August 10: Dave had a blast on the last stop of the tour--Belmar "Beautiful Sea" New Jersey! There was a great turnout, Dave let the songs play a bit longer than usual, and there was a robust Q&A. We all had a good laugh about the billboard! A great way to end the tour.
The event was recorded and we'll post the video as soon as the library sends it to us.
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August 6: Check out THIS LINK for Dave's ROCKIN' interview with Drew Moholland of WBZ Boston! This--and all Dave's interviews--can be found in the "Tour" section below.
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July 28: Dave had a blast last night at the Mecca of Rock and Roll, Asbury Park! He'd like to thank everyone who helped make the event a success, especially Tanya Farrell and the whole team at Wunderkind PR, Lorraine and Jordan at ABC, the incomparable Ken Womack for the introduction, and Jerry for technical support.
With everything else going on this week, we've decided to CANCEL tonight's appearance with Separate Ways, the Journey Tribute, in Florham Park, NJ. We still encourage everyone to go see that fantastic band.
This Wednesday we'll be in the studio with WBZ Boston for our last radio interview of the tour. Broadcast information to come.
And be sure to turn out for Dave's final public event on this tour--coming up on August 10 in Belmar, NJ!
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July 26: Dave's upcoming event in Belmar made TAPinto.Net! Click HERE for the article.
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July 25: Busy weekend ahead, New Jersey: Saturday night, Dave will be in the Mecca of rock and roll, Asbury Park, at the Asbury Book Cooperative. Then on Sunday he'll be at the Florham Park Gazebo for a joint event with Separate Ways, the Journey Tribute--featuring the renowned Danny Gagliano on lead vocals! You won't want to miss either of these exciting events!
Click HERE for more information about the Asbury Park event.
Click HERE for more information about the Florham Park event.
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July 24: Dave's upcoming event in Belmar made the Manasquan-Belmar Patch! Click HERE for the article.
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July 17: Dave's upcoming event in Asbury Park made the Monmouth University News! Click HERE for the article.
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July 3: The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music has uploaded a Spotify Playlist to accompany Dave's episode of their Conversations with Our Curator series, from last February!
Click HERE for the playlist.
Click HERE for the episode.
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July 2: Dave had a blast visiting with old friends--and making new ones--at the Chicagoland book events! Special thanks to "Oh" Shari Cline for coming all the way from Minneapolis (!) and to Andy Jones from the Pod of Thunder podcast for coming to Park Forest! Click HERE for the pics.
Up next...rock mecca Asbury Park!
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June 20: While in Chicago, we'll be coming to Park Forest in the Southland! Join us at 4pm on June 29 at the Park Forest Public Library for a reading, Q&A, and the opportunity to get a signed copy!
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June 14: Check out the latest review of Livin' Just to Find Emotion in The Aquarian!
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June 6: Coming to New York? Go get a signed copy of my book at Posman Books in Chelsea Market. You'll find it just above Kara Swisher, between Rick Rubin and Britney Spears.
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June 3: Please CLICK HERE for important information about next weekend's NYC visit.
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June 2: Please CLICK HERE to RSVP for the Chicago event.
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May 31: We're coming to Chicago! Join us at 10am on June 29 at the Lincoln Belmont Branch of the Chicago Public Library for a reading, Q&A, and the opportunity to get a signed copy!
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May 26: We've uploaded video from our appearance last week in Boonsboro, MD.
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May 22: This Saturday's planned event in Belmar has been RESCHEDULED for August 10.
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May 21: Unfortunately, this Saturday's event in Belmar is CANCELLED. The library booked us before they realized that they'd be closed for all of Memorial Day weekend. We are trying to reschedule.
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April 29: Now available: our episode with Pod of Thunder Podcast talking about "Any Way You Want It" and all things Journey.
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April 26: We had a great time last night talking about "Any Way You Want It" and all things Journey with the boys from the Pod of Thunder Podcast. They should post it shortly.
