Is Journey’s Greatest Hits a pop/rock masterpiece, or pure cheese? I’ll present both sides of my thinking, and then let your comments decide my future listening habits:
THUMBS UP: Journey didn’t set out to make music to change the world, but they did create a bunch of great songs. Nearly every track on this compilation is an actual ‘hit’ – a rare feat for any Best Of – and many are instantly recognizable, sing-along anthems. When they weren’t doing love ballads, this was one excellent group. Certainly good enough that one of those anthems (‘Don’t Stop Believin’) was chosen for the climactic scene of The Sopranos’ finale. If there’s higher praise than that, I’m not sure what it is…
THUMBS DOWN: Much of music fell down a well in the 80′s and Journey are the poster children for all that was wrong with the decade. Their light-as-air compositions were as lacking in substance as they were overloaded in production. This wouldn’t have been so hard to swallow if they hadn’t been plastered all over MTV and the Top 40 for most of the decade. When you think of the 80′s, this is one of the first groups that comes to mind, and I’m not sure if there’s more damning praise than that.
[Your opinion counts! Let me know what you think and provide immediate influence on my musical rotation.]
Tags: Greatest Hits, Journey, On The Fence, The Sopranos
12 July 2007 at 9:10 am |
When I see that album cover I think of Rodney Dangerfield dancing on a golf course… pure 80′s gold, baby…
12 July 2007 at 9:11 am |
Well, that’s the thing with Journey. They are like Kellogs sugar corn pops, bad for you but a great big bowl every now and again sure is good.
12 July 2007 at 9:19 am |
Cheesy can be good. Ever listen to wheel in the sky at the dentist on nitrous? The music then borders on great.
12 July 2007 at 10:14 am |
This album is like a highly calibrated GPS to the past. Is it good to be catapulted back in time, back to Chris Vogel’s bedroom (the boy next door–literally–on whom I had a mad crush for a whole summer), where I sang along to every word of “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin,’” while I perched provacatively on the edge of his waterbed, wearing terry cloth running shorts and tube socks? Yes, in that it reminds me that terry cloth remains a universally unflattering textile. No, the music isn’t especially good. But for me, it’s a direct conduit to very specific places and times. Nice places to visit, but I’m glad I don’t live there anymore.
12 July 2007 at 10:28 am |
You like the music, you listen to it. We all have our guilty pleasures in music, food, clothes, whatever. I’ll never forget the look of horror on my friend’s faces when I told them I liked “Sk8er Boy”…
I think Journey’s Greatest Hits hang out somewhere in the middle between Masterpiece and Cheese Puffs. It’s both, it’s neither. It’s kind of a freak of nature.
12 July 2007 at 1:43 pm |
I find it interesting that to this point not one comment is negative. nuff said. while no one is quick to admit it, everyone loves these guys. and what’s not to love. the 80′s were cheese. but they were our cheese. And last, but not least, Journey was all over one of the greatest movies ever, “VISION QUEST.” “Hey, I can’t do that!”
12 July 2007 at 3:07 pm |
Ah the 80′s. I spent them logging millions of miles on airlines and in cars getting from here to there. It is cheese but cheese with a bite. It is light as air but like Sheryl Crow these boys know how to write/sing a good hook. It allowed me to zone out traveling at 105 mph on the autobahn in Germany and to not think just how far and boring the drive was between the ‘Villes’ as in Knox, Nash and Louie. It still holds up as good mindless road trip music.
12 July 2007 at 4:46 pm |
OK, I’ll be the first to post a negative comment. I’ll admit to liking David Lee Roth and/or Poison before Journey. I have this sneaking suspicion, however, that my children (now aged 1 month – 6 years) will someday listen to this music and talk about how cool the music scene must have been in the 80s.
12 July 2007 at 8:45 pm |
reminds me of my first date with Jim…
12 July 2007 at 9:30 pm |
Every musical diet needs an occasional serving of cheese… and/or corn.
So listen. And enjoy. Just not so much that it starts to affect your hairstyle!
I will say that, although I too have a copy of Journey’s Greatest Hits, I almost never break it out. All I have to do to hear Journey is to listen to any classic rock or hits of the ’80s radio station for about 45 minutes. I’m almost guaranteed to hear “Lights” “Any Way You Want It” or another of Journey’s hits. I get whacked back to whatever year the song came out, wallow around in the nostalgia for about three and a half minutes, and then return to the present when it’s over.
13 July 2007 at 9:40 am |
Nostalgia. That’s what feeling this band brings me, as it does most of the other posters. They always remind me how fun it was to grow up in the 80s.
