31. Escape by Journey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8craCGpgs&list=OLAK5uy_kqG2N-54Vhei1yjslqVhFrS_thC_gZJuU
Since I liked Frontiers so much, you would have thought I'd have more than one Journey album at hom to listen to during my teenage years. But I didn't. Frontiers was it. However, I certainly heard more Journey songs during my high school years, and a lot of them came from Escape. In fact, we played "Don't Stop Believin'" as a pep band song. The other charting singles included the slow-dance favorites "Open Arms," "Still They Ride," and "Who's Crying Now?" However, since the album came out in 1981--which was about two years ahead of the time I was interested in slow dancing with the girls in school, these songs don't have any especially good memories associated with them. I might remember hearing them while driving tractor, but that's about it. Consequently, when I returned home from my mission and found Escape in my brother-in-law's record collection, I didn't think that I'd want to make a tape of this album because I didn't really want to listen to all those slow dance songs. I'd just spent two years listening to overly calm music, so I wanted some rock and roll with some zip to it, and all these slow songs weren't going to fit the bill. But since this album had a pep band song on it, I decided I should give it a listen. To my astonishment and delight, I found this album had a gigantic heaping helping of delicious zip mixed in with the slow songs. "Stone in Love," "Keep on Runnin'," Escape," and, most of all, "Dead or Alive" were barn-burning rockers that had the kind of energy that makes you want to find a gravel road with lots of curves, put the hammer down, and drive like you're behind the wheel of Old Blue. Even "Mother, Father," which starts out pretty slow, picks up the pace enough to make a respectable driving song. So this album from my early teenage years quickly became one of the most played albums of my early 20s.
If it's been a while since you had some real fun driving like a maniac, I highly recommend buying this album, finding a gravel road, cueing up "Dead or Alive" and then punching it! If you hit the skip button for all the slow-dance songs, you'll have at least 20 minutes of driving like the Duke boys ahead of you.
Nardo
#31: Journey—Escape. I’m not sure why I never had this album back in my high school days. I liked the group. I liked the big hit songs. I even liked the songs they played on the radio that weren’t big hits. (“Stone In Love,” “Still They Ride,” and “Mother, Father.”) But, for some reason (possibly the fact that I was only getting $20 a month, despite working 70 hour weeks in the summer) I didn’t shell out the cash for a Journey album until I was ready to see them in concert for the “Frontiers” tour.
ReplyDeleteIt actually wasn’t until years later that someone (Nardo) pointed out the song “Keep On Runnin’” to me. It’s definitely my favorite song on the album, and my nominee for Song On This Album That Should Have Been a Hit, But Wasn’t. (“Don’t Stop Believin’” would be my second favorite song from the album, but it’s a song that certainly hasn’t had the problem of underexposure over the years.) (Aside from us belting it out for Pep Band, my favorite use of the song is in “The Wedding Singer” when it’s being played out of key as background music when Robbie Hart finds out that his fiancé is not showing up to their wedding.)
I like “Dead or Alive,” too, but not as much as you do. To me, it’s a little bit too fast-paced and relentless. It reminds me a bit of Queen’s “Sheer Heart Attack,” from the album “News of the World.” (NOT from the album “Sheer Heart Attack,” because that would have made sense.) “Dead or Alive” is one of those songs you’ve got to be in the mood for, whereas “Keep On Runnin’” can take you from any kind of mood and get you fired up. [Wait, did I say “you?” I meant “me.” After all these years I’m getting a little rusty on my lessons from the Jimmy Gunter School of Pronoun Usage.] (Sorry, I hope you can forgive me.) (And this time when I say “you,” I mean “you.”)