Here’s your ticket to some of the best (or, perhaps, most infamous) 7″ singles ever released! No adapter is required, although in my opinion the device pictured below is right up there with the polio vaccine as one of the best inventions of the 20th century.
45 RPM: Journey’s “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” [U.S. 7″]
“Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” was the lead single from Frontiers, Journey’s eighth studio album. The 45 was released on January 5, 1983, about a month in advance of the LP. I can still remember the day Frontiers was released– I called my mother at work at least five times to remind her that she had promised to stop at the mall and buy a copy for me on her way home.
Mom delivered, and so did the album.
“Separate Ways” was all over the radio by the time Frontiers was released. I only had access to MTV during my summer vacations with Dad in L.A. (Plano wasn’t wired for cable until 1986– the horror!), so I didn’t see the video for “Separate Ways” until June. The band had decided to make their first concept video for the song, and to say that the concept was a bad one would be a grand understatement. I myself am a master of air guitar and air drums, but my wife insists that air bass is actually my best instrument. Unfortunately, no one in Journey was a master of his own air instrument domain…
OK, OK, so the video sucks and has been the butt of jokes for more than two decades now. But the unfortunate video doesn’t in any way diminish the awesomeness of “Separate Ways,” a song that went all the way to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has become a Journey classic over the years. Jonathan Cain’s opening synth riff immediately signaled a new era for the band– Cain’s keyboard sound on 1981’s Escape (his first album with the group after a stint with The Babys) had consisted mostly of a straight-forward grand piano sound, but that all changed on Frontiers. Electronic keys were now in play, and the modernized sound helped produce one of Journey’s most memorable songs. I would also like to point out that while Neal Schon may suck at air guitar, he can play the absolute shit out of a real one. Same thing goes for Steve Smith and Ross Valory on drums and bass.
The 7″ version of “Separate Ways” is an edit of the album version, and to my knowledge it has not been released on an album or as a download– and trust me, I’ve looked. You might also remember this version from the radio, and it was also the take used in the video. I ripped the copy featured below directly from my original 7″ single from 1983, which somehow still looks and sounds great. Too bad you can’t say that about the video…
I still love you, Steve. I really love you, Steve.*
![Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) [U.S. 7_] [320 kbps]](https://analogkidblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/separate-ways-worlds-apart-u-s-7_-320-kbps.png)
Journey: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) [U.S. 7″]
Columbia Records, 1983
A-side: “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” [7″ Version] (Perry/Cain)
Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) [7″ Version]
B-side: “Frontiers” (Perry/Cain/Schon/Smith)
* the lyric this references is edited out of the 7″ version. But have no fear, for I have included the full-length album version as a bonus track!
____________________________________________________________
Bonus Tracks!
The first rule of The Analog Kid blog is that if you write about a song on the Analog Kid blog, you share the song on the Analog Kid blog.
Journey: “Still They Ride” (Perry/Cain/Schon)
From the album Escape
Columbia Records, 1981
The Babys: “Midnight Rendezvous” (Waite/Cain)
From the album Union Jacks
Chrysalis Records, 1980
Journey: “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” (Perry/Cain)
From the album Frontiers
Columbia Records, 1983
The Analog Kid 
I’ll concede slightly on your ranking of your air instrumentation, but only because technically your best is Lindsey Buckingham air guitar. Then bass, then other guitar, then drums.