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Journey (band)

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The rock band Journey
The rock band Journey

Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco.

The band has gone through several phases, including one dominated by former members of Santana. The band's greatest commercial success came in the early 1980s with a series of power ballads and soaring classics such as "Don't Stop Believin'", "Any Way You Want It," "Open Arms", "Separate Ways", "Wheel in the Sky" and "Faithfully". Many credit the group's success to Steve Perry's powerful vocals and Neal Schon's complex guitar work.

Beginnings

See Santana for additional background of the people who would become Journey.

In December 1971, Gregg Rolie, the organist and vocalist and co-founding member of Santana, decided that it was time to leave the band, due to longstanding disagreements with Carlos Santana about the musical direction of the group. He went home to Seattle, opening a restaurant with his father.

While all this was going on, there was another face on the scene; the road manager for Santana, Walter "Herbie" Herbert. After an abortive South American tour, Herbert was on Carlos’s bad side. Herbie and Santana guitarist Neal Schon had become good friends on the tour. Herbie had the idea to take Schon and form a new band around his guitar-playing talents. After Schon parted ways with a Larry Graham side project that would eventually become Graham Central Station, he agreed. Herbert was able to get George Tickner (guitar) and Ross Valory (former bassist for the Steve Miller Band) who were at the time playing in Frumious Bandersnatch (another band that Herbie managed) to join Schon and form a new band. Prairie Prince (drums), who was already with The Tubes, was recruited to join the new effort.

Meanwhile, Rolie's restaurant in Seattle was not doing well. Rolie sold a majority of it, but still was on the hook financially. Herbert and Schon agreed that they should also bring in Rolie, and Herbie made the call. In June 1973, the Golden Gate Rhythm Section was formed. Their initial plan was to be a ready-made studio band for anyone wanting to cut a record in San Francisco. While waiting for a job to come along, Tickner started submitting ideas for the band's own original material. Tickner was leaning toward very progressive material, material that was probably not commercially viable, but was pushing musical boundaries. They recorded some demo tapes and sent them to KSAN-FM, the Bay Area rock station. After listeners heard the tapes, and were given some background on the band, they were invited to submit names for the band. There is some dispute as to who actually came up with the name Journey, but John Villaneuva, a Herbert associate, put it forward to Herbie, and the band had a new name.

The band's first public appearance came at Winterland New Year’s Eve 1973. The next day, they flew to Hawaii and played the Crater Festival. Prince, while he didn’t mind helping the band out, was still tied to his other band, The Tubes. He did not really want make a commitment to join formally, so Herbert, having become manager of the new band, arranged for auditions for a new drummer, but nobody clicked. Herbert thought of Aynsley Dunbar, a drummer who played with Frank Zappa, John Mayall, Jeff Beck, Bonzo Dog Band, Mothers of Invention, Lou Reed, and David Bowie. Schon remembered seeing him play with Zappa, and the hunt was on. Although Dunbar didn’t know the members of Journey, he saw the potential and joined the band. On 5 February 1974, the new line-up made their debut at the Great American Music Hall. The band was off and running.

Early progressive period

Signed to Columbia Records, Journey released its self-titled first album Journey in 1975. It showcased their considerable talent as musicians on jazz-flavored progressive rock epics.

Guitarist George Tickner was tired from touring and left the band by the time of their second album, Look into the Future (1976), which toned down a little the overt progressiveness of their first release but still retained a jazz fusion base.

The following year's Next tried for shorter tracks to increase accessibility, but without finding any commercial success, although it did start a pattern of one-word album titles.

A new vocalist

The band was pressured to find a lead singer. Gregg Rolie had been serving this role, though his main duty in the band was really playing keyboards. As a result, Journey enlisted Robert Fleischman as front man. His tenure in the band was short-lived, but Fleischman's songwriting and vocals helped the band find commercial success. Manager Herbie Herbert then learned of singer Steve Perry, who was not considered until a Columbia Records executive recommended him. Perry made his public debut in October 1977 in San Francisco.

