Journey

Seperate Ways


Faithfully

In the 80s Arena rock was already in full effect and just got bigger and bigger. Large sound systems, pan lighting, and good old solid rock and roll. One of the kings of Arena rock, be it their power ballads or rock anthems was the band Journey.

Journey was an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco, California.
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," "Faithfully," "Open Arms," "Separate Ways" and "Wheel in the Sky."

History
First incarnation
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 want to 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 February 5, 1974, the new line-up made their debut at the Great American Music Hall. The band was off and running.

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 didn't find commercial success (although it did start a pattern of trademark one-word album titles).

With the mediocre sales of the album Next and the difficulties Gregg Rolie was having maintaining his dual role as keyboardist and lead vocalist (in fact, Neal Schon sang on a few of that album's tracks), the band was pressured by the studio to change direction and find a new lead singer and frontman. As a result, Journey enlisted Robert Fleischman. Fleischman, a southern California native, had been playing with a Chicago-based touring band when his manager, Barry Fey, brought him to Denver in early 1977 for a showcase with studio executives. "It was completely snowing and we didn’t know if people were gonna’ make it, and then all the people from the west coast and the east coast made it," Fleischman recalls. He was "discovered" by a CBS executive at the showcase, and within two weeks was flown out to San Francisco for an audition with Journey.

Told that the band was transitioning to a more popular style, akin to that of Foreigner and Boston, Fleischman knew that his Led Zeppelin-inspired vocal style would be an asset. But he was taken aback by the sheer power of the band he was hooking up with. In their first studio session, Fleishman recalls, "It was like...having rockets on the back of your pockets. And they’d been together so long and they were so tight that it was great to play with people that way." The sessions that winter ultimately produced "For You," which later appeared on the Time3 box set, and "Wheel in the Sky," later recorded--without Fleischman--for the Infinity album.
Fleischman went out on the road with Journey that spring, but his tenure in the band was short-lived. He kept his own manager, Barry Fey, a constant affront to the authority of Journey's manager, Herbie Herbert. Additionally, Herbert seemed unwilling to let the band's new direction play out immediately, and Fleischman often found himself relegated to shaking a tambourine while the band played its classic numbers to its diehard core of fusion fans. Fleischman also apparently clashed with other band members when he failed to finish new songs promptly.

A new vocalist, redux
Manager Herbie Herbert had heard of singer Steve Perry, and when the singer's demo tape (from his previous band Alien Project) of a song called "If You Need Me, Call Me"—which later appeared on Perry's Greatest Hits + Five Unreleased album, with the remaining tracks from the demo tape to be released in early October 2006 on the remastered release of Perry's Street Talk) was put in his hands by roadie Jack Villanueva, Herbie knew he needed to make a change. After an interesting interlude in which Perry was covertly introduced to the band (with Fleischman being told Perry was Villanueva's Portuguese cousin), Fleischman was fired. Perry made his public debut with Journey 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 producer Roy Thomas Baker was brought in by Fleischman to provide a more layered sound. The changes worked, and Journey achieved their highest chart success to date, reaching No. 21 on the album charts and Infinity gave Journey their first R.I.A.A. certified Platinum album.

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 its first Billboard Hot 100 Top 20 single, "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'".

1980 saw the album Departure, which continued the trend toward increasing commercial success, reaching No. 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, Rolie departed. Before leaving, he recommended a successor for keyboards: Jonathan Cain, a former member of The Babys, a band that had just previously toured with Journey.

Massive commercial success
In 1981, Journey's seventh studio album, Escape, went to No. 1 on the album charts and would go on to become their biggest selling and most popular studio album (nine times platinum), not counting their Greatest Hits album. 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 No. 2 on the charts — helped establish Perry as the standard for 1980s arena rock power ballad vocals.

In 1982, the band contributed two tracks ("Only Solutions" and "1990's Theme") to the Disney feature film Tron. Coincidentally, later that year the group became the first rock band to inspire a video game - or, more precisely, two: the Journey arcade by Bally/Midway, and Journey Escape by Data Age for the Atari 2600 (The Big 80s is fortunate enough to actually have both versions at my home).

Journey's next album, 1983's Frontiers, continued their commercial success. It reached No. 2 on the album charts and scored four hit singles, with "Faithfully" and "Separate Ways" reaching the highest at Nos. 12 and 8, respectively. 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 synthesizers 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/Stay" as a life-on-the-road favorite.

