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Journey - E5C4P3

Journey
When Escape came out in the summer of 1981 Journey went from being big to HUGE. I first heard the band back in the summer of '78 when I was stuck in a forestry camp for the summer and one of the other kids had a copy of Infinity among his collection of summer tunes. I loved "Wheel in the Sky" even though the opening riff seemed to be an unabashed rip off of "Layla" and nobody seemed to mind or care. 

The band would follow up a year later with Evolution and then in 1980 Departure contained "Any Way You Want It" which was also featured in Caddyshack. That to me was pure ear candy. How could the bad ever top this?

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Escape would be the band's seventh album in as many years and would be the band's crowning achievement. Everything seemed to be in place for Journey, REO Speedwagon the year before had seemingly paved the way with their Hi Infidelity album and people were ready for what Journey was about to bring to the table. No, I'm not sleeping on Departure... that was a big album, REO delivered a HUGE record and when Escape was released it took off. I know that may not seem to make sense, but there really is a weird sort of logic that connects the dots between them. It's sort of like when Saturday Night Fever floated all those disco acts ... albeit briefly.

People tend to think of "Don't Stop Believin'" as the big hit from the record, and it was a hit and cracked the top 10 but "Who's Crying Now" and the ballad "Open Arms" were both bigger at the time. It's only a relatively recent (over the last couple of decades, but it feels recent) thing that "Don't Stop Believin'" got a second wind.

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This was also the record that for better or worse labelled Journey as a commercial behemoth and any street credibility was flushed down the crapper. Bunched in with Foreigner, REO Speedwagon and the other slick rock bands Journey was no longer a band to be taken seriously. It didn't help that it was the ballads that seemed to be the hits. Of course I loved Foreigner and Journey ... REO never had the legs for me, but I liked them for all that.

The reality is Journey was still taking chances and their brand of rock was still pretty cool. All you have to do is listen to songs like "Stone in Love" and the amazing "Mother, Father" to understand that Journey never really abandoned their fusion proggy roots. One could argue the success of their softer ballads led to a bit of internal strife. Styx had "Babe" and Journey had "Open Arms" and to the fans who wanted more rock these songs were the antithesis of what the bands were about.

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This was the top of the mountain. After three triple platinum albums, which was already impressive, Escape would go on to sell ten million copies. This really was as good as it would get for the band. While this may not a perfect album but it's a pretty much the perfect Journey record. 

 

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