In Perry's first meeting with Schon, the pair quickly penned their first song together, "Patiently", which would appear on the new album Infinity in 1978. Perry added his signature vocals to now classic tracks such as "Lights" (written by Perry as an ode to San Francisco) and "Wheel in the Sky" (written by Fleischman, Schon, and Valory's then-wife, Diane) and "Anytime". In addition, Queen's producer Roy Thomas Baker was brought in by Fleischman to provide a more layered sound. These changes worked, and Journey achieved their highest chart success to date, reaching #21 on the album charts.

In 1979 Dunbar was fired, due to what Herbie claimed was "incompatibility of the first order," and joined Jefferson Starship. His replacement on drums was Steve Smith for the album Evolution, and the band got their first Billboard Hot 100 Top 20 single, "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'".

1980 saw the album Departure which continued the trend towards increasing commercial success, reaching #8 on the album charts. "Any Way You Want It" was a Top 25 single and received solid FM radio airplay. At this point, the band had a solid concert following as well. They were poised for large-scale success.

Exhausted from extensive touring, Gregg Rolie departed. Before leaving, he chose his successor on keyboards: Jonathan Cain, a former member of The Babys, who had toured with Journey.

Massive commercial success

File:Journeyband.jpg

In 1981, Journey's seventh studio album, Escape, went to #1 on the album charts and would go on to become their most popular (nine times platinum). The hits "Who's Crying Now", "Don't Stop Believin'", and "Open Arms" all reached the Top 10 as singles. The band's polished sound, fronted by Perry's distinctive and soon to be widely imitated voice, became a popular radio presence.

In particular, "Don't Stop Believin'" showcased how well Perry's soaring tenor could interlace with Cain's full piano chords and Schon's dynamic guitar work, while "Open Arms" — which spent six weeks at #2 on the charts — helped establish Perry as the standard for 1980s arena rock power ballad vocals.

Such success did not help Journey that much with rock critics, who for the most part had not liked any edition of the band. The 1983 Rolling Stone Record Guide gave all their albums only one star, saying that "Journey was a dead end for San Francisco area rock ... utter triviality ... banality ... reek[s] of exploitative cynicism." Fairly or not, critics often lumped Journey together with other one-word-named "corporate rock" bands such as Boston, Foreigner, Asia, and so forth.

In 1982, the band contributed two tracks ("Only Solutions" and "1990's Theme") to the Disney feature film Tron. Somewhat ironically, later that year the group became the first rock band to inspire a video game, with Journey and Journey: Escape.

Journey's follow-up, 1983's Frontiers, continued their commercial success. It reached #2 on the album charts and scored four hit singles, with "Faithfully" and "Separate Ways" reaching the highest at #12 and #8, respectivally. Jonathan Cain's presence was more felt on this album, both in his songwriting (he was the sole writer of "Faithfully") and in the greater use of keyboards in the sound.

It was now the MTV era, and Journey's popularity was boosted by a documentary-like music video for "Faithfully", which showed various band members and their families on tour and which helped place the song up with Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" and Jackson Browne's "Load Out" as a life-on-the-road favorite.

Turmoil

File:Street Talk album.jpg
Album cover to She's Mine single

Lead singer Steve Perry received much of the credit for Journey's success. In 1984, he released a solo album, Street Talk, which was successful and scored a very popular MTV video with "Oh Sherrie". Much to the dismay of Herbie Herbert, who had a falling out with Perry at that time, original member and bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith were fired from the band. The two were replaced by various studio musicians for the recording of the 1986 album Raised on Radio (which Perry produced), including Randy Jackson (bass) and Larrie Londin (drums). Smith did record two tracks with Journey on the album before departing.

Production on the album was stop-and-go, due to the poor health of Perry's mother. However, the classic Journey sound can still be heard on songs like "Girl Can't Help It", "Suzanne", and the long time concert staple "Be Good to Yourself", which made the Top 10 singles chart. The album closer and ballad "Why Can't This Night Go on Forever", also achieved chart success. Overall, the album sold two million copies.

A tour followed, which featured Jackson on bass and Mike Baird on drums. However, Perry, exhausted from constant touring, overcoming the death of his mother and the end of a six-year relationship with "Oh Sherrie" girlfriend Sherrie Swafford. Perry walked away from the band in 1987, ending Journey's ride at the top.