Turmoil
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 song and MTV video with "Oh Sherrie". Much to the dismay of Herbert, who had a falling out with Perry at that time, original member and bassist Valory and drummer Smith were fired from the band. The two were replaced by various studio musicians for the recording of the 1986 album Raised on Radio (originally meant to be called Freedom, but was changed at the insistance of Steve Perry), including future "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson (bass) and Larrie Londin (drums). Smith recorded two tracks with Journey on the album before departing. Both Smith and Valory were paid for any revenues from the album and the subsequent tour.

Production on Raised on Radio was stop-and-go, due to the poor health of Perry's mother, Mary Perry. Overall, the album sold 2 million copies. This is one of the least mentioned records, due to many believing that this was just an extension of Perry's solo career. This did not sit well with Neal Schon, who often clashed with Perry during the production of the record.

A tour followed, which featured Jackson on bass and Mike Baird on drums. Afterward, Perry, exhausted from the constant touring, grieving from the death of his mother, and the collapse of his six-year relationship with Sherrie Swafford, walked away from Journey in 1987, ending the band's ride at the top. Perry, despite working on a solo project in 1989 (titled Against The Wall) that was shelved, left the industry for several years before officially returning in 1994.

Schon and Cain left in 1988 to join Cain's ex-Babys bandmate John Waite, forming Bad English, and to record solo albums. Schon then joined his brothers-in-law's group, Hardline. By 1991, Valory, Smith, and Rolie joined The Storm; all the members had moved on with their lives and careers.

Perry also recorded "Don't Fight It" (1982), with Kenny Loggins. He has recorded with other groups since then, and released another solo album in 1994 (For the Love of Strange Medicine) and a solo greatest-hits collection in 1998. 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 re-form
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 Smith and 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 lineup did not come to fruition. Perry announced he was rejoining Journey in 1995. For a time, the "Escape" Journey lineup was reunited. Perry, Schon, Smith, Cain, and Valory were back together and making new music. This produced the reunion album Trial by Fire in 1996, which included a hit single, "When You Love a Woman" which was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Following the success of Trial by Fire, the members of Journey prepared for a much-anticipated tour. The media hype and the overall excitement surrounding the band was immense but it all came to a grinding halt when Perry injured his hip while hiking in Hawaii causing the band to postpone the tour. As it turns out, Perry likely needed a hip replacement but he steadfastly refused to make the decision to have the surgery. Recognizing the delicate matter of the situation, the rest of the band members waited patiently for over two years for Perry to make a decision to either have surgery or move on with the tour. In 1998, the band was beginning to get impatient and pressed Perry for a decision about his hip injury. When Perry refused, Cain and Schon reluctantly decided to continue the band without him. Drummer Smith, believing Journey would not survive without Perry, decided to leave the band as well, in favor of a longstanding jazz project (Vital Information) on which he'd been working prior to the reconstitution of Journey.

These decisions left Journey without a drummer and a lead vocalist. The drumming position was filled by Deen Castronovo, Schon's and Cain's Bad English bandmate, and the drummer for Hardline. 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 City as a store manager. 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 Journey members enough to land the gig. At this point Perry was legally no longer a member of Journey and Cain tells a story of how fans reacted angrily to Journey using Perry-led live tracks to advertise the new lineup's tour, when in fact the tracks featured Augeri. This is due in no small part to the fact that Augeri's singing voice closely replicated that of Perry's, even if it was somewhat "bluesier".
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 originally was released in Japan in late 2000, but due to its leakage onto the internet and fans' negative reaction to its ballad-heavy sound, the band decided to delay its U.S. release and record two more harder 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.

On January 21, 2005, Journey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where 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.
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'").

Current members
Jeff Scott Soto - lead vocals (2006-present)
Neal Schon - lead guitar, vocals (1973-1987, 1996-present)
Jonathan Cain - keyboards, rhythm guitar, vocals (1980-1987, 1996-present)
Ross Valory - bass, vocals (1973-1985, 1996-present)
Deen Castronovo - drums, vocals (1998-present)

Past members
Steve Augeri - lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar on tour (1998-2006)
Steve Perry - lead vocals (1977-1987, 1996-1998)
Steve Smith - drums, percussion (1979-1985, 1996-1998)
Gregg Rolie - keyboards, lead vocals (1973-1977) keyboards, backing vocals (1977-1980)
Aynsley Dunbar - drums, percussion (1974-1979)
George Tickner - rhythm guitar (1973-1976)
Robert Fleischman - lead vocals (1977)
Prairie Prince - drums (1973-1974)

Tour/studio members
Randy Jackson - bass (1985-1987)
Larrie Londin - drums, percussion (1985-1986)
Bob Glaub - bass (1985)
Mike Baird - drums (1986-1987)

