Out now is the new book "Livin' Just to Find Emotion: Journey and the Story of American Rock," written by historian David Hamilton Golland and timed to the band's 50th anniversary celebration. The 363-page book offers a meticulously researched history of the band, with album-by-album analysis covering every Journey song and a document-sourced look at Journey's corporate structure and legal machinations, particularly of the past few years when band members Ross Valory and Steve Smith were fired and the recent feuding between founding guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain, that has since been resolved.
Golland, a professor at Monmouth University in New Jersey whose specialty is African American History, became a Journey fan when he was young, after hearing "Don't Stop Believe in'" on the radio. He tells us that researching and writing the book as a pandemic project enhanced his view of the group:
"I definitely came to appreciate the music more because I went in-depth into every single song. This was a really fun project, frankly, a lot less time in archives and a lot more time with headphones on, but also thinking about it from a critical standpoint rather than simply, 'Oh, I love this' or 'Oh, I only like this' or 'OK, I can skip this.'
Golland has previously written books about affirmative action and civil rights and is editor of the Arthur Fletcher Papers at Washburn University.
Journey is currently on tour continuing its 50th anniversary, with Toto opening. The group begins a summer stadium tour with Def Leppard on July 6 in St. Louis. The Steve Miller Band, Heart and Cheap Trick will alternate opening spots on that.
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