Description
Side 1
- “The Grand Illusion”
- “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)”
- “Superstars”
- “Come Sail Away”
Side 2
- “Miss America”
- “Man in the Wilderness”
- “Castle Walls”
- “The Grand Finale”
The Grand Illusion is the seventh studio album by Styx, released on July 7, 1977 (7/7/77). It became the band’s first Triple Platinum album, and spawned the Top 10 hit “Come Sail Away” and the Top 30 hit “Fooling Yourself”.
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.
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”.
