Thunder Road Books to Host Launch Party for “Livin’ Just to Find Emotion” by David Hamilton Golland



(SPRING LAKE, NJ) — Thunder Road Books will hold a launch party for Livin’ Just to Find Emotion by David Hamilton Golland on Tuesday, February 6, 2024 at 6:00pm. Light refreshments will be served. The book lets fans relive Journey’s greatest songs and moments with this fiftieth anniversary tribute.

Since exploding on the scene in the late 1970s, Journey has inspired generations of fans with hit after hit. But hidden under this rock ‘n’ roll glory is a complex story of ambition, larger-than-life personalities, and clashes. David Hamilton Golland unearths the band’s true and complete biography, based on over a decade of interviews and thousands of sources.

When Steve Perry joined jazz-blues progressive rock band Journey in 1977, they saw a rise to the top, and their 1981 album Escape hit #1. But Perry’s quest for control led to Journey’s demise. They lost their record contract and much of their audience. After the unlikely comeback of “Don’t Stop Believin’” in movies, television, and sports stadiums, a new generation discovered Journey.

Thunder Road Books is located at 1108 3rd Avenue in Spring Lake, New Jersey. Space is limited, click here to RSVP.

David Hamilton Golland is a historian, professor, and writer with a wide background in twentieth-century social and cultural history. In Livin’ Just to Find Emotion Golland dispels rehashed myths and also shows how race in popular music contributed to their breakout success. As the economy collapsed and as people abandoned the spirit of Woodstock in the late 70s, Journey used the rhythm of soul and Motown to inspire hope in primarily white teenagers’ lives. Decades later, the band and their signature song remain classics, and now, with singer Arnel Pineda, they are again a fixture in major stadiums worldwide.

“Golland meticulously colors in the band’s artistic conflicts and power struggles, paying particular attention to Perry’s decision to leave, but he’s at his most convincing when he interrogates the racial dynamics at play in the band’s success…Golland’s passion and precision make this a pleasure.” — Publishers Weekly

“Refreshingly, this is not the standard band biography. Golland…brings an academic approach to the subject, placing Journey within its proper historical musical context. Though it is clear that Golland loves Journey’s music, he also provides an overdue critical take on the group’s overall sound. He also discusses issues of musical influence versus appropriation. It is rare, and valuable, to find such insight in books like this. VERDICT Readers don’t have to be Journey fans to appreciate this cerebral approach to a biography about the band. For casual readers and scholars alike.” – Library Journal

David Hamilton Golland is dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Monmouth University and founder of The Journey Zone, the leading source for all things Journey over two decades.