Journey's: Escape

Where were you in 82'?

Have you ever seen Tron: Legacy? Probably one of the best scenes in the movie is when the main character Sam walks into his fathers old video arcade, flips the breaker and all the machines go on and Journeys Seperate Ways comes on the juke box. For a lover of retro games and old vinyl it gets your heart pumping, and really makes you miss the old days of great video arcades and music on a Saturday night. What's really interesting about the use of this song in Tron: Legacy is not just that it was popular when the first Tron movie came out in 1982, but that in this movie about video games Journeys 1981 album Escape had a video game based on it, also in 1982.

Thats right? The early 80's classic filled side to side with great music including songs like Seperate Ways, Don't Stop Believing, and Faithfully had a video game based on it. 

Jouney Escape Vinyl Album and Atari 2600 game. Be sure to check out my vinyl record collecting blog Diary of An Amateur Vinyl Record Collector at http://amateurvinylrecordcollector.blogspot.com/?m=1 or my retro video gaming blog The Retro Video Gaming Blog for the Mid-Core Gamer at http://retrovideogamingblog.blogspot.com/?m=1

The Album

Escape is actually Journeys eighth album, but it was the first to go to number 1 on Billboard. The album was released in July of 1981, and saw its first hit Who's Crying Now before 1981 was out. After that the album would see hit after memorable hit with Stone In Love exiting the charts in 1984. Escape would leave an indelible print on music of the early 80's and on music of the 80's in general, and would also influence the afore mentioned Tron, when Journey would be asked to do part of the original movies soundtrack. 

The Record

This was another eBay purchase that I am pretty pleased with. It was a quick transaction and the record came in exactly the condition described, which is in fantastic. No scratches or any thing else, nice clean play all the way through. Best of all its a great up beat album from start to finish, and really gets your night rolling by putting you in a good mood. As you can see in the photo above the album cover itself is also an phenomenal shape with its original shrink wrap and stickers still intact. It was another great buy on eBay and one heck of a bargain.

Journey: Escape - The Game

Data Age released Escape in 1982, and it was the first video game of its kind to be based on a popular music group and album. The game is actually fairly simple and consist of a black down scrolling screen and of a little man that you must control on the screen meant to represent a security guard trying to help the band to get to their scarab shaped escape vehicle, well also trying to hang onto the $50,000 in concert money. Along the way the little man avoid hearts with legs which are meant to be groupies, bodiless heads with mustaches and shifty eyes that are meant to be promoters, barricades, and flashing yellow lights which are meant to be paparazzi. Along the way you can get help from what appear to be little aliens with antennas but I understand they are actually meant to be roadies who give you the temporary power to walk through various obstacles. Also supposedly there is the band manager who looks inexplicably like the Kool-Aid man and he is also supposed to help you although I have never run across him in my gameplay. Your ultimate goal is to reach the yellow scarab escape vehicle which you probably could pass-by pretty easily if you weren't looking for it,  and to reach it while hanginh onto as much of the concert money as possible. Keep in mind that each obstacle you walk into will take some of the money from you. Every time you help the band reach the escape vehicle a new level starts and each level gets progressively harder where obstacles no longer stay stationary but the begin to move towards you or cross the screen in random directions. The game obviously ends once all the money is taken from you.

As far as the game music the only actual Journey song we hear is Don't Stop Believing in the games intro, during the actual gameplay itself we are given some sort of generic music that is in no way related to anything by Journey.

Gameplay

Without going online and looking at the directions I had a hard time actually trying to figure out what the heck I was supposed to be doing and who was friend an who was foe coming at me. Luckily, I was able to find instructions on Atariage, and after that the game actually became pretty interesting and kind of fun,  and at times even challenging. 

Other then that it's  a pretty good game but there are a few things that I was little let down by. First of all considering Escapes album cover I expected the game to have some sort of sci-fi theme to it. After all the album cover for Escape shows a scarab breaking out of a planet or something into outerspace and then on the back of album shows the scarab zooming off into outer space. Of course that's fairly minor but the biggest letdown is that there wasn't any actual Journey music during gameplay. Sure it's nice to hear Don't Stop Believing in intro but it would have been cool to have actual Journey music throughout.

Overall though I have to say that I am really impressed by both the album and the videogame. Both Escape's are fantastically entertaining, although the album has much more and notoriety and is pretty well remembered, while the videogame lives obscurity. I can only imagine being a teenager in 1982 and feeling like I was on top of the world having Journey's Escape playing on the record player well I played the accompanying game on my Atari 2600. It must've been a heck of a way to waste a Saturday evening back then in what seemed like much simpler times. I have to say I thoroughly enjoy owning this album and I really have enjoyed having a chance to play the game. If you have a chance to buy this particular album on vinyl I would definitely suggest doing so because nothing else sounds the same. And if you have the chance to buy the Atari 2600 game for it do so as well. You won't be let down by either.

 

Unique "Records"

January 17, 2014

There are a lot of "unique" records out there, one that comes to my mind is a Transformers record I had as a kid. I remember conning my sister into buying it for me at Woolworth's for $3, and now I see it on eBay for $40, yikes. Anyway there are a lot of records out there with unusual music and/or subject matter, that would classify them as "unique".

But there are "unique" records, and than there are unique "records" today I found the latter on trip through a local thrift store.

That's right this is a yellow transparent record. The album itself is a show tune compilation Best of Old Broadway from the early 50's. 

It wasn't something I was looking to buy but after I saw the actual record I had to have it. Of course the cute redhead showgirl on the cover, and the fact that it is a fairly pleasent collection of music made buying it a bit easier. 