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April 24: We will be appearing in Fallston, Maryland on June 1 with Eclipse: The Journey Tribute! We'll have a fun evening with Journey music, books, and more Journey music!
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April 13: We enjoyed our appearance today at the Writer's Block Spring Book Fair in Belmar. Next up: Belmar Public Library!
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April 12: Our May 4 appearance at the Belmar Public Library has been rescheduled to May 25. (The appearance tomorrow at their Writer's Block Spring Book Fair is still on.)
Also, We've received a book review from Pennyblackmusic. Our fave quote: "the writing style, economical and fashioned by a desire to explore the importance of rock in the real world, never falters, exhibiting an individual flavour that is unique to Golland and Golland alone. The book is excellently well researched, bringing colour to a decade (the 1980s) that was much more complicated in tone than it's often been painted as."
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March 31: So thankful to everyone who joined us last night in DC! Next up: Belmar, Part 1!
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March 30: The Booked on Rock podcast episode is now up! LISTEN or WATCH.
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March 29: Just had a great interview with Eric Senich from Booked on Rock. He said it should be up over the weekend.
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March 28: So thankful to everyone who joined us last night in New York City! Now it's on to D.C.!
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March 11: The Two River Times (Red Bank, NJ) has posted a feature about the book.
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March 8: The audiobook by Tantor did not include the book's Acknowledgments, so Golland has recorded one himself. Click HERE to listen.
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March 7: Vermillion County First (Danville, IN) has posted a feature and quoted a recent radio interview.
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March 6: This just in from the R&L manufacturing department: "All stock has been inspected in our warehouse. Five copies were found to be defective and were removed from stock. The remaining copies are all good."
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February 29: The long-awaited NYC Book Launch has been scheduled for Wednesday, March 27, at 6pm on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Click here for more information:
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February 28: THURSDAY, 2/29! Don’t miss this free, virtual program with @DHGolland. Register here: [link removed.]
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February 20: The Audiobook is now available from Tantor Media!
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February 19: Free, virtual program with @DHGolland coming soon! Register here: [link removed.]
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February 17: Thanks to everyone for making this book:
#7 in Music History & Criticism!
#33 in Rock Band Biographies!
#37 in Rock Music!
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February 15: Thanks to everyone for making this book:
#9 in Music History & Criticism!
#33 in Rock Band Biographies!
#39 in Rock Music!
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February 8: Just had a great interview with Bax & Nagle of Rock 102 Springfield, MA.
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February 7: Just had a great interview with Ken Broo of WLW-AM Cincinnati, OH.
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February 2: Just had a great interview with Mike Pomp of WTSN-AM/FM, Dover/Manchester, NH.
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January 26: Friends, please join us for the book launch on February 6! Space is limited. Click here to RSVP: https://t.co/KII3IHwIdl
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Library Journal Starred Review:
"The single most downloaded song on the internet from the 20th century isn’t one by the Beatles, Prince, or Madonna. It’s the signature song of one of rock’s most enduring acts: Journey. “Don’t Stop Believin’” transcended its early 1980s roots and became an inspirational anthem for sports teams, start-ups, people fighting life-altering ailments, and more. The band’s long and complicated history, with its myriad stylistic and lineup changes, is the subject of historian and lifelong fan Golland’s book. Refreshingly, this is not the standard band biography. Golland (dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Monmouth Univ.; A Terrible Thing To Waste) brings an academic approach to the subject, placing Journey within its proper historical musical context. Though it is clear that Golland loves Journey’s music, he also provides an overdue critical take on the group’s overall sound. He also discusses issues of musical influence versus appropriation. It is rare, and valuable, to find such insight in books like this. VERDICT Readers don’t have to be Journey fans to appreciate this cerebral approach to a biography about the band. For casual readers and scholars alike." — Brett Rohlwing
