Yes, Journey’s a guilty pleasure. Why? Because how can you take any band with this guy as a lead singer seriously?
picture courtesy of http://www.coolchaser.com. Steve's wearing a red see-thru blouse, courtesy of Frederick’s of Hollywood
You should know by now that I have a general disdain for hippies because, as much as they’d like to think they’re progressive, they’re really just living in the past. I’m all for moving forward and experiencing new things. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I hate most classic rock. Not all, just the stuff you hear on the radio. It’s not that the songs themselves are bad, it’s just that they’re bad when you hear them over and over and over again. Really, do you need to listen to Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” for the 17,209th time? Or 38 Special’s “Hold on Loosely”? And yes, people laugh at you when you’re blasting Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock n Roll” on your car stereo.
But this song is catchy with it’s over-the-top blues riffs, driving beat, and melancholy lyrics. And when you get to the “na na na na na’s” at the end, if you’re not singing along, you’re probably dead.
There’s another reason why I picked this song. In 2007, long after Steve Perry left the band, guitarist Neil Schon was cruising YouTube for videos of cute little kittens. After a while, he stumbled upon a cover band named The Zoo doing Journey songs and was impressed by the singer’s range and stage presence. One thing led to another and soon Journey found itself a new lead singer – Arnel Pineda. Together they’ve put out new material and have toured extensively. They were one of the top grossing concert tours of 2008 the year and millions of fans have come to adore the band’s new singer. And what, besides his voice, is so special about him? He was plucked straight out of the Philippines (Represent!)
Here they are performing this song with the new singer. He starts singing at the 3 minute mark… Special thanks to Boom Boom for suggesting this one.
Awesome suggestion Boom Boom.Takes me right back to 8th grade–Dr. Scholl sandals and feathered hair. (And if you had suggested “Don’t Stop Believin'” I’d have been so disappointed. That was a guilty pleasure the first few times it was dug up…now they actually play it at the beginning of corporate conferences. *Gag*)
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