The Enthusiast's Guide: Journey

Dec 25, 202413 min read

Five men with various hair lengths and expressions, in a studio setting. One wears a blue striped shirt, another a black leather jacket.

Mark Donnelly looks back at the fifty-year career of one of the biggest Melodic Rock bands on the planet.

Ask any music fan to name the Top-5 AOR bands of all-time and there’s one that’s sure to appear in everyone’s list, probably at #1... Journey. However, their beginning and subsequent first few albums have little in common with the behemoth that they would become in the late-70s/early-to-mid-80s.

At the tender age of 17, guitarist, and San Francisco Bay Area native, Neal Schon joined the Carlos Santana band, where he met fellow musician Greg Rolie (keyboards and vocals), plus manager Walter “Herbie” Herbert. Following Santana’s ‘Caravanserai’ album, the group disbanded, and Herbert decided to put a band together with Schon and Rolie (The Golden Gate Rhythm Section). They later changed their name to Journey, and along with rhythm guitarist George Tickner, bassist Ross Valory, and drummer Aynsley Dunbar, released their self-titled album on 1st April 1975. The style of music, Progressive/Jazz Rock, was similar in composition to Santana.

A year later they released sophomore album ‘Look Into The Future’ as a quartet, Tickner having left the band. Two singles were released – ‘On A Saturday Nite’ and ‘She Makes Me (Feel Alright)’. The album also included a cover of the Beatles’ ‘It’s All Too Much’ from the 1968 ‘Yellow Submarine’ soundtrack.

The third album ‘Next’ saw the quartet continue in the same vein as the first two releases, and would be the last album to feature Rolie as the primary lead vocalist. Indeed, Schon took the lead role on ‘I Would Find You’ and ‘Karma’. Shortly after the release of the record, Robert Fleischman joined as the band’s first ever dedicated frontman, sharing vocal duties with Rolie. Journey had developed a cult-following, but with very little commercial success the fans at the time, as well as the manager, did not take to Fleischman and a few months later he was fired. Herbert knew exactly the man needed to take Journey to the next level... Steve Perry; however, he had a job on his hands convincing Schon and Rolie, who were reluctant to have a crooner fronting their band. Fortuitously, Schon’s reservations melted away following their first meeting and their co-writing of the song ‘Patiently’.

Perry was about to sign a deal with the band Alien Project when, tragically, their bass player Richard Michaels died in a road traffic accident. He almost turned his back on music at this point, but was persuaded by his mother to continue. In October 1977 Perry joined Journey, and four months later they released their fourth long player ‘Infinity’, a dramatic departure from the Fusion-inspired music of earlier releases. It spawned three minor hits in ‘Wheel In The Sky’, ‘Anytime’ and ‘Lights’. Assisted by English producer Roy Thomas Baker, the trademark harmony vocals, which the band would become famed for, were first heard.

In March 1979, the fifth album ‘Evolution’ was released. Perry and drummer Aynsley Dunbar were at odds, as the singer, now having a considerable foothold in the band, wanted a more restrained approach from the sticks man, whose playing was all about power and aggression. Reticently, Schon, Rolie and Valory took the decision to fire their friend and replaced him with Montrose drummer Steve Smith. The album featured three singles, ‘Just The Same Way’, ‘Too Late’, and ‘Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’’, the latter becoming the band’s first ever Top-20 single in the US.

Over the years there have been countless compilation albums; the first, ‘In The Beginning’, a double LP, was released in November 1979. Three months later, ‘Departure’, their sixth studio album was released, and became their first Top-10 US hit. A further three, modestly reserved, singles were taken from the album: ‘Any Way You Want It’, ‘Walk Like A Lady’, and the medley ‘Good Morning Girl/Stay Awhile’.

Perry was fast becoming the major influence in the band, but didn’t share the same family values as manager Herbert. In July 1980 soon after the release of ‘Departure’, tired of life on the road, original founding member Greg Rolie left the band; however, he assisted in finding his replacement, Jonathan Cain of The Babys. ‘Departure’ was also the first album cover to feature the logo of the scarab beetle, a symbol borrowed from Ancient Egypt. It was believed that the beetle would roll the sun across the sky and into the next life/ heaven at night and return the next morning.

Five men in leather outfits pose confidently on a rooftop. One wears red pants. Bright blue sky and cityscape in the background.

