“Any way you want it, that’s the way you need it”
Huh?
The song was basically an instrument inspired by the band Thin Lizzy, with whom, Journey toured. The words are meaningless.
Like most things from the 80s, it was probably the product of cocaine and Aqua-Net fumes.
Don’t bother – Journey were a very good band, but no one put out more out more pop-nonsense lyrics then they did. Listen to them sing the lyrics, but don’t try reading them – it only sounds good when you sing it.
You’re looking for meaning in Journey lyrics?
That’s all kinds of pointless.
Homer Simpson: It’s a party song, Marge. Doesn’t have to make sense.
(Slightly paraphrased to fit. 
)
It’s about a person whose Id has managed to strangle their Superego and bind their Ego. With the Superego and Ego no longer present to inform them that wants are not the same thing as needs, the Id is unable to differentiate between the two basic human drives, and what they want is literally felt as something they need to survive.
And then we touched, and we sang - about the lovin’ things…
Exactly what I was thinking. Once the Superego is out of the way, what happens? The Ego goes nuts and it’s a wild ride of selfishness and hedonism from then on.
So hold tight
Hoooollldd tight
Oh baby hold tight
Enjoy,
Steven
Actually - a bit more seriously: song lyrics are, obviously, tricky.
- you want to speak in plain language that folks understand
- you want to leave things a bit vague, so that listeners can fill in their own thoughts and experiences
- but you don’t want to be lazy
So when the Beatles say “she was just seventeen, you know what I mean” - well, that’s a perfect lyric - everybody can fill in what he means with their own images and feelings ;).
But Journey, and by that I mean Steve Perry and Jonathan Cain who wrote most of their hits in this phase of their career, tend to just use lyrics to prop up a melody. “We sang about the lovin’ things” is a lazy, stupid attempt to accomplish the same things the Beatles did above.
Don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of Journey and lord knows, they have more money than I do as songwriters, but from a songcraft standpoint I think even they are probably snickering to themselves about that hack work.
It’s hard to beat a line like “She loves the lovin’ things” for banality, but Journey reached its lyrical apex in the song “Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’” which culiminates in approximately 8 hours of the refrain “na na na na na na, na na na na na, na na na na na na, na na na na na”
It’s about sex.
If you look hard enough, they’re all about sex
You win the internet.
How about Don’t Stop Believing…couldn’t they at least have looked at a map to see there is no South Detroit!
Now I have that song stuck in my head dammit! I blame you.
It’s most useful to take a step backward and watch the video to Separate Ways. All doubts about artistic and lyrical veracity will be erased, along with your frontal lobe.
(I love Journey, but they were crushed by the weight of 70s/80s trends like mullets, snug jeans, molester mustaches, and REO Speedwagon power ballads.)
[stoner voice] It’s about weed, man. [/stoner voice]
And let us not forget the moustache shaving scene in the video for Faithfully.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKorl7Ouht0
It’s the forlorn expression that does it for me. Makes me want to pet Steve Perry like the sad, little puppy that he is.
Heaven is defined a moose, y’all.
(The linked animation is, I think, about as old as the web itself. Still funny. Oh, the cheese.)