Comments on: Journey’s first album shows a path they should revisit

By: John Musca

John Musca — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:57:55 +0000

I have always been a Steve Perry fan. Who is not???

By: Music On Hold

Music On Hold — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:44:55 +0000

I love Journey. Growing up I never listened to much of anything. I didn’t even have a Walkman for crying out loud. But when I wen to college my roommate listened to Journey all the time. That’s when I realized how much I love music, listening to their 1st album.

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:08:12 +0000

I was quite the Journey fan in high school (when Escape was released), and in addition to owning the “original 4 albums” (I/E/D/E), I owned the earlier albums as well. You can really see the Santana influence there.

I like Steve Perry’s vocals in general because they’re fun to sing - and by that I mean they’re technically challenging to sing well, but I think that some of the best stuff on Infinity and Evolution are when both Rollie and Perry are singing together (”Feeling that way” is a good example). I also really like Jonathan Cain’s stuff on Escape, which remains one of my favorite albums.

Frontiers still rates as the most disappointing album of all time for me. At that point, I think they started that trip from a band that could play good rock (Dead or alive on Escape) to one that mostly did syrupy ballads. Or, I guess you can argue that that started when Rollie left but it took a couple of albums to go too far.

By: Janine

Janine — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:40:31 +0000

Wow…I had no idea he sang on Black Magic Woman!
I liked the band with Steve Perry, especially Infinity & Evolution—and you’re right, Greg’s timing was way off!

Agreed, TDavid—Too Late is a great great tune and also one of my favorites.

By: Rick @ Canon Camera Bag

Rick @ Canon Camera Bag — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:25:08 +0000

Journey’s “Infinity” was one of those seminal albums of those teen years in the 1970s, the era portrayed in “Dazed and Confused” directed by Richard Linklater. Greg Rolie is an excellent vocalist and keyboardist and seemed to have the worse timing: he’s left bands that were on the verge of popular success. He and Neal Schon played with Carlos Santana before Journey. That’s his voice on “Black Magic Woman.”

By: Janine

Janine — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:58:47 +0000

I’ve always been a big big fan of Journey—seen them 4 times in concert, many years ago. Gosh. It seems like a lifetime ago.
I can remember being totally bummed out when Rollie left the group. I still have their first album, and the many albums they put out after that, but it’s the first one I treasure.

By: Pat B.

Pat B. — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:06:42 +0000

I have always been a fan of Journey, since they were new…Perry had the most amazing voice. The guy could have been a Broadway singer! He could belt out some notes…

By: Ross Muir, Prestwick, Scotland

Ross Muir, Prestwick, Scotland — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:33:58 +0000

Journey’s debut album is a landmark fusion rock album, and although could never be, nor would be, a commercially successful album it’s a statement in fusion musicality. The second (Look Into The Future) was more commercially accessible but the debut is a stronger album, and Next (the third of the trio) did show that a change was required as there was a staleness in some of the form (particularly ’side one’ in old vinyl terms).
What’s not overly stated and should be is George Tickner’s contribution to the debut(and co-writing credits on the subsequent albums) - George certainly knew his chords and was responsible for a lot of the arrangements, and was throwing some interesting shapes around as a foil to Schon’s remarkable lead work. Problem was Schon didn’t know where to land after the soloing over Tickner’s rhythm (more of a live issue) and said so to Herbie Herbert. HH dropped George Tickner and the band moved on as a 4 piece before starting the search for a front man and new sound. George Tickner did head to Medical School as the ‘known’ history will show but he didn’t quit the band as is usually cited.
Gregg (Rolie - only one L in Rolie!) was around for four albums with Perry (1980’s Departure was the third and there was the rarer less known Dream After Dream soundtrack album which didn’t carry a lot of substance but did carry a couple of excellent numbers).
The band will never consider revisiting the original sound - they are geared to write and sound like the ‘classic era’ and haven’t progressed musically since Trial by Fire - they performed a number of songs from the first three albums at the start of early Generations shows in 2005 but were soon dropped due to apathy of many of the fans who simply came to hear the ‘hits’ and didn’t know any of the Pre-Perry material (there are a number of bootleg shows where you can hear fans shout ‘play something good’ during these early ‘fusion’ sets).
New material aside, JRNY know where there ‘future’ lies with Arnel Pineda and it’s in their past - but not in their origins.

By: Rob O.

Rob O. — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:25:38 +0000

I cut my teeth on Journey’s “Infinity,” playing that hunk o’ vinyl until the grooves were just about rutted out! And I loved most of “Evolution” too!

Actually, I think there is a market for the kind of “throwback” sound you’re describing. There’ve been a fair number of bands who’ve hit with that kind of retro vibe.

Hopefully they will have used Arnel’s soundalike vocals mostly as a door-opener so it’ll be interesting to see what this newest incarnation of Journey does with the next album.