JOURNEY OF A BADLY COVERED SONG

Across the street from me lives a man whose living is made as part of a Journey cover band. And when I say living - I mean this is what he does, no day job, no million dollar inheritance. The running joke we all make is the big van that is parked in his driveway 24/7 save for when the band has gigs. To try and visualize this, just think "Winnebago meets Mystery Machine."

But wait, this is unfair, he's a nice guy and his son-in-law has done a great job in working on my house.

Oddly enough this morning, I had digital music channel 60000 on and heard the song "Don't Stop Believin'" by none other than...you guessed it....Journey. Kind of made me laugh and immediately think of my neighbor.

But hang on, it wasn't Journey. The voice sounded like a cross between Bob Dylan and Mark "Sultans of Swing" Knoffler.

Now put these two voices together and try to imagine them even attempting to match the vocals of Steve Perry. OK, you haven't even heard the song and your ears are already melting.

But yeah, my feeling exactly.

I just had to know who sang this 10th grade biology lab experiment gone horribly awry. The TV went on and up came the artist's name.....BADLY DRAWN BOY. It was just too appropriate. They could have probably just listed the artist as BADLY (fill in the blanks)" and I have also thought it just too appropriate.

I've said it before a thousand times on this blog, if you're going to cover a song, make it your friggin' own! Remake it, don't re-sing it! And for the love of G-d, don't even get into the same ballpark as Journey - you will lose and you will lose hard.

I'm not the hugest Journey fan but does anyone disagree that Steve Perry's vocals can easily bring down The Great Wall? If you're not ready to bring down the Great Wall, or even Pink Floyd's The Wall (while you're at it, don't go there either), then either change the song completely or no trespassing.

If you trespass, then I'm afraid we're going to have to go our separate ways. (Oh man, did I just actually write that?)

Welcome to the Terror Dome

Hi...if this is your first time on this blog, welcome.

The title of this article has no bearing on what is written here. Just couldn't think of anything more clever to say.

There is no terror dome and you won't find Flava Flav or Chuck D singing about it here - unless Fight the Power holds a special place in your heart - like when cops broke up a party you were at.

There's music for any situation. There's music that's come up just at the right time - there are situations that you only remember because of the music that was playing. That's why we're here - to celebrate everyone's relationship with music, how it affects you, how it makes you happy, sad, how it makes you laugh, rock out and do the duck walk and air guitar simultaneously, and how it makes you cross your arms and say "Yo" or "Peace."

You get the picture. Enjoy