Journey

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

is awesome.  The following video - Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) - is 80's cheese at its most heinous and I f*cking love it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LatorN4P9aA&ob=av2el

Several points of interest:

Steve Perry = Demi Moore
0:35, 0:49 - no instruments
0:52 - Jon Cain bear-pawing his air keyboard
1:07 - awkward zoom-in
1:25 - keyboard on the wall
2:11 - slow-mo marching band "ABOUT FACE!" move
2:16 - advertisement for Steve Perry's dentist
2:18 - why are they in a dockyard full of shipping skids?
2:29-2:36 - sequences like this are whta make 80's videos so excellent
2:44 - 2nd from left:  Ross Valory = Jeff Foxworthy
2:56 - Oops!  Almost lost my balance!
3:01 - 55-gallon drumset
3:06 - HURRR-STOMPA-STOMPA *follows camera*
3:11 - Pulls out just in time to avoid inevitable Jon Cain collision
3:12 - Jon Cain's patented "Camera Bitch-Slap"
3:17 - Check out how awesome I am.  I may have tried to kick Santana out of the band, but at least the afro's gone!
3:22 - guitar face
3:26 - weird slow-mo
3:49 - more wall keyboard
4:01 - Brigitte Nielsen look-alike approaches: "You guys are still at this??"

Okay, so though I make fun of it, it's still f*cking awesome.  Enjoy.

[bosk1]

  One of my favorite songs from them.  SO amazing live.  It's not nearly to the same extent that it is in the Stars video, but that's probably my favorite Neal guitar face--the one where it's like he smells something no one else smells, and it ain't good.

For me, I love the Perry era up through Frontiers.  I know a lot of the old hard cores feel like they sold out when Perry joined.  And I know even the softer hard cores that don't feel that way feel like they sold out with Escape.  I don't care.  I love that era of the band.  Give me Wheel In The Sky, Lights, LTS, Stone In Love, Faithfully, and Separate Ways, and I'm good.  But I mostly HATE the Perry stuff that came after that.  I completely wrote them off until Aguerre.  When he joined, they felt like a viable band again who could not only faithfully perform the classics with energy, but had something worthwhile to say musically once again.  Too bad he's gone.  They're back to being written off once again.

[King Postwhore]

That is too funny Coz.

Jeff Foxworthy is the best.

Loves that album too.  but like Bosk1, Raised On Radio sucked to high heaven except for 3 songs.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Agreed.  That Escape/Frontiers-ish era was where it's at for Journey.  Amazingly good arrangements.  Stone in Love is a bonafide ass kicker.  A bit I read elsewhere, regarding SIL:

Again, anyone inclined to dismiss Journey as a cream puff band overly fond of ballads and sorely lacking rock and roll cred should give another listen to this underrated classic from 1981's Escape. In terms of rock guitar riffage, this tune earns major points for its scorching opener, but beyond that it showcases the general tightness of Journey's core quintet of members during the band's peak period. I mean, if even Ross Valory's bass playing shines during the irresistible chorus of this nearly perfect mainstream rock song, Journey must have pretty well known what they were doing.

Only problem is that it's AWESOME up until the middle part where it switches gears and goes to the whole instrumental outro thing.  They always lose me there.  It's like all the glorious momentum the song had built up to that point is just lost.  Still a fave of mine, but that has always bugged me.

Two other favorites of mine are Lights and Be Good to Yourself.  Lights just has this undeniably great feel to it.  Perry's so subdued, then all of the sudden BOOM ("It's sad...").  His voice is all up in your face like the greatest thing ever, then it backs down for another chorus, then powers up again for an AMAZINGLY classic guitar solo, then mellows out again.  It's like the best roller coaster ride in the whole world.  BGTY was always a favorite, just because it wsa so upbeat and, again, Perry just kills on it.

[bosk1]

NEXT time I'm close enough to join you for a gig, there are two requirements:  (1) You can't get sick; (2) You and your band have to be willing to do Lights.  Maybe LTS or WITS.  But preferably, Lights.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Done. I would so love it. Doing that song would be a serious high point for me.

[bosk1]

Speaking of live versions of WITS:

*time out for a disclaimer before we get to the point:  I hate Arnel as their singer.  I searched and I searched to find a clip of this song from the Journey 2000 DVD filmed in Las Vegas with Aguerre, but couldn't find it.  Just ignore the little troll on vocals, okay?

I never saw them back in the classic era of the band, so I don't know when they started doing this particular arrangement of the song, but I really like the breakdown on the second half of the solo--specifically, Jon Cain's riffage.  Check it out at about 2:41 here:  awesomeness.  Simple riff, but it's REALLY tasty in the context of this song and really allows Neal to tear it up (even if he is a bit sloppy on this version).


EDIT:  And if I haven't bothered to change my avatar by the time that ever happens, if it does, you can feel free to add Mas Tequila to the set in honor of El Böskö.  

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Very nice!!  Jon Cain riffage.  It's good he can do the guitar thing also.  Some songs just do not need keyboard embellishment.  This is one.  Stone in Love is another.

I saw them with Pineda and from the crowd, he sounded really pretty good.  When I heard soundboard recordings like this one, I'm a lot more skeptical.  Decent at best.  They will never be able to find someone who can re-capture the magic of Steve Perry.  I saw them with Augeri also and he was decent.  I was bummed I never got to see them with Soto.  Love his voice, though a lot of people said he wasn't right for Journey.

[bosk1]

I saw them with Soto, and they were REALLY rough.  He's a great frontman.  I've never seen anyone run around and jump around during an entire show (and I've seen guys like Sammy Hagar, for instance).  But his problem is that, while he can hit the soaring notes, he is a natural baritone, so he can't sustain the highs that those songs demand for anything close to a full set.  When I saw them, I believe they were tuned down, they played a bit of a shorter set since they were opening for Def Lep, and Deen sang probably 3-4 songs.  And still, Soto struggled mightily.  Again, he's a terrific frontman and a very good singer, but his voice just isn't cut out for a set of those songs.  I felt bad for him being unceremoniously dumped by the band, but aside from the way it was handled, it was the right move for them.

And I agree about the guitar/keyboard thing.  That's one thing that I DO think DT should be criticized for:  Let Jordan play a guitar when it is called for.  It doesn't take away from JP's role at all, and for some songs, it will make them sound better.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

A favorite of mine, from Soto (you may have already seen this one):

https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=1234.msg35351#msg35351

Really sucks with the way the whole Steve Perry thing went down.  I understand from both sides.  He was reluctant to get hip surgery, understandably.  But at the same time, they wanted to tour off the recent album's success.  18 months later, Perry's still dragging his feet, so they said "See ya, we're outta here".  Possibly, if he'd done the surgery, he'd still be with them now.

[The Letter M]

I love Journey, but I haven't listened to them in awhile. I have all of their albums up to their last one (except Generations), but I was wondering if anyone here had heard their only OST, Dream, After Dream, and if it was worth seeking out?

-Marc.

[bosk1]

I usually check the used bins when I'm at places that have used albums.  I'm holding out until I find it used.  From what I've heard, it is very good, but is a definite departure (pun intended) from their core sound, so I'm not sure I want to shell out full price for it new off of Amazon.

[Orbert]

Regarding "Stone in Love":

Only problem is that it's AWESOME up until the middle part where it switches gears and goes to the whole instrumental outro thing.  They always lose me there.  It's like all the glorious momentum the song had built up to that point is just lost.  Still a fave of mine, but that has always bugged me.

I agree 100%.  It's like they had this other musical bit worked out and decided to slap it onto another song that needed something, and it didn't quite work.  Some songs do the same thing and it works great ("The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac comes to mind) but this is just a weirdass downshift.

My favorite Journey period for a long time was after Perry joined but while Rollie was still in the band.  I love the contrasts with the two vocalists.  "Feeling That Way"/"Anytime" is so cool.  But I recently gave Infinity a spin and found a lot of the songs to be pretty weak.  So I guess it's really just certain songs from that period that I like.

Perry really is a hell of a vocalist, but after a while I get tired of it.  I guess that's why I've never completely gotten into Journey.  "Separate Ways" is a killer song, though.  Cain wrote some awesome keyboard stuff.

[bosk1]

I'm still bitter that Herbert dumped Y&T and decided to put all his eggs in the Journey basket instead of touring both bands around together and promoted them both.

[wolfking]

Easily one of their greatest songs, and Frontiers is by far one of the greatest melodic rock/AOR albums ever to be created.  Songs like Faithfully, Send Her My Love, Seperate Ways, and Edge of the Blade are just tremendous.

[EPICVIEW]

wait... so you are telling me that that was not live? that they lip synched...

[lonestar]

I have always loved Journey, and feel this thread is not complete without this clip, go to 0:26.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3A9rLoz_0o

[hefdaddy42]

Journey is amazing.  Escape is easily one of the best rock albums of all time.  Not sure what you guys are saying about Stone In Love.  The change in that song is incredible, it definitely works in an amazing way.

I got a new appreciation for them this fall when my daughter's marching band did a Journey show.  Pretty cool stuff.