Released: 1981
Tracks: Majestic; Where Were You; Just the Same Way; Line of Fire; Lights; Stay Awhile; Too Late; Dixie Highway; Feeling That Way; Anytime; Do You Recall; Walks Like a Lady; La Do Da; Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’; Wheel in the Sky; Any Way You Want It; The Party’s Over (Hopelessly in Love)
Best track: I’ll just say Dixie Highway
Track to skip: Majestic is really useless and is only a tape of the song
Another Journey album that’s part of my DNA. After my brother and I got Frontiers, this was the next Journey thing we got (about a week later). I was just barely 10 when we got it and I immediately fell in love with it. I wish I knew how many times I’ve listened to this, more than I care to even consider I know. It’s sad when you listen to a live album so much that have every little nuance memorized. Like all the little crowd interaction things and all that. Anyway, enough of my wonderfully fun history with this. This still holds up. I think it’s considerably stronger than the previous 3 albums. Those aren’t really cohesive at all. This is obviously another ‘collection of songs’, but I guess since it’s *nearly* all the best of Journey’s Steve Perry material from the 70′s it has a good flow to it.
Besides Majestic, which is pointless, the thing that bugs me most about this is the editing. This wasn’t recorded at one concert, so in between different cities there are fadeouts. I hate fadeouts on live albums, and I think that hatred stems from this. Geez, at least edit them so it sounds like one concert, even if it isn’t. As expected, this features all the hits from the previous 3 albums (hmm, I guess it’s like the 3 pre-Perry albums don’t even exist!) so most people shouldn’t be disappointed by the track selection. Everything’s covered.
What I really like, and I wish more people would do, is that there are 2 previously unreleased songs on here. The excellent Dixie Highway was a song they presumably wrote on the road and played live (and thus ‘captured’ here) and Party’s Over is a new studio song. I really like both of these songs and they make Captured that much more enjoyable. Another little thing I like is the extension of Anytime. True, it’s just an excuse to say the name of the city and get the crowd more into it, but I like it. There are some solos on here, but thankfully they’re relatively short and not annoying. Neal Schon’s guitar solo at the end of Walks Like a Lady is decent, but nothing too special. However, the solos after La Do Da (bassist Ross Valory then drummer Steve Smith) are pretty cool Both are great musicians who know how to actually solo. I have a ton of respect for Valory especially. Like I said above, this is better than Infinity-Evolution-Departure since it filters out the bad stuff and highlights the money shots. Plus, the band is much more energetic in a live setting. Anyone interested in pre-80’s Journey should check this out.
Rating: 87
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