Early life & music career
Tommy Shaw was born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1953 and played with many local bands in his early years. He left Montgomery after high school to join MS Funk, a Chicago-managed outfit that he played with for 3 years, which gave him a chance to be noticed by the band Styx during a 2-week club gig in Chicago. After MS Funk disbanded, he went back to Montgomery to join a local group with his childhood friends called Harvest, which performed at a club in a bowling alley called "Keglar's Kove". Following Styx's move to A&M, guitarist and vocalist John Curulewski suddenly left the band shortly before they were to embark on a nationwide tour, and a frantic search to find a last-minute replacement was launched. While playing at the bowling alley bar, as a result of his previous experience with MS Funk in Chicago, Shaw got the call to audition for Styx and was quickly hired.
Styx — 1970s
The first album with Shaw, "Crystal Ball" (1976), was titled after his own composition and also includes his songs "Mademoiselle" and "Shooz". Its follow-up, The Grand Illusion (1977) became the group's breakthrough album, which went platinum and also featured a radio hit by Shaw, "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)".
Styx's 8th album, appropriately entitled Pieces Of Eight, was the breakout album for Shaw's songwriting talent with his rock-oriented contributions "Renegade" and "Blue Collar Man", which became `70's rock radio staples and perennial Styx concert favorites, reaching #16 and #21 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart.It also featured a minor radio hit Shaw's tune "Sing For The Day".
[edit] 1980s — 1990s
Though the `80's brought the downfall of Styx, it began with Styx riding a wave of commercial success with the #1 pop ballad "Babe" from the 9th Styx album, Cornerstone in 1979, which was written by keyboardist Dennis DeYoung. However, tension mounted within the band as Shaw and other band members expressed dissatisfaction with DeYoung's desire to pull the band into a pop radio & theatrical direction, while other members preferred the rock direction of the songs written by Shaw and guitarist James "JY" Young. For this reason, unbeknownst to the public-at-large, Dennis DeYoung was fired from the group in early 1980 for a brief unpublicized moment and quickly rehired, but this conflict would arise again. Shaw's ascerbation was furthered with his disatisfaction of the theatrical-themed album Paradise Theater and brought to a boil with the tour for the next album Kilroy Was Here, which featured a progressive stage show combined with an 11-minute movie intro and theatrical performances by the band. Shortly after the tour ended, Shaw left Styx in 1983 to pursue his solo career.
Shaw released 3 solo albums in the 1980s: Girls with Guns (1984), What If (1985), and Ambition (1987), scoring a Top 40 hit with the title track from the 1st album.
1990s — present
In the early 1990s, Shaw, Ted Nugent, Jack Blades, and drummer Michael Cartellone formed the band Damn Yankees. Their biggest hit, "High Enough", was co-written by Shaw. The band had a strong concert following; however, even though the 2nd album went platinum, the band separated.
Shaw returned to a reunited Styx in 1995 and embarked on a subsequent tour with them in 1996. Tommy would later record a fourth solo record in 1998: "7 Deadly Zens". Shaw has also worked with other artists on a "Pink Floyd's The Wall" tribute album. He also worked on a KISS tribute album, "Spin The Bottle: An All-Star Tribute to KISS", on which he sang "Love Gun".
Tommy teamed up with Night Ranger's Jack Blades in a duo appropriately called Shaw Blades and released an album entitled "Hallucination" in 1995. A second collaboration entitled "Influence" was released in early March 2007 and the duo appeared live on VH1 Classic backed up by famed Nashville songwriter Gary Burr. Shaw Blades did a short tour in Spring 2007 that was well-received. The tour included songs from Night Ranger, Styx, Shaw's solo albums and Damn Yankees. The duo also recorded the classic Christmas song "The Twelve Days Of Christmas" which was released in 2002 on the album "A Classic Rock Christmas", a compilation of classic Christmas songs recorded by various Classic Rock artists.
As of 2007, Shaw leads Styx along with James "JY" Young. Shaw & Young are the only remaining members from Styx's heyday.
Hall of Fame
Tommy Shaw will be inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in February, 2008 at their awards banquet to be held in Tommy's hometown of Montgomery, AL..