Schon and Cain left in 1989 in to join Cain's ex-Babys bandmate John Waite, forming Bad English, and to record solo albums. Schon then joined his brothers-in-laws' group, Hardline. By 1991, Valory, Smith and Rolie joined The Storm; all the members had moved on with their lives and careers.

Perry has also recorded "Don't Fight It" (1983) with Kenny Loggins. He recorded with other groups since then. Schon has created two albums with Jan Hammer (1981 and 1983, plus a compilation album of the two in the 2000s) and in 1985 was part of the HSAS (Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve) project. He also continues to record solo work.

Attempts to reform

Compilations and live albums were released while Journey was inactive. Mariah Carey's version of "Open Arms" gained Journey some attention in the mid-1990s (both Steve Smith and Randy Jackson had worked with Carey).

In 1993, Kevin Chalfant of The Storm performed with members of Journey on a few shows, and a reunited Journey was in the works with Chalfant, Schon, Cain, Valory, Smith and Rolie. That line-up did not come to fruition, when Steve Perry announced he was rejoining Journey in 1995. This produced the reunion album Trial by Fire in 1996, which included a hit single in "When You Love a Woman".

Following the success of Trial by Fire, the members of Journey prepared for the much anticipated tour. Unfortunately, Steve Perry injured his hip while hiking in Hawaii. The rest of the band members waited for Perry to make the decision to either have surgery on the injured hip or decide to go on tour. After Perry failed to come to a decision, and possibly believing Perry did not want to tour in any case [1], Jonathan Cain and Neal Schon decided to continue the band without him. Drummer Steve Smith, believing that Journey would not survive without Perry, decided to leave the band as well, in favor of a jazz project (Vital Information) he had been working on prior to the reformation of Journey.

These decisions left Journey without a drummer and a lead vocalist. The drumming position was filled by Deen Castronovo, Schon and Cain's Bad English bandmate. The lead vocalist position would later be filled in 1998 by Steve Augeri, former Tyketto and Tall Stories vocalist. Augeri had dropped out of the music business and was working at The Gap in New York. He received a phone call from Schon, who had heard a tape of Augeri's vocals. Schon invited him to audition for the band, and, despite having not sung much in recent months, he impressed the rest of the band members enough to land the gig. At this point Perry was legally no longer a member of Journey. Ironically, Augeri is sometimes confused with Perry, as they physically resemble each other, are both named Steve, and have similar vocal styles.

The band members promptly went to work recording a track for the soundtrack to the movie Armageddon, called "Remember Me". Not long after, the band began recording their next studio album, Arrival. The album was originally first released in Japan in late 2000, but due to its leakage onto the internet and fans' reaction to it, the band decided to delay its release in the US and record two more harder-rocking tunes for the American version. "All the Way" became a minor adult contemporary hit from the album.

In 2001, the band participated in an episode of VH1's Behind the Music, but statements made during the interviews only exacerbated tensions between Perry and the group.

Recent

Journey's critical reputation did not improve with the passage of time: The 2004 edition of the Rolling Stone Album Guide mentioned above calls Journey the perfect karaoke act and gives no studio album of theirs more than two-and-a-half stars out of five; the greatest hits albums did fare a little better.

Although written off by many as a cynical pop act, the band has become a half-ironic, half-reverent touchstone of sorts among some who would have been too young to see their original success, with semi-cultish references—at least to their greatest hits—popping up on Family Guy, among other places.

Journey and Steve Perry gained new attention in the 2000s due to Randy Jackson, who since his Journey involvement had become a successful recording industry figure and then an American Idol judge. Film clips of Jackson with the band on tour were shown, and various contestants on Idol attempted to measure up vocally by singing Journey numbers, exposing the songs to a new generation of listeners. The best remembered of these attempts was Clay Aiken's take on "Open Arms" in a key semi-final round of the show, and later in a duet with fellow Idol Kelly Clarkson on their joint concert tour, but no attempts fully reached the high bar for rock singing set by Steve Perry.