Later in the same year, they released the soundtrack to the Japanese fantasy film ‘Yume, Yume No Ato’, directed by fashion designer Kenzo Takada. ‘Dream, After Dream’ harkened back to the sound of earlier releases, and only featured vocals on three of its nine tracks. The record was co-produced by the band and Kevin Elson and would be the final one to feature Rolie.

Similar to the compilations, live albums have been a feature of Journey’s career over the years. ‘Captured’, recorded in 1980 during the ‘Departure’ tour and released in January 1981, was the very first. It featured seventeen tracks, including ‘Dixie Highway’, which was never a studio track, plus a studio recording of the single ‘The Party's Over (Hopelessly in Love)’. In the liner notes, the album is dedicated to AC/DC singer Bon Scott, who died in February 1980. Scott is referred to as “a friend from the highway”, as AC/DC had supported Journey the previous year on their ‘If You Want Blood’ tour.

Now, it’s at this point that I interject myself into proceedings. I first got into Rock music circa late 1979, but I was mainly into Metal and Classic Rock in the early days. I heard the odd Journey song, but nothing really floated my boat; that was until I heard ‘Escape’, which I now consider my favourite album of all time.

Released in July 1981, to say ‘Escape’ was a “game-changer” would be a huge underestimation. Indeed, it not only inspired my lifelong love of all things AOR, but enthused a generation of groups and propelled Journey to beyond the stars, as portrayed by the album cover with the futuristic scarab-shaped cruiser exploding out of a glass planetoid.

On meeting Perry for the first time, Cain played him a melody and together they co- wrote one of the greatest songs of all-time, ‘Open Arms’. However, persuading Schon it should be a Journey song was difficult, as he thought it was very “Mary Poppins”. Nevertheless, the first time it was played live it went down amazingly well, and the audience demographic suddenly became much more female-oriented. If not the originators, Journey were certainly at the vanguard of the power ballad.

‘Escape’ would become the fifth best- selling album of the year, and the band’s biggest selling studio album to date... over ten million copies and still counting. Now, I could wax lyrically for pages about the virtues of the album produced by Mike Stone and Kevin Elson. The balance and power are immense, and no matter how many times I listen to it, I never tire of any of the songs. Without the release of ‘Escape’, the whole music landscape would have been completely different.

In August 1982, the five members went back into the studio (Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California) to start recording their next opus ‘Frontiers’. Schon wanted this album to be a lot heavier than ‘Escape’, resulting in the last-minute replacement of ‘Ask the Lonely’ and ‘Only The Young’ with ‘Back Talk’ and ‘Troubled Child’. Had the original track list been kept, ‘Frontiers’ would have matched, and arguably surpassed its predecessor. The 2006 re-issue addressed the issue and included the aforementioned tracks, which became soundtracks to the films ‘Two Of A Kind’ and ‘Vision Quest’ respectively. ‘Frontiers’ reached #2 in the US charts and garnered four hit singles: ‘Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)’ (with one of the most hideous/comical videos of the 80s), ‘Faithfully’, ‘After The Fall’, and ‘Send Her My Love’.

At this time Journey was one of the biggest bands on the planet, selling out arenas across The States. Disingenuously, they were dubbed by the press as “Corporate Rock”, which was literally saying they had become victims of their own success.

Perry became increasingly reclusive, taking his girlfriend Sherrie Swafford on tour, which put a wedge between him and the other band members, travelling in separate buses. There had been an unwritten rule between the members that whilst they were in Journey they would concentrate on the band and not go off and do solo projects; however, the restless and creative Schon released two albums with musician/composer Jan Hammer – 1981’s ‘Untold Passion’ and 1982’s ‘Here To Stay’ – plus a live album with one of the original “supergroups” HSAS (Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve), 1984’s ‘Through The Fire’. The latter only went to increase the tensions between Schon and Perry, resulting in the singer releasing his own solo album ‘Street Talk’, which was a commercial success, especially the lead single ‘Oh Sherrie’, written about his girlfriend.

After his solo success Perry wanted to have more control, which resulted in the firing of Smith and Valory for supposedly not capturing the sound the frontman was seeking. This, of course, was the mid-80s, where technology such as synths and drum machines were all the rage. Valory was replaced initially by session bassist Bob Glaub and then by Randy Jackson, whilst drummer Smith contributed to a few tracks, but was replaced during the recording by session drummer Larrie Londin, and then Mike Baird for the subsequent tour.

