The Journey Begins

Don’t Stop Believin’

Just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit – Journey (Don’t Stop Believin’)

Don’t Stop Believin’ by the rock band Journey, is, I think we can all agree, a classic. If you were born and raised in the Detroit area it is a song that no matter where you are, when you hear the first few piano notes and are anywhere in the vicinity of the volume control, you immediately stop what you are doing and crank that volume up as loud as acceptable for your particular location (at least through the first verse).

Although I liked the song growing up, I didn’t truly appreciate this particular song until I moved away. In 2001, I moved from Detroit, Michigan to Charlotte, North Carolina and although I love Charlotte, I still have a lot of love for the place which I was born and raised. Being so far from home, I would miss family and friends from time to time and music was one way I could transport myself to familiar surroundings.

One evening friends and I were at one of those dueling piano bars in the heart of Uptown Charlotte, when the two pianists began playing those wonderful first few notes of Don’t Stop Believin’. My ears perked up, I told those I was with to ‘shut their pieholes’ as I needed to immerse myself in the first few beautiful lines of this amazing classic. Now I have heard this song hundreds of times but this time was the first since moving away, it was as if time had stopped, it was just me, the sound of the piano, and the anticipation for those two words I was going to hear in a matter of seconds.

Just a small town girl
Livin’ in a lonely world
She took the midnight train goin’ anywhere

Just a city boy
Born and raised in South Detroit!
He took the midnight train goin’ anywhere

Journey

Yes, those two words about a mythical location, South Detroit! There isn’t a South Detroit, and I was born and raised between two and nine miles north of Detroit city limits, but when this song comes on I am indeed a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit! I truly don’t find it necessary to hear the rest of the song, in fact, my vocal cords generally need a break following the first verse.