HOFFSTACK PLAYLIST #11 - Journey, "Precious Time"
Don't try this one in public.
Journey has always been an odd duck for me. Sure, sure, I love their hits—you’ve got to try really hard not to like them—but I’ve long felt that should like these titans of arena rock more than I do. Their incredible popularity turned me off a bit perhaps, but, luckily, I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.
There are so many reasons for me to love Journey. Their origin, of course, is as a spin-off of one of my all-time favorite bands, Santana. Neal Schon (guitar) and Greg Rollie (keyboards) were part of Santana’s apex, the progressive “world music” Caravanserai masterpiece from 1972. Ross Valory on bass was part of Steve Miller’s group when they were doing really interesting things with psychedelic blues. The first few Journey albums, the ones before Steve Perry joined the band (i.e. the ones that didn’t really sell), are quality progressive rock. It’s not insane like King Crimson or Gong, but it’s still good.
Then Steve Perry became lead vocalist and their branding went into overdrive. They had a coin-op video game and they had the coolest album covers in the world. Behold!
If you judged these albums by their covers they should have been as nerdy as Rush and as badass as Iron Maiden. But they weren’t. They were pop with just enough of a prog/new wave sheen to keep the guys at Guitar Center from feeling weird for memorizing the chords to “Who’s Crying Now.” Here’s an example of a Journey song you never need to hear again:
But this is unfair to other parts of the catalogue. The 1980 album Departure, which opens with the now-unlistenable “Any Way You Want It,” has several gems on it, including “Precious Time,” embedded above. And this song is perfect.
“Precious Time” opens with some jangly guitar put through a shimmering filter, with Steve Perry way out front, enunciating as loudly and strongly as Geddy Lee. After about a minute (and some harmonica) the rest of the band punches in with full furious 80s vector graphics glory. Schon overdubs some sweet licks but maintains that buzzy, busy chord progression up until the drum fills (when everything gets all flanged to hell.) It’s a really great sound, and at the bleeding edge for 1980. My beloved Cheap Trick did not have the interstellar skills to pull something like this off at the time.
But I’m leaving out the best part, which is Steve Perry absolutely KILLING it on vocals.
Journey’s popularity will last forever, I feel, because they’ve got a solid stash of miraculous singalong songs laying in wait at the karaoke booth or in the shower. “Lights,” “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Separate Ways” and so many more … don’t even try to pretend you haven’t belted those out in the car.
“Precious Time” has not and will not join that list. Because it is impossible to sing. I’ve tried it. I’ve tried it just today, in fact, walking back from the Duane Reade while listening to Departure on my bluetooth headphones.
Now, I do not claim to have the world’s greatest rock voice, but believe it or not I can (usually) hit all the high notes and low notes, just maybe not well. But not this. “Precious Time” is the Hammerklavier of rock vocals. You need a massive register and incredible breath control. The way Perry comes in at the 1:55 mark (“Ohohohohohoh….”) is not just an ad-lib you can throw into the mix, you need to prep for it. And it just continues.
I’ve listened to this song six hundred times in the past few days and it never fails to exhilarate me. It is a triumph. (I have no idea what it’s about, I haven’t bothered to examine the lyrics. It’s about how precious time rescued someone. Fair enough.)
“Precious Time” was not released as a single and I have no memory of ever hearing it on AOR. (Maybe so in the Bay Area, where Journey is King?) It only has 726,000 Spotify streams, which is a lot, but not much compared to “Any Way You Want It”’s 500 MILLION. So maybe you don’t know it. Maybe this song is totally alien to you. I hope so, because you are in for a treat.
I strongly advise you give it a spin, then give it a second spin. It isn’t a particularly complex tune. By the third time you’ll be singing along. Just pray you are alone, because you will sound ridiculous.
