TS: Loverboy/ Turn Me Loose v. Styx/Too Much Time On My Hand

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Arena Dorks flirt with teh Disco Beat. Both are fun to listen to, "guilty pleasures" if you believe in such a thing. What say you?

― timmy tannin (pompous), Monday, 10 April 2006 01:45 (eighteen years ago) link

"Indirect Inquiries" from 154 by Wire sounds a little like "Turn Me Loose".

But I have to go with Styx on this one. Tommy Shaw lead vocals, man.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 10 April 2006 03:02 (eighteen years ago) link

Styx! It's much more joyful than the Loverboy song, which has a real downer of a melody. Geez, that song bums me out. But the Styx has handclaps and an alarm clock too, right? No contest! No guilt!

― dr. phil (josh langhoff), Monday, 10 April 2006 03:05 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh man. One of my guiltiest of pleasures in my Nineties teen years was "Turn Me Loose" by Loverboy. I hate to admit this, but this was one of those songs I actually used to lipsync to with my hairbrush. I don't think I ever really liked "Too Much Time On My Hands", though. I think that was just TOO cheesy for me. So I'd have to go with Loverboy here. Even though it's been many years since I liked "Turn Me Loose". *cringe*

― See Me, Repeat Me (Dee the Lurker), Monday, 10 April 2006 03:33 (eighteen years ago) link

I get you, Dee. You either gotta do it your way, or no way at all.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 10 April 2006 03:48 (eighteen years ago) link

I believe the Solid Gold Dancers may have done a number to "T-T-T-Too Much Time On My Hands." It's hard to believe such a calamity.

Turn Me Loose still sounds enormous, iirc.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Monday, 10 April 2006 04:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Really memorable bass sound too, even if it's a synth.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Monday, 10 April 2006 04:26 (eighteen years ago) link

dag, two seminal singles from the first year or two of me really discovering top 40 radio. i gotta go with "turn me loose," but i have love for both. my sister bought the 45 of "too much time on my hands."

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 10 April 2006 05:53 (eighteen years ago) link

"Too Much Time On My Hands" by a country mile. The song that proves that, for a frontman, Dennis DeYoung was one hell of a backup singer. Plus the beginning of the song pulls that switching-the-backbeat thing at the beginning that throws you all out of sync, like the last verse of "Just What I Needed" does, before settling into its groove. My sister had "Paradise Theater" and played the shit out of it, and this was undoubtedly its high point.

― phil d. (Phil D.), Monday, 10 April 2006 13:55 (eighteen years ago) link

"Turn Me Loose" is the clear winner...isn't this song originally written by Paul Anka or Neil Sedaka or someone like that?

memories of the "Too Much Time On My Hands" video: Dennis DeYoung leaning on Tommy Shaw, doing the "clock is ticking" circular hand gesture while the latter's head rocks back and forth in the manner of a grandfather clock's pendulum swing...

― hank (hank s), Monday, 10 April 2006 14:25 (eighteen years ago) link

It's been said in some circles that Loverboy were nothing but a poor man's April Wine.

While Turn Me Loose is not without its charms, Styx takes this one.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Monday, 10 April 2006 14:28 (eighteen years ago) link

"Too Much Time On My Hands"

It was a hit right around the time unemployment was rising fast, and despite their fondess for pomp Styx was a real working class band.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 10 April 2006 14:38 (eighteen years ago) link

"He's not the president!"

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 10 April 2006 15:47 (eighteen years ago) link

Styx were better than their reputation. Loverboy were not.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 10 April 2006 17:11 (eighteen years ago) link

Did Styx have any albums that weren't concept albums? I honestly can't remember.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Monday, 10 April 2006 17:13 (eighteen years ago) link

i would note that if this were "renegade" vs. "turn me loose", my vote would go to styx.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 10 April 2006 17:36 (eighteen years ago) link

But if it were "renegade" vs. "the kid is hot tonite"? What do you do? What, do you, do...?

(Not a game Loverboy can win, btw, since Styx still has the "blue collar man" trump to play. Note also that the Paradise Thee-ayter LP had some of the coolest laser etching ever. It RAWKED - camaros, hookers, blow, the whole nine - even before you dropped, dropped, dropped the needle on the record.)

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Monday, 10 April 2006 18:07 (eighteen years ago) link

"Turn Me Loose" is the only Loverboy song I semi-like (yes, including "Working for the Weekend"). "Too Much Time..." is middlin' Styx.

Therefore, "Turn Me Loose" wins.

― Joe (Joe), Monday, 10 April 2006 18:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Joe, whither "Hot Girls In Love?"