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Publishers Weekly Starred Review:
"Monmouth University history professor Golland (A Terrible Thing to Waste) leaves no stone unturned in this fine-grained chronicle of the rock group Journey. Formed in 1973 as a “progressive rock” band, Journey’s lackluster sales had Columbia Records close to ending their contract in 1977, when “crooning tenor” Steve Perry joined as frontman, bringing with him a sound inflected by the smooth, “beguiling” vocals of Black soul singer Sam Cooke. The band’s 1981 album Escape featured such hits as “Who’s Crying Now” and “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which catapulted the group to superstardom. Following a burned-out Perry’s 1987 departure, “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” cemented the band’s legacy as a nostalgic cornerstone of white American culture whose songs are piped through ballparks and used by TV shows and movies. Golland meticulously colors in the band’s artistic conflicts and power struggles, paying particular attention to Perry’s decision to leave, but he’s at his most convincing when he interrogates the racial dynamics at play in the band’s success. Under Perry, Golland contends, the group’s music could border on a “modern form of minstrelsy,” capitalizing on “the racial backlash of the ’70s by producing music rooted in soul and rhythm & blues for a largely white, working-class audience... that didn’t want to listen to Motown because it was ‘too Black’ but was perfectly happy listening to five white dudes play... hot Motown wax.” Golland’s passion and precision make this a pleasure." — PW
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Salon Review:
Classic rock, reframed: Journey and Bee Gees books confront each group's "complicated history"
"Livin’ Just to Find Emotion" delves into Journey's racial leg up, while "Story of the Bee Gees" gets personal
As the Baby Boomers age into full-blown retirement and beyond, the Classic Rock brand has continued to pay dividends. If you ponder the genre’s growing significance over the years, it’s made for an incredible ride for music fans. When those records first saw release in the 1960s and 1970s, popular music didn’t carry much in the way of cultural freight. But in the ensuing decades, we’ve been inundated by a much-needed reevaluation of Classic Rock’s finest practitioners.
David Hamilton Golland’s "Livin’ Just to Find Emotion: Journey and the Story of American Rock" provides a welcome study of one of rock’s most enduring musical fusions. With his background in contemporary race studies — as demonstrated by such previous books as "Constructing Affirmative Action: The Struggle for Equal Employment Opportunity" and "A Terrible Thing to Waste: Arthur Fletcher and the Conundrum of the Black Republican" — Golland explores the racial dynamic inherent in Journey’s rise to fame.
In Golland’s careful hands, Journey’s story, and their music in particular, receives a much-needed critical treatment. Golland is clearly a lifelong fan, yet at the same time, he never shies away from confronting the group’s complicated history. Journey’s progress to superstardom was the product of several lineup changes, not to mention considerable interpersonal strife. When it comes to the band’s ascendancy during the Steve Perry era, Golland doesn’t pull any punches, writing that “like so much of what has moved American history, Journey’s popularity has to do with race. It was made possible by a unique combination of Black-oriented Motown and white-oriented progressive rock, a cultural appropriation made palatable to the white teenage audience of the post–civil rights era. Journey’s popularity was made possible because it was white. In a modern form of minstrelsy, these white musicians safely provided ‘Black’ music to white audiences.”
Perry’s emergence as the band’s lead singer heralded a key shift in both Journey’s style and fortunes. Gone were the group’s progressive rock pretentions, having been replaced by Perry’s silky and soulful vocals. In Golland’s words, Perry was nothing short of “a white Sam Cooke aspiring to be a white James Brown.” And Journey rode his considerable talents into the stratosphere, notching a raft of blockbuster albums and hit singles. Their standout success during the 1980s and beyond can be attributed, Golland presciently reveals, to a bedrock audience that includes a working-class listenership that could accept the Motown sound as peddled by a white band with the chops to back it up.
To Golland’s great credit, "Livin’ Just to Find Emotion" will find you absentmindedly humming “Don’t Stop Believin’” and other Journey mainstays in the same breath in which you reconsider the racial and cultural dynamics that brought them to rock’s highest heights in the first place.