This is also the first record I have had a chance to play on the new record player I got for Christmas. 

So the record looks really cool on the record player, and is in really good shape meaning the beat up cover has done its job well the years. 

I also managed to pick up two additional 45's today as well. 

To feed my need for Bond songs I added this 45 of For Your Eyes Only by Sheena Easton. Side A is the actual song while Side B is the instrumental version. What surprises me is that considering it was the key song in a Bond film there is nothing on this 45 or sleeve to indicate that. If this record where to be sold now days it would come with markings all over it to market the single in connection with the movie and vice-versa. 

The song itself For Years Eyes Only is a bit of a snoozer and had my wife recollecting the days of easy listening stations while stuck in the back seat of her parents car on long trips. I had to agree this song was an 80's easy listening station standard, and hardly gets the heart pounding like the more modern Bond songs like Adele's Skyfall, or Garbage's The World is Not Enough. Overall though the 45 is in good shape, and allowed me to test my new records players ability to play 45's. 

The next 45 is Dionne Warwick's I'll Never Love This Way Again / In Your Eyes. I bought this one confusing it with I'll Never Fall In Love Again an early Dionne Warwick song I actually did like. I wonder if her Pyschic Friends told her I would be writing a blog about this single? Anyway these are familiar songs as well that definitely recollect those days of your parents easy listening stations in the 80's. The 45 itself is in good shape here too, becuase imagine it wasn't listened to a lot. Oh well, you win some, you lose some, but at $.50 I'm ok loosing on this one. 

But you know writing this particular blog posting a few interesting questions popped into my head that I would like to ask you my readers. 

1. What is the most unique "record" that you would ever found and/or may have in your collection? If you would like to go ahead and repost a picture with this that would be awesome, because I'd love to see what kind of strange and wacky vinyl items are out there.

2. What truly good songs did your parents easy listening station ruin for you?

Feel free to go ahead and add your comment to this post I love to see what everybody's answers are to these questions.

One More Spin with eBay

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

So far (knock-on-wood) I have had good luck in my eBay dealings as far as records go. This time around and for a second time I purchased an item from a smaller and lesser known seller on eBay, I will be covering my first purchase from this seller in an upcoming article about Journeys Escape. This purchase is actually of Simon & Garfunkle's Bridge Over Troubled Water, the 1969 album of course has the title song Bridge Over Troubled Water, as well as The Boxer, Cecilia, El Condor Pasa, and so on.

The Record Itself:

The gatefold and sleeve are in good condition and looking at the side of the gatefold in my shelf I can tell what album and artist it is clearly. As you can see in the picture above there are a few blemishes to the gatefold but it's not bad. The physical record itself has that truly fuzzy, crackling sound LP's are known for but it wears off after the first song on either side, that and there is also a bit of skipping on the first side too. Overall it is in good shape, and easy to listen to without much distraction. It was worth the less then $10 w/shipping I paid for it.

The Album:

I grew up listening to a lot of Paul Simon and a smidge if Simon & Garfunkel. For me this album brings back a lot of memory's of a version of it on tape my folks would play regularly in the car.  I always found El Condor Pasa to be be a very haunting song, with a really unique and equally haunting melody. I could also summarize The Boxer in the same way although it was a song that didn't make sense to me till I was a lot older, when I really understood the lyrics more. The rest of the album is just as great and we even get a few upbeat songs like Cecilia, and a live recording of a cover did of the Everly Brothers Bye-Bye Love. For the most part though the album has a folk feel to it that is quite, yet potent considering the album was made in era it's songs where produced in. 

Overall, this is one more happy eBay purchase. Let's hope my luck continues. 

First eBay Buy Yields Delight

I have always been a bit leery about buying used vinyl records off eBay. After all not all eBay sellers are on the up and up and often hide behind the fine print. But at the same time I gave up looking for miracles in the thrift shop, and my local record store doesn't always have the selections I am looking for. 

So off to eBay I often go to look but with caution and incredulity. There are a number of items I have been following, but I never made a bid on any of them until recently. See the issue with eBay and records is that in buying a record there is a lot to cover. First off all the record itself, let's be honest they don't photograph well and it would be hard to tell if there is scratching or warping, not to mention between light and the grooves a good record could give the appearance of being scratched. Then there's the cover and the sleeves which can at times have the same issues as the records themselves. In person all this takes about 30 seconds to appraise but online its a lot different.

If you read this blog regularly you will know I have been looking for the Eagles Hotel California for a while. Of course my requirements where simple I wanted the record in great shape, cover and sleeve in great shape (since the cover of this album tells a story) and the poster. 

I would come across a copy with my requirements and then find the price was right $10-$15, but it sold while I was thinking it over, or I would find them way over priced $25-$30. But this time I lucked out when a new seller had the album as I wanted it record, cover, and poster in A+ condition, for $10 with shipping. Now a lot of people don't buy from new sellers, but I have found some real deals with them. New sellers can be a good place to look but you are taking a chance. In the past three months I have had two great experiences and deals with new sellers, and one bad one. So the odds have been in my favor mostly, all I can say is Thank God for Paypal buyer protection on the latter.  

This experience was extremely positive and the album is in fantastic condition, album cover is in good condition too, and as you can see by the picture above the poster is in super-awesome shape. I have played through the album twice now with no problems, it sounds fantastic. 

Overall I am ecstatic to finally have this piece in my collection. And I am super happy with eBay and the buyer on this sale.