MR

Many of you believe that Steve Perry's voice is shot and that it could not withstand a tour. Personally I do NOT believe that, but hell I cant tell the difference in his singing from Escape to Raised On Radio to Trial By Fire. To me they all sound SUPER and the same!!!

My question is do you think Journey could hit again if they went into the studio and recorded with Steve Perry then went out and toured with Steve Augeri.

If you could get both Steves to agree to this everyone involved would probably be getting the best of both worlds. This includes us fans.

If it's Steve Perry singing Remember Me, Higer Place, All The Way, and Heartland you have 4 more Journey top 20 hits.

yogi wrote:Many of you believe that Steve Perry's voice is shot and that it could not withstand a tour. Personally I do NOT believe that, but hell I cant tell the difference in his singing from Escape to Raised On Radio to Trial By Fire. To me they all sound SUPER and the same!!!

yogi wrote: My question is do you think Journey could hit again if they went into the studio and recorded with Steve Perry then went out and toured with Steve Augeri.

That was suggested back in 1998, Perry declined.

I personally think the audience would feel cheated if Perry WERE recording Journey songs but not singing them on tour. And I do not see Journey making any huge impact on radio with or without Perry. They would do better because of 'name recognition' and 'reunion hype', but I do not see much of a radio audience. Besides, the material would still IMO be softer, more AC oriented. While that might help with format placement, it would not keep the other members of Journey as happy.

I prefer a band that is happy and 'hitless' to a band that is unhappy but has a hit. It shows on tour, and you can hear it in the materal they are recording. The band is tight. How else could they knock out "Generations" so quick (maybe a little too quick)? That came from all the touring they have done together, that would be lost of the lead singer on CD was not performing with them live...

jrnyman28 wrote:

yogi wrote: My question is do you think Journey could hit again if they went into the studio and recorded with Steve Perry then went out and toured with Steve Augeri.

That was suggested back in 1998, Perry declined.

I think Neal also said at some point that he didn't see the sense in it.

NoMoreTails wrote:

jrnyman28 wrote:

yogi wrote: My question is do you think Journey could hit again if they went into the studio and recorded with Steve Perry then went out and toured with Steve Augeri.

That was suggested back in 1998, Perry declined.

I think Neal also said at some point that he didn't see the sense in it.

Doesn't surprise me, I agree that there is/was no sense in it...

To answer Yogi's question........I think they would have had some hits with Perry singing the Arrival or Generation songs......and it's no slam to Augeri to say that. Look at what happened with Foreigner, Boston, Van Halen 3 and Genesis (post Collins). They all got no radio play or very little and sold very few units in comparison to their previous singers.

Now, as to whether it would actually work to have Perry sing on the CD and Augeri live. I agree that the fans would never go for it and it would be a disaster personalitywise.

jrnyman28 wrote:

NoMoreTails wrote:

jrnyman28 wrote:

yogi wrote: My question is do you think Journey could hit again if they went into the studio and recorded with Steve Perry then went out and toured with Steve Augeri.

That was suggested back in 1998, Perry declined.

I think Neal also said at some point that he didn't see the sense in it.

Doesn't surprise me, I agree that there is/was no sense in it...

I thought about this at work this morning.
Bullshit, bullshit and bullshit.

Firstly, ONE lead singer, period. If Perry comes back, HE is the ONLY singer. Augeri gets a million dollar buyout, and is off to make solo music.

Radio? Who in the Hell needs radio? Radio sucks foks, face it. If Perry came back, and insert Herbie Herbert, the re-union hype would dwarf Van Halen and Motley Crue, and Genesis combined. Journey woiuld be as big as U2, err, bigger. Hockey arenas, and small stadiums. No opening act required.

There are however obstacles. Before we all come on ourselves, let's look at the hurdles....

1) Herbie is not here to help.
2) Perry Can't quite do it at this level.
3) Neal allows it.


There is no question Journey would dominate the map if they reunited. Face it, this is the reunion EVERYONE wants to see....screw Dennis and Styx....screw Charlie Brown and genesis. Screw VH....and screw Motley Crue...

I agree Deano,

It would be huge........


My question is, would fans cut Perry slack if his voice wasn't 100%? Would they expect him to sound like it's 1983?

It is very rare, not for Perry, but almost any singer to sing at that high level for all those years. Brad Delp of Boston doesnt sound 25 anymore and they've changed up a couple songs because of it, A Man I'll Never Be for one. He still sounds great on 98% of every song he sings.

Frank Sinatra's best performances came in the years after his voice was supposedly shot.

My sense is Perry doesn't allow himself to do less than what he expected in 1986 and that is sad for the fans who would like to see him perform again.

Rock'ndeano wrote:I thought about this at work this morning.
Bullshit, bullshit and bullshit.

Firstly, ONE lead singer, period. If Perry comes back, HE is the ONLY singer. Augeri gets a million dollar buyout, and is off to make solo music.

Radio? Who in the Hell needs radio? Radio sucks foks, face it. If Perry came back, and insert Herbie Herbert, the re-union hype would dwarf Van Halen and Motley Crue, and Genesis combined. Journey woiuld be as big as U2, err, bigger. Hockey arenas, and small stadiums. No opening act required.

