July 31, 1981

Do you remember where you were 30 years ago today?

1981 signified the true beginning of 80s music.  Michael Jackson's "Thriller", Foreigner's "4", and what may go down in history as the greatest album of the 80s, Journey's ESC4P3. 

Yeah, I typed that correctly; E5C4P3, not Escape.

I remember when this album came out for many reasons.  To start, my best friend growing up got my brother and I involved in a job from home.  He had a job working for a recording studio in Century City and they would send home cassette tapes (remember those?) for us to splice leader tape in at the start of the reel, then seal the case back up.  I can't recall how much we were paid, but, it wasn't much.  We had fun doing it though, and in April, we received an advance copy of Journey's "Escape" album on tape.  The cassette had either a white or orange label, and all of the info was typed.  I remember putting the cassette in the player for the first time and hearing "Don't Stop Believin'" for the first time.  I played that cassette until it wore out!

Come the end of July and albums, even today, are ALWAYS released on a Tuesday, and July 31st was that day.  We ran down to Music Plus after school and there it was.  This didn't have a white or orange label on it.  This was the real magilla!  I mean, look at the album cover!

I remember people asking "what's that say?" when looking at how JOURNEY was written "sideways."  Friends were thinking that was something in Russian before they finally looked above to see JOURNEY was written twice!  And then the album title...E5C4P3.  Was this a cruel joke or was this album just something different?

And then, the scarab, breaking out of what?  The atmosphere; Earth?    Not a space ship, but a scarab, something that Journey used for years

Well, Journey's E5C4P3 proved to be something different.  The first single off of the album was released on July 11, 1981.  "Who's Crying Now", which went to #4, showcased Steve Perry's soaring vocals and was an interesting choice to be selected the lead single for the album.

The next single was the second song on the album, "Stone In Love", followed up by the third song on the album, "Don't Stop Believin'".  On October 20, 1981, little did anyone know that the song that would get as high as #9 on the charts back in 1981, would later become one of the top selling singles of all time!  More on that later...

Then, it happened.  On January 10, 1982, the fourth single off the album, "Open Arms", shot to #2 on the Billboard Top 40 chart.  Suddenly, Journey became a household name.  Despite the song only making it to #7 on the Adult Contemporary chart, "Open Arms" became a staple at many weddings and high school dances.

Year		Single		Chart	Peak
1981		Don't Stop Believin'		Mainstream Rock	8
1981		Don't Stop Believin'		The Billboard Hot 100	9
1981		Stone In Love		Mainstream Rock	13
1981		Who's Crying Now		Mainstream Rock	4
1981		Who's Crying Now		The Billboard Hot 100	4
1982		Open Arms		Adult Contemporary	7
1982		Open Arms		Mainstream Rock	35
1982		Open Arms		The Billboard Hot 100	2
1982		Still They Ride		Adult Contemporary	37
1982		Still They Ride		Mainstream Rock	47
1982		Still They Ride		The Billboard Hot 100	19

Journey started their E5C4P3 Tour in Japan in late July 1981, just as the album was being released, and, coinciding with MTV going on the air at 1201am on August 1, 1981!  They concluded the tour at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on July 2, 1982.

E5C4P3 was in the Top 20 when Journey went to Houston on September 5th when MTV decided to broadcast the concert live to its viewers.  One week later, Journey found themselves opening for the Rolling Stones at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, the same date that E5C4P3 hit #1 on Billboard's Top 200 Album Chart!

Capitalizing on their success, the band recorded radio commercials for Budweiser and sold rights to their likenesses and music for use in two video games: the Journey arcade game by Bally/Midway and Journey Escape by Data Age for the Atari 2600.

Fast forward 30 years later to 2011...Journey as we knew it is no more, however, what has happened is that "Don't Stop Believin'" has become one of the top selling singles of all time!

Despite Journey's hiatus from 1987 to 1996, "Don't Stop Believin'" has helped Journey's music catalog to sell incredibly, to the point that many music insiders say that former lead singer Steve Perry is making so much money off of royalties that he can continue to live in obscurity without thinking twice about needing to "make a living."

It all started in 1998 when a string acoustic version of the song was used during the Robbie's wedding in the film "The Wedding Singer".  From there, the song was used in numerous other movies and television shows, but, none more famous than in 2007 when the song gained press coverage for its use in the final scene of HBO's The Sopranos from the series finale "Made in America".  Steve Perry was initially hesitant in allowing the song to be used in The Sopranos but later agreed.

Sales soared after this and "Don't Stop Believin'" is heard in sports stadiums across the U.S., pushing music sales of albums E5C4P3 and Journey's Greatest Hits (#100 on this months Billboard Top 200).  As of today, E5C4P3 has been certified by RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) as Platinum 9 times

This past Friday, SoundScan (Nielsen) gave the band an award on NBCs "Today" show that proclaimed "Don't Stop Believin'" as the #1 selling Classic Rock single of all time.

On its 30th Anniversary, Journey's E5C4P3 is still in Billboard's Top 200 chart, this week at #172, and, arguably, the greatest album to come from the 1980s!

Brownie

One year ago, the world lost a great man.

Mike Brown never complained about his cancer.  He opened every conversation asking "how are you?" and never once telling you about his cancer or the hurt it was causing him.  Truth be told, if you didn't know he had cancer, you'd never know.

I met Mike back in 2003 through hockey.  Mike and his wife Jeanette had a small get together at their house before an event I was working in Phoenix.  My boss and I were invited and over the course of that evening, I felt that I could not meet two nicer people.

After that weekend, I kept in touch with Mike and when I started my own business, he included me in as a vendor and working with Mike was a dream.  It was always nice to catch up.

