Snowblind

As you probably surmised, "Snowblind" is about cocaine, the drug of choice for rockers and other celebrities in 1981. This song is officially credited to band members James Young and Dennis DeYoung, although Tommy Shaw has claimed that he helped write the song. Speaking with Allan Handelman on WZTK in North Carolina, Shaw explained that the song is about cocaine, but it's really an anti-cocaine song. Shaw says that he did the drug, since it was part of the scene at the time, but didn't like it, since it made him stupid and just gave him a desire to drink more and do more coke. As for DeYoung, he says he never did drugs. James Young explained his relationship with cocaine to Songfacts: "I tried it once or twice, but it seemed like a silly thing. If you're having trouble sleeping already, don't do cocaine!"

James Young sings the "mirror mirror" parts at the beginning and end of the song, with Tommy Shaw doing the rest. Young calls his character in the song "mysterioso," a theatrical flourish typical of a Styx song.

At a time when many rock bands were being accused of concealing reversed satanic messages in their music, it was widely alleged that "Satan move through our voices" could be heard when this song was played backwards; however, no one has ever identified the exact section of the song which supposedly contains the messages. Styx would go on to parody the anti-rock Christian fundamentalist movements on their next album, Kilroy Was Here, which told the story of a future ruled by the "Majority for Musical Morality." The kerfuffle over the backward message was great publicity for Styx, as lots of people bought the album so they could check it out.