The Grand Illusion is the seventh studio album by Styx,
released on July 7, 1977 (7/7/77). The album launched the band to stardom,
spawning the hit singles "Come Sail Away" and "Fooling
Yourself", and selling over three million copies in the US.
According to keyboardist Dennis DeYoung, the album's theme
was the struggle to overcome self-deluding superficiality in order to affirm
one's genuine value. This theme was reflected in the lyrics of the album's
title track:
so if you think your life is complete confusion
'cause your neighbor's got it made
just remember that it's a grand illusion
and deep inside we're all the same
The title of The Grand Illusion had been considered dating
back to the 1975 album Equinox.
The track "Miss America" was guitarist James
Young's scathing attack on the Miss America pageant. The idea for the song came
to him in the middle of the night; its sole riff was inspired by the Jethro
Tull song "Minstrel in the Gallery". The song gained notoriety as an
example of life imitating art during the 1983 scandal in which nude photographs
of reigning Miss America Vanessa Williams were published in Penthouse magazine.
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