Little Known Jonathan Cain Writing Credit

[Final Frontiers]

I was just rereading an old thread and something jumped out at me for the first time.

viewtopic.php?f=69&t=57247





Kevin: A lot of my fans or I should say music supporters, they support me so I can keep this habit going, a lot of them said “we would have loved to hear you sing those songs,” so I made a Journey tribute record (Fly 2 Freedom). And it’s great to play some of these songs live, so I added a song here and a song there in between mine. And pretty soon I’m like, why don’t I just do a show about Journey music and tie myself into it. There are some songs I wrote with The Storm. When I worked with 707, Jonathan Cain was in the studio playing keyboard. I mean it totally ties in to everything that I’ve pretty much done. I have nothing but good vibrations for them and that’s why it just came to me this past winter… great history. That’s like fertilizer for my future. I’m going to put that in the pot and plant some new seeds here and…



I had no idea that Jonathan knew Kevin WAY back then when he was in 707. I also had no idea he co-wrote 707's only hit "Megaforce" and apparently played on it too. That's a whole other reason for Kevin to be bitter towards JC. Everytime he plays "Megaforce" Jonathan gets paid.

Everyone talks about Kevin & Gregg getting along, but now we know that Jonathan was able to write a hit song with/for Kevin. So why didn't they hire him for Journey? And Jonathan didn't mention having written a song with Kevin in that recent interview where he rewrote history. Of course Kevin never brings it up either.

[Journey/Survivor]

Well, in addition to both being in the MR/AOR genre, they're both from Chicago originally, so maybe that has something to do with it too?

For those of you who may not know this already, Chalfant was the runner-up to Jimi Jamison to be Survivor's new singer in 1984.

If it had been Chalfant, Survivor would have sounded a little more similar to Journey. Instead, it was Jamison, who I think was a little more similar sounding to Lou Gramm of Foreigner.

[Final Frontiers]

Well, in addition to both being in the MR/AOR genre, they're both from Chicago originally, so maybe that has something to do with it too?

For those of you who may not know this already, Chalfant was the runner-up to Jimi Jamison to be Survivor's new singer in 1984.

If it had been Chalfant, Survivor would have sounded a little more similar to Journey. Instead, it was Jamison, who I think was a little more similar sounding to Lou Gramm of Foreigner.

Wow, always the bridesmaid never the bride .

How come Chalfant wasn't as fixated on Survivor as he was on Journey? He toured with Jimi. Did he ever work with the rest of Survivor? Survivor with Jimi was always kind of Journey-esque (Journey-lite wouldn't be right)- songwriting wise. How much more different could they'd been under Chalfant? Plus what's the possiblity of the band hiring a new singer? And would Chalfant go for it?

[Final Frontiers]

Had that come in the early 90's, you could have taken 2 years break easily!
Well yeah, but we were at our hot peak and at the time it didn't seem like something we could do.

In stepped Jimi Jamison. For better or worse I guess - better at the time at least.
How did you find him?
Well, through a friend named Frank Rand who worked for Epic Records. He told me about a band name Cobra and a lead singer who is really good and sounds a little like Dave.
So we auditioned him and probably about 4 or 5 singers all up in 1983 and he joined in early 1984.

Any big names in there - surprises that you auditioned?
The only one you would probably recognize was Kevin Chalfant. From 707 and The Storm.

Sure sure.
Well he did great. We were almost going to go with Kevin and Jimi came along and blew everybody away.
They were both great, but we went with Jimi.




Jim Peterik interview February 1999

http://www.melodicrock.com/interviews/jimpeterik.html


I wonder what factors went into the band's decision to go with Jimi. Besides Jimi blowing everyone away. Now I don't know what Kevin looked like in 1982- but Jimi's obviously more of a front man *ahem*- a face you want in your music videos. Perhaps Epic Records & Scotti Brothers had something to do with it too.



Well here's the inevitable question: Who was the better singer Jimi Jamison or Kevin Chalfant?