On January 21, 2005, Journey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Steve Perry made a surprise appearance at the ceremony. Relations between him and the rest of the group improved, but Perry said there was no chance of rejoining his former band in the foreseeable future. Ten current or former Journey bandmates appeared that day, including Perry and the current line-up, plus Steve Smith, Aynsley Dunbar, George Tickner and Robert Fleischman (Gregg Rolie was unable to attend the induction ceremony due to prior commitments). Two years before, Journey was inducted into the San Francisco Music Hall of Fame, with Rolie, Cain, Smith, Valory, Schon, Dunbar, Castronovo and Augeri appearing at that ceremony.

The group's current line-up is Augeri (vocals), Schon (guitar), Cain (keyboards, guitar), Valory (bass), and Castronovo (drums).

The band is currently embarked on their 30th anniversary tour and are giving away free copies of their new studio album, Generations, to all ticket holders at most concerts. The tour is slated to feature former Journey members, most notably Robert Fleischman, who performed with Journey on the night of their receiving the Walk of Fame star.

Before the 2005 World Series, the Chicago White Sox made "Don't Stop Believin'" their "official" World Series anthem. The White Sox would go on to sweep the Houston Astros in four games and win the World Series. Steve Perry was invited to the celebration parade in Chicago, where he sang "Don't Stop Believin'" with members of the White Sox.

Lineup, past and present

Discography

Albums

These are all studio albums unless stated otherwise:

  1. Journey (1975)
  2. Look into the Future (1976)
  3. Next (1977)
  4. Infinity (1978) - first album featuring Steve Perry
  5. Evolution (1979)
  6. In the Beginning (1980) - features selections from their first three studio albums
  7. Departure (1980)
  8. Dream After Dream (1980) - Japanese movie soundtrack
  9. Captured (1981) Live recordings of performances on the Departure tour
  10. Escape (1981)
  11. Tron (1982) - film soundtrack
  12. Frontiers (1983)
  13. Two of a Kind (1983) - film soundtrack
  14. Vision Quest (1985) - film soundtrack
  15. Raised on Radio (1986) - featuring only Perry, Schon and Cain with studio musicians
  16. Greatest Hits (1988)
  17. The Ballade (1991) - compilation of 1977-1986 ballads; Japan only
  18. Time3 (1992) Box set spanning 1974-1986; includes 11 previously unreleased tracks
  19. Trial by Fire (1996)
  20. Greatest Hits Live (1998) - recorded during '81–'84 touring
  21. Armageddon (1998) - film soundtrack; first appearances of Augeri and Castronovo "Remember Me"
  22. Arrival (2001)
  23. The Essential Journey (2001) - 2-disc compilation
  24. The Journey Continues (2001) - Greatest Hits collection; Japan only
  25. Red 13 (2002) EP
  26. Open Arms~Greatest Hits (2004) - Greatest Hits collection; Japan only
  27. Generations (29 August 2005)

DVDs

  1. Frontiers and Beyond (1984) - NFL Films documentary about the band's Frontiers tour; later released for a short time on DVD through Journey's official site in 2002
  2. Journey 2001 (2001) - concert footage from Las Vegas in 2001
  3. Greatest Hits 1977-1997 (2004) - collection of music videos from 1977-1997
  4. Live In Houston 1981 (2005) - DVD of MTV-aired Escape show; also includes a CD of the same concert

