To the 1982 me, Journey was one my pillar bands. Kansas, Styx, Boston, and REO Speedwagon and Journey all seemed to fit well together. Is it a coincidence that they all are named after location or transportation related things? I drove my REO Speedwagon on a Journey from Kansas of the river Styx all the way to Boston.
After grooving on Journey’s Escape I had to get more. Fortunately, that Columbia House catalog had Infinity and Departure. I had to be close to fulfilling my obligation to Columbis House by now. These back catalog acquisitions were just the thing to do that. I feel that I should remind those of you that might frown on the notion of dealing with Columbia House so much. I was in a very small community where the nearest place to buy music was 30 miles away. There was no amazon.com or any other way to effectively get music unless you had a car and some time. During regular life on campus, I had neither.
I remember initially being disappointed by Infinity. It sounded much more 70’s and less polished that Escape. It was Adam’s older brother Allan than convinced me to give it another listen. He specifically mention Wheel In The Sky and Lights as really good songs. I put it on the back burner and went on to Departure.
Lights
Patiently
Wheel In The Sky
Opened The Door
Of course, Allan was right. This was a really excellent album. I just needed to work backwards through Departure to get to it.