[Journey/Survivor]

Had that come in the early 90's, you could have taken 2 years break easily!
Well yeah, but we were at our hot peak and at the time it didn't seem like something we could do.

In stepped Jimi Jamison. For better or worse I guess - better at the time at least.
How did you find him?
Well, through a friend named Frank Rand who worked for Epic Records. He told me about a band name Cobra and a lead singer who is really good and sounds a little like Dave.
So we auditioned him and probably about 4 or 5 singers all up in 1983 and he joined in early 1984.

Any big names in there - surprises that you auditioned?
The only one you would probably recognize was Kevin Chalfant. From 707 and The Storm.

Sure sure.
Well he did great. We were almost going to go with Kevin and Jimi came along and blew everybody away.
They were both great, but we went with Jimi.




Jim Peterik interview February 1999

http://www.melodicrock.com/interviews/jimpeterik.html


I wonder what factors went into the band's decision to go with Jimi. Besides Jimi blowing everyone away. Now I don't know what Kevin looked like in 1982- but Jimi's obviously more of a front man *ahem*- a face you want in your music videos. Perhaps Epic Records & Scotti Brothers had something to do with it too.



Well here's the inevitable question: Who was the better singer Jimi Jamison or Kevin Chalfant?

I love Kevin Chalfant's singing. He seemed like the obvious choice for Journey when Perry left in the late 90's. He's probably on my top 10 favorite singers list.

But with that said, Jimi was the perfect choice for Survivor.

Survivor would have been fortunate to have had Kevin Chalfant as their singer! But they hit the jackpot with Jamison!

[Final Frontiers]

I was trying to see if there were any videos of KC singing Survivor. To compare. So far I haven't found any. But I did find this.

This is the Voices Of Rock Radio show.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlYqjau9Jas

I just downloaded some John Cafferty the other day. Took forever to find Eddie and The Cruisers

[Journey/Survivor]

I was trying to see if there were any videos of KC singing Survivor. To compare. So far I haven't found any. But I did find this.

This is the Voices Of Rock Radio show.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlYqjau9Jas

I just downloaded some John Cafferty the other day. Took forever to find Eddie and The Cruisers

Kevin sang "I Can't Hold Back" on the "Jim Peterik and World Stage Rock America" CD. It's a live performance.

[Monker]

I don't know where your angst towards Chalfant comes from. He holds no bitterness towards Jonathan, as far as I know. He holds no bitterness towards Survivor or Jimi either, before you get that started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxKqJjwKJOc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD_o9fiug7g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMUmevlY3tE

[The_Noble_Cause]

I believe Kevin has said in the past that other than Journey, he would have loved to sing for Survivor. Ultimately, he ended up fronting that shitty band, Shooting Star, for one album. Yikes.

[Final Frontiers]

I don't know where your angst towards Chalfant comes from. He holds no bitterness towards Jonathan, as far as I know. He holds no bitterness towards Survivor or Jimi either, before you get that started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxKqJjwKJOc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD_o9fiug7g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMUmevlY3tE

I don't have any angst towards anyone . Chalfant does and he's said so himself. I'm just idly curious since nobody's ever going to ask Jonathan Cain about "Megaforce". It just seems funny to me that KC only mentioned his connection to Journey's big hitmaker so casually as to miss it. Maybe it was Neal that didn't want to hire KC. Who knows.

And I wouldn't say that he's held bitterness towards anyone in Survivor because he's actually been able to tour with Jimi and Jim Peterik. Although that's not creating anything new. He hasn't been able to do anything of substance with anyone from Journey (including Gregg Rolie) in more than 20 years. Big difference.

[Journey/Survivor]

I don't know where your angst towards Chalfant comes from. He holds no bitterness towards Jonathan, as far as I know. He holds no bitterness towards Survivor or Jimi either, before you get that started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxKqJjwKJOc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD_o9fiug7g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMUmevlY3tE

Kevin and Jimi were friends.

