Thread: Journey - GAH week 3 - 11.18.22

This week I'm taking the lad backpacking in the snowy wilderness of the Rockies, so I won't have as much time to dive in. So I'm starting a day early and with a "longshot" band.



Now...Steve Perry is an ultra-elite vocalist. And Steve Smith is a drummer's drummer. Among all of these bands we are looking at, there's a possibility that he's the actual best drummer of them all.

They have all-time songs. Seriously overplayed...but...there's a reason they are seriously overplayed. Seriously overplayed might be a synonym for greatest.

Suspend any ideas going into this, and judge them with fresh eyes.

In many ways, this is as good as rock and roll *ever* got.

I have to confess that I am more of a greatest hits guy than a deep-catalog guy. So this could get interesting.

Shoot. I just noticed I don't have any Journey on my playlist. So I need some help figuring out this band. There's a greatest hits thing, but what about songs 20-40 or so? Do they have an actual album worth listening to (besides Escape)? How's their early stuff--worth the dive?

Don't Stop Talibin'
Any Way You Want It
Separate Ways
Open Arms
Faithfully
Wheel in the Sky
Stone in Love
Lights
Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'
Who's Crying Now
Only the Young
When You Love a Woman

See, I like a great ballad as much as the next person. But I wonder if they have more "Stone in Love" type songs buried in their catalog.

I'm going to dive in at 1978's Infinity when Steve Perry joined.

My complaint about Journey is a lot of husk to winnow before you get to the kernels.

But there's stuff like "Feeling That Way" that isn't on a greatest hits thing, but it's a plus cut.

I plan on going Infinity, Evolution, Departure, Escape. And then if there's a compelling case at that point, I'll go on to Frontiers and Raised on Radio.

Oh shit, I remember this album. That transition from Feeling That Way into Anytime. That's tight af. That is some legit music right there.

I'm almost done with the first pass through the "Steves" era albums.

And hot damn. I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I do.

Journey is a really, really ******* good band.

Anyone not seriously considering them for the mantle maybe hasn't been exposed to all their stuff.

See, I forgot that I had heard all their albums in the background without realizing it. In 3d grade or so I had a friend a couple years older who was all about Journey. So I've heard these albums and there is some deep memory of it. Although not as much with Evolution...some.

Anyways. My feeling going into this was that the 1million play songs like La Do Dah (on Infinity) would be grating on the ears and awful. After all, Lights and Wheel in the Sky have many many millions of plays.

It's the math nerd in me that draws complex inferences based on subtle differences in numbers.

I digress.

La Do Dah is a banger. Just about *every* song on their albums from this period is excellent.

The elite musicianship punches through.

I find myself rooting for Journey to be the greatest.

Did you know that Journey, the band, used to be Santana, the band? Sort of...

I did not. I am extremely impressed with Journey and I think I undersold their case.

The music holds up today, it is a great combo of fusion, prog, rock, and other 60s/70s influences, but radio-friendly. This is the first band that has me so excited to explore their discography.

Frontiers is way better than I expected. I don't know why I expected it to suck, I just figured they would be doing that whole commercial success death spiral that nearly every band does. Which, I suppose happened after this album.

I love Journey's development into a sort of synthy 80s band. This album was criticized in a way similar to Metallica's black album--too commercial, a "sellout". I see that, the more radio-friendly aspect, but it sounds like Journey. The jump from Escape to Frontiers wasn't that big imo. I think Frontiers kicks ass, if it happened to intersect with radio and unit sales, so be it. I'm not going to punish a band for a nuanced shift in their art to reach a wider audience. This isn't a black album.

Ok, now I've hit the first song that I'm not sure about, "Back Talk." It's ok but it's on that line of "dammit, do I have to listen to this to get to the next song" that especially defined the cassette era. It's funny how that little annoyance could make you move on from a band. The next song gets back on track so to speak, so all is good.

Anyways, there's a song on Frontiers called Edge of the Blade that is exceptional. Neil Schon's guitar work is outstanding.

Songs like that make this project worthwhile.

I'll have to dive into the pre-Steves era albums and decide what they contribute to their legacy.

But I'm ready to say this: I thought their "big 4" albums would be spotty and uneven. They are not. They are all very high quality from reel to reel--they are pretty close to what the "Wrecking Crew" would look like as a commercial band. They are tight, they play great music, it's just easy to like it because they are exceptional musicians and that matters a lot to me. The last two songs on Frontiers, Liberty and Only Solutions...they are pretty vanilla...my critique would be that the music is fantastic, but I don't make a strong emotional connection with it.