And then there’s Bob Stanley’s "The Story of the Bee Gees: Children of the World," a vital reassessment of one of popular music’s most chameleonic acts. While they may be known for their Disco preeminence during the "Saturday Night Fever" era, the Bee Gees enjoy the distinction of landing hit records across four decades, from the 1960s through the 1980s. Incredibly, the Brothers Gibb were able to withstand one generic shift after another on their road to becoming one of rock’s bestselling groups. Stanley takes great pains to not only explore the Gibbs’ musical growth across the decades, but to afford readers with a stirring look at the dramatic arc of the relationships and experiences that marked their lives. He is to be commended for elevating the human story at the heart of the Bee Gees’ music.
Some readers may be surprised to discover that behind the group’s hitmaking veneer, the Brothers Gibb suffered from numerous false starts and interpersonal discord, not to mention the highly public failure and ensuing PR disaster associated with the "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" film, an incredible misstep in the wake of "Saturday Night Fever’s" global success. As with Golland’s "Livin’ Just to Find Emotion," Stanley provides us with a powerful reevaluation of one of popular music’s most enduring stalwarts.
— Kenneth Womack
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Aquarian Review:
Rock Reads 2024: A Summer Guide For The Rock & Roll Literate
Formed from the remnants of the original Santana band that played a legendary set at Woodstock in 1969, Journey began as a progressive rock act with jazz and blues undertones led by teen guitar prodigy Neal Schon and organ player and main vocalist Gregg Rolie. Author David Hamilton Golland traces the winding road the group took as it morphed into a multi-platinum worldwide smash that dominated the music charts in the 1980s, survived multiple lineup changes that threatened to doom the act forever, then made an unlikely resurrection to become an American institution and thriving concert draw 50 years after its first shows.
Golland’s main thesis is that Journey was a white group that took Black music styles and successfully incorporated them into a rock pop amalgamation that was eventually embraced by eager white audiences looking for something fresh and exciting as the 1970s came to an end. The addition of powerhouse white-soul singer Steve Perry is indeed the crucial moment in the Journey story, and the string of hit songs that Perry, an avowed fan of Sam Cooke and other R&B singers of the 1960s, wrote, co-wrote, and sang lends credence to Golland’s central theme.
Perry’s years of triumph are only part of the Journey story; Golland shows how the group persevered after his departure, with unknown singer Arnel Pineda, who stepped into Perry’s shoes to not only save the group but help usher in an unexpected Journey renaissance – the hit, “Don’t Stop Believing” becoming a cultural touchstone, as did Journey become icons whose long list of hit songs formed the soundtrack of the lives of multiple generations.
Well-paced, exhaustively researched, with in-depth analysis of the Journey catalog and the background stories of various key members of the group, Livin’ Just to Find Emotion is a great read for any fan of classic rock and those who like an epic tale of triumph, tribulation, and redemption.
— James Campion
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Houston Press Review:
Don't Stop Believin': New Book Traces Journey's Journey
They are one of the quintessential American rock bands of the ‘70s and ‘80s, at their peak a dominating hitmaking machine and a reliable concert draw.
Even today, decades past those hits and with only 2/5ths of their classic lineup, Journey can still pack outdoor sheds and ampitheaters alone, and stadiums with other acts.
And their career and style trajectory are certainly an interesting one. From their largely Prog Rock beginnings as an offshoot of Santana, they began to turn into a radio friendly rock/pop rock machine, anchored by the keen songwriting of keyboardist Jonathan Cain and the once-in-a-lifetime wail of Steve Perry, one of rock’s greatest voices.
Oh, and they produced at one Anthem for the Ages with a little ditty about staying true to your path in “Don’t Stop Believin’.” We know that Tony Soprano dug it.
Now, Journey is the subject of not one but two simultaneously released books, including Livin’ Just to Find Emotion: Journey and the Story of American Rock by David Hamilton Golland (378 pp., $33, Rowman & Littlefield).
