Beware I'm Taking The Band
Written by Bob (Aku Aku) Young
To the tune of Queen of Spades, written by Dennis DeYoung
Day into night
She's with me.
How sweet is her warm embrace.
Safe on the stage
She sees me
And shows her adoring face.
Mornings I find,
She's left me
So cold so alone,
But aware.
I want to get back,
Anxiously.
And play and then see, her there, and there, there, there, there.
Hannah is who give me precious Lights that last 'til dawn
But Dennis was sick, couldn't tour, so I thought I'd move on
But then JY said that, this is our chance for a coup
On stage we'll act the fool, play tunes and they'll still drool
Beware I'm taking the band
To places we want without your hand
Controlling and telling us what we can do
I'll lead and we don't need you
Larry and Glen are with me
JY and Chuck, are too
And Todd is no longer Stick Man
And from now on, I'll lead, lead, lead, lead, lead
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, you lose
Beware I'm taking the band
To places we want without your hand
Controlling and telling us what we can do
I'll lead and we don't need you
Interpretation
It all started with the release of Brave New World. Tommy Shaw and James Young wanted to release the album in the summer of 1999 and immediately tour to support the album. Dennis DeYoung was suffering from a mysterious illness that baffled doctors and left him unable to tour. He also wanted more time to finish the album. The album was released that summer over Dennis' objections, and the band went on the road with Lawrence Gowan filling in for Dennis and Glen Burtnik returning to fill in for Chuck Panozzo, who had previously decided to retire. Rumors started surfacing on the Internet, interviews and on-line chats with band members revealed conflicting and changing stories. Flame wars erupted on the various Styx e-mail lists as the fans polarized over the band's internal issues. Meanwhile, the Styx tour continued without Dennis, whose health improved enough to begin a highly-acclaimed solo tour with a 50-piece orchestra. This song ironically parodies a song by Dennisto tell the story from Tommy's point of view, although the viewpoint is mostly speculative. "Hannah" is a metaphor for the fan's from Tommy's song Sing From The Day, and Lights is a reference to the song of the same name of a similar subject. The reference to Todd as "Stick Man" is derived from the fact that the promotional photos that the band signed for the 1996 tour did not include Todd in the picture, so he would draw a stick man and sign his name next to it. He's now in the pictures, along with JY, Tommy, Glen, and Lawrence, so he's no longer "stick man."
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