Steve Perry - Street Talk

Coming in on the heels of Journey's 1983 album Frontiers, Steve Perry struck out on his own and released his solo effort Street Talk in 1984. To say Journey was a big deal during this period is an understatement. The band had been on an upward trajectory, and while Frontiers didn't perform as well as their 1981 release Escape, it was still a big deal.

I suspect there was a lot of internal pressure within the Journey camp as to what was next, so members of the band decided to strike out on their own. Neil Schon had previously released a pair of albums with Jan Hammer, and in '84 he teamed up with Sammy Hagar and released Through the Fire as HSAS (Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve). I had them all on vinyl, and frankly I can't remember much about them.

It was Steve, though, who as the voice of Journey had the best shot at solo success, and with Street Talk, he dropped an album containing ten polished pop songs that were closer to the generic adult contemporary artists of the day than they were to anything by Journey. This isn't to say they sucked. There are a lot of really tasty songs here, and there's a reason the album would go on to sell a couple of million copies - it was more than just name recognition for Steve as Journey's front man, the album stood on its own.

Solo records once upon a time were supposed to be the vehicles where artists were able to stretch themselves and work outside of the confines of their regular day job. Steve took full advantage and tried things he just couldn't do with Journey, and while there are definitely moments that have a harder edge, the songs are generally tightly structured and highly polished pop songs.

It didn't help that the big hit "Oh Sherrie" is a song I never really liked that much. Sure, it had all the ingredients, but it's that a cappella vocal at the start of the song I just can't get into. Once the song starts I almost always end up thinking, "Sheesh, that wasn't so bad." Especially when Waddy pulls off his simple but effective guitar solo. Then I promptly forget until the next time I hear it. Oddly, this is an album I didn't get back when it came out, and I really loved Journey at the time - "Oh Sherrie" was probably the reason.

It was decades later I finally heard the album, and by that time things just didn't sink in or resonate the way they used to. Oh, I found quite a lot to like about the album, but the moment had passed, as they say. It was just another CD in my collection.

Finding this in the dollar bin was too good to pass up.

I've played this through a couple of times now, and I really did enjoy myself. Sure, the opening still jarred me out of "Oh Sherrie," but I found myself singing the chorus, and the ballad "Foolish Heart" was as great as it ever was. It was rediscovering the rest of the songs that was a treat - while not every song was a keeper, nothing sucked either. Even the overly syrupy "Running Alone" with the background noises of children talking and playing worked, but it is a bit cringey.

Throughout, Steve used a core band that featured such aces as Michael Landau and Waddy Wachtel on guitars, and Larrie Londin and Craig Krampf on drums, with Randy Goodrum on keyboards, among others. This did help things feel cohesive, but Steve was having fun and it showed. He got to stretch and do what he wanted to do.

After being on the hamster wheel cranking out music year after year, Steve's output would slow considerably after releasing Street Talk. Journey would regroup as a trio on the 1986 album Raised on Radio. An album that seemed like a big deal at the time to me, and sold two million copies, but it was a far cry from Frontiers at six million and Escape at ten million.

Steve would drop his second solo album in 1994, ten years after his debut, and then his final album with Journey would drop a decade after their last album. Then it would be very quiet for a long time until he released Traces in 2018.

No I didn't forget about his Christmas album ... I wish I could.