Discography
Studio albums
Journey (1975)
Look into the Future (1976)
Next (1977)
Infinity (1978) - first album featuring Steve Perry. (Columbia Records) Reissued, 2006 (Legacy Recordings)
Evolution (1979) (Columbia Records) Reissued, 2006 (Legacy Recordings)
Departure (1980) (Columbia Records) Reissued, 2006 (Legacy Recordings)
Dream After Dream (1980) - Japanese film soundtrack
Escape (1981) (Columbia Records) Reissued, 2006 (Legacy Recordings)
Frontiers (1983) (Columbia Records) Reissued, 2006 (Legacy Recordings)
Raised on Radio (1986) - featuring only Perry, Schon and Cain with studio musicians. (Columbia Records) Reissued, 2006 (Legacy Recordings)
Trial by Fire (1996) Reissued, 2006 (Legacy Recordings)
Arrival (2001)
Red 13 (2002) EP
Generations (29 August 2005)

Trivia
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. (The song is also played over the end credits of Simpsons episode Burns Baby Burns which features Dangerfield as special guest voice.)
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 Parker and Stone 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, Quagmire, Cleveland, and Joe 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 coincided with a spike in iTunes online music sales for the song, placing it 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 [6], 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 cappella rendition of the song, on the podium at the World Series Championship celebration in Chicago.
In the "The Shield" season three episode "Safe", Detective Ronnie Gardocki comments that he was planning to go see Journey in concert when asked by one character as to his evening plans.
In a third season episode of Scrubs entitled "My Journey," JD mentions to Carla that he knows a great Journey cover band called "The Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin's" and that she should book to play at her and Turk's wedding reception. He then begins to sing the first verse of "Don't Stop Believin'." The episode concluded with the song played in full.
In the FOX television series The O.C., one of the characters, Ryan Atwood, claims that Journey is his favorite band. "Open Arms" and "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" are used in a couple of episodes on the show. A Journey poster can be seen on the wall of the character's "pool house" living space.
"Don't Stop Believin'" was also featured in the 2003 film Monster, starring Charlize Theron, who won an Academy Award for her performance.
In the movie The Wedding Singer, the scene in which Adam Sandler's character, Robbie, is left at the altar features a string ensemble at the wedding playing "Don't Stop Believin'."
On the "Tsst" episode of South Park, Cartman sings a part from "Don't Stop Believin'."
On an episode of Saturday Night Live, "Don't Stop Believin'" is played by the studio band. The skit was about a man who loved himself so much, he re-recorded all of his favorite music with his own voice.
In the film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, the song "Any Way You Want It" is played at the end before the credits.
The song "Wheel in the Sky" is played at the end of the second season episode "Bust Out" of the popular HBO drama The Sopranos.
On an episode of the TV series Yes, Dear, "Don't Stop Believin'" is sang by actor Mike O'Malley when his little kid manages to use the toilet instead of diapers.
In the movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), "Faithfully" is played in the bar when Susan (actress Amy Adams) convinces Ricky Bobby (actor Will Ferrell) in an impassioned speech to resume his NASCAR stock car racing career. His former assistant, Susan then professes her love for Ricky, and they start to kiss, with Ricky warning the other customers not to watch, "because we're gonna start making animal noises".
Randy Pearson, a fictional character from the 8th season of That '70s Show enjoys listening to Journey. He represented the change between 70s rock music (other characters from the show listened to Led Zeppelin, Ted Nugent, etc.) and 80s popular rock. In the opening credits to season 8, he was seen banging his head (something most people attribute to metal music, made mainstream in the '80s)
"Don't Stop Believin'" provided a touching plot device in Dave Eggers' novel, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.
In the movie View from the Top starring Mike Myers and Gwenyth Paltrow, "Don't Stop Believin'" is played during the intro and the final scene.
In his book I Rant, Therefore I Am, comedian Dennis Miller mentions that, while in the process of buying a house, Journey was at said house for unknown reasons; Steve Perry helped "save [Miller] $3000 by spotting a leak in the water heater."
The song "Oh Sherrie" is referred to by Lauren Graham who plays Lorelai Gilmore on Gilmore Girls when she mentions Christopher's wife, Sherrie.
"Any Way You Want It" features as the title song for Almost Skateboards first team video Almost Round Three.
"Wheel in the Sky" was played on a recap segment of the sci-fi show Supernatural
In the season 10 episode of Stargate SG-1 "Bounty", a request is made at the school reunion for Journey to be played.

External links
Journey's Official Site
Journey at Legacy Recordings
Ross Valory's Official Website
Gregg Rolie's Official Website
Jonathan Cain's Official Website
Steve Smith's Official Website
George Tickner's Official Website