If you’re old like me, you might remember this bit of internet humor that went around in the mid-nineties. It was a supposed high school paired writing assignment that went south very quickly. See Alex Bogusy and Snopes for a couple of examples of the story.

Cut to last night. We’re driving to dinner, and Styx’s “Come Sail Away” came on the classic rock station. Now, just to be clear, I love Styx. The Grand Illusion was the first album I ever brought to school for our 5th grade “bring your music to class” days. So I was perfectly happy to enjoy the fine musical ramblings of the boys from Chicago.

However, my darling wife disagrees… Mrs. MarkyMark don’t dig on classic rock. But before my bride scowled me into changing the station, I remembered that paired writing story. And I was struck with how similar that song is to the high-schoolers’ essay. The first half is all idyllic and, well, meaningful. And the second half is aliens.

I know Dennis DeYoung gets the sole writing credit on the tune, but now I’m wondering if Tommy Shaw and DeYoung secretly did a “I’ll write the first 2 verses, then you close it out” thing?