Golland writes that he used 2,300 primary sources (contemporary newspaper/magazine stories, interviews, videos, etc.) and secondary, historical sources to put the book together. He’s also conducted some original interviews over the years. And he does a solid, detailed job of tracking Journey’s 50+ year journey.
He also delves into how manager Herbie Herbert—who helped put the band together—ran their affairs with something of an iron fist and control. That is, until Steve Perry—hired after several records went nowhere and Herbert said they needed a true charismatic frontman/wailer. Until then, low-key keyboardist Gregg Rolie handled vocals, usually immobile behind his gear.
Perry’s exuberant stage presence, songwriting, and that voice quickly made him the focal point of the band to audience and critics alike. So, when he wanted more say over the band’s business and music direction, Herbert was shunt to the side, with the other members either signing both enthusiastically or reluctantly to Perry’s power play (though Herbert still was an equal partner in band business).
But you can’t argue with the results. Look at just the songs included just on 1981’s Escape and 1983’s Frontiers: “Stone in Love,” “Who’s Cryin’ Now,” “Open Arms,” “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)”, “Send Her My Love,” “Chain Reaction,” “Faithfully,” and that song about Believin’.
Added to prior hits “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin,’” “Wheel in the Sky,” “Lights,” “Any Way You Want It” and “Ask the Lonely,” and they had more than what the band called a “dirty dozen” of immovable, audience-pleasing setlist choices.
However, there’s one head-scratching direction the book takes. Golland—whose two previous tomes tackled the topic of race at it related to labor and then politics—posits this one as his take on race in popular culture. Here, he attempts to shoehorn the music and story of Journey in the lens of “selling” black music to white teenagers, with an undertone of purported less-than-ideal purposes.
“Like so much of what has moved American history, Journey’s popularity has to do with race [author’s italics]. It was made possible by a unique combination of Black-oriented Motown and white-oriented Progressive rock, a cultural appropriation made palatable to the white teenage audience of the post-civil rights era,” he writes. “In a modern form of minstrelsy, these white musicians safely provided ‘Black’ music to white audiences.”
Minstrelsy? That’s a hard, bizarre supposition. And Steve Perry’s professed love of the Temptations, Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke hardly transposes to him aping Black culture in a “safe” manner for white teenage (mostly) boys. If Golland thinks that Journey is geared toward selling Black music for white kids, what could he possibly think of acts like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rascals, Average White Band or Hall & Oates?
Even under the aegis of considering the story of Journey as a historian and not a music journalist, it’s a stretch that would make Plastic Man think twice about.
Still, with the ear of a fan and the eye of a historian, Golland does a great job chronicling all of the members’ various offshoot bands, side projects and mini-and-semi reunions. Note: their 1981 show at the Summit in Houston on the Escape tour was filmed and released as a concert special, though only in recent years has it been officially available on CD.
He also points a literary finger at Steve Perry, a recalcitrant/reluctant/reclusive rock star if there was any. And how his ego and hemming and hawing affected both the band’s initial dissolution and various latter years and subsequent reunion attempts.
When the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, it seems everyone in the world wanted to see Steve Perry sing with Journey for the first time in decades. Except Steve Perry. Instead, third post-Perry and current singer Arnel Pineda (who Schon found on YouTube, singing in Filipino cover band) did the honors. Though Perry did give a heartfelt speech.
However, the various lawsuits and disagreements that continue to this day. It seems that lawyers for various current and former members have been just as busy as the band’s road crew.
The classic lineup of Steve Perry (vocals), Neal Schon (guitar), Jonathan Cain (keyboards), Ross Valory (bass) and Steve Smith (drums) have all been involved in several inter-band lawsuits over songs, business dealings, corporate board positions, even the use of the name “Journey” on its own or in various incarnations. It continues to this day. Golland puts the complex legal stuff into easily digestible words.
