By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

STEVE PERRY – STREET TALK (1984)

It is a good thing that Steve Perry’s solo debut opens with the song “Oh Sherrie” given that it became his biggest solo hit. It also helps me in the construction of this article because I get to talk about it first and then focus on the slightly lesser known tracks that comprise the rest of the album.

“Oh Sherrie” is an amazing song. Written for Perry’s girlfriend at the time, the song was released as a single in March 1984, nearly a month ahead of the album’s release. And it was a monstrously successful song. It would go on to hit #3 on the singles chart, and #1 on the Rock chart. The video had heavy MTV airplay as well.

And man, I remember rocking out to both the song and the video back in the day. The track opening with the slight musical intro before Perry’s booming a capella vocal comes in for the opening lyrical stanza. It’s almost haunting the way the song starts and then Perry comes in on full attack. As the rocking soundtrack kicks in, the song grows even more powerful. That guitar solo is immense and the way it fades out in the same kind of slight musical tone that the song began brings the track full circle. It’s a true classic song and while it galls me that it is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a Journey song, I still get a chill every time I happen to hear the opening strains of the song on the radio.

I should note that Steve Perry co-wrote all of tracks on the album. But he had an extensive list of co-writers as well. Most prominent among them were Bill Cuomo, Randy Goodrum and Craig Krampf. They also performed musically on the album. Perry produced the album and came up with the cover art concept as well.

Now, I mentioned that the other tracks on the album were slightly less well known than “Oh Sherrie” but that’s actually not quite strictly accurate. The Street Talk album actually had four Top 40 singles come off of it.

One of those “other” singles is on Side One of the album. “Foolish Heart” is a ballad but not one the kinds of ballad that is so slow as to feel as if you aren’t moving along in the song. The backing music has a slight uptick. And Perry’s performance here makes it a real classic track of his discography. I still hear this song a lot on the radio. The video for the song is pretty interesting for being a one continuous shot concept performance. And there’s an alternate ending to the video that is seen as him basically announcing he’s going back to Journey at the time. This was the fourth single from the album and it hit #18 on that chart. It’s also been covered at least four times by other artists including on Sheena Easton’s 1997 album Freedom.

As for the rest of the songs on the first side of the album, the song “I Believe” initially gave me an old time rock and roll vibe when I first heard it. It may not actually be the intent of the song but that first impression has always stuck with me for some reason. It’s an uptempo number and the way Perry’s vocals come through on the song is actually kind of cool. The vocal gets very plaintive in the delivery at points and yet while his strong vocal presence within that delivery could seem a bit out of place given the vibe of the music, the two parts of the song actually combine to give you one heck of a listening experience.

The song “Go Away” has a bit of an uptempo delivery. That pacing keeps it from being what would you could call a ballad track, but I think if the musical had been slowed down, this would’ve been a cool ballad tracking. Still, as originally performed, this is a killer track!

I love the way the percussion and bass have such prominence in the song that even I can pick them out in the song throughout. I think it is that rhythmic foundation that grounds the song and lets everything you hear over it that makes the track “sing”. Speaking of singing, the way Perry has this kind of stop/start stutter step in the way each line is delivered in the main verses was pretty interesting. Despite the song not being more in your face, I think it’s an understated bit of pop elegance.

The first side of Street Talk closes out with the song “It’s Only Love” and it is another strong rocking number. While there’s plenty of synthesizer used in the song, it is the drums and guitar threaded into the music that really raises the song. The lyrics are very cool and the phrasing of Perry’s vocals given them added heft. I love the way he delivers this particular passage: “Opened up your letter / I can’t believe my eyes / You said I should know better / But I have no alibis”

Side Two opens with the song “She’s Mine”. I have loved this song from the first time I heard it. It hit #21 on the singles chart and in the main portions of the song there’s a sense of melodrama that gives off a slightly creepy vibe at times. The chorus of the song finds the tempo jacked up to full rocker status and the switch back and forth is pretty compelling. The song has another killer guitar solo and you know how The Police song “Every Breath You Take” is not a love song? There are times when I think that “She’s Mine” is a spiritual companion to that track. By that I mean that this isn’t Perry inhabiting the role of someone telling an interloper to stay away from his woman or anything but rather he’s singing from the viewpoint of the interloper themselves. I’m not saying that I’m right about that, just that I think the song could be interpreted that way. Over the course of the song’s outro, whomever is playing the guitar is providing some incredible playing as well.

