Who Moved My Cheese Metal?

OK, then, I pick up the gauntlet, and try to explain some of what made Journey in their prime so insanely irritating to so many critics and rock geeks.  (Making all due allowance for the many, many people who did, and do, love them passionately.)

No doubt there was some snobbery involved. Sure. But the problem wasn’t just that Journey were popular. A lot of popular acts were liked by critics, and some even by rock snobs, when Journey were in their prime. Prince, for one, and Bruce Springsteen. So that isn’t it, or not all of it.

Also, nobody (who knew what they were talking about) ever questioned Journey’s musicianship. They were all fine players, and Steve Perry was probably the great rock voice of the early ’80s. That voice was huge, and he had tremendous technical ability, which had become a real rarity by that time.

So what was the problem? First, you know, there is just something about Perry’s voice. It is a certain, not quite reediness, but a kind of buzzy quality, not exactly nasal, that makes his voice extremely penetrating. And he’s not exactly a subtle singer. It’s not so much a lack of dynamics; he’s not a screamer. But there is a tendency to overemote, to approach an ordinary tune with ordinary-to-vapid lyrics as though it were all actually deep and important and real, man.

There are much weaker singers who can really make something out of a dumb song, but Perry, in a sense, is too good a musician for that. When he goes on the attack, he ends up pointing up the lameness of a bad song just because it’s so out of proportion. And, you know, overemoting on minor-league tunes is a bubblegum trick, and it’s part of why Journey could never shake that rap of being not quite serious.

And the songs themselves, while always (and often too) totally professional and technically sound, often ran to the highly sentimental, as in  “Lights,” or the too self-consciously anthemic, as in  “Don’t Stop Believin.’” Journey just seemed too eager to please — and a rock star who is completely without an edge is just not doing his job.

The bands of the late ’70s and early ’80s who fell into the same not-quite-plausible box as Journey tended to have that eager-puppiness in common — that’s pretty much everyone in the post-Boston metal pop boom (Loverboy, Survivor) other than Boston themselves, or the post-New Wave novelty acts like Men at Work and Flock of Seagulls. One wants to say, “Dudes, you’re trying too hard.” Many rock critics, and every rock snob, wants to have to work a little at loving a band, and that makes the very accessible Journey seem like lightweights. No edge, no challenge, no fun.

And sure, “Castles Burning” is an un-Journeylike blast, but it comes well past their prime, and thus is not really on topic as far as that goes. And I imagine they delivered live, since they could really play. But, in my opinion, if Journey were not taken seriously by the critics and rock geeks, it was because they tended to do things* that made taking them seriously pretty hard.

*Some will win, some will lose, some are born to sing the blues.

I will once more take the risk of bringing up one of my favorite bands of all time. Yep, Journey time again.

They always got a bad rap from critics and the music industry in general because they committed the cardinal sin of popular music. 

They sold more records than the so called “creative,” “innovative,” “artistic,” “ground breaking,” “next Bob Dylan,” “next Bruce Springsteen,” “edgy” recording artists of their day.

Journey never got much of anything from the music press and critics, but it didn’t stop them from making some really great music. For lead vocals it is a very small group of singers who can compete with Steve Perry. Niel Schon’s guitars? I guess there are better but it really gets subjective at this level of musicianship. Aynsley Dunbar and Steve Smith on drums? Both truly great players.

One of my favorite bass players, Ross Valory is still creating major low frequency disturbances around the country with his subtle touch and amazing speed. Jonathan Cain filling in the spaces and then flying up front with his elegant piano and keyboards.

Why are they so hated by the biz?

They have been eligible for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame since 2000. Only Gregg Rolie, ( the founder and original keyboard player,) is in- as a member of Santana. What gives?

In 1996 Journey got back together after a nearly ten year break. The album they recorded, “Trial By Fire” is fascinating. Parts of it sound like they could have been recorded for the “Escape” album while others are like no other Journey songs you will ever hear.

The opening track, “Message Of Love” has another classic vocal by Perry. What makes it so different is the edge. The hardness of the music. Journey is REALLY Rocking on this one. Then it get’s better with “One More.”

Is this Journey? ( You will ask yourself…)

Yes it is and always had been. Just never in the studio before. Anyone who saw them live in their prime knows what I mean. This time it’s on the album.

“Castles Burning” is from another band. Another planet. Maybe the evil “Anti-Journey.” Yet it’s still unmistakably them. You just can’t quite believe it.

 ( Sorry it’s an  Unofficial Video, they never made one. )

The last two minutes of “Burning” are a cacophony of wild keyboards, strange vocal mutations flying by somewhere in the back with bass, drums and guitars battling each other for supremacy.

Anyone who says Journey dosen’t rock never saw them live and certainly hasn’t heard “Trial By Fire.”

The start of this well done review of the new Saga record got me thinking about bands that have lost their defining frontmen*, and how they have carried on thereafter.

Depends on how you define carrying on, I guess. AC/DC, as noted, rolled on with Brian Johnson after the death of Bon Scott, and were more successful than they’d ever been. And that’s largely because, everything else aside, Brian was better.

And then there’s Genesis, who, with the change from Peter Gabriel to Phil Collins, didn’t so much mutate artistically as change species altogether. It wasn’t technical difficulties, but taste — Gabriel and Collins have similar vocal ranges, and  Collins is probably the stronger singer, so pretty much anything Peter could sing, Phil could get around about as well. But Collins shed all that art rock heritage about as fast as the fans would let him, or a little faster. And, of course, before he bailed out for a solo career, Genesis were bigger stars as mild-mannered pop rockers than they’d ever been as high-tech prog gods.

Then there’s Van Halen/Hagar, depressing in pretty much all incarnations, but clearly commercially successful in both.

But then there are those where I see more room for doubt. There is no demand for new studio material from Queen, and nobody to write it if there were. Journey (always Journey…) never got a record on the radio that Steve Perry didn’t sing. Styx, whatever one thought of them in their metal pop prime, have nothing to say without Dennis DeYoung (Tommy Shaw was a better singer. Doesn’t matter).

These bands may or may not be vital on the road even now, and people are enjoying what they do out there, and obviously that matters. But if a band changes frontmen and doesn’t continue to produce new material that is at least reasonably artistically serious (by which I mean it doesn’t suck), is it still a vital rock force? Or is it just an oldies show, the same as going to see the Four Lads or the Diamonds? Though that would probably be a blast, actually.

*No, that is not redundant. Think of Roger Daltrey’s function with the Who.

(Also, any band or artist that plays a medley of hits in public, under any circumstances whatever, is a spent force artistically. No exceptions.)