Revisiting Journey's Iconic "Escape" Album
In which I rank the songs of this superb 1981 release.
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For today’s edition, I’m taking a look back at a classic album and I also ranked the songs. There was no special reason to why I chose Journey’s Escape album, but it’s one of the best from both the band and the decade of the 1980s, and it launched an already popular band into the musical stratosphere. It’s an album worthy of revisiting and, at the end of the day, I just like the album and that’s reason enough.
Let’s dive right in!
Journey’s seventh studio album was recorded during a time of change for the band. Keyboardist and co-lead vocalist Gregg Rolie had told the band he was leaving during the previous tour in 1980 and suggested Jonathan Cain of The Baby’s as a replacement. Cain joined Journey and, for the first time, Steve Perry would handle all of the lead vocal duties.
Producer Mike Stone joined returning Journey producer Kevin Elson, and the two handled the mixing and engineering in addition to producing. Recording took place at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, from April to June of 1981. Albums such as the one that went on to become Escape can take some bands a year or more to record, but Journey banged it out in three months and reportedly at an estimated cost of just $80,000. What came out of those recording sessions became the band’s most successful studio album ever. It has sold more than 10 million copies to go platinum 10 times over in the United States and has earned the prestigious “Diamond” rating from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Escape sounds different than the Journey albums that preceded it. Much of that can be attributed to Cain’s use of more modern keyboards and lots of piano, replacing Rolie’s signature Hammond organ sounds. But the band also included a straight-up ballad (“Open Arms”), which had never been tried before. Previously, Journey was a rock band that had dabbled in progressive and blues-based music. Even a softer song like “Lights” had a harder section in it.
The five musicians who made up Journey after Rolie’s departure — Perry, Cain, guitarist Neil Schon, bassist Ross Valory, and drummer Steve Smith — caught lightning in a bottle with Escape. The album produced four U.S. Top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 list, led by “Open Arms,” which became the band’s highest charting single ever. It went to No. 2 on the Billboard chart and reached the top spot on the Cashbox Top 100 chart. Schon reportedly didn’t like the song and he wasn’t the first to express that thought. Cain had started writing the song while in The Baby’s, but lead singer John Waite didn’t like it either. Schon is no doubt glad to have been proven wrong, while Waite might lament not having given the song a chance.
Other singles included “Who’s Crying Now,” “Still They Ride,” and the ubiquitous “Don’t Stop Believin’.” The latter song has, if anything, become even more popular in the four decades since its release than it was when it went to No. 9 on the Billboard chart after dropping in October of 1981. Even today, the song is often played at sporting events and used in political campaigns, and commercial ventures. It has been streamed more than 1.2 billion times on Spotify. The next most streamed song from the album is “Open Arms,” at ‘only’ 1.6 million times.
The Escape album was a gigantic success for Journey. It was so big that it even spawned an Atari 2600 video game, Journey Escape. How do you top this?
A readers’ poll in Kerrang! magazine in 1988 voted Escape the greatest album-oriented rock album of all time and Classic Rock similarly anointed it the best ever AOR release in 2008. Regardless of readers poll results or critical examination, this is my favorite Journey album, and I think of it as a companion to the band’s 1983 mega-hit follow-up album, Frontiers. Musically, it may also be their best.
Ranking the Songs
As music nerds often do, I have ranked the songs on Escape from best to worst. That is not to say that I think there are any bad songs on the album. For me, the 10 tracks range from ‘stellar’ to merely ‘quite good.’ Your mileage may vary, and indeed in the video below, I had a discussion with David Rohe, the very first Michael’s Record Collection Patreon supporter, about the album to get his take. Our rankings were not in lockstep, but they were remarkably similar. You can check out our album discussion in the video below, along with Dave’s rankings. But, without further ado, here are my song rankings from Escape, revealed in reverse order, countdown style.
10. “Keep On Runnin’” — A good, rocking song to kick off the countdown. It’s the fourth track on Side 1, and a solid song. There are some interesting things going on with the rhythm section of Smith and Valory here. I like it a lot and never skip it, but something has to be 10th. For a song to be merely good isn’t good enough on an album like Escape.
9. “Dead or Alive” — A grungy, gritty, proggy, frenetic, fast rocking number, “Dead or Alive” has almost ragtime-y piano from Cain, and a pacey groove by Smith and Valory. Like “Keep On Runnin’,” I never skip it. It’s a good song and Schon’s solo is top notch. It suffers by comparison alongside some of the others on Escape, but that’s not the fault of the song.
8. “Lay It Down” — Every single time I’ve looked at my rankings, it seems impossible that this song is so far down the list. Perry’s singing alone makes this an excellent track. He hits some incredibly high notes. I like the chorus call-and-answer between Perry’s solo vocal and the band’s harmony vocals. Schon’s guitar work on this song is stellar. Most bands would kill to write a song as good as this and yet it’s my eighth-ranked song.