Even Donald Trump figures into the Journey story. Cain—whose pastor wife Paula White-Cain was a spiritual advisor to 45 during his time in office—supports Trump, toured the White House with Valory and Pineda, and performed “Don’t Stop Believin’” at a political event. This drew the ire—and yet more legal action—from Schon. And Schon does himself no favors with his many shifting stories and pronouncements concerning Journey’s past, present and future.
The summer, Journey (whose actual current lineup is somewhat in flux) will hit sports stadiums across America again, this time with a bulletproof nostalgia-drenched Def Leppard and a rotating opener of Heart, Cheap Trick or the Steve Miller Band.
Livin’ Just to Find Emotion makes for a great homework reading assignment. And extra points if you know there’s no such place—to quote a certain Classic Rock Anthem—as “South Detroit.”
— Bob Ruggiero
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Pennyblackmusic, March 8, 2024
The summer of 1981 was a letdown. After spending months starving himself in a prison cell, Irish prisoner Bobby Sands finally let go, and disappeared into orbit, leaving a disgraced Prime Minister and a devastated nation in his wake, a taste of political misdemeanours to come. Over in America, an erstwhile actor had proven adept at political grandstanding, leading to a decade of sloganeerings and divisions which brought the Cold War to a horrifying climax. In this climate, rock music took a more polemical turn, with everyone from Queen to UB40 espousing the virtues of communal living in a global paradigm. Journey, an American band buoyed by Steve Perry's Homeric persona and helium-like falsetto, issued a piano ballad that shared a similar structure to Paul McCartney's 'Let It Be' that inexplicably won over the hearts, and wallets, of a generation searching for an epistle. But what was it that made 'Don't Stop Believin'' so special?
With ‘Livin Just To Find Emotion: Journey and the Story of American Rock,’ David Hamilton Golland posits a compelling theory, one that suggests that the band, particularly Perry, felt indebted to the legion of fans that arrived in their masses to their concerts. 'Don't Stop Believin'' featured on ‘Escape’, the band's seventh album, a record that featured a selection of power ballads that were more accessible than their earlier, proggier output. Keyboardist Jonathan Cain felt it was time for the band to reach out to the "blue collar" people, giving them permission to dream outside of their social parameters and classes. When Perry, inspired by some tremendous exhibitions of drum work from Steve Smith, performed some of the more intricate vocals he had yet mustered in his career, there could scarcely have been a more propitious set of circumstances for the band's rise in the higher echelons of rock. Indeed, Perry's voice transcended race, being equal parts Sam Cooke and Jon Anderson in its execution.
At first, Perry fretted about joining Journey. This was a band who had three albums under their belt by 1977, and considering Neal Schon's pedigree (a man who had collaborated with Carlos Santana), was unsure whether his shy nature suited the band's hard rock sound. Then, he galvanised himself into action, co-writing seven of the twelve tracks that featured on ‘Infinity’, the band's fourth effort. The impishness didn't last long, and Perry started dictating where the band should go with their music, which included introducing Smith into the fold at the expense of incumbent drummer Aynsley Dunbar. "We saw [Smith]play every night, " Perry recalled, "and I turned to Neal and said, Tthis is the guy we should have in our band. This is what we need."
Perry's domineering nature is evident from the book, although Golland does what he can to explore the band's politics with as much candour as he can muster. Perry's contributions - immortalised on soundtracks and YouTube clips - were aided by Cain's sense of melody and purpose, who regularly flattened out the singer's wilder musical outbursts with a more subdued expression of craft. Actually, Cain was the most sensitive memory of the band, and in one of his more thoughtful interviews, recalls the face of a cancer-ridden boy sinking into the bed to the soundtrack of Cain's music playing on his Walkman.
Unforgettably, Perry added a level of androgyny to the group: His cheekbones and wavy hair stood at odds with the Goliathian poses his bandmates proffered, which might explain why he became something of a pinup for teenage girls across America and Canada.
