“Crystal Ball” by Styx
From the 1976 album Crystal Ball

iTunes Genius is still dancing on the edge of what really constitutes prog rock, while simultaneously trying to hem me in with late ’70s Genesis and Yes. But it also smartly picked my favorite Styx song, so I’ll give it another chance.

I was really hoping to find a vintage ’70s performance of this track, but I’ll settle for this recording from 1996, during what was probably the only, brief period in the entire past two decades when Dennis DeYoung and Tommy Shaw would deign to share the stage. Their feud is notorious, and I doubt anyone who knows anything at all about Styx hasn’t seen the legendary VH1 “Behind the Music” episode about the band.

There’s not much more to say about it, other than that Dennis DeYoung is probably never again going to be seen performing with the band he co-founded, so you might as well enjoy this. Then again, given the fact that he’s chosen a cheesy pan flute patch on his digital synth to fill the role of the original Moog line, maybe the band really is better off without him.