In This Night
Tommy Shaw Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I wanna be the man
I want to be the one who pulls you through
When nobody can
Come on baby
I'm ready right now
Yeah who knows
Gonna make you scream out loud
I'll be here
Right by your side
I won't leave
You alone in this night
Shake loose of those chains
Of your sad remains
You're gonna look back someday
And find it was growing pains
I wanna get to know you
Gotta let me try
You got to let me show
I understand how you feel inside
Come on baby
Open up for me
You might be surprised
To find how easy it can be
I'll be here
Right by your side
I won't leave
You alone in this night
You ride shotgun
Let's see how you feel
You might just find you enjoy the ride
With me at the wheel
I wanna drive you
On down the road
We won't ever look back
Cause we're never coming back
No more, no more, no more
I'll be here
Right by your side
And I won't leave you
Alone on this ride
I won't leave
You alone in this night
Tommy Shaw's song "In This Night" is a declaration of love and assurance to a woman he desires. In the beginning, Tommy Shaw expresses his aspirations to be the man who saves and supports the woman he loves, even when no one else can. He desires to be her hero, her support system, and the one who makes her scream with excitement. He affirms that he will always remain by her side and will never leave her alone in the night.
As the song progresses, Shaw urges his beloved to loosen the chains of her past and leave behind the pain it has wrought. He gently appeals to her to let him get to know her and demonstrate his understanding of how she feels deep down inside. He urges her to open up and take a chance on him, highlighting how much easier it could be than she might realize.
Towards the end of the song, Shaw asks his beloved to ride shotgun with him and see how she feels. He wants to be the one driving them down the road, never looking back and leaving the past behind with this moment as their new beginning. He assures her once again of his unwavering presence and promise never to leave her alone in this night, or any other.
"In This Night" is an intimate and romantic song that showcases Tommy Shaw's impassioned yearning to love and protect someone, as well as the difficulty in making someone trust and open up to vulnerability. It is a very passionate and sincere song that immediately creates a connection with the listeners, and it's easy to feel the intensity from Shaw's vocals.
Line by Line Meaning
I wanna be the hero
I desire to be your hero, your knight in shining armor
I wanna be the man
I aspire to be the man, the person that you need in your life
I want to be the one who pulls you through
I want to be the one that sticks by your side and helps you overcome the challenges you face
When nobody can
When no one else can help you through your struggles or provide you with the comfort you need, I will be there for you
Come on baby
I urge you to trust me and take a chance with me
I'm ready right now
I am eager and prepared to be there for you whenever you need me
Yeah who knows
We cannot predict the future or what will happen, but we can see how things go
Maybe I'm the one
Perhaps I am the person that you have been looking for, the one that can love you and support you throughout life's hardships
Gonna make you scream out loud
I will bring you intense joy and happiness that you cannot contain, as we experience life together
I'll be here
I promise to be present for you, through thick and thin
Right by your side
I will stand by your side and help you through difficult times
I won't leave
I will not abandon you or leave you to face your problems alone
You alone in this night
I will be with you, and you will not have to face your struggles and challenges alone
Shake loose of those chains
You must break free from the things that are holding you back, from the pain of the past
Of your sad remains
From the sadness and grief that still lingers in your heart
You're gonna look back someday
In the future, you will be able to look back at your past struggles and realize how much you've grown and overcome
And find it was growing pains
You will see that the pain and hardships you experienced were necessary for your growth and development
I wanna get to know you
I desire to learn more about you and understand what you've been through
Gotta let me try
You must give me the chance to show you how much I care about you
You got to let me show
You must allow me to demonstrate my love and support for you
I understand how you feel inside
I empathize with your emotions, and I want to help you through your struggles
Open up for me
I urge you to trust me and allow me into your life
You might be surprised
If you open up to me, you may be pleasantly surprised by what you find
To find how easy it can be
Building a relationship with me and trusting me can be simpler than you think
You ride shotgun
You can join me on this journey towards a better future, letting me take the wheel
Let's see how you feel
We can see if this arrangement works for the both of us and how it feels
You might just find you enjoy the ride
You may find that you actually like this arrangement and how I am supporting you
On down the road
As we journey through life together
We won't ever look back
We will focus on the future and moving forward, rather than dwelling on the past
Cause we're never coming back
We will work towards a better future and not look back at our past struggles
No more, no more, no more
We will leave our past behind and move forward towards a better future with each other
Contributed by Ava S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.