I’d love to tell you that I knew that “Don’t Stop Believing” was going to become the iconic song that it has become but I do remember the first time I ever heard it when Todd Nierwinski dropped the needle on his brother’s turntable. And I can’t tell you how many times we jammed that album after that first time in his basement in 1981 and 1982.
The iconic MTV Houston Summit concert still warrants a spin in my living room just so I can feel 13 again.
I think the title track “Escape” is the best song the band ever wrote. (“I’ve got dreams I’m living for…”) It still inspires me and has since the first time I read the liner notes and learned the words.
But when the lights went out in the city and we were all making out to “Open Arms” or rollerskating when “Separate Ways” was the biggest song in the world, everyone knows and has felt the power of Journey.
Well, memories never fade away of those summer nights and my dude Ed Merritt with the boombox blasting Steve Perry on the Colgate playground. And the eternal 10 p.m. ride into the midnight sun of Skunny at Nacho Mama’s on Canton Square makes it complete!
I camped out all night at the Harford Mall Hecht’s and got lousy tickets on the “Escape” tour. I was crying then but Ron West will tell you that we sat very well and front and center after an all weekend campout at the Reisterstown Road Hecht’s on the “Frontiers” tour for chain reaction and the fall.
And the one night I went drinking with Steve Bisciotti was after a Journey concert.
Now, of course, they’ve lost their minds and the whole thing is off the rails. But loving a music man ain’t always what it’s supposed to be…
Have faith. Believe.