I delivered product to Mike's event in 2010 without a problem and 6 weeks after the event, I thought it was weird that Mike hadn't sent a check.  I called and emailed without a response, and finally, one day, Mike calls to tell me he was "on vacation" and that he was sorry for the check being late.  Sure enough, 2 days later, I had a check, but deep down, I knew what being on vacation meant.

A few months went by and I was on Twitter the night of July 16, 2010, when I read a post from @Panger40 (Darren Pang) that in short, said that Mike had passed away.  Not sure what was worse; knowing that Mike had passed or reading it on Twitter.

Regardless of that, one thing I did know, is that quite possibly the nicest person I'd ever met in my life was no longer with us.

A few nights later in Scottsdale, a celebration in honor of Mike's life was held.  You see, Mike planned this party.  Mike didn't want people to mourn his death, although, many of us, in our own way, do.  Mike wanted people to tell stories, Jimmy Buffet and The Rolling Stones playing, some beer and alcohol being consumed.  Most of all, Mike wanted the people that surrounded all aspects of his life to come together and have a good time in his memory.

And what happened?  Mike pretty much got his wish.  Despite not wanting people to shed tears, they are natural.  But boy, some stories were told, music played, beer consumed!  And you know that Mike was looking down, laughing at the stories of him arguing at the first tee about what his golf handicap was and the opposition trying to call bullshit on it, only to have Mike fire back with "look, I have stage IV cancer, there is no stage V", and he'd not only get his way, but then go on to rule the golf course.  We laughed, cried, and enjoyed life that night, almost a perfect night of what Mike wanted.

Mike never made cancer a pity party.  However, he did encourage everyone to live their life to the fullest and to live each day without regrets.

One year later, I miss him, but, I'll never forget him.  And although I haven't been able to change certain aspects of my life to be able to fully embrace living every day without regret, that day is coming sooner than later, and I'll be able to thank this wonderful man for that.

Teams

Why do we continue to support our favorite team, despite all of the personnel changes, good or bad, yet, when a band changes a member, many leave their support?

No right or wrong answer I guess, but, when it comes to bands, people take this shit seriously!  I've just always wondered why these similar situations are treated so differently?

Hypocrites

Hockey is an elitest sport.  Of all the sports, hockey has made its way out of the middle class.

In order to play hockey, one must go to the store and buy every piece of equipment from head to toe.  Even if you're just playing roller hockey, in order to be "safe", you still need a helmet, stick, gloves, shin guards, elbow pads, and skates.  It's not like baseball/softball, basketball, football, or soccer, for example.  Those sports, you go to the store and you buy:

baseball = bat, ball, glove
basketball = ball
football = ball
soccer = ball

So why is it that when large hockey stores decide to manufacture and bring in their own branded hockey product from Asia, in order to bring down the price of hockey equipment down, they are chastised?

What these stores are trying to do is provide privately branded products to the masses at lower, affordable prices.  Part of that is the hope that doing this will allow more parents to afford hockey equipment, which will bring more and more kids to the sport.

I hear people complain that hockey equipment is so expensive and yet, they complain that these stores are creating their own products.  Manufacturers such as Bauer make great products.  There's no denying that.  However, they make product in order to make money as a for-profit business.  They mark it up for profit in selling them to retailers, who buy and mark it up for profit in selling to the consumer.

Say a product costs $100 to make.  Company X, who employs people like many other companies, takes that cost and will want to make a 40-50 profit margin.  What is profit margin?  Well, the best way to explain it is that many companies, manufacturing or retail, do their calculations based on markups. This is not the same thing as margin. This is often a source of confusion - but only because percentages are difficult until you understand them.

Margin
The percentage margin is the percentage of the final selling price that is profit.

Markup
A markup is what percentage of the cost price do you add on to get the selling price.

These are different, a selling price with a margin of 25% results in more profit than a selling price with a markup of 25%.

With margins, a 50% margin means that half the selling price is profit. In markups, that is a 100% markup (you have added 100% of the cost price to make the selling price). With margins, a 100% margin is only possible if the cost price is zero.

To understand why margins are higher, imagine an item that costs $50. If you sell it with a margin of 50% - that means fifty percent of the selling price should be profit. If you sell it at $100, half the selling price is profit - margin 50%.

If you sell the same item (cost $50) with a markup of fifty percent, you add fifty percent of the cost price. Fifty percent of the cost price is $25. This makes the total selling price $75. 

A fifty percent margin is higher than a fifty percent markup.

So, back to our example.  It costs Company X $100 to make a product and they want a 40-50 profit margin.  So, $100 at a 40 margin becomes $166.67, and 50 margin becomes $200.  They most likely set a price to their retailers at $200 and they will create a discount program based on total volume purchases, that will bring the price of this product down to $170 (15% discount). 

Dealers then mark up the product for their standard retail profit margin, which is most times at 40, for a sale price of approximately $333.50.  Here, everyone makes money.  The manufacturer makes their cut and the retailer makes his.

These larger retailers that bring in their own product, they source a similar product, with, in many cases, similar performance characteristics.  What they don't have is a name brand and distribution beyond their own location(s).  What they do have is a price $133 less instead of the name branded Company X product, that in many cases, can be bought at the same store and is usually located on the wall next to the private branded item.

Some of these larger stores offer an unreal guarantee!  "Try it for 30 days, and if you're not completely satisfied with the performance of this product, return it to us and we will fully credit the original purchase price (excluding shipping), no questions asked!"

So why not try it?  Why chastise it?  Why complain that prices are so high when one doesn't want to give these products a try?  Why be a hypocrite and complain that hockey equipment prices are so expensive?

Will these items work for everyone?  Maybe not, however, it might be something to look into, and, at the same time, just might bring more people into the greatest sport in the world!