WCSX Classic Cuts : Lights
WCSX Classic Cuts
Journey: “Lights”
The Hook: If he hadn’t joined Journey, Steve Perry’s “Lights” might have given Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” a run for its money.
Album: Infinity
Year: 1978
Writer: Steve Perry and Neal Schon
Stats: The third single off Infinity, it only peaked at number-68 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Background: Funny thing about Journey’s “Lights,” it wasn’t written in San Francisco. In fact, it wasn’t originally even about San Francisco — though it was re-worked and finished there. Former Journey singer Steve Perry, who wrote most of the song and all the lyrics, explains.
Former Journey singer Steve Perry on a funny thing about “Lights.” OC:…finished first.:
“ I wrote it in Los Angeles. It was, ‘When the lights go down in the city and the sun shines on L.A.’ And then I moved to San Francisco, and I had it sitting there, and joined Journey and I thought, ‘Well gosh, you know, look at this gorgeous Bay out there and changed it to ‘the bay,’ ’cause it was always called ‘the city by the bay.’ That’s where it evolved to. It was just as an idea, it wasn’t finished. So it needed to be finished, and luckily for me, when I got to San Francisco and joined Journey, that was one of the songs I finished first.”
