Hello God By
Dennis DeYoung
Hello God
Though you're a million miles away
do you listen when I pray
can you hear me.
Just a nod
I don't need no holy
sign
like turning water into wine
just to please me.
Cause I know I'm just a tiny speck
in your great big universe
and I'm not the kind of guy
who quotes your word chapter and verse
but I sure could stand to hear from you tonight
Hello God
I don't mean no disrespect
but I thought I'd call collect
in case you'd answer
you see it's odd
cause
I've been feeling mighty weak
so I'd love to hear you speak
if you could sir
And I know you're wondering why it took so long for me to call
well I must confess I'm quite a mess
and I'm headed for a fall
so I sure could stand to hear from you tonight
Hello God
I'm over here
all my faith
is lost in fear
I'll need your grace
to help me journey on
cause
I never felt so small
Hello God.
Hear my call
All of my life I know I've been blind
standin here alone on the shore
lookin for a light to
point the way
to prove to me somewhere there was more
Hello God
it's only me
I'm like a ship
who's lost at sea
I'll need your grace
to help me journey on
cause I never felt so small.
Hello God,
hear my call
Dennis Deyoung |
Biography
Dennis DeYoung (born
February 18,
1947,
Chicago, Illinois) is an
American singer, songwriter, musician and producer best known for being a founding member of the rock band
Styx, a tenure which lasted from
1970 to
1999.
Early life
Growing up in the
Roseland neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, DeYoung's career as a vocalist started in
1963 at the age of 16 when he teamed up with his 15 year old neighbors,
Chuck and
John Panozzo, in a three-piece combo. The trio later added guitarist
James Young and
John Curulewski to form the band
Tradewinds in the late
1960s.
The band renamed itself
TW4 in
1968 before becoming Styx in 1970.
On
January 18, 1970, DeYoung married his longtime sweetheart,
Suzanne Feusi, to whom he is still married. The couple have two children,
Carrie Ann and
Matthew. Unlike many musical families, the growing family toured together throughout DeYoung's career in order to provide stability for the couple's young children.
Before the band met with success, DeYoung spent time as an elementary school teacher in the southern suburbs of
Chicago, where he taught music at
Springfield School in
Midlothian, Illinois. During this period, the band played a number of small venues and school auditoriums refining their craft before the song "
Lady" propelled them to national then international stardom.
Tenure with Styx
Within Styx, DeYoung acted as lead vocalist, keyboardist, accordion player, producer, writer and creative force behind many of the band's hit songs. A self-taught keyboardist, DeYoung quickly became one of the most notable players of that instrument in rock. Featured on the cover of the
January 1981 issue of
Contemporary Keyboard magazine (a story that was reprinted in Contemporary Keyboard's book on the greatest rock keyboardists), DeYoung described many of his steps along the way through his keyboard-playing career: He'd never played an acoustic piano until the recording session for 1972s "Lady"; he recorded the track for 1979s "
Babe" in a friend's basement on a
Rhodes electric piano he'd never touched before; the odd feeling of switching back to playing accordion for the song "
Boat On
The River" and discovering how small the keys felt to his fingers after years of playing electric organs and pianos.
As a keyboardist in Styx, DeYoung was best remembered for his prominent lead synthesizer solos performed on the
Oberheim synthesizer that dominated the mix with a unique tone, a key element of the Styx sound. DeYoung pioneered the use of synthesizers in rock and roll. Influenced by the recent release of
Emerson, Lake & Palmer's first
album, DeYoung ? a novice synthesizer player at the time ? used a modular
Moog to record the keyboard tracks for the first Styx album. This album featured a rock version of "
Fanfare for the Common Man", more than 5 years before
ELP came up with a similar idea of recording this classical composition as a rock band featuring the synthesizer that would later become one of ELP's best known recordings.
DeYoung's songs often had a grandiose style to them in the tradition of
1970s theatrical rock, which heavily influenced the group's direction in the late 1970s, culminating in the concept albums
Paradise Theatre (
1981) and
Kilroy Was Here (
1983). The dissent of some members in the band during
Kilroy brought tensions between the group's members over the future direction of the band, leading to guitarist
Tommy Shaw's departure in
1984.
- published: 12 May 2013
- views: 14815