Kevin has always seemed like one of the nicer and more classy Rockers.

[Journey/Survivor]

Well, in addition to both being in the MR/AOR genre, they're both from Chicago originally, so maybe that has something to do with it too?

For those of you who may not know this already, Chalfant was the runner-up to Jimi Jamison to be Survivor's new singer in 1984.

If it had been Chalfant, Survivor would have sounded a little more similar to Journey. Instead, it was Jamison, who I think was a little more similar sounding to Lou Gramm of Foreigner.

Wow, always the bridesmaid never the bride .

How come Chalfant wasn't as fixated on Survivor as he was on Journey? He toured with Jimi. Did he ever work with the rest of Survivor? Survivor with Jimi was always kind of Journey-esque (Journey-lite wouldn't be right)- songwriting wise. How much more different could they'd been under Chalfant? Plus what's the possiblity of the band hiring a new singer? And would Chalfant go for it?

I guess that I didn't take close enough notice of your question about whether or not Chalfant has ever worked with any of the members of Survivor since he lost out to Jimi as their singer. Kevin has worked with Jim Peterik on many occasions over the years.

[Final Frontiers]

It feels way to soon to ask again, but if Survivor wanted or needed to hire a new singer...... who would they hire? When was the last time they put out an album? Dave Bickler can probably cover Jimi's vocals, put has he ever?

[Journey/Survivor]

It feels way to soon to ask again, but if Survivor wanted or needed to hire a new singer...... who would they hire? When was the last time they put out an album? Dave Bickler can probably cover Jimi's vocals, put has he ever?

Besides Jimi, Dave Bickler is the other true voice of Survivor.

Dave has sang many of Jimi's Survivor songs on many, many occasions. Obviously I prefer Jimi on the songs that he was the original singer on. But Dave does a very good job on them. If Dave is able to handle singing full shows on a regular basis, then I'd just as soon have him be the only lead singer in the band from this point on. If he can't handle full shows night after night, then they should add someone like Joe Vana, or Toby Hitchcock if they were able to convince Jim Peterik to return to Survivor, along with retaining Bickler.

I'd also love to have Chalfant in Survivor with Bickler. But I highly doubt that it would happen. I could be wrong about this, but I think that the two main members of Survivor that Chalfant is/was friends with are Peterik and Jamison. So Chalfant might only join Survivor at this point if Peterik was in the band? Plus, at this point, I don't know if Chalfant could make enough money from being in Survivor to make it worth it to him?

Survivor seems to be nothing more than a part-time hobby to Sullivan at this point.

[The_Noble_Cause]

All this talk about Cain or Schon not caring for Kevin is really irrelevant. If left up to the band members themselves, Perry would never have been hired. Left to their own devices, many of the band's decision have been questionable at best. Arnel is great for where the band is today, but there is no doubt that either KC, Mickey Thomas, or Michael Bolton should have picked up the torch after Frontiers. Bolton, in particular, would have afforded the band a new leash, similar to Hagar joining Van Halen.

[Final Frontiers]

All this talk about Cain or Schon not caring for Kevin is really irrelevant. If left up to the band members themselves, Perry would never have been hired. Left to their own devices, many of the band's decision have been questionable at best. Arnel is great for where the band is today, but there is no doubt that either KC, Mickey Thomas, or Michael Bolton should have picked up the torch after Frontiers. Bolton, in particular, would have afforded the band a new leash, similar to Hagar joining Van Halen.

I don't know about that. As much as I like Michael Bolton, he never hit it as a rock & roll singer. He gained his fame off R&B. You'd have still ended up with something "Raised On Radio-esque". And people would still be complaining.

Having never seen him perform in person (and short video clips don't do anyone justice), do you think Chalfant had/has the charisma to be an effective frontman? Michael Bolton after all his due paying ended up a star. JSS and Arnel both move all over the stage. I don't know about Mickey Thomas.

