Wheel in the Sky started out as a poem, written by Diane Valory, the wife of Journey bassist Ross Valory. The poem was re-written by the band’s second lead singer, Robert Fleischman, and guitarist Neal Schon worked out the melody while the band was driving from show to show.
Though Fleischman may have written the lyrics, he had left the band by the time the song was recorded for the Infinity album. Fleischman’s replacement was Steve Perry, who would go on to become Journey’s best-known (though not final) lead singer. Wheel in the Sky would be the first Journey single to be released after Perry joined the band and it was also the first first single to chart, reaching #57 in the United States. It remains one of their most popular songs and it’s also one of the few songs to have been performed by every iteration of Journey.
As was Journey’s style, the video for Wheel In The Sky is a performance clip. As Steve Perry put it when discussing their later video for Separate Ways, the members of Journey were proud to be musicians and not actors.
I’ve recently been reading Noel Monk’s memoir about managing Van Halen during the early years of their career, Runnin’ with the Devil: A Backstage Pass to the Wild Times, Loud Rock, and the Down and Dirty Truth Behind the Making of Van Halen.
Among the many revealing stories in the book is one about an incident that happened when Van Halen was touring with Journey. Monk went backstage and discovered that David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen had gotten into a food fight. Eddie threw a bowl of peanuts at Dave. Dave threw guacamole at Eddie but he missed his target and, instead, ended up hitting the lead singer of Journey, Steve Perry. Monk says that he found Perry in his dressing room, softly crying and trying to get the guacamole off of his leather jacket. Monk compared Dave and Eddie to “heartless mean children,” picking on the smart kid in the middle school cafeteria.
Today’s music video, Journey’s party anthem Any Way You Want It, was selected in honor of Steve Perry.
Ever since I first saw Caddyshack (not to mention the episode of The Simpsons were Rodney Dangerfield played Mr. Burns’ son), Any Way You Want It has always been my favorite Journey song. The video is also Journey at its best, simple, without pretension, and rocking!
The song is an anthem but the music video is widely considered to be one of the worst of all time. What happened to Journey when they gathered on a wharf in New Orleans and shot the video for Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)? Let’s break it down:
0:00 — The video starts with a shot of the Louisa Street Wharf in New Orleans. Where’s Journey?
0:03 — There, they are. But where are their instruments?
0:04 — Yes, Jonathan Cain is playing air keyboards.
0:08 — Journey has their instruments now so they look a lot less ridiculous. Still, Jonathan Cain will never live down those air keyboards.
0:21 — A woman in a black leather skirt walks down the wharf. The members of Journey jump out at her. This will prove to be a reoccurring theme throughout the video. The woman was played by a local girl named Margaret Olmstead.
0:35 — Again, Journey has lost their instruments and Jonathan Cain is forced to play air keyboards.
0:41 — If Steve Perry looks more annoyed than usual here, it is probably because he wasn’t happy while shooting this video. This was the first Journey video to have a “storyline,” as opposed to just being edited footage of the band performing. Perry was opposed to the idea. According to Cain, Perry said, “We’re performers, we’re entertainers, but we’re not actors.”
0:51 — Who has stolen Journey’s instruments?
0:54 — At this point, Jonathan Cain’s air keyboards are truly out of control. Is he playing an imaginary synthesizer or is he pretending to be a tiger stalking his prey? Your guess is as good as mine.
0:58 — Not only has Journey lost their instruments but Steve Perry has lost his sleeves.
1:13 — Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that Journey is performing in front of a mattress warehouse. This detail will pay off at the end of the video.
1:27 — At least Jonathan finally found his keyboards.
1:32 — The salesman who sold me my very first used car looked just like Ross Valory.
1:47 — The video was shot on a very cold morning. In between takes, Perry would rush into his camper to try to get warm.
1:57 — The shoot was also tense because of the presence of Perry’s then-girlfriend, Sherri Swafford. Swafford took an intense dislike to Margaret Olmstead and demanded that she be removed from the video.
2:22 — I worked in a warehouse one summer and I can tell you that one thing you never want to do is walk backwards through a maze of palettes.
2:29 — Do you think Steve Smith likes foosball?
2:34 — The members of Journey jumping back and forth and singing while Margaret ignores them is my favorite part of the video.
3:04 — What did they do to Steve’s drums?
3:37 — As if the video hadn’t already flown off the rails, here’s a few minutes of gratuitous slow motion.
4:15 — Say what you will about the video, no one could belt it out like Steve Perry.
4:18 — It was all a dream! That explains so much.
In 1999, MTV named this video as the 13 worst video of all time.
For tonight’s excursion into televised horror, we present to you the 13th episode of the 4th season of HBO’s Tales From The Crypt!
Werewolf Concerto originally aired on September 9th, 1992. It deals with what happens when a group of hotel guests believe that there might be a werewolf in the area. Fortunately, Timothy Dalton is also in the area and he claims to be a professional werewolf hunter!
This past weekend I ended up seeing a film that will probably become one of my favorite films of 2011. It wasn’t perfect, but for 2/3’s of it the film was perfect in bringing up feelings of nostalgia. Nostalgia gets a bad rap and deservedly so since it turns anything decades-old into a classic because it was heard, seen or played in one’s youth. The latest “Song of the Day” brings up past memories born of nostalgia and just fond reminiscing. I speak of the greatest power ballad of all-time: Journey’s “Open Arms”.
The song was released in 1982 as part of Journey’s seventh full album, Escape, and the song became an instant classic both in the radio-play and during the band’s arena concerts. “Open Arms” became the rock power ballad by which all other power ballads gets compared to. The song, like all power ballads, is all about love-lost and love re-found. I don’t know anyone, no matter what types of music they’re into, who hasn’t at least taken someone close to them for a slow dance on the dance floor to this very song as it played.
While it wasn’t a song that was widely played during dances, balls and proms when I was in high school it definitely was a song that got major playtime once I was older and went to weddings and other similar type gatherings. Part of this ballad’s timeless appeal doesn’t just come from the earnest emotions inherent in the lyrics, but the emotional power and feeling Steve Perry’s performance gives to the song. His singing has been described as operatic, powerful and never sappy or playing to the crowd. Perry sings this song as if he’s speaking of very intimate personal experiences described in the lyrics.
I don’t usually pick ballads and slow jams when it comes to “Song of the Day” but thanks to J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 nostalgia hit me that this song was one of the first to bring back memories both fond and heartbreaking.
Open Arms
Lying beside you here in the dark Feeling your heart beat with mine
Softly you whisper you’re so sincere How could our love be so blind We sailed on together We drifted apart And here you are by my side
So now I come to you with open arms Nothing to hide believe what I say So here I am with open arms Hoping you’ll see what your love means to me Open arms
Living without you living alone This empty house seems so cold
Wanting to hold you wanting you near
How much I want you home But now that you’ve come back Turned night into day I need you to stay
So now I come to you with open arms Nothing to hide believe what I say So here I am with open arms Hoping you’ll see what your love means to me Open arms
Short but sweet…Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants for winning the National League Pennant to move onto the Fall Classic aka The World Series to the bandwagoners.
This team has taken torture baseball (almost as painful as watching torture porn flicks) and brought it to a new level. The nation will now learn and discover The Beard, The Freak, The Boss, The Kung Fu Panda and The Rally Thong.
No matter what happens in the World Series this Giants team has been fun to watch even if it has brought me to having a coronary more than a few times this year. But as the song says…
Through the Shattered Lens 