7. “Who’s Crying Now” — Cain and Valory created a unique and iconic keyboard and bass intro for this hit single — the album’s first, which dropped in July of 1981. It boggles the mind to imagine how this song was selected as the first single. It’s a mid-tempo, five-minute track! Nothing about it screams “hit single” and yet that’s what it was, reaching No. 4 after its release in July of 1981. Schon originally created a complex solo for this song, but the band wanted something simpler. He did something he felt was the simplest thing he could play, and it turned into an iconic solo that’s been quoted in the work of many guitarists over the years. This would be the best song on many other albums, but I’ve got it only seventh! That seems low, even to me, but that’s where it ended up.
6. “Open Arms” — In January of 1982, this song skyrocketed up to No. 2 and became one of the biggest power ballads of all time. The iconic piano/guitar melody leading into Perry’s gut-wrenching vocal makes the song, but the band builds the song up through the bombastic chorus. It’s easy to see why VH-1 named it the greatest power ballad of all time. It’s a monster, and it was “our song” by the high school version of me and his then-girlfriend. The song stood the test of time, whereas the relationship, like the vast majority of teen romances, did not.
5. “Escape” — This rocking title track opens with a scorching guitar riff by Schon and a thumping beat by Smith and Valory. All five members of the band shine here. Valory plays bass flourishes, Cain pounds on his piano, Schon shows off his considerable chops, and Smith’s drumming holds the whole thing together. It builds in intensity as it goes, and Perry crushes the vocals as the song picks up past the halfway mark in the on my way part, rising in intensity as it goes. I didn’t rate this song as highly back in the 1980s, but over the years it has grown on me considerably.
4. “Don’t Stop Believin’” — Written by Perry, Cain, and Schon, this now-iconic song starts off with an immediately identifiable keyboard riff. The pre-chorus is utterly sing-along-able, Schon rips off a terrific guitar solo, and the actual chorus doesn’t arrive until the very end. It’s unlike most hit singles and defies formula, but it has stood the test of time better than almost any song ever written. I’ve heard it a million times and I still never tire of it, never skip it, and enjoy it with each listen. The fact that I’ve got it fourth in my ranking is more a testament to the strength of Escape than any flaws in the song itself. It’s timeless.
3. “Mother, Father” — An atmospheric and emotional song about a broken home, with standout lyrical imagery, “Mother, Father” features not only some of Perry’s best vocal work but also some of the band’s best harmony vocals. Valory’s bass work stands out in the choruses. For me, this might be the pinnacle of any recorded vocal that Perry has done, which is saying something. Schon provides yet another emotional solo that Cain doubles on his piano. It’s a well-crafted song. All five members of the band are so locked in. The instrumental bridge, the second guitar solo, and some of the lyrical lines (when lightning strikes the family, have faith, believe) make this a song that puts most bands to shame. It seems ludicrous to me that I’m placing it as only my third favorite on the album.
2. “Still They Ride” — It amazes me that this song only reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the fourth single off the album, released in May of 1982. For me, this is one Perry’s finest moments on the album. It’s one of his most emotional vocal performances and is perhaps only eclipsed by “Mother, Father.” I particularly love the way he clips the words they rule the night short after the second verse, leading into a perfect Smith drum fill and another incredible Schon guitar solo. It’s perhaps Schon’s most emotionally charged solo on the album, and I love the way Cain doubles the notes with his piano. An amazing song with some interesting lyrical phrases like chasing thunder, wheels of fire, and the aforementioned they rule the night.
1. “Stone in Love” — Oh, that crunchy guitar riff, Valory’s funky bass groove, and those killer chorus vocals! “Stone in Love” should have been a smash hit, but it wasn’t even released as a single in the United States (though it was a UK single in October of 1982). Schon again knocks the central guitar solo out of the park. It’s longer than “Don’t Stop Believin’” by 15 seconds but it seems to just fly by. There’s an even better Schon solo for the outro part of the song. Perry’s vocals shine all over this record but seem a step above most of the record in the second verse of this song.
And those are my song rankings for Escape! Tell me where I went wrong and what I got right. As someone who is oddly drawn to deeper tracks, I expect plenty of pushback for where I put the hits, relative to my three favorite songs. But this is an exquisite album from start to finish. Journey got it exactly right and that’s the main reason that the band’s only album that out-sold it was their greatest hits compilation.
For more on this album, and my discussion with MRC Patreon supporter David Rohe, check out the video. There is a little info provided about the Patreon program and benefits (learn more here), and a few more details about the album. We go through the tracks one by one and then compare our rankings. Enjoy!
Great re-cap.
Still think Infinity is their best ever.