I always have to stop myself when I say I like “all kinds of music”. Because, honestly, that just isn’t true, there is really only one kind of music I like. No, not [just] Black Metal, I’m talking about music in a minor key. I mean, I’m a pretty happy guy, but there is something about sad, sad songs that just does it for me. I don’t dislike Vivaldi’s “Spring” and “Fall”, but I far prefer “Summer” and “Winter” (guess which seasons he writes in a minor key). “Satisfaction” is a fine song, but I’d rather listen to “Paint it Black” any day…you get the idea. Basically, it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that sting [of soul crushing sorrow and sadness].
This month on Minor Key Monday I discuss one of the many songs that caught my ear from the Tron Legacy soundtrack:
I’ve never really been a Journey fan. I mean, I guess I really don’t know much about them beyond that one song from The Sopranos, and maybe a couple others. Sure, that dude can sing, but they are just a little too poppy, a little too cheesy, and a little too lame (which, I know, describes an unsettlingly large percentage of the music to which I listen). But after hearing today’s song, first on the Tron Legacy soundtrack, and then when a Canadian heavy metal band covered it at a show, I finally relaxed my anti-Journey stance.
This song has everything I love. A cheesy as hell keyboard intro, a galloping beat, lyrics about love and shit, a parenthetical song title, and minor key tonality. And really, considering some of the more ridiculous realms of metal through which I have trodden, this song is pretty understated in comparison. I was going to go on about how it had this awesome romantic message about how someday, love will find you, you just gotta keep the hope up! But then I read the lyrics, and, once again, I realized that the song I was listening to was, apparently, not as romantically positive as I thought it was.
No worries though, that doesn’t keep this song from galloping along at an excellently minor key clip just like that one King Diamond song I like off Abigail.
3 Comments
Goddamnit, Isley.
Sometimes I think I just write this blog to troll you Brian.
Oh stop, you’re giving me the warm fuzzies.
Pretty decent song here, and Steve Perry is a really good singer. A lot of people seem to lump Journey in with Foreigner, but those people are assholes, because Foreigner is one of the three worst rock bands ever, and Journey is pretty ok.