November 22 – Styx’s Strange Animal

It would be almost ‘criminal’ not to wish a happy 63rd birthday to Larry Gowan! Scot, Canadian, solo artist, Styx guy- it’s hard to put a label on Gowan other than one of a talented musician. Born in Scotland but growing up in Toronto, Canada where he studied classical music and piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music, he became a big star at home in the ’80s.

Going just by “Gowan”, he released six studio albums mixing prog rock and new wave inclinations to great acclaim. His second, Strange Animal, won the 1985 Juno for the Album of the Year and gave us the biggest of his nine Canuck top 20 singles, “A Criminal Mind.” The single went platinum and the album, double platinum at home but remained more or less unknown elsewhere. Written after talking to a prison guard about his job and the people he met, “A Criminal Mind” featured Gowan’s soaring voice and keyboard skills and Jerry Marotta (formerly of Orleans and Hall & Oates drummer ) on percussion.

Allmusic thought him decent enough, praising how he was “making excellent use of the synthesizer’s ability to create a riff that is pop savvy and straight-forward”. They did find “A Criminal Mind” “campy” and dark though, and instead praised another single of his, “Cosmetics” as likely his best, which we’d second here. His keyboard skills are indeed excellent. He says he was much influenced by Keith Emerson, Billy Preston and Elton John, but above all Tony Banks of Genesis. “He’s the most melodic, most beautiful… keyboard player,” Gowan says of him, “(yet) he rarely gets mentioned when you’re mentioning the great keyboard players.”

Oddly, although a major star in Canada in the ’80s, it wasn’t til the ’90s that any of Gowan’s work was released in the U.S. His big break was opening for Styx in Quebec in 1997. They liked him and recruited him to replace acrimonious singer Dennis DeYoung in 1999. Gowan’s been a regular singer and keyboardist for Styx since, and the band often incorporate some of his work into their set. With his voice and keyboard skills, he may sail away with them for years to come…Vintage Rock recently made note of how he was a “bona fide superstar” in Canada long before joining and suggested Styx “courted Gowan quite a bit” to get him on their team. Remarkably he’s been singing with them now for more years than DeYoung did!