There are however obstacles. Before we all come on ourselves, let's look at the hurdles....

1) Herbie is not here to help.
2) Perry Can't quite do it at this level.
3) Neal allows it.


There is no question Journey would dominate the map if they reunited. Face it, this is the reunion EVERYONE wants to see....screw Dennis and Styx....screw Charlie Brown and genesis. Screw VH....and screw Motley Crue...

jrnyman28 wrote:Doesn't surprise me, I agree that there is/was no sense in it...

Steve Augeri has been with Journey for several years now; this would be a slap in the face to him. He has come into his own, the summer tour was a great success, the audience relates, they buy their tickets ahead of time to hear Steve sing the songs they want to hear, so why fix something that ain't broke?

Besides Perry would obviously never agree to it. Lucky for us. The Journey Continues........

usedtobadnews61 wrote:My question is, would fans cut Perry slack if his voice wasn't 100%?

They did with TBF...

yak wrote:Steve Augeri has been with Journey for several years now; this would be a slap in the face to him.

Absolutely, NOW is past it's time.

Even though it was never a good idea, now it is a flat out insult! No matter what happens with Journey in the future, they better treat Steve right.

Respectfully Yogi, BAAAAAAAAAD Idea.

jrnyman28 wrote:

usedtobadnews61 wrote:My question is, would fans cut Perry slack if his voice wasn't 100%?

They did with TBF...

The hardcore fans in particular seemed to, I wonder what the general public thought.
Would the general audience have accepted him on tour?
Being a perfectionist, that's a question he was unwilling to have answered.
Oh yeah, the hip thing, I forgot for a moment.

I say it's one or the other....regardless of singer. Who is in the studio should also be on stage.

Andrew wrote:I say it's one or the other....regardless of singer. Who is in the studio should also be on stage.

Isn't that what I said? it's a no brainer.

yogi wrote:Many of you believe that Steve Perry's voice is shot and that it could not withstand a tour. Personally I do NOT believe that, but hell I cant tell the difference in his singing from Escape to Raised On Radio to Trial By Fire. To me they all sound SUPER and the same!!!

My question is do you think Journey could hit again if they went into the studio and recorded with Steve Perry then went out and toured with Steve Augeri.

If you could get both Steves to agree to this everyone involved would probably be getting the best of both worlds. This includes us fans.

If it's Steve Perry singing Remember Me, Higer Place, All The Way, and Heartland you have 4 more Journey top 20 hits.

I would rather have an album with awesome vocals by Augeri then the same album with vocals written to match Perry now very limited vocal range and clarity. Top 20 hits are irrelevant to how good the album is. How many top 20 hits did Infinity, Evolution and Departure have?

jrnyman28 wrote:

usedtobadnews61 wrote:My question is, would fans cut Perry slack if his voice wasn't 100%?

They did with TBF...

That was a different situation. It was a true 'reunion' with Perry just coming off of the FTLOSM tour. People knew what to expect. It's not like today where Perry would basicaly be coming out of retirement with nobody, not even himself, knowing how he would sound for a full album or tour.

Monker wrote:I would rather have an album with awesome vocals by Augeri then the same album with vocals written to match Perry now very limited vocal range and clarity. Top 20 hits are irrelevant to how good the album is. How many top 20 hits did Infinity, Evolution and Departure have?

Definitely.

It's a bad idea. BUT, it would be cool to have the two Steves (maybe with Dean too) doing a song together. Will that ever happen? I see a .000000001% of that happening-ERIC

Of course it would have to be in the studio, so it could be tweaked, to bring Perry close to his former glory.-ERIC

I started this whole assembly line because sooooo many of you claim that Steve Perry's voice is shot and it could not handle a lenghtly tour.

My ears obviously are not as trained as some of yours. I have two excellent boots of him on their(Journey) Escape Tour and him on the Raised On Radio tour. He sounds the same to me. I TRULY dont know how ANYONE could tell the difference in the songs Dont Stop Believin, Lights, Wheel In The Sky etc when you compare the boots.

I saw his Strange Medicine Tour. He sounded AWESOME!!!

He sounds GREAT on Trial By Fire as I type 'Easy To Fall' plays in the background, and he sounds as good as ever.

My whole point is that if Steve Perry was still with Journey in the studio, I believe his name alone would have still have Journey as an A list band in 2005.

Steve A could do the touring and youve got the best of both worlds.

I know neither Steve would agree to this, but if they did I believe it would work.

As for his voice being shot???? I absolutely disagree, and dont believe it!

yogi wrote:I started this whole assembly line because sooooo many of you claim that Steve Perry's voice is shot and it could not handle a lenghtly tour.

My ears obviously are not as trained as some of yours. I have two excellent boots of him on their(Journey) Escape Tour and him on the Raised On Radio tour. He sounds the same to me. I TRULY dont know how ANYONE could tell the difference in the songs Dont Stop Believin, Lights, Wheel In The Sky etc when you compare the boots.

I saw his Strange Medicine Tour. He sounded AWESOME!!!

