This will get the band a pop of press, but the reviews are gonna be brutal.

What has happened?

Journey just played a 3-hour set Thursday night and the second song in the set list was the new single. Two days later tonight they headlined Lollapalooza. They are all like 70.

GNR are so fucking lazy.

@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.

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.

All of this,

plus:

Companies could pay a wage that’s not shit and people would rather work. Yes, even entry level jobs. Not everyone is an Einstein on the way to CEO.