![]() But all that jazz-rock fusion showboating wears thin over 35 minutes. Their musicianship dazzled on the instrumentals Kohoutek and Topaz, the latter written by rhythm guitarist George Tickner, who left the group after this album. With two former members of Santana in Neal Schon and Gregg Rolie, and an accomplished drummer, Englishman Aynsley Dunbar, who had played for John Mayall, Jeff Beck and Frank Zappa, this was a new band with an impressive pedigree. It certainly sounded as if some strong stuff was being smoked when they recorded it. “A strong beginning” said Rolling Stone magazine of Journey’s debut album. And if this album’s ballads slipped Cain’s mind, it’s hardly surprising. ![]() As keyboard player Jonathan Cain said: “If people want to hear ballads, they can certainly find them on other records.”īut aside from the opening track, the mighty anthem City Of Hope, there is nothing on this album with the melodic power of a classic Journey banger like Separate Ways (Worlds Apart). Eclipse was by design a heavy, guitar-focused album. Journey got off to a strong start with Arnel Pineda on 2008’s million-selling Revelation, but the follow-up was an outright flop. Despite the album’s title, the sound is stuck in the 60s. The other tracks run like a loose jam session, veering from prog to psychedelia, jazz to heavy rock. ![]() ![]() Tellingly, the catchiest number on Look Into The Future, the band’s second album, is a cover of The Beatles’ It’s All Too Much. In the credits to Journey’s 1979 album Evolution, the band stated, gratefully: “Columbia Records stands alone in the field of developing new artists.” The company’s ‘tough love’ approach certainly worked for Journey, who couldn’t buy a hit record until Columbia ordered them to find a proper singer and write some tunes. Journey: Look Into The Future (Columbia, 1976) And when he quit again two years later, he was gone for good.ġ8. But the pressures of fame led Perry to quit the band in 1987, leaving Journey on hiatus until his return in 1995. Perry also had a huge hit in 1984 with his first solo album, Street Talk. In the 80s, Journey became one of the biggest bands in America, with the Holy Trinity of AOR albums: Escape, Frontiers and Raised On Radio. The album promptly went platinum, and from there, the only way was up. His first album with the band, 1978’s Infinity, reinvented Journey as a mainstream rock act. With a richly expressive voice, Perry could hit high notes that other singers could only dream of. Guitarist Neal Schon and vocalist/keyboard player Gregg Rolie had previously played in Santana, but Journey’s early music, mixing Santana-style jazz fusion and progressive rock, was a hard sell, and Rolie’s voice wasn’t the strongest.Įverything changed when Steve Perry joined the band after they’d tried out another singer, Robert Fleischman. It’s a young man’s game, but I do miss it.”Ĩ.At that time, the San Francisco-based band had made three albums for Columbia Records, and all three had stiffed. People’s backs and necks start to go out. I’m watching baseball these days and there’s injuries. “I’ve got some physical injuries from touring,” he continued. Though Perry has been back for a few years, he has yet to return to touring. He followed it up last year with Traces (Alternate Versions and Sketches), a stripped-down version of the album. Perry took an extended from the music industry after leaving Journey in 1998, but he reemerged in 2018 with the solo LP Traces. Back home for Christmas is where everyone wants to be!” I had to stop singing because it felt like I was really there. “When I was recording vocals for ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’, as I was singing ‘Please have snow and mistletoe and presents under the tree’ … I was emotionally thrown into standing in my grandmother’s house staring through the door that I always hung mistletoe,” he said in a statement, “and then I saw her beautiful Christmas tree in front of her living room window. Perry said that recording the album was an emotional and cathartic experience.
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