boston progress radio

Hands down, the greatest song of the melodramatic arena rock era that took place in the late 70s/early 80s was “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey. I have a hard time believing anybody could disagree with this sentiment. There’s something for everyone: the boy meets girl under less-than-ideal circumstances story, the insightful observations about human nature, the repetition of the word “on.” I think people usually assume its some overly cheesy pop song with no meaning, but there’s poetry in them thar lyrics. Please check the following trio of haikus, taken directly from the song, and devoid of their original context and punctuation:

People living. Just
to find emotion hiding
somewhere in the night.

Just a city boy.
Born and raised in south Detroit.
He took the midnight.

For a smile, they can
share the night. It goes on and
on and on and on.

So perhaps Journey’s connection to Asian artistic forms led them to their most recent band-related decision, which was to bring on an actual Asian to front the band. Arnel Pineda - the lead vocalist for a bar band who covers Journey tunes in the Philippines - is their new lead singer. Holy shit!

The band found Arnel through a YouTube video of his band covering the aforementioned greatest melodramatic arena rock song EVAR! You wish you could see that video you say? Why, funny you should ask:

What I find really interesting about it is that he actually sounds something like Steve Perry, but he’s clearly not doing an impression. Journey - and this song in particular - has experienced a resurgence in popularity recently, because it played an integral part in the final scene in the final episode of “The Sopranos” on HBO. I don’t have HBO and have never seen that show, but I could probably describe that final scene to you in detail because of how many folks seemed to be buzzing about it all over the Internets. Adding to the mystique of that song, Harlem-based goofball rapper Cam’ron rhymed over that opening piano riff on his most recent mixtape, which dropped at a time when folks were starting to wonder if he was ever going to rhyme again, what with his beef with 50 Cent and even his former BFF Jim Jones.So with them constantly in the pages on Entertainment Weekly, I guess that makes Journey the most prominent API band now. Right? With their penchant for using haiku poems in their lyrics and with their frontman now an actual Asian person, do they now qualify as an API band? Perhaps there is no answer. I leave you with these wise words:

Some will lose; some were
born to sing the blues. Oh, the
movie never ends.

Last 5 posts by giles

• Haini's Here! Haini's Here! - May 9th, 2008
• Appreciation: DJ Towa Tei - May 5th, 2008
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