Michael Landau is credited playing the guitar for the song “You Should Be Happy” and I gotta say, he really shines here. The guitar parts help fuel the overall sense of urgency that comes through on the the song. Perry’s vocals are the star of the show of course, but even with all the other instrumentation, it is the guitar that lets this song rise above itself and go from a standard track to a full on driving rocker and yet another example of why I find this album such a standout.

From its first notes, the song “Running Alone” has something special going for it. It has a dramatic immediacy to it in the intro and then Perry’s vocals come in and the lyrical content becomes an uplifting kind of track. Slower in tempo than a lot of other tracks on Street Talk but not quite a ballad, I dug the way everything came together with this track. I’m usually on the cranky and bitter side of things but crazy as it seems I always seem to feel “better” after listening to this song. Okay, sure maybe the feeling doesn’t last but for those few minutes, even a miserable SOB like me can feel “good”. Maybe lines like the following are why I have this momentary lapse from my standard grumpiness: “I believe that every soul / has a song to sing / The spirits locked in every man / Waiting for a wing / Oh so much wasted / And so little used / The trick of the dreamer /is keeping yourself from the blues”.

Strangely enough, Street Talk keeps up the incredible run of great tracks with the song “Captured by the Moment”. It’s another song that has a kind of haunted feeling, which is only further emphasized by the opening stanza’s lyrics that reference Martin Luther King, the Beatles and the JFK assassination. Maybe not the lightest subject matter but I get what they were going for here. The delivery in the main passages are delivered in a slow almost hushed way and then as you hit the chorus, the music explodes into a bright blazing furious rocker tempo. It’s very dramatic and feels like a showpiece number. Something that would’ve made an amazing visual to play out on a stage or something. In an album full of amazing tracks that continually renew themselves to me upon each listen, this might be the most intense track of them all.

The album closes out with the song “Strung Out”. It hit #40 on the singles chart and man, did Perry know how to bring things to a rousing flourish to close things out or what? It’s uptempo throughout but you can hear the song waiting to burst out in the chorus. The song is one grand performance after another. Guitars are providing major riffs, drums are crashing through everything and Perry is once again delivering the vocal goods. The way the song comes to an immediate halt right there at the end was a great choice as well.

As you’ve been reading along, I’m sure you’ve noticed that I really didn’t have anything negative to say about this album. And that is because there really isn’t anything to say on that front. This is an absolutely stone cold classic album in every respect. The songs, the performances. Sure, Steve Perry is always going to be more readily identifiable as Journey’s singer but never let anyone forget that with Street Talk, he delivered one the singular greatest solo albums of all time! 

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Street Talk album went double platinum and established Steve Perry as a bonafide hit solo artist as well as from his time with Journey.

The 2006 CD reissue of Street Talk has five bonus tracks. The first three are demos from his pre-Journey project ‘Alien Project’. The fourth song “Don’t Tell Me Why You’re Leaving” was the B-side to “Oh Sherrie”. The final bonus track “If Only For the Moment, Girl” was originally released on the We Are The World album/project.

Guitarist Waddy Wachtel plays the guitar solo on “Oh Sherrie” and also appears on “It’s Only Love”. He’s had a wide and varied career but has done work with two of my favorite artists in Warren Zevon and Beth Hart. Bassist Kevin McCormick appears on the song “Running Alone”. His extensive credits list included a long term collaboration with Melissa Etheridge.