Livin’ in a lonely world, she took the midnight train going anywhere~

I love the band Journey.
Why does that feel like a confession? Like something I should be ashamed of?
Like something I should never ever admit in mixed company. Or company of any kind.

J is for guilty pleasures, er I mean, Journey

C’mon, everybody was a Journey fan in 2005 when the Chicago White Sox won the World Series to the anthem of Don’t stop Believin’.
What? No, you say. Bullocks!

Yes, I’m a product of the 80’s, having graduated high school in 1984, but more importantly having been introduce to that infamous na-na-na-na-na chorus my freshman year. Back when radio rocked and vinyl was king. Wow, I sound old.

I eventually purchased the albums, impatient to wait for one of their song’s turn in the radio rotation (even though there were times when they were literally every third song!).
I really couldn’t say which LP was my favorite, the band had a run of four amazing releases– Infinity, Evolution, Departure and Escape, followed by a passable Frontiers. But after that, they either began to suck or I outgrew them.

(Sidebar: I remember watching the ABC Saturday night line-up of Love Boat and Fantasy Island, like, religiously. Then one weekend I told my stepmom that these shows were pretty lame. She just smiled and patted my head (she probably didn’t actually do those things) and said, “They’ve always been lame, you just finally outgrew them.”
Sidebar’s sidebar: Okay, since I am defending Journey here, it is important to acknowledge that they were NOT always lame, I just outgrew them.)

I think my Journey fandom waned naturally as time and albums dropped.
There were artists like the Scorpions, Billy Squier, the Who, Prince and Michael Jackson to discover. Followed by the Violent Femmes, Depeche Mode, Talking Heads and Tears for Fears…
I could go on–!

That said, you can’t take Journey’s fabulous chart-topping (and B-side) songs off the Infinity through Frontiers albums away from me. I still get a thrill when one of those early Journey songs comes up on the 70’s or 80’s station on Sirius-xm radio. Volume up!
There was a song for every teenaged mood, from angst to adoring. I remember coming home from heartbreak and playing I’m Cryin’ over and over and over… and over.
I remember cranking Lovin’, Touchin’ Squeezin’ and jamming to the na-na’s with my friends.

I probably still have the albums somewhere, but mostly I listen to songs on iTunes—
where I have taken the best of all and made my own playlist.
NO Open Arms, gag. Or Faithfully, seriously, gag.

We all have our “guilty pleasures,” those things we like that we don’t want others to know we like.
Where guilt is brought on by the idea that others might discover we are dabbling in cheesy arenas, that we might be enjoying otherwise embarrassing pleasures.
Like Fifty Shades of Gray, Munchos, or, yes, bands like Journey.

As I write this, I’m realizing Journey is not my guilty pleasure.
Pleasure, yes, but since I’m openly stating, not even a confession! the fact that I love Steve Perry’s voice, and especially the association I have with the songs–
in my opinion, that negates the guilt.
(Get back to me on Air Supply, Peppermint Schnapps, and the movie Overboard, *blush* but this is a J blog, so let’s focus, okay.)

I bought a non-fiction book listing hundreds of guilty pleasures (things like Zima and the Cubs) for some friends of mine a few years back. I created a page and added it to the book. An entry for, you guessed it, Journey fans. They didn’t even realize it was a fake page. As closet Journey fans (well, half of the couple anyway), it was completely acceptable that that page should exist (not to mention that my design skills are mad!).

Closet Journey fans must be the ones that like Faithfully and Open Arms.
I’d be embarrassed about that, too.

Don’t stop believin’…