‘Raised On Radio’ was released in early 1986 and produced four hit singles. A little- known fact, Perry changed the original title of this project from ‘Freedom’ to ‘Raised On Radio’, much to the annoyance of Herbert and some of the band members, as it varied from the one-word general theme on most of their previous albums. The band would end up using the ‘Freedom’ title thirty-six years later for their 2002 studio album.

In Spring 1987 Perry didn’t want to carry on and the band simply stopped, no farewell concert or announcement. Could this be the end of Journey?

In 1988 Columbia (Sony) released the ‘Greatest Hits’ album featuring fifteen tracks from 1977 to 1985. This anthology would go on to be the band’s biggest selling album, racking up over fifteen million sales worldwide, making it one of the biggest selling compilations of all-time. It is just the third release of any kind in US history to spend a staggering six hundred weeks on the chart, and it follows in some truly giant footsteps: Pink Floyd’s ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ and Bob Marley and the Wailers’ ‘Legend’. For the casual fan then, this is a must have – although I would steer you towards ‘Greatest Hits Live’ recorded in 1981 and 1983 – and contains the big hits, but highlights the power of the group, plus Perry at his ultimate best.

Tired of sitting waiting around, Schon and Cain formed the supergroup Bad English with Cain’s former bandmates, John Waite and bassist Ricky Phillips from The Babys, and drummer Deen Castronovo. They released two excellent albums through Epic records: 1989’s ‘Bad English’ and 1991’s ‘Backlash’.

After Bad English called it a day, Schon and Castronovo joined forces with Johnny and Joey Gioeli, plus Todd Jensen, to produce another genre classic, Hardline’s ‘Double Eclipse’ (1992).

In 1990, ex-Journey members Greg Rolie, Steve Smith and Ross Valory joined forces with Josh Ramos and singer Kevin Chalfant to form The Storm, who released two further genre-classics (are you getting the picture?): 1991’s self-titled opus and 1995’s ‘The Eye Of The Storm’.

After a near seven-year hiatus, Journey was poised to regroup with the late-70s line- up, minus singer Steve Perry, who was in the midst of working on a second solo album. Kevin Chalfant performed five songs with Neal Schon, Jonathan Cain, Gregg Rolie, Ross Valory, Steve Smith, and Aynsley Dunbar at a roast for manager Herbie Herbert. Chalfant proved to be a good fit and was invited to formally join the band. He began writing material in 1994 with Rolie, Schon, and Cain in anticipation of a full album and tour.

In 1994, Perry released his second solo album ‘For The Love Of Strange Medicine’, and a year later he reached out to Cain, resulting in Chalfant leaving the band. Perry also wanted Herbert out and Irving Azhoff as the new manager; Smith and Valory were asked to re-join for the new album, and ‘Trial By Fire’ was released in November 1996, peaking at #3 on the US Billboard Charts. It garnered Journey their first Grammy Nomination for ‘When You Love A Woman’.

In preparation for the forthcoming tour, Perry went to Hawaii hiking, where unfortunately he had a bad fall, which left him in acute pain and requiring a hip replacement, so the comeback was put on hold. The album subsequently received no promotion, and the bad blood between Perry and the other members intensified over the singer’s decision not to have surgery.

In January 1998 Schon and Cain replaced Perry with Tall Stories’ singer Steve Augeri. The first song they released was in the same year, ‘Remember Me’ from the ‘Armageddon’ soundtrack. However, it would be a further three years before they would release the ‘Arrival’ opus, replete with scarab cover. Drummer Steve Smith left and was replaced by Deen Castronovo.

In 2002, Journey released their first and only EP featuring four tracks: ‘Intro: Red 13/ State Of Grace’, ‘The Time’, ‘I Can Breathe’ and ‘Walkin’ Away From The Edge’, which was co-written with Geoff Tate, the then frontman of Queensrÿche. The songs were good, but dogged by a poor production courtesy of Schon and Cain.

After a twenty-six-year absence, Journey finally made it back to the UK for a three- date tour, including an appearance at the Monsters of Rock Festival at the Milton Keynes Bowl. Unbelievably, I was out of the country at the time!

Journey was once again gathering momentum, and there was much anticipation with the release of ‘Generations’ in the fall of 2005. The huge tours and lengthy sets were starting to cause issues with Augeri’s vocals, so the band took the decision to share lead vocal duties; a decision that, in hindsight, proved to be a wrong one with a resulting sub-standard album.

