Girl Cant Help It LIVE

[annie89509]

No doubt, SP had a vision for how ROR was to sound. Right or wrong, as the “producer,” he had the responsibility to record the album conforming with that vision. Is it their best album? Probably not, but it certainly is darn good, especially for that era. Four Top20 hits …+ WCTNGOF… better than any of their other albums, by far.

This is one of the hot-button topics that’s been debated among the hard-cores for years (ever since the BTM show came out). People upset with SP for “firing” Ross and Smitty. But, take the emotions out, and it’s the right call. Smitty has talked about what happened in several magazine interviews over the years (notably, Modern Drummer…read it on the ‘net back in ‘05). He said most of the songs on ROR required the drummer to play on click track (whatever that means…music layman here), and he didn’t know how to do it as, at the time, he was still in his formative years as a musician. Subsequent to the firing, he learned to play click track as that was what was required if you want to be hired in the studios. I believe Smitty played on 3 songs on ROR…WCTNGOF(my favorite) ...Eyes of a Woman…and 1 other).

As for Ross… snippets of info that come to light would suggest that a problem of competence (or reliability) existed. Earlier in Frontiers, RandyJ helped on bass, most notably on the song ATF. HH said Ross had a drug problem (Castles Burning interview), and just recently, JC mentioned Ross in name as a problem during the ROR sessions…that he was always absent.

Of course, this is all water under the bridge. I’m only bringing this up to set the record straight…for the uninitiated fans and to those wanting to make SP “the villain” of the Journey saga. Peace

[koberry]

...People upset with SP for “firing” Ross and Smitty. But, take the emotions out, and it’s the right call. ...

I’m only bringing this up to set the record straight…

Eesh, pure Loon-acy.

[brywool]

...People upset with SP for “firing” Ross and Smitty. But, take the emotions out, and it’s the right call. ...

I’m only bringing this up to set the record straight…

Eesh, pure Loon-acy.

Ross is a decent bass player. But Steve Smith is a drum G O D. To fire him was idiotic at best.

[Art Vandelay]

No doubt, SP had a vision for how ROR was to sound. Right or wrong, as the “producer,” he had the responsibility to record the album conforming with that vision. Is it their best album? Probably not, but it certainly is darn good, especially for that era. Four Top20 hits …+ WCTNGOF… better than any of their other albums, by far.

This is one of the hot-button topics that’s been debated among the hard-cores for years (ever since the BTM show came out). People upset with SP for “firing” Ross and Smitty. But, take the emotions out, and it’s the right call. Smitty has talked about what happened in several magazine interviews over the years (notably, Modern Drummer…read it on the ‘net back in ‘05). He said most of the songs on ROR required the drummer to play on click track (whatever that means…music layman here), and he didn’t know how to do it as, at the time, he was still in his formative years as a musician. Subsequent to the firing, he learned to play click track as that was what was required if you want to be hired in the studios. I believe Smitty played on 3 songs on ROR…WCTNGOF(my favorite) ...Eyes of a Woman…and 1 other).

As for Ross… snippets of info that come to light would suggest that a problem of competence (or reliability) existed. Earlier in Frontiers, RandyJ helped on bass, most notably on the song ATF. HH said Ross had a drug problem (Castles Burning interview), and just recently, JC mentioned Ross in name as a problem during the ROR sessions…that he was always absent.

Of course, this is all water under the bridge. I’m only bringing this up to set the record straight…for the uninitiated fans and to those wanting to make SP “the villain” of the Journey saga. Peace

Hi Annie - a click track is a predetermined beat that is programmed and set for a drummer to follow. Pianists also use it to help learn and control their timing. It makes for a very disciplined form of playing. Not that Smith wasn't disciplined, but it may have been hard for him to follow a rigid structure instead of improvising. Thing of it as cooking vs. baking. When you cook, you can add a little of this and some of that. Baking involves precise, pre-determined ingredients. Both styles of cooking are unique.

As far as Ross's playing...there was an entire album's worth of material that was scrapped, then they went back in and re-did it all, which is what became ROR. We'll never know, but perhaps Ross was involved in the first round and his playing wasn't what Perry was looking for. Anyway, I do like the final ROR product.

[annie89509]

Guys... The post I made at the top of this page was a reply to Family Man's post end of previous page...seemed he wasn't done with his critique on the effect of what happened in the ROR recordings.

Thanks, Art, for the explanations.

[annie89509]

From what I've read from a piece about Journey several months ago, Ross was having big time Drug problems, coke to be sure, and asked to be let go for a rehab stretch. Perry, and the band, including Ross was in favor of it. Perry did not fire Ross, it was mutual parting. The person posting this seemed to know quite a bit about Journey in the 80's. He also mentioned that Perry would cancel many concerts because of throat problems, and hit many foul notes during this tour. Many singers do, I've even heard Elton John hit some losers in the day, but Perry seems to be held to a standard of perfection. I wish I'd have seen them back then, but I've only seen them with Augeri, and Arnel.

I wouldn't want to take the word of another poster as gospel. Seems to be pure conjecture. On the other hand, all the band members have given plenty interviews over the years that we can kind of form our own opinions on what went down.