Well if you were brave enough to wade through my first installment of this “most influential albums” series you will know that Saxon’s “Wheels Of Steel” turned me on to the heavier sides of rock and metal. As  mentioned in that feature the rock gods from the seventies were already part of my listening palette thanks to an older brother who regularly brought stuff home by bands like Led Zeppelin, Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, Deep Purple and Pink Floyd.

Now those who know me will also know that I have a love of a lot of what has become known as AOR. This side of my musical character can be traced all the way back to 1981 and the release of “Escape” by American band Journey. I probably wouldn’t have discovered this genre so soon in my musical upbringing without the presence of my brother as it was he who first brought this album home. I had, up until that point, been steadily getting more and more into bands like AC/DC and Black Sabbath who had decent back catalogues to get my teeth into. My ears were also picking up Iron Maiden, UFO and the debut Ozzy Osbourne “Blizzard Of Ozz” release.

I’ll never forget the first time I heard the epic “Stone In Love” coming from his bedroom. It was a bit of a revelation. For many Journey is all about Steve Perry and his amazing vocals but for me it was the tasty and classy guitar work of Neal Schon. The band's music had all the ingredients I craved thanks to great musicianship and superb song writing. After listening to tracks such as “Keep On Runnin’”, “Stone In Love” and “Dead Or Alive” I instinctively knew here was a band that meant I didn’t have to compromise my love of metal and hard rock as, with these three songs alone, Journey showed they could rock with the best of them. In fact I could enjoy both genres. As an album “Esacape” has arguably become the blue print of what AOR music is all about.

There are very few albums that make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up with such regularity  but Escape does so with ease. Let me share with you a few of those moments. Listen to the opening of “Don’t Stop Believing” and the way Schon brings in his guitar, you can’t help but be pulled into and along by it. The song generates a feeling of hope and optimism and has lost none of its subtle power down the years, if anything we all need this song more than ever in these dark times. “Stone In Love” begins with a guitar riff out of one stereo speaker and is quickly followed by a second riff with a slightly different tone in the other. I defy anyone who loves rock not to reach for the volume and crank it up. The lyrics echo every young mans dream and, believe me, when I say the guitars sound sexy and the guitar solo is melodic rock heaven as Schon literally “goes off on one”.

Side two opens with the title track “Escape” which, at over five minutes in length, was the first of two epics on the album. Like “Stone In Love” the opening guitar riff has you reaching to crank the volume up to the max. The great thing about this song is the amount of musical material the band cram into it. There are so many glorious musical patterns and melodies that on first listen it literally blows your mind, in fact even now it takes my breath away. “Lay It Down” on the other hand is Journey rocking at their raw best. Schon's guitars sound massive and you can just picture him in front of a Marshall stack getting stuck in. He pulls one killer solo out of the bag one after another and if you listen carefully there are some wonderful guitar fills all the way through the song although to hear these at their best you need to get a hold of the re-mastered CD version. Then there's “Mother Father” which I will go on record and say is my all time favourite Journey track. Its intensity gets me every time and it is delivered with such passion that it knocks you for six. The guitar chords are intriguing and Schon plays with one part delicate beauty and the other with brute force. If this song doesn’t move you in some way I have top say that you must be devoid of any musical sensibility. As the song takes you on a tortured journey of pent up emotion the band suddenly take you out of the darkness and into the light with a simply gorgeous ending that once more brings to mind the emotion which I can only describe with the word “hope”.

Journey single handedly got me listening to the whole American rock radio music scene and that led me to listen to bands like Foreigner, 38 Special and Toto (which led to my passion for Steely Dan but that’s another story). Their music is as relevant today as it was was all those years ago and if you think I’m being a bit generous just remember that Toto, Foreigner and Journey have all played successful UK tours this year. Indeed if this article had been about a favourite gig moment I would still have been writing about Journey. Seeing Schon up close and witnessing his passionate and incendiary playing was almost a spiritual experience. Here I was a forty-year-old man seeing the music that had inspired me as a fifteen year old played by the man himself. Years ago when I played in bands we would often would jam Journey tracks but they would never make the set. I would always fall down when it came to Schon's fiery solos and I always wanted things note perfect. Seeing Journey play “Escape”,” Keep On Runnin’” and “Mother Father” one after the other was, simply, one of the most amazing fifteen minutes of my life.

Let us know your views on Escape

Track Listing

Don't Stop Believin'
Stone In Love
Who's Crying Now
Keep On Runnin'
Still They Ride
Escape
Lay It Down
Dead Or Alive
Mother, Father
Open Arms

Line Up

Steve Perry - Vocals
Jonathan Cain - Keyboards/Guitars
Ross Valory - Bass
Steve Smith - Drums
Neal Schon - Guitars