Don't Stop Believin' - Journey

Composed by Steve Perry and Neal Schon in 1981 for their album "Escape" realesed in 1982, even though in that year the song made it to #9 in billboard charts its true explodment ocurred several years after, when it became a popular karaoke song in the 00's and after being featured in the serie "The Sopranos". In 2008 it was the most downloaded song on Itunes, and as you may know, for the series "Glee" as their opening song.
Don't stop believing is a song in E scale (Mi) with an easy yet deep serie of chords, starting with the piano, with an E, B, C#m and A, pretty much the typical chords for an E-scale song, but the true magic is behind in the chords.
Th baseline moves us sweetly into the chords, a bassline that later on will become very similar to our lead guitar. Starting at E, when the E chord is played, passing through sustanained F and G slipping through B, and making making a sensacional sound between the last notes (C#, and D#) landing on an A, and a beautiful movement to the next E, this last note on the riff is the prettiest of all, because it counts with the characteristic of taking us back to the start in such a secret way.
Then the vocals start, the second verse ends in such a high note, but the fourth and last one, ends in a low way, yet the singer (Steve Perry) makes it perpetual. His ability to reach high notes, and the way he slips through it makes the song a "singer song" (A song that's worth the time of a good singer to learn).
But what can we say about the next guitar solo, yes, the notes repeat over and over through a serie of pull-off on the guitar, faster and faster everytime, the pecularity is that maybe this kind of solos are applied to metal o hard rock with a hard series of chords from behind, but this solo is by itself and the piano, and a piano! a clasical intrument with this solo on top! It's just fantastical.
Then moving through the pre-chorus, with a diferent chords progression and electric guitar there, there's a section where after he sings "walking down the boulevard" the bass makes also a walk down (nice isn't it?) supporing the silence of the voice and the chords.
Then the main riff starts very similar to the base line, the magic turns more noticiable when he starts to sing again, we now notice that the verse notes and the riff get perfectly along with each other, even though both of them are very melodic, they don't crash, the baseline traces a path through the singer's notes.
And again we get to the pre-chorus where Steve grant us with his amazing ability to reach high notes and make them last.
And then another guitar solo, this time with the main riff down, and this time more melodic, this solo caution us from the chorus that is next, a very sweet solo, like most of Journey's solos, but to say "sweet" does not means easy in any way.
Then at last the chorus, yes at last the chorus... How many songs follow this structure? Verse, solo, verse, prechorus, verse, verse, prechorus, solo and Chorus!
By the lyrics (that's my very own interpretation) they take us to daily situations that have turned boring, the first two characters (the small town girl and the boy from south detroit) have lost faith in love, but if they could have a chance they would take it, the singer has been chasing a dream but got stucked in "cheap perfumes" meaning he never got far, and the prechorus make even more obvious that this song is for typical people living typical lives that wish they could change a bit by "finding emotion"
Then it takes us through feelings, the feelings that are normal in a life time, or all the feelings happening in the same time, some loose, some win, some just sing.
And it says "the movie never ends" meaning life it's not a movie with a happy or tragical ending, it changes and passes through everything, and you never can assure the feelings you have now will go on the rest of your life.
Definitly a song you MUST listen to before dying.
Finally ending with "Don't stop believin'" ...and that's what the song it's all about.

Thank you for reading (: