I don't think we're ever going to see a re-recording of WDADU and the Majesty Demos without MP in the band. He said it was hard enough to convince the guys to do the WDADRU show. I believe his comment on the commentary was that they would do it if he stopped asking about the Majesty Demos.
Correct. Here's what he said in the interview I did with him at the end of the 2004 North American leg of the Evening With tour:
SH: Can we expect that with the other album anniversaries, that we’ll be seeing similar performances of those albums?
MP: No – I mean every year we could say it’s the anniversary of something. This year is the tenth anniversary of Awake, and we already celebrated the tenth anniversary of Images and Words. That’s not to say that special things like this won’t pop up from time to time, because anything is possible. But When Dream and Day Unite was a special anniversary, because that was something that everyone had always wanted to see performed with the current line-up. So it made sense to celebrate that.
SH: What about the Majesty demos in that case?
MP: <laughs> When I ran this idea by the band, and said “we’ll do Dream and Day complete,” it was delivered with the promise “Don’t worry, we’re not gonna do the Majesty demos in 2006!”
doing a re-recording of material that only two of the existing 5 bandmembers participated in and original performed on seems silly. Not that they wouldn't dig something up for a live show, but that's different from doing a re-recording.
I disagree. Assuming it wouldn't simply be a re-recording without any changes (which I wouldn't want), it would allow the members who did not perform on those songs to put their stamp on them with their own style. Perfect example of that is ACoS. The song was completed in 1991 (if not sooner) but never recorded. Then when they finally were allowed to do it, they rewrote some of it and allowed Derek to put his spin on things in the keyboard department. Why shouldn't songs that have been officially released be rewritten and re-recorded by the current lineup, especially if they are obscure and/or the band dislikes the final product? I'm not saying that it should be a standalone release, but to provide it as a bonus CD in the deluxe package of the next album (so people can choose whether they want it or not) seems totally reasonable to me.
I can think of no reason under the sun for them to go into a studio and re-record anything.
As I said, it would be a selling point for a deluxe package, which I'm sure the band would be interested in, seeing as it is their means of supporting themselves financially.
Make new music and get out on the road and play.
Well, I think that's a given. Nobody's arguing that point. But that doesn't mean there isn't room to rewrite and re-record a handful of older tracks.
A lot of people felt that re-recording the Perry-era songs with a different singer was incredibly disrespectful and unnecessary.
I could be wrong because I haven't listened to that CD in years, but perhaps because they didn't really do anything new to the songs aside from have the current members play them? Had they done some new interpretations or changed things up more, would the Journey fans still have gotten that bent out of shape?