Styx

Is there another city in the United States that lusts after Styx as much as Pittsburgh seems to?

For anyone whose musical taste wasn't forged in the mid- to late-1970s, Styx is a rock 'n' roll band that generated a string of albums and hits in that era. As someone whose musical taste was largely formed in that decade, I was and remain mostly dismissive of the quality of the music; I've long lumped Styx with Kansas, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, and Journey as practitioners of the power ballad: intricate keyboards, screaming guitar licks, and vocal schmaltz. And that despite the fact that I bought the Grand Illusion album and listened over and over again to "Fooling Yourself." In 1979 I moved eastward and discovered the Talking Heads, the B-52s, and REM; Styx was a bad high school memory.

But not in Pittsburgh or for Pittsburghers. The rest of the country jumped on 80s and 90s musical bandwagons, but in Pittsburgh, Styx remains a vital part of the city's cultural identity, for reasons that I can't completely decode -- except for the fact that much of the city's current self-image derives not from the steel-driven successes of the first-half of the 20th century, but from the demise of steel and the emergence of its successor in the 1970s. Steel put Pittsburgh on the international map. As steel died, professional sports kept it there and have kept it there ever since. Styx holds that narrative together.

Styx isn't really the glue itself; Styx is only a symbol. Styx = 1970s anthem rock. Pittsburgh Steelers = leading emblem of the 1970s City of Champions. Pittsburgh Steelers today = Working to recapture the magic of the Steel Curtain. Steelers and fans borrow Styx nostalgia to stoke the idea that today's team -- and by extension, I suspect, the city -- is the 1970s Steelers reborn, rather than a new team/city, with new leadership on and off the field. I was reminded again of the symbolism during last Sunday's Steelers/Browns game, when "Renegade," a Styx song that became an unofficial Steelers' anthem about five or six years ago, came on the Heinz Field PA system. I wasn't at the game. I was watching at home (and listening to Hillgrove et al., of course). The noise in the stadium must have been defeaning, since I could almost feel the stadium rocking to the music and the accompanying video.

What does this mean? I certainly don't advocate that the Steelers or the city should abandon its affection for the song or for the band. I don't advocate that the team or the city should aspire to be something other than what it is. But "what it is" -- and I'm tempting Gene Collier's wrath, perhaps, or at least a mention in his annual Trite Trophy competition -- is only gradually becoming clear. Steel, Steelers, and Styx aren't Pittsburgh culture itself. They are metaphors, emblems of our defining values and essential nostalgia. "Renegade" is a particularly and peculiarly iconic song, because "renegade" is one thing that Pittsburgh most definitely is not. Pittsburgh is an establishment town, proud to a fault of succeeding by playing by the rules. Pittsburgh is fixated on the sporting successes of the 1970s in large part, I suspect, because those victories were fairly earned. Adopting "Renegade" is partly a way of making a comparable claim of authenticity for the last several years' worth of Steelers (so long Neil! so long Kordell!) -- and because the Steelers represent Pittsburgh to the world, for the city as a whole (so long Tom!). But Renegade, like Pittsburgh, is loud and angry, defiant in a world that often no longer plays by the rules or rewards Pittsburgh's type of success. I wonder whether Dan Marino and Bill Fralic are Styx fans.

If you couldn't tell, I've been trying to get my head back into Pittsblog blogging. I'm not quite there yet, and if local Styx fans find this post, I've probably bought myself some unwanted criticism. Sorry; it's not intended, but then as you all know, I didn't grow up here. (I'll defend myself on grounds that should appeal to a related segment of Pittsburghers: In high school, I was a huge Lynyrd Skynyrd fan. IMHO, Free Bird is the greatest rock 'n' roll song of all time.) Still, I wonder what would happen if the Steelers - or Pirates - or Penguins - played Girl Talk or Jero during a home game. Would that be the end of civilization as Pittsburghers know it? Or the dawn of a new era? The questions seem appropriate as 2009 dawns. Happy new year, everyone.