Deep Track Download Thursday: “Only The Young”

Journey is one of those bands that is liked by many people because of their versatility. They can rock hard, but they can also show their sensitive style too. However, when they combine both their hard rock sound and sensitivity, they do rather well. On Only The Young, this is where they shine!

Unfortunately Only The Young has a tragic story behind the song. Journey had recorded it and it was intended for their Frontiers album in 1983, but it was pulled at the last minute and ended up on the soundtrack to Vision Quest. One day, they received a letter from a mother whose young son, named Kenny, was in the terminal stages of Cystic Fibrosis. Kenny was a huge fan of Journey and wanted to meet them before he died. The meeting was arranged through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

So the band went to meet Kenny and gave him a Walkman and a cassette copy of Only The Young. The next day, Kenny died. He had the walkman with the cassette in his hands when he died.

This made lead singer Steve Perry break down crying so much to the point that the nurses had to take him out of the room.

Either way this chance encounter resulted in the band using this song as the opener for the Raised on Radio tour.

Only The Young is a great track because it perfectly captures what it is to be young in both lyric and sound. But the best thing about this song is that it offers hope to those that are enduring.