Posted on 02/13/2010 11:40:59 AM PST by SamAdams76
I drive trucks for a living. Big trucks. My routes often take me coast to coast. So I have a lot of time to listen to music on my truck stereo.
Well after over 30 years of dismissing the rock band Journey as an insufferably lame musical group, I must say that all of a sudden, I am actually starting to like some of their songs. Where I used to have stations like "Outlaw Country" and "Willie's Place" as my Sirius radio presets, I now find that I have stations like "Classic Rewind" and "70s on 7" dialed in to try to catch a Journey tune.
Now I came of age during the late 1970s/early 1980s when Journey was at their commercial peak, and I always took pride in the fact that I utterly rejected the "stadium rock" genre that was so fashionable at the time.
Whether it was Poco, Kansas, Foreigner, Loverboy, Supertramp, and even Foghat, they were all pretenders to me. I didn't even allow myself to get caught up in all the hype surrounding The Knack ("My Sharona") back in the summer of '79.
Back in the day, my taste in music was very discriminating indeed. Back in the late 1970s, you'd find me listening to Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds. Maybe even a little Elvis Costello or Joe Jackson for when I wanted something "New Wave." But as for "corporate New Wave" like The Cars, The Police and U2, forget about it.
Certainly you wouldn't catch me dead listening to anything by Journey. For me, Journey personified the era of lame corporate rock and I wasn't having any of their syrupy power ballads and cookie cutter rock anthems.
So what the hell has changed? Why I am, now well into my middle age, now a sucker for songs by Journey?
I think I turned the corner a couple of years ago when I tuned in for the finale of "The Sopranos." As most of you know, the popular HBO series ended not with a bang but with the haunting piano intro and whimpering vocals of Steve Perry:
Just a small town girl
Livin' in a lonely world
She took the midnight train goin' anywhere
Well unless you happened to be just born, I think you know the rest of that song...
Since then, that song ("Don't Stop Believin') has been played to death on all radio stations. But I just can't get it out of my head and as a result, on a hot sweltering night last summer, with a six pack of Coors Lite in my belly, I went over to iTunes and downloaded the damn thing for 99 cents.
Now I got that song on my iPod sharing space with the likes of legends such as The Allman Brothers, Molly Hatchet and Warren Zevon. I'm sure there is a special place in hell for people like me.
But unfortunately, my flirtation with Journey did not end there. Before the summer was out, I had added "Wheel In The Sky", "Stone In Love" and "Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'" to compound further my original sin.
Now I got a reputation to uphold here so I started taking steps to ensure that nobody found out that I had Journey songs in my music collection. So I dumped the Journey songs into a playlist called "My sister's favorite music" so that if anybody called me on it, I'd be able to say that I sometimes let my sister borrow my iPod and so I setup a playlist special for her. I even threw some stuff like REO Speedwagon and Donna Summer in there to make it look good. "Yeah, that really is my sister's playlist", I could easily say, "After all, you think a big burly man like me could actually listen to such sissy stuff!"
But I gotta tell ya, after I went ahead and downloaded "Lights" and "Open Arms" by Journey, I really started questioning my sexuality. I was starting to get a little nervous and the only cure was to throw on the TV and watch some NASCAR or "Monster Truck Madness" or something manly like that.
But now I guess I have finally come to terms with my fondness for Journey music. After all, it is possible to listen to Journey and still be a man. I'm living proof of that, I might be a newly minted Journey fan but I'm still a truck driving man and if you want to question my manhood about it, I will drive my 18-wheeler over to your house and kick your butt.
A number of today’s performers have their singing and playing enhanced. Get them out on stage live and they stink.
This is pretty funny.
Thanks for that....
I love Journey, but until I listened to their pre-Perry instrumental work, I really didn’t appreciate them as much. Yes they went ‘corporate’, but at their core is one hell of a music making machine.
I’ve always liked Journey. Their music is some of the first I remember from when I was very young.
Well I’d say you were born that way, you just now found out!
Just kidding. Compared to this new stuff my kids like like Snow Patrol and Maroon 7, Journey sounds pretty dog gone good.
I don’t know if I like them with that new singer though.
Back in 87, I was hitchhiking back east from Denver to New Jersey. Somewhere around Ames, IA, I got a ride with a trucker hauling a big refrig trailer full of tomatoes. Along the way, the driver got in the mood for some music.
"You like Zamfir?" he asked. "Um, sure." (Beggars can't be choosers, doncha know.) So he puts in a CD of Zamfir covering Billy Joel tunes. You remember Zamfir? "The master of the pan flute."
Well, wouldn't you know it, the cd got STUCK in the player, so from Iowa all the way to Chicago we listened to Zamfir playing Billy Joel tunes.
If that's not a cautionary tale about hitchhiking, I don't know what is. Made it home safe and unmolested, so alls well that ends well I guess. I'm too old for that sh%t now.
In the radio business we call those of your ILK the music “elitists”. :)
Most people like popular music, which is why it is “popular”. Early Journey (pre-Steve Perry lead vocals), was very cool...Steve just made it more mass appeal. It’s really not a crime to enjoy popular music, nor does it make you a sissy or whatever you think it might make you out to be. Nor is it any cooler to be an elitist. You’re just harder to reach in the world of radio. Musical taste is purely subjective.
I’ve programmed popular music and I’ve programmed elitist type stations. The Elitists like a lot of wild swings in style from Blues to Jazz and classical to acoustic to hard rock.. in no particular order. Popular music folk tend to stick to one or two genres.
Nothing wrong with any of that.
Formula music - which is easily identified... is much more common these days...and the record labels and artists alike should be ashamed of themselves for producing the drivel.
I miss the old story telling songs. Al Stewart (yes), James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, CSNY, Beatles and others that were Singer/Songwriters who had something to say. We’re not hearing that from todays best songwriters. Rob Thomas is considered to be a great songwriter now. Do you agree? He’s written alot of songs... but not one of them can hold a candle to Fire & Rain or ________________ fill in the blank.
We’re getting old and pretty soon Led Zeppelin will be elevator music.
I’m actually a big fan of Al Stewart, especially his “Year Of The Cat” and “Time Passages” albums.
I find the Eagles a must for any road trip
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I’ll thank you to leave my butt alone.
Mozart and Back with a bit of Beethoven thrown in can be nice to mix it all up and get a little culture too :-D. If you are really feeling a bit hot and want culture at the same time, a group called Bond mixes up the strings and a bit of classical and other previously produced tunes such as in: 'Viva!' (Orian Mix), 'Allegretta,' 'Libertango.'
Consider yourself lucky you have not turned to Meatloaf's oldies but goodies to spice it all up for a wild diverse mix. Maybe toss in Pavarotti's Nessum Dorma!!! What a voice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Since the origin of iTunes I mix a lot of it up although fully produced albums can be a fantastic journey as well. For those 'Drama King and Queens' out there Opera is a nice addition. May the road always be safe and blessed Jerry!!
Back=Bach
You need to listen to some Rush, Boston, and Triumph.
What next, Barry Manilow? There are guilty pleasures one can be proud of and then there’s...
Definitely Rush. Although I used to get stoned while listening to them. It has taken awhile for that reason sober to listen to them again and they are fantastic. Wish I could have heard a lot more of this music with a clear head when I was younger. :-). I can appreciate great music a lot more. Especially ones that are well performed or well written.
Allman Bros. live >motor vehicle>speeding ticket.
lol. Meatloaf was my mention, but I did not mention my other shameful selected songs from REO Speedwagon—:-D. Okay we are on the internet. No one knows me so the confessional is safe . . . or is it? LOL.
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