Singles

  • "Of A Lifetime" (1975)
  • "In My Lonely Feeling" (1975)
  • "Mystery Mountain" (1975)
  • "Midnight Dreamer" (1976)
  • "On A Saturday Nite" (1976)
  • "I'm Gonna Leave You" (1976)
  • "Anyway" (1976)
  • "Look Into The Future" (1977)
  • "Spaceman" (1977)
  • "People" (1977)
  • "Nickel And Dime" (1977)
  • "I Would Find You" (1977)
  • "Wheel In The Sky" (1978) #57 US
  • "Anytime" (1978) #83 US
  • "Lights" (1978) #68 US
  • "Just The Same Way" (1979) #58 US
  • "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" (1979) #16 US
  • "Lovin' You Is Easy" (1979)
  • "Too Late" (1980) #70 US
  • "Any Way You Want It" (1980) #23 US
  • "Walks Like A Lady" (1980) #32 US
  • "Good Morning Girl" (1980) #55 US
  • "Stay Awhile" (1980)
  • "The Party's Over (Hopelessly In Love)" (1981) #34 US
  • "Who's Cryin' Now" (1981) #4 US
  • "Don't Stop Believin'" (1981) #9 US
  • "Open Arms" (1982) #2 US
  • "Still They Ride" (1982) #19 US
  • "Only Solutions" (1982) Tron soundtrack
  • "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" (1982) #8 US
  • "Faithfully" (1983) #12 US
  • "After The Fall" (1983) #23 US
  • "Send Her My Love" (1983) #23 US
  • "Chain Reaction" (1984)
  • "Only The Young" (1985) #9 US
  • "Be Good To Yourself" (1986) #9 US
  • "Suzanne" (1986) #17 US
  • "Girl Can't Help It" (1986) #17 US
  • "I'll Be Alright Without You" (1987) #14 US
  • "Why Can't This Night Go On Forever?" (1987) #60 US
  • "When You Love a Woman" (1996) #12 US
  • "Message of Love" (1996)
  • "Remember Me" (1998) Armageddon soundtrack
  • "Higher Place" (2001)
  • "All The Way" (2001)
  • "The Place In Your Heart" (2005)

In the 1980 movie Caddyshack, the Rodney Dangerfield character's golf bag has a stereo that plays "Any Way You Want It" at an inopportune moment.

This reference was used again in the "Simpsons" episode 'Burns, Baby, Burns' (#157, 1996), where 'Any Way You Want It' is played in the final scene as Dangerfield's character, Larry Burns, proclaims 'let's party'.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of the animated comedy South Park, have chosen to use references to the band Journey, Steve Perry, and their music as jokes in both their television shows and movies. In Episode 909 of South Park, entitled "Erection Day", a little girl playing piano in the talent competition begins to sing the opening to "Open Arms", beginning, "Lying beside you, here in the dark..." before the show cuts onto another aspect of the plot.

In the movie BASEketball, a Stone and Parker movie, one of the competitors in the game of baseketball, in an attempt to "psyche out" his opponent, is heard singing "And I should've been gone", a line from the Steve Perry song, "Oh Sherrie". Upon his opponent missing his shot, he declares, "Dude, I thought we said no more Journey psyche-outs."

In the fourth season episode of Family Guy entitled "Don't Make Me Over", Peter, Cleveland, Joe, and Quagmire sing "Don't Stop Believin'" with a karaoke machine, inspiring the quartet to form a rock band, "Fat, Horny, Black, and Joe". Incidentally, the airing of the episode caused a spike in iTunes online music sales for the song, placing in the Top 10 most downloaded tracks for that week and the Top 25 for that month (August 2005). Since then it has remained highly downloaded and is still in the top 5 most bought for "Rock Music." The popularity and its resultant newsmaking further served to renew interest in the band and its recordings.

Further encouraging nationwide downloads of the song, MTV's Laguna Beach aired a segment featuring the teens singing to "Don't Stop Believin'" in 2005.

The Chicago White Sox baseball team adopted "Don't Stop Believin'" as their theme song for their playoff push towards the 2005 World Series [2], after players Joe Crede and A.J. Pierzynski went to a bar and screamed "Play some freakin' Journey!!" to a bad lounge singer. On October 28, 2005, Steve Perry led the team and the crowd in an a capella rendition of the song, on the podium at the World Series Championship celebration in Chicago.

In the third season episode of Scrubs entitled "My Journey" JD mentions to Carla that he know's a great Journey cover band called "The Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin's" and that she should get them to play at her and Turk's wedding reception. He then begin's to sing the first verse of "Don't Stop Believing". The episode concluded with the song played in full.

Popular Fox Network television show The OC has featured Journey numerous times as character Ryan Atwood's favorite artist.

Journey was nominated for two categories on VH1's Big in '05 awards show: "Big Old-School Triumph" and "Big Download" (for "Don't Stop Believin'").

See also

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