What right thinking person doesn’t wanna run for the hills upon hearing the opening notes to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'”? You can add to the chorus of critics….former Journey vocalist and the song’s co-author Steve Perry, writes the SF Chronicle’s Henry Schulman.
Late last season, the Dodgers started playing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” before the bottom of the eighth inning every night as a rally song, and Steve Perry leaves before they do.
“I have to,” he said. “I don’t want to hear it.”
Why? Because Perry is a diehard Giants fan who cannot stand the fact that the Dodgers “hijacked it first” and use it to win games.
Perry has friends on the Dodgers. He admitted it was “amazing” the first time he heard the entire stadium singing along with his voice and finds it appropriate the song is used by sports teams. Still, he said, “It tweaks me to know they’re using the song as a rally song. I really wish we’d have hijacked it first. I think the song is about hope and power, and it’s working for them, damn it.”
Perry gets a royalty every time the Dodgers play it, but said, “It’s not enough to get me a latte at Starbucks.”
As Schulman points out, Perry was significantly less bothered when his song was hijacked by the Chicago White Sox in 2005.