Six-Pack of Tommy Shaw, Volume One
The jig is up, the news is out!
On this Six-Pack episode, Brian Linnen of The Permanent Record Podcast, Paul Underwood of Glory Days Radio,, and Eric Miller of Pods & Sods are celebrating the songs of Tommy Shaw. From his earliest days in Styx through his solo career in the 80s and 90s to some more recent Styx material, we cover a lot of ground in this episode featuring the Alabamian rock-n-roller himself, Tommy Shaw. Some fun facts, lots of music trivia and commentary, and Paul even shares his first hand account of being at the infamous 1983 Styx Texas Cotton Bowl show!
So sit on your barstool and listen to us talk like damn fools in this Six-Pack of Tommy Shaw!
THE PODS & SODS NETWORK 
The early Tommy music you discussed, prior to playing “Crystal Ball,” was from an EP recorded in 1973 in Chicago. It was called The Shaw-Spector Group and featured Tommy and another Chicago musician named Sherwin Spector of a band called Sparkle. Tommy and Sherwin were favorite musicians of a couple guys named Peluso, who owned a club called Yellow Brick Road. The three songs recorded were “Where Do You Go,” which morphed into “Bitter Suite” by Tommy’s band, MS Funk, then morphed into “Mademoiselle” by Styx. The second song was called “Sneaker,” written by Tommy and changed to “The Sneeker” by MS Funk. The third song was “Tell It All.” The music and “wo wo’s” were used for the Styx song “Ballerina” on the Crystal Ball album. You can find these songs, under Shaw-Spector Group, on YouTube and Spotify. Interestingly, Tommy didn’t sing lead on any of those 3 songs, but sang lead on “The Sneeker” by MS Funk. If you’re ever lucky enough to get your hands on Platform Shoes by MS Funk, do so. Incredibly talented band. That album is available on Soundcloud.
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Cheryle – thank you so much for that information! It is great to know that I was not imagining that EP! I searched for “Shaw-Spector Group” and found the exact yellow album cover I was expecting! Now if I can only figure out why neither Amazon nor Apple seems to remember that I bought this from one of the them! Thanks again!
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