― phil d. (Phil D.), Monday, 10 April 2006 19:53 (eighteen years ago) link

"Turn Me Loose," I think. Though Styx and me go way back. My 6th grade yearbook was called "The Best of Times" in honor of the Styx song.

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 10 April 2006 21:47 (eighteen years ago) link

Maybe it's because I was eight years old when I first heard it, but the whole "Rockin' the Paradise" intro b/w "Best of Times" bit still seems a little clever to me.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 10 April 2006 21:55 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm trying to download some Styx right now -- totally need to hear this shit.

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 10 April 2006 21:56 (eighteen years ago) link

Has anyone else noticed uncanny similarities between "Turn Me Loose" and "Shock Teh Minkey"? I'm concerned here...

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Monday, 10 April 2006 21:56 (eighteen years ago) link

I get you, Dee. You either gotta do it your way, or no way at all.

Well, duh.

Has anyone else noticed uncanny similarities between "Turn Me Loose" and "Shock Teh Minkey"? I'm concerned here...

This actually explains why I used to like "Turn Me Loose"!!! I still love "Shock The Monkey" and I guess its similarity to the Loverboy song would be a real key in unlocking why it is I actually managed to find a Loverboy song to like.

― See Me, Repeat Me (Dee the Lurker), Monday, 10 April 2006 22:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Loverboy >>>> Styx

but

"Too Much Time On My Hands" (which I always thought sounded like something off Kraftewerk's *Computer World* >>>> "Turn Me Loose" (which is one of the lesser songs on Loverboy's first album, which was one of the best hard rock albums of the '80s.)

― xhuxk, Monday, 10 April 2006 23:15 (eighteen years ago) link

??I can't really hear the similarity between the two...

― Joe (Joe), Monday, 10 April 2006 23:17 (eighteen years ago) link

I've never owned a Loverboy record (I wish I could say the same about Styx, but c'est la guerre)...but "Turn Me Loose" is the winner here. "Too Much Time On My Hands" is just to....well...it's just too Tommy Shaw.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 10:55 (eighteen years ago) link

Christ, so much Styx love on this thread - and I thought I was the only ILMer who ever sticks up for 'em! Guess I'll have to find some other über-underdog to support, like Nightranger or Dokken (rhymes with "Rockin'"). (Anyways, I think the very EXISTENCE of "guilty pleasures" was debunked a long time ago.) With that in mind, I'll go with "...Time..." - Tommy Shaw's songs were always Styx's best anyways.

"The Kid Is Hot Tonite" woulda been a better Loverboy pick. But "Turn Me Loose" does have a great bassline. And the way Mike Reno screams out "pack my bags and FLYYYY-YY!" is worthy of William Shatner.

And I never noticed till now, but both of those songs begin with air-raid sirens

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 13:59 (eighteen years ago) link

Really memorable bass sound too, even if it's a synth.

On further review, it's not a synth, just heavily compressed. I'd completely forgotten how massive "Turn Me Loose" gets in the final two minutes - chord solo! wall of pitch-shifted Mike Renos! (at least I hope so, real female backup singers would be so... bourgeois) enormous, punishing kick drum!

The shadow of Foreigner 4 looms large, but "Turn Me Loose" crushes, and it's not as close as I thought.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 15:40 (eighteen years ago) link

Sundar to Thread.

― Rufus 3000 (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 15:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Just listened to "Turn Me Loose" again. The solo is remarkably Gilmourish... I'd never noticed that before.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 13 April 2006 06:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Loverboy came to my town of 9,000 people a couple days before my high school graduation. When they played "Turn Me Loose," I couldn't help but feel as though they were playing it just for ME.

― Aleeshie (Aleeshie), Thursday, 13 April 2006 15:19 (eighteen years ago) link

When I worked in a super-corporate mall record store as a punk/wave obsessed young'un, the store turntable was often spinning the Loverboy debut, which I grew to really like, if not love. I had no tolerance for Styx then, and have not gained any since.

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Thursday, 13 April 2006 15:45 (eighteen years ago) link

Too Much Time, no question. Now if you'd listed some other Loverboy songs, that would have been tougher. And if you'd listed many other Styx hits with those other Loverboy songs, Loverboy no question.

― Carlos Keith (Buck_Wilde), Sunday, 23 April 2006 10:07 (eighteen years ago) link

Wow--I had no idea that the Loverboy bassist was declared dead/missing at sea six years ago.

― Joe (Joe), Sunday, 23 April 2006 14:46 (eighteen years ago) link

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