STEVE PERRY PUT JOURNEY TO SHAME WITH STREET TALK

STREET TALK is one those albums which you could easily pigeon hole as being a dated and typically unadventurous exercise in FM radio friendly rock recorded by a bunch of soulless studio hacks who were only interested in making a lot of money out of the adult orientated rock (AOR) craze at the time. STEVE PERRY was well established as the lead singer of american AOR band JOURNEY when he ventured out to record this better than average AOR album in 1984. JOURNEY has never been one of my favourite bands believe it or not, for someone who was raised on and quite enjoyed listening to stadium rock during my childhood years there were just so many other bands to choose from, and to me, JOURNEY was nearly always too airbrushed and studio perfected. I always preferred FOREIGNER or TOTO over Journey if i wanted to listen to AOR. Perry come on board JOURNEY in 1977 in time for the recording of the transitional album INFINITY, transitional as in the band making a deviation away from hairy progressive rock to more pop inspired soft rock, although this album still retained a heavy prog influence. By the time JOURNEY had recorded EVOLUTION in 1979 and DEPARTURE in 1980, there wasn't too much of the pre-1977 progressive elements left in the band's dynamics, instead opting for the safe territory of pure AOR radio friendly rock. Although sales of 1981`s ESCAPE hit the stratosphere, like we're talking 9 times platinum over the past 30 years, the album to me is a convoluted disappointment in comparison to the much more robust music which FOREIGNER and TOTO recorded in the early 80`s. Journey were becoming far too cliche and predictable, but for whatever reason ESCAPE hit a chord with a massive US audience. FRONTIERS from 1983 did throw up one JOURNEY song i do like, the melodramatic to the max power ballad SEPERATE WAYS and i guess i have a soft spot for the more laid back ballad FAITHFULLY, but the rest of this album is just like ESCAPE - boring and soulless studio polished made for radio fillers. Between 1983 and 1986, artistic tensions in the band boiled over and by the time RAISED ON RADIO was recorded in 1986, two members of the band, bass player Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith had been fired and were replaced by studio musicians to complete the recording of it. Obviously Steve Perry's more soul and pop inclinations contributed towards much of the tension in the band up against the die hard progressive rock inclinations of founding members Neal Schon and Jonathon Cain, and following FRONTIERS in 1983, which was a monumental commercial success, Perry followed his rebellious instinct like most lead singers do and recorded STREET TALK with a crack team of classic rock loving session musicians. The song RUNNING ALONE is a great anthem, bit hard to hear Perry's singing but unlike so many Journey songs you can just tell his heart is really into singing it. Everyone knows the song OH! SHERRIE, it is the opening track on STREET TALK and it was a huge success as a single. YOU SHOULD BE HAPPY and the Motown inspired I BELIEVE are two other songs that really put anything JOURNEY recorded in the 80`s to shame. Ten songs, five fillers but five songs which i rate as being up there with the best AOR classic rock of all time.