The band was on tour and Neil Schon (one of the founders and former member of both Santana’s band and the Steve Miller Band) was writing for the new album. He wanted to write a tune about people from very different backgrounds meeting and falling in love. Steve Perry suggested a southern country kid and an inner city street punk getting together. Schon started thinking about the overhead trains in Chicago and liked the imaging, but the name of the town wouldn’t fit the melody he had in mind. He said “screw it” and changed it to Detroit because it was a big town that almost rhymed with the word “boy” in the first line. The irony of it is that the band was from San Francisco, despised the industrial midwest part of the country, and Schon dreaded performing the tune live there because the audience would drown out the rest of the song so badly it threw Perry out of tune for the rest of the night. They performed it as one of the first songs of their setlist everywhere else, but would save it as the closer whenever they played Cobo Hall in Detroit or any of the neighboring cities like Lansing and Chicago.

(and no, I’m not a Journey freak, just a retired session musician that was gigging during that period in time that heard it throught the grapevine. About 1/2 of the bread I’ve made over the years is from writing, performing, or writing about music. It kept me out of trouble between soccer seasons)

Rebounds aside, Gerald Wallace has been awful this season. You know how they always talk about the things that don’t show up in the box score? This applies to him in a very bad way. Watch his man when we’re on defense. Constant back door cuts and open shots because he gets lost on D and doesn’t close out on shooters. It’s atrocious. And his shot selection? It’s like he’s conspiring with the defense to pad their block stats. “I’m going to drive into the lane, then jump a couple inches off the ground and try to lay it up. You don’t even have to jump, just stick up your hand and you’ll get a block.” What a joke.

And for all the complaining about Felton’s turnovers, you can’t tell me he’s been worse than Diaw this season. You know that old saying, “make the easy pass?” Someone needs to translate that into French and tattoo it on Diaws face. He’s constantly trying to make passes that aren’t there, throwing it to the defense. I’m so frustrated.

On the positive, Derrick Brown AND Gerald Henderson in the game AT THE SAME TIME? THANK YOU!