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Re: 40 Years ago today....
A MONSTER album.
It doesn't get the credit that it deserves. As the 80s continued on, this sorta slipped through the cracks and got buried underneath other iconic albums.
It is now mainly known for Don't Stop Believing....and that is due to The Sopranos.
It was also way ahead of its time with how it used an arcade and atari game to promote the album.
Re: 40 Years ago today....
It’s near perfect. A masterpiece.
The production alone is light-years ahead of what you hear on 99% of albums then or now. You can hear every instrument so clearly. Better yet, you hear space between the notes. Dynamic and living.
Coincidentally, the RIAA certified this diamond the same week of it’s anniversary. Journey now has two diamond records. Not many bands can say they even have one.
The promotion, as you say James, outstanding.
This tour was gargantuan at the time and was one of the first to use the state of the art video boards every show has now. Their production company, Nightmare Productions, which the band created, went on to produce the shows for many other big names.
They perfected the power ballad on this album, for better or worse, that virtually no rock band would go without moving forward.
These aren’t just huge hits on this album, they are unique songs that defied convention.
Don’t Stop Believin’ saves the chorus for the end of the song. The part we all sing in our heads, don’t stop believin/hold on to that feelin only appears when the song is almost over. In reality, the song has two choruses.
Who’s Crying Now was structured in a way that the memorable solo, one of the rare guitar solos you can sing and get stuck in your head, is the end of the song instead of after one of the choruses. The record label told them to rearrange it. Steve Perry, who often butted heads with guitarist Neal Schon, forcefully fought for the solo to end the song. He considered it the highlight of the song.
For all the shit Journey gets for whatever reason, they were groundbreaking and risk-taking in many ways. They arguably have a top 5 guitarist and singer in the history of rock music. Perry is up there with Mercury in vocal ability. He’s not a showman though. Schon and Eddie Van Halen pretty much were the top two guitarists in the world throughout the entire decade of the 80s.
And they are still putting out music. They headline, HEADLINE, Saturday night’s Lollapalooza lineup in two weeks.
- metallex78
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Re: 40 Years ago today....
Honestly, I don’t really know any Journey songs outside of Don’t Stop Believing, and even that I only discovered a few years back from Steel Panther covering the song. Their popularity isn’t very big here in Australia at all.
I’d never heard of this album before this thread, but I should probably check it out.
Re: 40 Years ago today....
Honestly, I don’t really know any Journey songs outside of Don’t Stop Believing, and even that I only discovered a few years back from Steel Panther covering the song. Their popularity isn’t very big here in Australia at all.
I’d never heard of this album before this thread, but I should probably check it out.
I'm not surprised. Journey is very much an American band and didn't tour much in Australia that I remember.
Clearly it's one of my favorites ever.
Give it a spin, you might be surprised at how this really rocks. Sure, there are a few ballads, but the rock songs are fairly heavy for the time (1981) and given their reputation. If you like guitarists, well, they don't get much better than Schon. If you only listen to one thing, listen to the outro solo on Who's Crying Now. Then, Stone in Love and Escape (the song).
Cheers!
Re: 40 Years ago today....
I was practically a fan since birth. While my parents weren't huge fans, my two aunts on my mom's side were and had all their albums.
By the time Escape was on the horizon, I was old enough to buy my own albums.. I remember getting Escape on cassette and my aunt's bought the LP.
Young people today have no idea how truly impactful huge albums like this really were. Everybody was listening...and that game was being played nationwide.
It was massive from the summer of 81 until the fall of 82.
What knocked it off its pedestal?
The release of Frontiers....which was almost as popular as Escape.
Stone In Love kicks ten tons of ass. Give that a spin metallex....
Bri is right... Don't Stop Believing and Who's Crying Now are really unique songs.
Not sure if I told this story here or at the old site...
Still They Ride is one of the few songs in existence that I can't listen to....EVER. Going back to the era it was released, it's always reminded me of my aunt's dog Pepper. I don't know how that dog got anchored to this song...but it did.
I'd start balling like a baby if I listened to it.
It's a great song though.
It's crazy to think this album could've been bigger but imagine this....
It comes out a year later and every hit has a video in heavy rotation on MTV.
That would be like.... Thriller level.
Re: 40 Years ago today....
@james
Great point about the videos.
That's why MTV aired a Journey concert live from Houston in 1981. There was such a need for Journey, they just broadcast their show live. They had no videos. It was the first concert MTV ever aired.
The original VJs Mark Goodman introduced the band, then JJ Jackson followed the show.
"Still They Ride" is an incredibly emotional song already, about aging and mortality and going back to a place that doesn't exist anymore, the passage of time. Attaching a moment like losing a pet to it could make it unbearable.
"Stone in Love" is awesome. It wasn't even a true single, but rock radio played it to death.
Re: 40 Years ago today....
Yeah it was released in that quirky period right before MTV explodes and plays a huge role in making or breaking songs, albums, and even careers.
This is also the period where ALL their 70s peers careers nosedive because the visual medium isn't kind to them....
Firefall, BOC, Foghat, Poco, Little River Band, Pablo Cruise, etc.
Their only peers that were able to move forward and capitalize on the MTV world were Fleetwood Mac and Genesis...and that's because like with Journey, the level of talent is just off the charts and unstoppable.
Had they not split up, The Doobie Brothers might have made it.
Blondie definitely would've made it.
"Stone in Love" is awesome. It wasn't even a true single, but rock radio played it to death
I love songs like this that exist in between worlds of being a hit and a deep cut.
REM's Texarkana is another good example.
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