They returned to this side of the Atlantic a year later, and I eventually got to see one of my all-time favourite bands live in concert at Sheffield City Hall. By this time Augeri’s vocal issues had become so bad, Schon was forced to turn to vocalist Jeff Scott Soto, who he had worked with on the Soul Sirkus project (along with Marco Mendoza and Deen Castronovo) to finish the tour. Yes, it wasn’t the same as the previous singers, but readers of Fireworks will be well aware that Soto can sing almost any style. I would have loved to have heard an album with him; however, the amiable frontman was disingenuously, in my opinion, ousted from the band at the end of the tour!

So, once again Journey were in the unenviable position of trying to replace their singer. On June 28, 2007, Schon first saw and heard Arnel Pineda with his cover band The Zoo via YouTube, and watched him do forty different clips covering various artists, but it was his rendition of the Journey classic ‘Faithfully’, hauntingly similar to the original, that convinced Schon to immediately contact the Filipino singer. Pineda’s story is a real “rags to riches” one, having been homeless when he was 13, living on the streets of Manila, to fronting one of the biggest Rock groups in the world.

The first album to feature Pineda was 2008’s ‘Revelation’. The extended edition featured a bonus disc of the Filipino singing eleven of the Perry-era classics, and was further evidence of how close to the legendary vocalist he sounded.

In 2008, Journey returned to the UK for an overly ambitious arena tour. I saw them in Nottingham, and although impressed with Pineda’s vocals, his “jack- in-box” stage presence was a little off-putting.

In 2009 they played at the Download Festival on the Classic Rock day. It was one of the greatest afternoon/evenings I’ve ever experienced watching live music: Tesla, Dream Theater, Journey, ZZ Top, Whitesnake and Def Leppard on a glorious sun-soaked June day in Derbyshire.

After the mistake of 2008, they came back to the UK in 2011, with arguably the greatest AOR triple bill these shores have ever seen, featuring Styx and Foreigner. I was at the Manchester Arena show and loved all three bands, but would concur with anyone who thought the other two put on better performances. This tour was to promote the ‘Eclipse’ album, which is a very Schon, guitar-orientated release.

Five men in sunglasses, wearing leather and denim, pose confidently outdoors against a clear blue sky, with rocky terrain in the background.

Journey began to become a regular fixture to these shores with a further impressive three-bill line up in 2013, which featured Whitesnake and Thunder. I did not have to travel far for this one, as they played down the road at the Sheffield Motorpoint Arena.

Between 2007 and 2015, Journey had a revival of sorts from a couple of unexpected sources. Firstly, ‘Glee’, an American musical comedy-drama television series that aired on Fox in the US from 2009 to 2015 featured the classic ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ in no less than six episodes, introducing Journey to a whole legion of new (mostly younger) fans. Secondly, the last scene in ‘The Sopranos’ featured the iconic song (although Perry, as one of the three co-writers, only signed off on the TV studio using the track a few days before its airing, once he had assurance that the family would not be whacked!). Along with being adopted by various sporting teams, political parties, and a Karaoke favourite, (also the final song played at Firefest – The Final Fling in 2014) ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ became the most downloaded song of the 20th Century. It has been certified platinum an incredible eighteen times, leading Forbes earlier in the year to declare it the biggest song of all time!

The last studio album to be released was the fifteen-song ‘Freedom’, which harkened back to the sound of the 80s, which I was privileged to review in Issue #99. Although not a commercial success in comparison to their 80s output, Journey’s popularity has continued to grow once again. They are embarking on a mammoth tour to celebrate their 50th anniversary, including dates in the UK. They may not be the force they once were, but to see the songs performed live in a large arena is an experience well worth it. My only sadness is that I’ll never get to see Steve Perry (my all-time favourite singer) front the band in the flesh. Fortunately, there are plenty of recordings for me and others to view and enjoy, ‘Live In Houston 1981 Escape Tour’ CD/DVD being a prime example.

At times, the interaction of the band members has played out like a soap opera, and like any group with such longevity, they’ve had their ups and downs. Journey has been the soundtrack to my life and countless others over the last fifty years. Their music has always had a feel-good quality and they hold my mantra of ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’...

Journey's albums rated (click to expand the picture)