Bickler & Jamison vs Steve Perry?

[Journey/Survivor]

How would any of you rank Dave Bickler and Jimi Jamison compared with Steve Perry as singers?

My own personal ranking goes.....

#1 Jimi Jamison
#2 Steve Perry
#3 Dave Bickler.

Although, let me be clear that I'm a HUGE fan of Dave Bickler's singing!!! And he seems like a really nice guy too based on the two times that I've spoken with him.

The reason that I started this thread is because several days back I read a thread that had been started in the Steve Perry forum here on MR by our very own Eyeof.

Obviously seeing as it was in a Perry forum, all of the posts made (Except for Eyeof) were claiming that Perry is far better than Jamison and Bickler.

Steve Perry was IMO one of the elite singers in Rock history without question. But I do put Jamison ahead of him by a hair.

As HUGE of a Journey fan as I am, and as HUGE of a Steve Perry fan as I am, I still do realize that there is sometimes a misguided notion or even all out arrogance among some Perry fans as to his God like status as a singer. I not only prefer Jamison's voice over Perry's by a very small margin, but I also feel that Jamison took a back seat to no-one as an elite singer. Including Perry.

Everyone has their own opinions, and that's exactly what they always are, opinions. No-one is right or wrong based on their own personal ranking of any of those 3 awesome singers. It's all opinion.

But again, the arrogance and even ignorance of some of the people who had posted in that specific thread does annoy me.

If any of you want to read the thread that I'm referring to, here it is.
viewtopic.php?t=49086

I should add that kgdjpubs was also reasonable with his posts in that thread.

[Mikele]

3 unique vocalists, my opinion would be based on three dimensions for each: studio, live and overall feel. I won't comment on range as I don't think it matters

Jimi: an impressive voice, possibly the best, technically. I always thought that on studio recordings he delivered a sense of power not only on the heavy tracks, but on the softer ones too...which could be a limit in some instances actually, but I guess this is what Peterik was looking for (Pride of Lions basically substantiates this view), so I can't comment further. See under Steve Perry for a comparison. In a live setting, Jimi was as impressive, and that power was very well channeled, and could also hit every note. It should be mentioned that Jimi's renditions of Bickler era songs are immense: who else ever got the feeling that he enjoyed more singing those than his own?

Steve: an impressive voice and a master in "feel". Both in studio and live. He lived the songs in concerts. The softer tunes had a wider variety of nuances than with Jimi. He can actually make you cry, which is a BIG plus in my books.

Dave: for me he is "the voice", as it is a rough diamond that rely on some inner source to come alive. Live in 82 was breathtaking, plus he could sing Jimi's songs in the 90's very smoothly. To me, he's the perfect example of a hard-rock vocalist, the tough guy from the streets who could also deliver a softer side with an interesting and personal take.

[Journey/Survivor]

3 unique vocalists, my opinion would be based on three dimensions for each: studio, live and overall feel. I won't comment on range as I don't think it matters

Jimi: an impressive voice, possibly the best, technically. I always thought that on studio recordings he delivered a sense of power not only on the heavy tracks, but on the softer ones too...which could be a limit in some instances actually, but I guess this is what Peterik was looking for (Pride of Lions basically substantiates this view), so I can't comment further. See under Steve Perry for a comparison. In a live setting, Jimi was as impressive, and that power was very well channeled, and could also hit every note. It should be mentioned that Jimi's renditions of Bickler era songs are immense: who else ever got the feeling that he enjoyed more singing those than his own?

Steve: an impressive voice and a master in "feel". Both in studio and live. He lived the songs in concerts. The softer tunes had a wider variety of nuances than with Jimi. He can actually make you cry, which is a BIG plus in my books.

Dave: for me he is "the voice", as it is a rough diamond that rely on some inner source to come alive. Live in 82 was breathtaking, plus he could sing Jimi's songs in the 90's very smoothly. To me, he's the perfect example of a hard-rock vocalist, the tough guy from the streets who could also deliver a softer side with an interesting and personal take.

Great comments, and very well thought out comments at that!!!

The funny thing is that so many Perry fans call Perry "The Voice" because Jon Bon Jovi referred to Perry by that nickname back in 1989. But Casey Kasem was already calling Jimi Jamison "The Voice" as far back as 1984 or 1985.

I've been saying for the last 30 years that IMO Steve Perry has the most AMAZING voice ever, but that Jimi Jamison had the BEST voice ever. And what I mean by that is that Perry could hit these insane high notes that very few else could ever hit. But that Jamison just had the better sounding voice overall. Not by much, but by a little anyway. Again, that's all subjective.

I do know of at least two reports of people who are in the music business having shed tears after hearing Jimi sing. One is that Ron Nevison is reported to have cried right after Jimi Jamison finished recording take-2 of The Search Is Over.
And Mickey Thomas (A phenomenal singer himself) is said to have had tears in his eyes after listening to Jimi Jamison sing "As Is."

I generally don't cry while listening to songs. But one exception is that shortly after Jimi died I was listening to his song "Streets Of Heaven." Between his singing, the lyrics of the song and the fact that Jimi had just died I had tears in my eyes listening to it.

I do however get goose bumps and the hair stand on end on my arms and legs during an awesome performance. And that has happened to me a lot while listening to Jimi Jamison sing. One song that is almost guaranteed to do that to me almost every time is "Burning Bridges." Especially at the end when Jimi is doing his vocal adlib and Frankie Sullivan's guitar is also extremely emotional sounding and he's tearing it up. That combination of Jamison and Sullivan together at the end of that song, and the awesome lyrics of the song.

Dave Bickler is arguably the best Hard Rock singer of the 3. He had the perfect sound for the early Survivor songs, and a very unique voice. Steve Smith has more overall talent on drums than Marc Droubay. But Droubay was more of the quintessential Hard Rock drummer. Droubay has a more authoritative and bigger sound to his drumming that is awesome for a Hard Rock band than Smith does. That's the type of sound that Bickler has to his singing. And Sullivan was insane to have replaced Bickler the most recent time. The band desperately needs Bickler and Droubay back if Sullivan wants the band to be taken seriously at this stage.

And I agree that Bickler did a great job of singing Jamison's Survivor songs! Bickler does have that smoothness to his voice when he chooses to sing that style and the band wanted him to.

[def]

1. Bickler: great voice and always down to earth authentic
2. Jamison. Great voice too, never cheesy, but sometimes with a little too much talent to make a song commercially perfect, where it would have been better to leave some dirt
3. Perry: good, good singer, but no real rock voice