Cain Interview - New Journey Music

[JourneyHard]

Journey needs to do a new album called Freedom. They could make it a concept album with songs about their days touring and making albums in the 1980's. They need to find balance between rockers and ballads. Arrival is a good album, but it has ten ballads and five rockers. They need to be at least 50/50 like Escape and Frontiers.

[scarab]

Would love to see me of a "Frontiers" ratio.
3-4 midtempos
2 ballads
4 Rockers

And Cain has only 2-3 "good" ballads since Arrival

[Abitaman]

The next Journey cd needs to be a mix of their last two cds. Both had good points and bad. And bring in Jack Blades to help write.

[Journey/Survivor]

Would love to see me of a "Frontiers" ratio.
3-4 midtempos
2 ballads
4 Rockers

And Cain has only 2-3 "good" ballads since Arrival

I'd prefer another Eclipse with mostly Rockers, but I could still be happy with another Frontiers.

[The_Noble_Cause]

You don't even read what you are replying to. I said, "...and I am not talking specifically about Jonathan, but ANY member of the band."

Ross and Smitty haven't written anything in decades...
If you're not referring to Cain, I don't know who you are referring to.
Arnel has contributed very little and there are no reports of his ideas being rejected.

Dude, in what you quoted in your previous post to prove that I believe Jonathan was not allowed to collaborate, etc, I DID NOT EVEN MENTION HIS NAME.

Ross certainly isn't writing. Smitty wasn't even around for their last few releases. So just who the hell are you talking about?

Irrelevant because that song would never have been presented to Neal because he said no ballads.

When the band was writing/recording Escape in 81, the band hadn't yet amassed a huge catalogue of wedding gum ballads yet.

Also, if you are not specifically talking about Cain, why are you focusing on Cain-penned ballads like Open Arms?

That was so long ago that I don't remember. I probably didn't care much one way or the other. I could probably go and look it up on alt.music.journey and find out what I was arguing at that time.

Ah, the convenient amnesia defense...
There was a consensus among most fans online that Arrival was too ballad-heavy. Same with TBF. I'm glad that Neal put his foot down with Eclipse and tried to bring Journey back to it's rock roots. That doesn't mean that Cain wasn't allowed to contribute or have input.
As mentioned, he wrote the lyrics, he came up with concept, he hired Kalmusky, he played on it....it goes on and on and on.

I don't think Herbie made decision about the music...telling them they can't write certain types of songs or styles.

Neal didn't do that either. He just told Cain and Shirley that wedding ballads had no place on the album.

Also, Herbie was always very hands-on. From the artwork to the sequencing of the tracks, he had major input.

Yes...like Open Arms, Faithfully, and Send Her My Love....perfect examples of wedding/boy meets girl radio friendly 'pablum'.

As already mentioned, that was in 1981 and 1983. They had success with those ballads, but it also cemented their reputation as a power-ballad band. Journey in 2011 is a totally different beast. Whether you think they should run on the fumes of nostalgia vs. being creative is a different topic.

It is bullshit to me because I really don't care.

If Cain felt so disrespected by the creative process, why did he promote Eclipse initially? Alot of this seems like sour grapes by Cain tbh. He griped after Arrival flopped too.

It explains Jonathan's attitude about how a band is supposed to function and what happens when one member wants to take over the direction of the band. He KNOWS that is not what a BAND is.

I thought we weren't talking about Jonathan. Now you are talking about him. So which is it?

It's also important to remember what Jon said on VH1 Behind The Music "I'm looking at Neal and I can see this guy who wants his band back really bad."

Whose band? HIS band. Neal's band. It's not Cain's band.

[Monker]

That was so long ago that I don't remember. I probably didn't care much one way or the other. I could probably go and look it up on alt.music.journey and find out what I was arguing at that time.

Ah, the convenient amnesia defense...
There was a consensus among most fans online that Arrival was too ballad-heavy. Same with TBF. I'm glad that Neal put his foot down with Eclipse and tried to bring Journey back to it's rock roots. That doesn't mean that Cain wasn't allowed to contribute or have input.
As mentioned, he wrote the lyrics, he came up with concept, he hired Kalmusky, he played on it....it goes on and on and on.

I don't recall ever arguing that Arrival had too many ballads. I never owned the Japan version that everybody complained about...though I heard all of the songs via Napster. The two new songs added to the US release were OK but not my favorites...one sounds like Bad English to me, and that was my biggest complaint about the album. But, those who compare Arrival to TBF and say they are both unbalanced, I argued a LOT with them.

My complaint about TBF is that after the first few songs, I think after Forever In Blue, there are about five songs that all sound the same...sorta like Beyond The Thunder with lyrics. There was FAR too much of that. Arrival does not have that issue with me. There are ballads like "Kiss Me Softly" that are completely different. There are a few typical Journey ballads, but not overkill, IMO.

So, no, I don't think I complained much about it...I probably just ignored it all, waiting for the US release.

[FamilyMan]

Only on this board can the promise of new Journey music turn dark.

[Monker]

Only on this board can the promise of new Journey music turn dark.

IMO, it's very far away from being a "promise".

[The_Noble_Cause]

My complaint about TBF is that after the first few songs, I think after Forever In Blue, there are about five songs that all sound the same...sorta like Beyond The Thunder with lyrics. There was FAR too much of that. Arrival does not have that issue with me. There are ballads like "Kiss Me Softly" that are completely different. There are a few typical Journey ballads, but not overkill, IMO.

I agree with that. TBF should have included more rockers, like the bonus "I Can See It In Your Eyes", to break up the monotony.

I will say that on 'Arrival', "Without Your Love" and "Lifetime of Dreams" have very similar openings and should not have been sequenced back-to-back. The choruses are different tho.

[JourneyHard]

Only on this board can the promise of new Journey music turn dark.

Hey! If Journey does an album of 15 ballads, that would be dark; very dark!

[jrnyman28]

If this stays an EP as hinted at, I am down with another Red13. That's 4 songs, each one's different, and the ballad is not lovey.

[Journey/Survivor]

If this stays an EP as hinted at, I am down with another Red13. That's 4 songs, each one's different, and the ballad is not lovey.

Is it Ginger or Mary Ann?

Just kidding.