Me, I’m also partial to the Gowan-sung version of “Queen of Spades,” which appears in 2011’s two-disc Regeneration collection. Pieces of Eight features many key tracks in the Styx canon that remain staples in the band’s current extended live set: the aforementioned and always hard-charging “Blue Collar Man” (the show’s onetime bring-it-on-home song that fairly recently has been vaulted up to the second position in the beginning of the set, following “Gone Gone Gone”) “Pieces of Eight” (which, for a time prior to the release of the band’s stellar 2017 studio album The Mission, featured keyboardist/vocalist Lawrence Gowan’s furiously engaging original piano instrumental “Khedive” as its intro) “Sing for the Day” (an acoustic-driven Shaw treasure that also served as the title for his solo show with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra in Cleveland and was just released on Blu-ray and CD by Eagle Rock back on June 29) and, of course, “Renegade,” the set-ending barnburner that has gained additional life not only as a fourth-quarter rallying cry for the Pittsburgh Steelers (more on that in just a bit!) but also served as the theme for Season 2 of the quite intense Netflix drama Narcos. Po8, the band's eighth studio album, reached as high as #6 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart, and boasted three hit singles, all penned by guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw: “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights),” which reached #21 “Sing for the Day,” which got to #41 and “Renegade,” which made it all the way to #16. Po8 was recorded at Paragon Studios in Chicago. The album’s overall production credit was again given to the entire band (“Produced by Styx”), with engineering by longtime collaborators Barry Mraz and Rob Kingsland. Featuring a stunning cover design by Hipgnosis - the British company known for creating album-package artwork for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, UFO, 10cc, and scores of other bands - Pieces of Eight become the second of four consecutive Styx albums to sell two million (or more) copies, the first time any band in rock history had ever done so. Styx’s mega-triple-platinum smash success Pieces of Eight was released 40 years ago today by A&M Records on September 1, 1978.
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