July 25, 2006

The Secret to Journey's Enduring Popularity

...for the vast majority of Suburban Americans between the age of 14 and 24 in the early 80s, when it was time to make out and you put Escape on the turntable, you were automatically spotted two bases. Honestly, if you didn't have a hand under a bra or massaging a button fly by the end of "Who's Crying Now," Steve Perry would stop what he was doing, fly to your house and then beat the crap out of you for blowing a sure thing. God forbid you actually flipped the LP, because then, baby, you were going home. There's an entire generation of white 22-to-25-year olds walking around today whose moment of conception is largely coincident to the second chorus of "Open Arms."

It's frightening to contemplate just how right he probably is about that. I was junior high age when "Escape" hit the streets. Was there ever a better slow dance song than "Open Arms"?

I also remember from my long hair metal days in high school setting fire to an Escape LP - but that is a different story.

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Comments

I had "Open Arms" on a 45. Explain THAT to the youngsters... ;) Man, I can smell the sweaty gym from here.

Posted by: Andrea at July 25, 2006 02:36 PM

Whoa - I was in a grocer's last night & they were playing Open Arms. I was standing in the cookie aisle making my choice & realized the woman behind me was singing along. Like I was. Except I was doing it in my head. My bet is any woman pushing 40 in that store would have been able to sing that song....

Posted by: hornblower at July 25, 2006 03:07 PM

Oh gosh, I was having a fit here doing math, frantically figuring if I'm old enough to have a 22-25 eyar old, computing how old I was then too... junior high, fortunately! LOL

Ah, those were the days!

Posted by: *wicked* at July 25, 2006 11:49 PM

I wore that LP down so much that I eventually just got sick of it. To this day I can't hear a Journey song without retching.

Posted by: don at July 26, 2006 12:11 PM

When my husband sings, you can totally hear the Steve Perry influence! Hmmmm, wonder how many bases that got him back in the day, now that I think of it . . .

Posted by: Gem at July 29, 2006 06:34 PM

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