Continuing with the recent theme of songs from 1984 and also continuing one of my long running blog series of my greatest CDs of all-time with this blog. Today's blog is about Steve Perry's first solo CD, "Street Talk". It was released in April, 1984, I haven't been able to find a specific release date yet. Perry's solo debut CD went on to sell over 2 million copies. Although it's an amazing CD, sadly for some reason it has been over looked.
As I've been writing this blog for several years now, I've kept a list of some of my favorite CDs of all-time. One CD that only made that list recently was "Street Talk". Honestly it had completely fallen off my radar, I was one of many that over looked it. When I started writing the 1984 music blogs and hearing "Oh Sherrie"again , it reminded me of how much I liked "Street Talk". Thankfully I still have the actual CD and put it through the drive test. I was completely jamming out to it as I traversed Salt Lake Valley. This is such a great CD with so many great songs. This CD is a rarity in that the two final songs on it are two of the best songs on the whole CD. Both "Captured By The Moment" and "Strung Out" are amazing songs. Many times the last few songs on a CD are filler, sounding like they were quickly made up on the final day of recording.
As is the desire for most lead singers, even singers of hugely successful bands, they want to see how they'll fare on their own. Such was the case with Steve Perry and Journey. Journey released their amazing "Escape" in 1981 and the very good "Frontiers" in 1983. "Escape" featured such great songs as "Stone In Love", "Who's Crying Now", "Open Arms", "Still They Ride" and that one song that has now been overplayed including in the Soprano's closing scene. Journey likely peaked with "Escape" but "Frontiers" wasn't that big of a step down. (Thanks to Wikipedia for the biographical information, all opinions are mine.)
I saw the Journey "Escape" tour in the early 80s and it was such a great concert. The band was tight that night and Steve Perry's vocals were pitch perfect. The Journey "Live In Houston" captures this great sound of great band and great singer playing great songs perfectly.
Sadly after the "Frontiers"/ "Street Talk" combination it's been downhill for both Journey and Steve Perry since then. Steve Perry seemed to lose the desire for being in a band in the late 80s and has virtually disappeared, although he returned this year to perform a couple of songs with the Eels. For Journey it has been a revolving door of singers, with not one of them matching the charisma and power of Perry. Although the sound alike singers of Perry have generally been good singers.
By his past several years standard, 2014 has been a bust out year for Perry. Here he is at Game 3 of the NLCS:
With the Eels singing "She Was Only 16" and "Open Arms":
The original "Street Talk" only had 10 songs, but has been beefed up to having 15 songs since it's 1984 release. I'm including the videos for all 15 songs.
1) "Oh Sherrie": I've posted the original video enough lately, here's Steve singing the song live.
2) "I Believe":
3) "Go Away":
6) "She's Mine":
7) "You Should Be Happy":
8) "Running Alone":
9) "Captured By The Moment": I didn't realize this was a tribute to some of the all-time great rockers and JFK until I saw this video.
10) "Strung Out":
11) "My My My":
12) "Harmony":
13) "Makes No Difference":
14) "Don't Tell Me Why You're Leaving":
15) "If Only For The Moment, Girl":
themusicaddict
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