"Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey, Friday, April 7, 2023
JUST A SMALL TOWN GIRL. Well, of course I have to play my hipster card for a minute. In the age of Limewire and from the rare occasions that my mom would listen to classic rock stations, I fell in love with two of Journey's rockers: "Separate Ways" (Worlds Apart) and "Wheel in the Sky." And then there was when my music teacher had me playing "Open Arms" when I played wedding music. But twenty years after that, Journey's number 9 Hot 100 hit has far more streams than their rockers or their other ballads, even if "Open Arms" reached number 2 in 1982 and even "Separate Ways" reached a spot higher on the Hot 100 at number 8. Recently, I've been constructing an anti-hipster argument arguing that the classics are remembered for a reason. In one of my classes I have been teaching a fairy tales book filled with many obscure fairy tales that certainly have merit, but ultimately lack the punchiness of the ones that we grew up listening to by Hans Christian Anderson or collected by The Brothers Grimm. Years ago, I filled my Kindle with complete works by Ray Bradbury, Daphne du Maurier, Pearl S. Buck, and several other authors, and read as much of their works as I enjoyed. I certainly found some gems, but I started to realize that their most popular books usually showed their writing craft in the most refined way. In other words, there was little filler and characters and plots were digestible in ways that felt satisfying.
JUST A CITY BOY, BORN AND RAISED IN SOUTH DETROIT. While I haven't listened to Journey's entire discography, I think "Don't Stop Believin'" is the band's most lyrically refined song. The song follows an odd structure, particularly for a 21st century audience that screams "Don't bore us, get to the chorus." But in other ways, "Don't Stop Believin'" utilizes multiple hooks, taking the listener on a journey to the end of the song where the chorus finally is realized as a guitar solo 3:06 into the song and finally sung at 3:22. Of course, the chorus has been bread-crumbed to the listener after each verse, but it's the exuberant chorus at end of the song that listeners wait for, like the climax of a book or a movie. But while the musical journey of the song may be what brought listeners in initially, I think it's the lyrics that bring me back to this wistful ballad. The imagery of two lovers meeting for the first time in a "smokey room," "a midnight train going anywhere" gives us a sense of time stopping when you meet someone special. We smell the wine and cheap perfume and it's a little nauseating, but enduring because it's the milieu of youth--it's the sweat at the club or a concert, which is gross if you're not part of it. And somehow, these feelings of young love, horniness, and pure musical emotion seem to be mixed up with faith for those of us who have it. "Don't Stop Believin'" is a song that leaves you feeling like you just went to church if all you hear is the chorus and the music. So many worship songs borrow the chords and try to capture that feeling that Journey gives us in their most-streamed song. It's a kind of siren song to faith in something even if the over all message is not about that. It's a feeling rather than an articulated thought. And you never want that feeling to stop.
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