Don't Stop Believin'

I love me some classic rock.  Now, we could argue all day over the definition of classic rock.  Are we talkin' Zeppelin or Motley Crue?  Jefferson Airplane or Bon Jovi?  I think what it really comes down to is-- whatever you listened to in high school--becomes more "classic" the older you get.

Tuesday, June 24th 2008, 5:36 pm

By: News 9

Darren Brown, News9.com INsite team

I thought about a buncha different titles for this blog entry:

"Any Way You Want It"...kinda suggestive

"Who's Cryin' Now"...too sissified

"Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'"...use your imagination

I love me some classic rock. Now, we could argue all day over the definition of classic rock. Are we talkin' Zeppelin or Motley Crue? Jefferson Airiplane or Bon Jovi? I think what it really comes down to is-- whatever you listened to in high school--becomes more "classic" the older you get.

When I was in high school, Journey was huge. Really. You say you hear too much Journey on the radio? Think about what it was like back then. I got tired of "Open Arms" about 25 years ago.

But I am a Journey fan. I got a buncha old cassette tapes to prove it. And I saw them in concert back in THE DAY.

So the other day I'm in the store checkin' out the new Journey release. It's a three-disc deal, one is new songs with their new singer, one is re-recordings of Journey classics, and the third is a concert DVD.

I don't doubt that it's good, but it's not what I was really looking for. Over to the "regular" discs. I found one called "Journey Greatest Hits Live." Sweet.

I JAMMED all the way back to NEWS9.

Later on, I was reading the liner notes:

"...these long-missing live tapes were unearthed in late 1997 in one of Sony's tape storage facilities. Capturing 1981 and 1983 concerts in Houston, Texas; Norman, Oklahoma, and Tokyo, Japan, the tapes were..."

WHOOOOOOOOAAAAAAA! BACK UP!

Norman, Oklahoma? DUDE...I WAS THERE! I think. I could have been. Actually, I remember there were 3 Journey concerts at the Lloyd Noble Center in July of '83. I went to one of them. I think Bryan Adams "Cuts Like a Knife" opened up for them on the "Frontiers" tour. The liner notes mention a recording on July 19, 1983.

If you listen very closely, you can hear me scream at the beginning of "Wheel in the Sky."

Yeah, right. I don't have the ticket stub to tell me which show I was there, I was probably there on a different night than the recording anyway.

Of course, as far as YOU know, I WAS there.

I'll never "Stop Believin'"