It's too bad Steve Perry burnt out. At least he didn't kill himself or self-destruct...completely.

As a vocalist, Mr. Perry explained, “your instrument is you. It’s not just your throat, it’s you. If you’re burnt out, if you’re depressed, if you’re feeling weary and lost and paranoid, you’re a mess.”

“Frankly,” Mr. Schon said in a phone interview, “I don’t know how he lasted as long as he did without feeling burned out. He was so good, doing things that nobody else could do.”

On Feb. 1, 1987, Mr. Perry performed one last show with Journey, in Anchorage. Then he went home.

And after he left Journey, it was Lemoore that Mr. Perry returned to, hoping to rediscover the person he’d been before subsuming his identity within an internationally famous rock band. In the beginning, he couldn’t even bear to listen to music on the radio: “A little PTSD, I think.”

Around the time Mr. Pineda joined the band, something strange had happened — after being radioactively unhip for decades, Journey had crept back into the zeitgeist. David Chase used “Don’t Stop Believin’” to nerve-racking effect in the last scene of the 2007 series finale of “The Sopranos”

Mark Oliver Everett, the Los Angeles singer-songwriter who performs with his band Eels under the stage name E, was not one of them, at first.

“When I was young, living in Virginia,” Mr. Everett said, “Journey was always on the radio, and I wasn’t into it.”

whoa...this is not a turn I expected. I'm a big Eels fan.

So although Mr. Perry became a regular at Eels shows beginning around 2003, it took Mr. Everett five years to invite him backstage. He’d become acquainted with Patty Jenkins, the film director, who’d befriended Mr. Perry after contacting him for permission to use “Don’t Stop Believin’” in her 2003 film “Monster.” (“When he literally showed up on the mixing stage the next day and pulled up a chair next to me, saying, ‘Hey I really love your movie. How can I help you?’ it was the beginning of one of the greatest friendships of my life,” Ms. Jenkins wrote in an email.) Over lunch, Ms. Jenkins lobbied Mr. Everett to meet Mr. Perry.

They hit it off immediately. “At that time,” Mr. Everett said, “we had a very serious Eels croquet game in my backyard every Sunday.” He invited Mr. Perry to attend that week. Before long, Mr. Perry began showing up — uninvited and unannounced, but not unwelcome — at Eels rehearsals.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/a...interview.html

wow...worth the read.

I like this: something strange had happened — after being radioactively unhip for decades, Journey had crept back into the zeitgeist

That's how I feel about this project personally. I want to be zeitgeist-neutral.

Zeitgeist is a major factor. If you're not banging decades after the fact then you weren't banging to begin with.

Originally Posted by King87

Zeitgeist is a major factor. If you're not banging decades after the fact then you weren't banging to begin with.

You know what that word means, right?

There's only one Journey song anybody cares about.

Consider them written off. NEXT!

Originally Posted by aberdien

There's only one Journey song anybody cares about.

Consider them written off. NEXT!

No sir.

2022 is not the only year ever.

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

You know what that word means, right?

We are in a society that loves nostalgia. See Nirvana still making people feel like the 90's, even in 2000-2022 rap songs.

Originally Posted by aberdien

There's only one Journey song anybody cares about.

Consider them written off. NEXT!

This seems pretty ******* harsh.

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

No sir.

2022 is not the only year ever.

They're a band for dads who were in HS in the 80s to listen to while they're cleaning up the garage and basically nobody else.

Originally Posted by King87

This seems pretty ******* harsh.

Saturday night fight night!

Originally Posted by aberdien

They're a band for dads who were in HS in the 80s to listen to while they're cleaning up the garage and basically nobody else.

I wonder why you feel this way, but hold a band like CCR in esteem. It puzzles me.

Ramble Tamble is a great jam, but Journey is way more consistently interesting and groovy.

It feels like you are a music racist right now, just saying.

Originally Posted by aberdien

They're a band for dads who were in HS in the 80s to listen to while they're cleaning up the garage and basically nobody else.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America, Journey has sold 48 million albums in the US, making them the 25th best-selling band. Their worldwide sales have reached over 100 million records globally, making them one of the world's best-selling bands of all time.

How many ******* garages get cleaned out by dads these days?