[Journey/Survivor]

All this talk about Cain or Schon not caring for Kevin is really irrelevant. If left up to the band members themselves, Perry would never have been hired. Left to their own devices, many of the band's decision have been questionable at best. Arnel is great for where the band is today, but there is no doubt that either KC, Mickey Thomas, or Michael Bolton should have picked up the torch after Frontiers. Bolton, in particular, would have afforded the band a new leash, similar to Hagar joining Van Halen.

Was Thomas rumored to have been a possibility at the time?

I know that there had been talk in the late 80's of Bolton or Eric Martin becoming Journey's singer. I had never heard anything about Thomas.

[The_Noble_Cause]

I don't know about that. As much as I like Michael Bolton, he never hit it as a rock & roll singer. He gained his fame off R&B.

The Hunger, produced by Cain/Schon, features ALOT of AOR. And Bolton came from an AOR background. As melodic rock fell out of fashion heading into the nineties, Bolton became housewife music.

You'd have still ended up with something "Raised On Radio-esque". And people would still be complaining.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. ROR was a success and had several very good tunes (BGTY, GCHI, TBAWY, Suzanne etc)

Having never seen him perform in person (and short video clips don't do anyone justice), do you think Chalfant had/has the charisma to be an effective frontman?

Uh..did Arnel? He certainly was a fish out of water during his debut performance at Vina Del Mar and his stage presence during the Manilla DVD is abysmal. Arnel was about as green as first-time performers can get. I've seen first round American Idol auditioneers with more confident ballsy swagger.

[steveo777]

TNC, I think we both agree that Arnel has been a surprise and stood the test of time much better than would have been anticipated. He fought a lot of adversity from the fan base, but he, in my book, is a huge success, considering where he came from. Sure would love to hear one more Journey album with him on it.....the one where they get it right, then ride off into the sunset.

[Final Frontiers]

I don't know about that. As much as I like Michael Bolton, he never hit it as a rock & roll singer. He gained his fame off R&B.

The Hunger, produced by Cain/Schon, features ALOT of AOR. And Bolton came from an AOR background. As melodic rock fell out of fashion heading into the nineties, Bolton became housewife music.

You'd have still ended up with something "Raised On Radio-esque". And people would still be complaining.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. ROR was a success and had several very good tunes (BGTY, GCHI, TBAWY, Suzanne etc)

Having never seen him perform in person (and short video clips don't do anyone justice), do you think Chalfant had/has the charisma to be an effective frontman?

Uh..did Arnel? He certainly was a fish out of water during his debut performance at Vina Del Mar and his stage presence during the Manilla DVD is abysmal. Arnel was about as green as first-time performers can get. I've seen first round American Idol auditioneers with more confident ballsy swagger.

Now people want to claim ROR, because some fans around here (not necessarily you TNC), but some folks claim the last good Journey album was Frontiers and that ROR didn't sell as much and it was a Perry solo album, etc. Could Michael Bolton have done it for Journey? I'd love to hear him answer that question. Did he ever even want the job? I'd love to see his Bammy performance. Do the Bammies even have an official website? I can't find anything online.

Plus, I think you're being too hard on Arnel holding him only to his very first performances. He's been in the band for years now.

The little I've seen of KC's performances he just stands there- head downcast, spitting into the mike. No dancing, not much movement. Granted these are recent performances when he's older than Arnel and JSS. And there's no videos of him from the 80s-90s. So.........

[The_Noble_Cause]

TNC, I think we both agree that Arnel has been a surprise and stood the test of time much better than would have been anticipated.

I agree. I think Arnel is a good fit for what the band needs these days.

Sure would love to hear one more Journey album with him on it.....the one where they get it right, then ride off into the sunset.

Same here. Maybe straddle a middle ground between Revelation and Eclipse. I think a song like "Anything Is Possible", which is commercial and hooky, yet has Neal cutting loose at the end, is a good example of what they could do.