He sounds GREAT on Trial By Fire as I type 'Easy To Fall' plays in the background, and he sounds as good as ever.

Even the most ardent Perry fans will admit there is a discernible difference in his vocals through the years. When his voice first started changing around Frontiers, the Journey camp put out a PR spin that Perry would start intentionally utilizing more of his heretofore untapped low range. Perry himself has insinuated that his voice is different these days. His voice change isn't an opinion, it's a fact.
You're held view isn't in the minority, Yogi, it's downright lunatic fringe.

The_Noble_Cause wrote:
Even the most ardent Perry fans will admit there is a discernible difference in his vocals through the years.

His voice has changed Yogi, I just don't happen to think that's necessarily a bad thing. I started to see the difference with Frontiers and I think it stayed pretty much the same through Street Talk and maybe got a little deeper in ROR. It was deeper still and a little raspier at times in FTLOSM and TBF, but again, I didn't see that as a negative. I liked it just as well as I did in the higher range.

I've never heard Augeri live, but if the cds are any indication, his range appears to be somewhere close to where Steve was during Frontiers. He absolutely doesn't have the high range Steve did on Infinity through Escape, and his deeper range isn't as deep as Steve's on FTLOSM and TBF. Not that I'm saying he's not a good singer, I don't think a range is the only measure of a good singer. I also don't think he sounds that much like Steve Perry. Superficially maybe, but the depth of soulfulness just isn't there. Not that it would EVER happen, but if Steve Perry were to record new material with Journey, and it sold well, then the people who bought the cd went to the concerts and heard Steve Augeri sing them, I just don't think it would fly. That's not a slam on Augeri, it's just that the people who are hearing him sing the classics now, and are satisfied with it, don't have any new Perry/Journey material to compare it to, and they're not expecting it to sound exactly like the old material sounded when it was recorded.

Christ!

The thought of any Perry fans seeing Augeri live wouldbe catastrophic!

Whatever you all do, don't go see the guy live and give him a decent chance..hell no!

ohsherrie wrote:it's just that the people who are hearing him sing the classics now, and are satisfied with it, don't have any new Perry/Journey material to compare it to, and they're not expecting it to sound exactly like the old material sounded when it was recorded.

You're right. Currently in concert, the old material doesn't sound the way it did when it was recorded...it sounds better.

Ok, that's an exageration, but many times on certain songs, Augeri does sound better than Perry. In September, Augeri's rendition of BGTY was the best I've ever heard the song performed.
None of that guttural rasp that is prevalent on ROR and much of Perry's later works.

I can totally hear the differences between the Infinity Perry to the Frontiers/ROR Perry to the TBF Perry. A major difference. Personally I prefer the Frontier/ROR era of his voice...



But to be fair TNC,

For many fans of the orginal songs........hearing Augeri sing them is like hearing Michael Buble' do a Sinatra song. Of course he can do it better now, then Sinatra can.

Also, sounding better then the original is an odd comment to make. I'm sure someone could re-paint the Mona Lisa better than da Vinci did. But it would still be a copy.

Another point is an obvious one. As much as I love Augeri's work the last 3 CD's. He would still be selling Tshirts at the Gap if Perry hadn't bowed out of the TBF tour, no matter how Perry's ragged voice sounded.

The_Noble_Cause wrote:

ohsherrie wrote:it's just that the people who are hearing him sing the classics now, and are satisfied with it, don't have any new Perry/Journey material to compare it to, and they're not expecting it to sound exactly like the old material sounded when it was recorded.

You're right. Currently in concert, the old material doesn't sound the way it did when it was recorded...it sounds better.

Ok, that's an exageration, but many times on certain songs, Augeri does sound better than Perry. In September, Augeri's rendition of BGTY was the best I've ever heard the song performed.
None of that guttural rasp that is prevalent on ROR and much of Perry's later works.

Usedtobadnews,

Good points. Can you do us a favour though? Can you flip flop your quotes and posts?

it makes for an easier read.

usedtobadnews61 wrote:Another point is an obvious one. As much as I love Augeri's work the last 3 CD's. He would still be selling Tshirts at the Gap if Perry hadn't bowed out of the TBF tour, no matter how Perry's ragged voice sounded.

1)He never did sell t-shirts at the Gap.
2)Him working as a carpenter at Gap would be more honorable than Perry making money from not working in a band he had no desire to or intention of ever returning to.

Augeri is the singer for Journey. It is an honr and a tribute to his talent that he works with Neal, Jon, Ross and Deen. Anyone who takes potshots at him is just trying to make themselves feel better about their own wretched lives.

usedtobadnews61 wrote: As much as I love Augeri's work the last 3 CD's. He would still be selling Tshirts at the Gap if Perry hadn't bowed out of the TBF tour, no matter how Perry's ragged voice sounded.

And if Herbie Herbert hadn't unilaterally forced Perry in the band, the guy would still be scooping turkey poop for his uncle.
What's the difference?


Furthermore, Steve was a maintenance manager for NY area GAP stores. He didn't sell GAP merchandise, he cleaned toilets and fixed doorknobs. Get it right!



j/k