It was perhaps a warm evening in November when Journey recorded the concert presented on the new Journey Live In Houston 1981 DVD/CD release. I wasn't there, so I don't know for sure, but there is a huge stadium full of people packed together and rocking around non-stop for an hour and a half. Hot and sweaty rock 'n roll... music to get your blood pumping.
It's a cold night as I write this review. It's winter, and my little space heater is blowing. I'm watching a little slice of music history that has now been digitally captured for all to enjoy. Although I'm separated from this event by over two decades, it's very easy to get sucked into what's happening on stage.
But temperature aside, my credentials for writing a review on a Journey DVD are perhaps not as solid as some might like. After all, I was a child of the 80s, but I was not a college intramural frisbee-golf champion of the 80s. In fact, some of my experience with Journey is inherited from my older siblings, as they saw fit to get me up to speed early in life.
Credential #1: My sister had a maroon Chrysler LeBaron with a stock 8-track tape player in the dash. Since these were really only fashionable for about seven weeks during a slow fall in the late 70s, she wisely saw fit to "future-proof" it with a normal cassette tape adapter. The tape I remember most fondly from this period (except for a SWEET! mix tape that I stole and still have as my only surviving cassette) is Escape by Journey. This wasn't out of the ordinary, I guess. Everyone had a copy of Escape. It sold by the truckload. But we had one too, and it saw some brutal use.
Credential #2: I have had, at one time or another, all of the following: acid-washed jeans; a perm; a Coca-Cola rugby shirt; rolled up jeans; rolled up shirt sleeves and turned-up collar; penny loafers; flourescent Converse hi-tops (HIGH tops...) with even more absurdly flourescent shoelaces; and I wanted a pair of parachute pants but never got them. (I just needed to get this last item off my chest after years of carrying around this resentment. I'm trying to learn to let the wounds heal). All of this is simply to say that as I see the men of Journey on this DVD, run around on stage in their too-tight blue jeans and muscle tees, all while sporting impressively large hair stylings, I forgive them. We've all been there, and there is nothing wrong with admitting that, yes, it really was fashionable at one point in time, blind as we were to the concept of dignity.
Article comments
1 - Paul Roy
Any relation to Steve? I think we are from the same generation. Funny review.
2 - David R Perry
You know, I actually still get that from time to time. I guess Steve is the only famous Perry (Luke doesn't count).
3 - Stacy Perry
I must say that I am proud to know that I have passed my love for good music on to my brother David. I lived the fashion moments for ya....and there are some great pics of this in our family album. I parted with the clothes with ease, the music will be with me forever. Rock on Steve! :)