The subtitle of Golland's book is "the Story of American Rock", an acknowledgement of sorts to the relatively young history of the genre, which only gathered steam at the close of the 1960s. This gives the book an interesting subtext, not least because it outlines the influence of such disparate black mediums of music - jazz, soul, blues - on the lexicon of rock. Filipino singer Arnel Campaner Pineda, who has been Journey's singer since 2007, signals this political change, exhibiting a singer of colour emulating a caucasian vocalist, Perry, whose roots were in black music. The main theme of Golland's work is resilience: A working class band that stood up to the changing political landscapes (Reagan and Thatcher were as indelible as any pop star during the 1980s) and survived based on gumption, good will and exhilarating music.
Plainly, ‘Livin Just To Find Emotion: Journey and the Story of American Rock’ is in rather different form, and occasionally overestimates the patience of the reader, by offering a non-linear chronology that pivots in and out of the band's personal odyssey. But the writing style, economical and fashioned by a desire to explore the importance of rock in the real world, never falters, exhibiting an individual flavour that is unique to Golland and Golland alone. The book is excellently well researched, bringing colour to a decade (the 1980s) that was much more complicated in tone than it's often been painted as.
— Eoghan Lyng
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Martin's View:
The music of Journey is part of the soundtrack of my junior high and high school years. For someone growing up in a western New York town, these songs were vibrant and expansive, evoking freedom and possibility. When this one popped up on upcoming releases, I was definitely interested to check it out.
Right from the introduction, Golland makes it clear that this is more than just a rehashing of the band history and discography. Given his profession, he looks at the band's journey from a very specific viewpoint: race. I was curious to see how this would play out as Journey is not a band I think of instantly when the word "race" comes to mind.
I learned a lot from the early chapters, especially the origins of the band and their connections with other groups. In fact, throughout I enjoyed seeing how Journey's path crossed with other acts of the time as well. It gave me a lot of context for the music going on at the same time. Of course, when Perry joined the group with the Infinity album, that is when they also hit my pre-teen listening radar.
The latter chapters after Perry's departure were also very interesting, especially for someone like me who put the band aside after that point. From what I can tell, I was hardly the only one. Still, watching as those who remained did everything they could to keep the band relevant was also an interesting read. Overall, this is very much a classic rock 'n' roll story.
— Martin Maenza
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New Praise:
“I love how [Golland’s] book is laid out. A lot of the chapters are named after Journey songs like 'Wheel In The Sky', 'Don't Stop Believin' and albums like 'Escape.'”
— Frank Bell of B98.7, Salt Lake City
“A very entertaining biography that examines how Journey overcame some of the bumps on the road and not only were they successful in the late 70’s and 80’s but decades later they're still on tour and still creating a huge fanbase.”
— Open Mike, WTSN-AM&FM/Dover-Manchester
“Very interesting story and a really cool book.”
— Bax and Nagle
“Pick up the book if you’re a rock fan.”
— WICC-AM CT, Today with Paul Pacelli Show
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Advance Praise:
“A fascinating story of Journey, investigating the band dynamics, the clash of egos, and the sheer talent it took for a 1970s San Francisco band to rise to the top of the music industry. It's not just a tale of corporate rock and ambition, but also the re-segregation of rock music after the racial integration of the '60s. A compelling read that had me checking out songs all the way through!”
— Lucy O'Brien, author of Lead Sister: The Story of Karen Carpenter
“All too often, Journey is dismissed by uber-serious critics and high-minded fans as unworthy of serious analysis. Lucky for us, David Hamilton Golland disagrees. In a comprehensive and thoughtful volume, Golland skillfully traces the group’s tumultuous fifty-year history. He paints complex portraits of its current and past members and cleverly unpacks Journey’s identity as a “corporate” rock band by documenting the legal maneuvering and empire building that underpins its massive success. Most importantly, however, Golland never loses sight of what made Journey a household name: its magical catalog of smash hits. You won’t stop reading.”
— Greg Renoff, author of Van Halen Rising
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