I am a big fan and always will be – largely because of Escape. That album – with their new look on stage and the futuristic artwork essentially freed us of the stonerish and bellbottomed 70s. And I might venture to say that they defined the power ballad – yes Open Arms is super cheesy, but the others (Faithfully, Who’s Cryin’ Now, Still They Ride, Lights) which for better or worse, became a singalong staple of the era – even hair metal bands did them with some success.
Its too bad that they arent recognized for their other album-oriented songs, some of which are super excellent – check out the title track from Frontiers sometime, or Lovin’ You is Easy from the Evolution album. And dang if Captured isnt one of the best live albums out there – and it really shows off their musical talent.
Really. I mean all this.
13 July 2007 at 11:35 am |
I’m surprised that so many folks are so sentimental about Journey. After all, who really wants to remember the ’80s? This is like saying you are fond of that shot of tequila that made you puke because it reminded you of all the stupid stuff you did the night you got drunk.
In my opinion the 80′s is home to some of the finest music of any decade (think Bad Brains, Rollins, Paul’s Botique), but when I listen to that stuff, I think of the quality of the music not the way my mullet looked when I listened to it.
Just playing a little Devil’s advocate here!
13 July 2007 at 4:45 pm |
I have to agree with FK. Though the occassional shot of Journey is good fun at karaoke, I can’t imagine ever actually playing an entire ALBUM in my house, even of the greatest hits. But this is coming from someone who is diligently unsentimental/anti-nostalgic and who didn’t even like Journey in the eighties. I actually like them better now!
13 July 2007 at 11:13 pm |
I just attended our 20th High School Reunion (’87 Rules!) . . . and we had a great time putting together the music. Some held up over time better than others, but even the stuff that seems dated and cheesy brought back good memories. Journey reminds me of sneaking into my big brother’s room and listening to his albums even though he’d kick my ass if he found out. Okay, so I warped and scratched a few records . . . and maybe burned up a few needles . . . so what? This was and still is rock ‘n roll, baby!
14 July 2007 at 10:35 am |
My Top 5 Journey Nostalgic Moments-
#1
Rudy May threw a strat-o-matic no hitter for me against Auxier in ’83. May struck out Julio Cruz to end the game, while Journey’s “Who’s Crying Now” video played on MTV.
#2
My friend Shea claimed to be a big Journey fan and was dying to see them in concert. When I asked her which songs were her favorites she quickly reeled off three songs she absolutely loved. I saved her the price of a concert ticket by pointing out that two of the songs were by REO Speedwagon and one was by the Little River Band.
#3
I guess I only have two “Journey Nostalgic Moments”.
14 July 2007 at 2:41 pm |
journey would have to be in any thinking person’s cultural time capsule for the decade. and if you look at them strictly as a musical time capsule, they hold up quite well as a reflection of what radio listeners liked during the reagan era.
and while i would never consider their songs masterpieces, i wouldn’t consider them to be overproduced, either. reason being, their live recordings were as journeylicious as their studio recordings — a test that most overproduced acts (like most musicaca wasting airwaves in 2007) fail miserably.
in short, to borrow a fellow-commenter’s reference to sheryl crow, journey will always be a “favorite mistake” to people who’ve moved on musically…and an all-out favorite to the vast majority of people whose tastes never did.
shoutouts to willie & oscar.
16 July 2007 at 12:05 pm |
I would agree with Cindy and consider Journey a sort of guilty pleasure. While I would not spend the money to buy this CD — nor would I listen to it in its entirety — I’d certainly lift a few tunes off my co-workers iTunes library ;-)
And I must admit, I turn the car-stereo up to 11 when “Feeling That Way/Anytime” or “Wheel in the Sky” comes on.
Of course, if I pull up to a red light, I make sure the windows are up so nobody can tell what I’m listening to.
16 July 2007 at 8:22 pm |
that’s a tough one.
i see where you’re coming from on the cheese factor. However, I fully agree that Journey is as quintesential late 70′s / 80′s as anyone and while I don’t think I currently own a single piece of Journey vinyl, tape or plastic, I can’t argue with what I’m hearing when they pop into earshot. Journey brings back a lot of positive memories and I enjoy hearing it just about every time. Wheel in the Sky kicks my ass with each listen.
Also, I never forget that Journey and Santana go hand-in-hand. Both Neil Schon and Greg Rolie were huge members of the Abraxas-era Santana and I hear that in Journey. To be honest, I can probably name more
irratatingly cheesy Santana songs than I can Journey songs. I suppose that sums it up best right there.
Furr
5 November 2007 at 9:46 am |
[...] world (for me) than getting free records, and I’m honored to add her LPs to our stash. With all the Journey love that’s been piling up on this site over the last few months, this record definitely stood out [...]