Boston/Journey

Boston/Journey are 100% AOR. People say adding the Who will be a disaster; imagine if people start trying to get there other favorite pop bands on here by using these sods as an example! To add them, yer gonna need more reasons also. The Who have more good reasons.

erik neuteboom wrote: How can somebody judges Journey as 100% AOR? Especially their first and third album are great examples of 'heavy progressive rock', miles away from the AOR with singer Steve Perry. It's the same nonsense as somebody named The Doors a medicore blues-oriented band. The forum seems a place were everybody can sublimate his anger/frustrations/disagreements into nailing good bands and good albums in often unfair and even ridiculous terms (like The Wizard). OK, it remains subjective but there are borders gentlemen!

Sorry, but thats my opinion. I belive I am entitled to express, just as you are. I my opnion they are an AOR band. You have the right and are encouraged to think otherwise. Also, I don't usually nail other bands. There are others who are guiltier than me.

Also, I havn't heard there first album, so I have no to speak. Sorry.

Edited by The Wizard

I've listened to Journey's first album twice already today ... very good album... I find it strange that people insist on rejecting the band because of the awful Steve Perry pop-era ... when they know that many other bands have made dramatic changes in style ...

Yhe PA problem is  that Journey's total career is at least 75% bland AOR pop-rock ... and we have a complete discographies rule ... but this is friendly advice just for the sake of the music ... don't pass on the debut especially if you can find it ...

These are the first two paragraphs of the bio on the official site ....

Founded in 1973 in San Francisco around former Santana members Neal Schon and Gregg Rolie, with the assistance of Ross Valory, George Tickner and Prairie Prince, Journey’s legacy has spanned over 30 years with 18 U.S. releases and over 75,000,000 in album sales. Their music is artful, intense, melodic rock played with passion and superb musicianship.

Journey’s initial style was progressive jazz-rock, complete with extended and improvised solo spots, a style much in evidence on their first three albums for Columbia Records. In April 1975 Tickner bowed out of music to attend Stanford Medical School. He was eventually replaced by ex-Alien Project vocalist, Steve Perry (following a brief tenure by Robert Fleischman).


 here's a typical Amazon review ...

Journey's terrific debut in 1975, January 15, 2006

Reviewer:

Murat Batmaz (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

Although America's melodic hard rock band Journey is most popular with their multi-hit producing Steve Perry era, the band actually started a lot earlier than Perry joined them. Formed by two former Santana members, Gregg Rolie on keyboards and vocals and Neal Schon on guitars, this amazing band actually captured a very nice progressive rock sound on their debut album. Though the following Gregg Rolie era records also had progressive elements, their self-titled release may be their most fusion-inspired release with amazing synth and organ sounds, killer dual lead guitars, and a fantastic rhythm duo.

Joining Rolie and Schon are drummer Aynsley Dunbar (also of Fank Zappa, Jeff Beck and Sammy Hagar fame), bassist Ross Valory and second guitarist George Tickner. This is also the only Journey release with Tickner on second guitar, as he decided to leave the music business after recording the album. Actually I'm of the opinion that Tickner and Gregg Rolie may have been huge factors in taking on a progressive songwriting attitude on this disc, since the band slowly departed from this approach on their following releases. Tickner not only supports the amazing Neal Schon, laying down choppy lead work, but he also wrote the instrumental track "Topaz", punctuated by deft acoustic passages and big synth washes. Gregg Rolie's organ sounds are huge, but he always gives Ross Valory enough space to provide a full bass bottom and drummer Dunbar to add some sick polyrhythms akin to his work on the earlier Zappa albums. The band delves into a mesmerizing jam session towards the end delivering fluctuating rhythms, awesome cymbal sounds, and a full-fledged keyboard lead. On "Of A Lifetime", Rolie introduces his trademark organ sound where he experiments with almost psychedelic soundscapes that would even surprise the biggest Eloy fans, but it is Neal Schon's unique sense of melody and phrasing on the guitar where no element overtreads each other. On this song, he goes from slowly building arpeggios to jaw-dropping whammy bar usage and finally fierce lead soloing as he is eventually joined by George Tickner for a full-on guitar attack in the outro. The other instrumental "Kohoutek" starts out as a moving piano ballad before gloomy guitar chords are thrown into the mix as pounding drum beats are heard and suddenly the listener is caught amidst madly wailing twin guitar harmonies, Moog sounds, jumping bass lines before things calm down and the piece concludes with a nifty piano melody, almost the same way it started. Among all these fusion-styled compositions are also shorter synth-pop tunes like "To Play Some Music" (which yet closes with another fusion solo) and the somewhat bluesy ballad combo "In My Lonely Feeling / Conversations", two songs that are merged into a single framework. The first part is hook-laden and melody-friendly displaying a beautiful vocal performance by Rolie, while "Conversations" is an all instrumental cut filled with rich bass and keyboard textures.

Unlike the Perry era, the Gregg Rolie albums all retain a characteristic prog vibe while still aiming at a more mainstream direction. In this respect, Journey might quite possibly be the one and only band which successfully balanced these two different visions. Though far from being commercially viable, I consider the first three Journey albums absolutely essential for any melodic prog rock fan that enjoys beautiful songwriting, defined by otherwordly guitars and excellent synth work, not to mention the amazing drum and bass combination of Valory and Dunbar.

Journey's first album is one of, if not my favorite, U.S. Prog albums, 4 stars, easily!!!

But still, they don't belong here as Trotsky already noted.

Certif1ed wrote: Trotsky wrote: Yhe PA problem is  that Journey's total career is at least 75% bland AOR pop-rock ... and we have a complete discographies rule ... Hmm. Why are Genesis here then? Their total prog output is less than 30%, making 70% bland AOR and Pop music - almost the same as Journey. Just a thought

Just a thought? You're probably writing the bio as we speak ...

meurglysIII wrote: Journey's first album is one of, if not my favorite, U.S. Prog albums, 4 stars, easily!!! But still, they don't belong here as Trotsky already noted.

 

I agree fully with the debut

The next two are still correct, but the Steve Perry stuff....

The most proggish song by Boston would be Long Time/ Foreplay, which is on their debut album. Besides that, it´s just rock n roll.

salmacis wrote: No, I don't think these bands should be here at all- the bands like Heep, Styx and Queen tended to be more complex and interesting musically than Boston or Journey. There are exceptions- for example, 'Foreplay' by Boston- but on the whole, it's melodic rock/AOR with little progressive in their catalogues. Not that I don't like these bands- they are great- but I personally find, say, Styx's early A & M albums, Queen's first few albums or Uriah Heep's albums until around 'Firefly' to be as progressive as Genesis in their own right. With Boston and Journey and Foreigner as well, it's mainly straight ahead rock on their albums with perhaps one progressive track.

I COMPLETELY AGREE!!!

bah.

Boston and Journey were the mainstream b*****dization of prog.  Saying they are real prog rock is like saying Nickelback is a real heavy metal band.

On a more fun note, if you play Journey's "Separate Ways" on LP at very slow speeds, it sounds like tripped-out sludge metal, and is actually kind of cool.  aside from that, they got nothin.