Friday, December 01, 2006

Arena Rock for the Soul

Having been too long since Journey joined me on the open road, I decided to take their essential collection with me as I picked up Mrs. Oxymoron's cousin at Love Field airport in Dallas last night. Pumping from the stock stereo system in my '99 Honda Civic at a whopping 20 Watts per channel, these rockers made my trip effortless.

One of the many highlights in the collection is Lights, the video of which I posted above. Note Neal Schon's solo here. It's a simply spectacular and highly underrated. I ask you, dear readers, is it possible to listen to this solo without pulling the air guitar from the closet to play along? I don't think it is. I know I certainly can't.

Some useless rock trivia: At what age and with what artist/band did Schon begin his professional rock career? (Try to answer without consulting the Google.)

1 comment:

harrogate said...

The way that guitar solo begins.

Those first notes and the attitude behind them, pretty much say it all, paving the way for the rest.

By the time you get to the guitar solo they have as a Band set it up perfectly; it is like some sort of mathematical logic that this particular guitar solo, and none other, must appear at this particular musical moment.

Looked at from one perspective, it certainly does seem a highly underrated solo, and song in general; conversations on Pete's Couch about great Rock & Roll, after all, almost always elide this high achievement.

Yet . . . at the same time, it's a song that most people know at least some of the words to: even people who say they don't like Journey. So maybe not too terribly underrated, hmmmmmmm?