Songwriter: Steve Perry
Original Release: Departure
Year: 1980
Definitive Version: Captured, 1981
I can’t hear this song and
not think of Mike, who was my best friend through high school. Mike’s the one
who got me into Journey; I’ll leave it to you to determine whether that’s a
good thing or a bad thing. I make no apologies for it.
Mike didn’t introduce me to
Journey, of course. He couldn’t. With the rock dinosaurs rapidly dying off and
punk scurrying about unseen beneath the plants, Journey was everywhere at the
start of the Eighties. Anyway You Want It was featured to much glory in
Caddyshack, and it didn’t get much cooler than that, as far as I was concerned.
But Mike first bought and
played for me Captured in our junior year of high school, and that was the
killer app for me, if you will. I bought my own copy soon after that and played
it regularly. I particularly liked the live version of this song. It was
longer, dirtier and, yes, blusier than the original. Mike always liked to
impersonate Steve Perry’s introduction of Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon during the
long intro.
Mike’s favorite song was
Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’, which was on there, too, of course, and he probably
regretted telling me and Steve his tale of unrequited love whilst working as a
cashier at the Big Bear down by the Scioto River. That was all the invitation we
needed to note how the target of his affection was probably lovin’, touchin’
and squeezin’ ano-o-ther, to Mike’s dismay.
I remember going over to the
Big Bear a few times toward the end of Mike’s shift to wait for him to get off
work before we’d go out and do whatever it was that we did, which most
definitely didn’t involve drugs or alcohol.
In fact, we “went out
drinking” only a couple of times with a few other guys, and the results were
boring. They didn’t involve actually getting drunk or sick or doing anything
stupid, although I do remember the first time. Mike took his mom’s Dart, and we
drove over to Ohio State to persuade some guy outside a liquor store to buy us
a six-pack of whatever. Then we went over to the Ohio State farms, which seemed
hidden enough, to let the drunken merriment ensue and then feeling quite
disappointed when it didn’t. We clearly didn’t know what we were doing, but we
learned soon enough after we got to college.
Not too long after that, I
finally got my first real job—at a grocery store, like Mike, as I’ve
mentioned—and soon enough I had my own experience of unrequited love. The
difference was it was for a customer, not a fellow employee.
Another key difference: I
didn’t say anything to anyone about it.
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