Journey is coming to the AVA at Casino del Sol on Tuesday, July 18, and if you didn’t get a ticket, chances are that by the time you read this there are only a few, if any, left. And those no doubt will be on the lawn.
Pretty impressive for a band that’s been around since the early 1970s — it took a seven-year hiatus in the late 1980s — and hasn’t had a radio hit in 20 years.
But when you think of Journey’s enduring impact on pop culture, it makes perfect sense. The band, featuring original members Neal Schon and Ross Valory, longtime member Jonathan Cain, with frontman Arnel Campaner Pineda, the Filipino vocalist Journey discovered on YouTube, draw from a catalogue of songs that can truly be labeled iconic.
We poked through our long-ago memories and came up with seven Journey songs that still rock our world.
- “Don’t Stop Believing”: The smash single from the 1981 multi-platinum album “Escape” has been the rallying cry for countless baseball teams, including the Arizona Diamondbacks, and is the theme song for endless graduations. And who could forget the haunting image the lyrics created when the song was used as the backdrop for the final scene in “The Sopranos” finale in 2007.
- “Any Way You Want It”: When it comes to the ultimate live Journey songs, this opening track off 1980’s “Departure” is a doozie. It’s one of those songs that you just have to sing along to, and sing loudly. And we can’t wait to see Neal Schon rip on the guitar solo.
- “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)”: From the 1983 album “Frontiers,” this song still makes us weepy but in a defiant “I told you so” kinda way. It’s the great antidote for a breakup. And it was super-cool hearing the song dusted off for the 2010 flick “Tron: Legacy.”
- “Lovin, Touchin’, Squeezin’”: In addition to being Journey’s first bona fide hit, the single off 1979’s “Evolution” got a mashup to kick off the hit musical series “Glee.”
- “Lights”: This 1978 single off “Infinity” still reminds us of San Francisco and the Giants. And it’s a great soundtrack for our monsoon-season power outages.
- “Faithfully”: The Top 20 hit off “Frontiers” still tugs at our heartstrings. “They say that the road / Ain’t no place to start a family / Right down the line / It’s been you and me / And lovin’ a music man /Ain’t always what it’s supposed to be / Oh girl you stand by me / I’m forever yours, faithfully.” Who doesn’t need a good cry in the company of 5,000 screaming Journey fans?
- “Wheel In the Sky”: We can’t help going back to “Infinity.” That was an awesome album, and “Wheel” was the song that had us air-guitaring along to Schon and pretending that we were Steve Perry filling in those harmony vocals.
