When Journey did ballads, man, did they do ballads right! Some were actual slow-dance songs, but some, like Send Her My Love, were what we now appropriately call power ballads. It’s quite possible that Steve Perry and the boys birthed the genre. Now as you may recall (oh, who am I kidding? No one reads these things and certainly no one has been reading them every year, and DEFINTELY no one remembers what I’ve written in previous years’ posts!), Journey was on my countdown with Who’s Crying Now, another monster power ballad, and what I love about both of these songs is the amazing vocal strength of Steve Perry. He will always reign as one of my top two male voices of the 1980s (and if you don’t know the other one, then you for sure have not been paying attention). This song played in the backdrop of my freshman year at college when I pined to be normal, when all I’d wanted was to either get cured of what was clearly wrong with me or be spirited away in a Legion cruiser to the far-flung future. The sentimental value of the line, “roses never fade,” three simple words sung by this light from the universe, echoed inside my scared head as I would beg god to make me normal so I could feel the feelings I was supposed to feel for the girl who was perfect for me. If she reads this entry, she might know it is she of whom I’m referring.
From the historical writing archive. Original date: November 30, 2019. Recovered from local source material; editorial review is still in progress.
