Keep on doin your thing!
It was wonderful watching you both discovering this truly amazing - and extremely underrated - Styx song. _Crystal Ball_ (1976) was the first album that they did after Tommy Shaw replaced the previous second guitarist/vocalist, and it was the album before the one that broke them big (1977's _The Grand Illusion)._ This song amazed me when I first heard it in 1986 (The DJ didn't even announce it beforehand and so I didn't even have any idea at all whatsoever that this was Styx whenI first heard it), and it hasn't stopped amazing me ever since. This has become my favorite Styx song of all-time by now.
This is one of my favorite Styx songs. Love Tommy's voice and watching him play/sing this is amazing! I've seen them live a lot of times and it's incredible every time I hear it.
You still need to do Suite Madame Blue and I'd love to see your reaction to Styx - Half-Penny, Two-Penny/A.D. 1958, was one of my all time favorites growing up. I played that whole album so much that I had to replace it from the needle wearing the groves out especially from track 8,Snowblind till the end of A.D. 1958 which is the outro of Half-Penny, Two-Penny. I love to see if those songs speak to the two of you like they did to me as at 13 and still to this day some 40 odd years later.
So glad you took our advice on Styx as it's sooooooo good now with that batter up with Rob squad checking out Zebra tunes: "Who's behind the door" and "Tell me what you want" and check out an awesome tune from Vandenberg's: "Burning Heart" I promise to you again you won't be disappointed is incredibly ROK'in!!
My first concert 73 or 74 my freshman year St. Joes H.S. Lady was being played on the radio. Before Tommy Shaw. Listen to them grow and change through the years. One of my favs……….
Seen Styx in concert a couple times. Tommy Shaw's "Boat On The River" is a must hear. One Styx singer you have not reacted to you is James Young. React to his songs "Miss America" or "Snowblind". Thanks. 😎
I love Styx and this is my favorite song. Styx never gets as big as they did if they didn't obtain Tommy Shaw. In Fact, my favorite songs by Styx feature Tommy Shaw
Styx - one word…amazing. Crystal Ball is my fave Styx album and bought it new back when released. Seriously need to listen to the whole album. MASTERPIECE. Great reaction👌
My absolute favorite from Styx - this marked the introduction of Tommy Shaw to the group, and changed their entire dynamic. Love the lyrics and the musicianship was amazing.
So glad you got back to Styx! They, along with Journey, are my favorite bands ever. Also so glad you finally reacted to Crystal Ball. Next I'd recommend "The Grand Illusion". You can't go wrong with the studio version but there's also a good live clip of it that's fun to watch.
I have been a STYX fan since the "Paradise Theatre " album...I was around 12 or 13 at the time I turn 56 tomorrow so it's been a year or two. I finally got to see them live for the first time back in September. The show was AMAZING ! They started the show with "Come sail away" and ended it with "Crystal ball". They played a song that I did not think they would play "Mr. Roboto". As Tommy and J.Y aren't very fond of it to say the least. ( Nancy Wilson from HEART opened for them.) She was AMAZING as well.
Our music really was the stuff of angels. It was because we weren't held back. Artistry was at its peak. We were coming out of immense turmoil and we needed this moment to ourselves to remind us of why we were put on this earth to begin with.
Styx is still amazing to see live! They are passing thru St Louis in the summer of 24. My wife and I already have tickets. We never miss a chance to see them.
Styx still sounds great today. Still touring. I saw them earlier this year and they rocked! They are going out on tour in 2024 with Foreigner! They’ll be in Dallas 6/21/24. You guys should totally check them out. I’m going to their 6/28 concert in Anaheim (SoCal). Keep Up the great reactions you guys are the ONLY reaction channel I follow religiously. 2+ years, 500K subscribers. You KNOW you’re doing it right! Sending love from sunny SoCal!❤️🎼
