# 1923        Dennis DeYoung -   DESERT  MOON

                                                                                        

Desert Moon, A&M  Records,1984                      BILLBOARD CHART ACHIEVEMENTS:                                                                 Hot 100 Singles:  # 10                                 # 4  in Canada, Nov. '84                                 Top Ten hit at MATT RADIO

''Desert Moon" is a song about those summer nights when we were young, and we bragged of things we'd never done.  And in our haste to grow too soon, we left our innocence on Desert Moon.  It's a song about lost innocence. I started writing (the songs that would comprise the Desert Moon album) in August of '83, when it became apparent that I was going to get a solo deal.  I just started writing songs. Tommy (Shaw) wanted to do a solo album.  That started in August of last year (1983), that he really wanted to do a solo project.  Styx had always been of the mind not to do solo projects, but he wanted to do one, so we decided to take some time off after the Kilroy project, and that's really how I got into doing a solo album myself is that there was going to be time off.  So I went to A&M, and they were nice enough to offer me a nice three-record deal... to make three albums by myself for them. Tommy's wanting to do his solo album was the reason I did my solo album, because it was almost like when the five of us would say, "Hey, we're gonna do Styx," and that was all there was to it.  He felt he wanted to do a solo record, so I figured, hey, that's gonna take time.  You just can't please some people.  They're either too busy or they have too much time. Why is my album coming out first?   There is no reason other than that I finished and my schedule got on the A&M board first, 'cause I was done.  It's as simple as that.  You know, record companies have a release date and they like to stick to it.  They have to plan in advance. I just hope that the album gets some radio airplay and people get a chance to hear it.  I hope they like it.  As far as the critics go, you certainly can't live your life wondering if the people are going to think about it from that point of view.  It's an impossible task to answer criticism.  How do you answer criticism?  You can't answer it, because if you do answer it, even intelligently and articulately, it sounds like sour grapes.  All you do is what you do and God bless you.  Hopefully, somebody likes it.  What can you do? I know who I am.  But who am I to other people?  That's what I'm saying, in terms of this particular album and now taking complete responsibility.  Styx had a lot of success.  I was responsible for a lot of it with those guys.  After all that, if I can't feel comfortable with my own identity, in the fact that, if I never do another thing, I've done more than most people will ever dream of doing, then I'm in trouble.  Then the next 30-40 years of my life will be pretty miserable.  So I've got to make my songs, write 'em, record 'em... somebody's going to like them, I know that.  Maybe not 10 million people, but somebody. I want to accomplish more.  I would be a liar if I said I didn't want to sell as many records as Styx sold and more.  Of course I do.  Who wouldn't want to do that?  Any artist you meet that tells you they don't care how many records they sell … I want to give those people a pap smear or something.  I don't trust them.  I don't know what their motive is.  But if it doesn't happen, I made a good record.  Listen to it.  I made a real good record.  There's something to be said for that." excerpted and paraphrased from a ROCKLINE magazine interview, 1984