Mr. Roboto: A memorable album

Imagine a world where rock and roll music has been outlawed, yet there are people who still want to play. An underground forms, while some musicians hold illegal concerts in protest.

This is the premise of, “Kilroy Was Here”, a 1983 album by Styx.

It was my first introduction to a concept album and rock opera, where all the songs told some sort of story – and it is amazing.

Compelling story
I must have first heard about “Kilroy Was Here” on “The New Music Magazine” on Channel 7, on the peasant vision dial. That show was made by Global TV which, back then, was based in Toronto and had a loose affiliation with independent stations across Canada.

It aired Saturday afternoons and would look at music and musicians. It was a precursor to MuchMusic and had hosts such as J.D. Roberts and Jeanne Beker.

Anyway, the album “Kilroy Was Here” focuses on a world where the Majority for Music Morality, in concert with a theocratic government, has had rock music outlawed.

A musician named Kilroy is jailed on trumped-up charges of murder by Dr. Righteous, the leader of the Majority for Music Morality. Kilroy is sent to a prison for re-programming, where he is consigned to eating chicken provided by Righteous. The prison is patrolled by robot guards, called Robotos. Kilroy manages to escape by confusing and overpowering one of the guards, donning his uniform and escaping through some access tunnels.

Meanwhile, a musician named Jonathan Chance is starting to bring back rock music, and leaves Kilroy clues in coded graffiti to find him.

They meet at this museum of rock music, which is intended to discredit the music even more. There is a display of a plastic Elvis Presley, “The founder of rock music”, and a re-enactment of Kilroy supposedly killing a Dr. Righteous supporter.

At this point, Styx lead singer Dennis DeYoung sings “Mr. Roboto”.

It ends with Jonathan Chance, played by Tommy Shaw, and DeYoung’s Kilroy, ripping out the electronics of the Elvis mannequin.

Movie time
I always suspected there was an actual movie or some video, telling the story. Through a combination of Wikipedia and YouTube, I discovered there actually is a 14-minute mini-movie, and I watched it recently on YouTube.

I also discovered Styx played that video at live concerts, and that the last portion doubled as the video for the song “Mr. Roboto”.

The undertones
There was some definite social commentary in “Kilroy Was Here”.

The Majority for Music Morality is obviously a thinly veiled shot at the Moral Majority, which at the time was calling for record labeling, similar to the labeling of movies, and even censorship.

There is also a scene of a big bonfire of people throwing records and guitars onto the flames.

At the time, extremists were actually burning records in real life. Back then, there was a fear of back-masking, which was a ecorded message that could be heard when records or tapes were played backwards. Worse, they feared these messages were from the devil and by hearing them, listeners were subconsciously worshipping the devil.

Seriously.

The songs
If you hadn’t already guessed, “Mr. Roboto” is about Robert Kilroy’s escape from the robot-controlled prison. The song’s opening even has the voice of robots speaking Japanese. That song went all the way to number three on the Billbaord Hot 100.

The second single was “Don’t Let it End” which peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

“High Time” was the third and final single released from “Kilroy Was Here”. It was released at the last minute, had no video, and little promotion so it peaked at number 48 on the Hot 100.

Warming up
What I will always remember about “Kilroy Was Here” was my friendship with Mike Hartman. He was big into music in junior high, and even had wired most of the rooms in his basement, including the bathroom, with speakers. He was into cars and knew a lot about that kind of stuff too.

We played on the St. Joe’s junior high basketball team together, and we had a tournament in Taber on a Saturday in February in Grade 8.

I stayed over at his place Friday night and the whole night we had the “Kilroy Was Here” album playing in the background.

That was where I got to really know “High Time … to start a revolution”; “Cold War”; “Heavy Metal Poisoning”; and of course those two chart and radio hits “Mr. Roboto” and “Don’t Let it End”.

Mike was a really neat guy.

The album
I loved “Kilroy Was Here” so much, that I wanted my own copy – and those liner notes telling its story.

When I joined Columbia House in high school, one of my first 10 selections was “Kilroy Was Here”.

It was so durable, I still have that tape in my garage.

Parting thoughts
I have always been fascinated by music that tells a story. I am much more concrete than abstract. The idea of an entire album of songs telling a story is even more fascinating. I am beginning to sound like Mr. Spock.

That is why I find the idea of a concept album so compelling. I have aspired to creating my own teen angst movie with a matching sound track. The sound track would be a concept album, kind of a story within a story.

One of the first inspirations I ever had for this whole idea was “Kilroy Was Here”. It is a model worth emulating.

Beyond that, the music is just amazing, and the story is one of my favourite plots. That whole idea of a dystopic future where autocrats or tyrants run the world and a band of dedicated rebels or resistance fighters save the day fascinates me. That too is a theme I have tried to explore in my writing.

“Kilroy Was Here” also brings back memories of a period in my life where I was discovering new things, and spending time with a great friend.

You put it all together, and “Kilroy Was Here” is a memorable album.