koberry wrote:annie89509 wrote:Nothing wrong with Neal wanting to branch outside of Journey, especially getting to sing, with his 2-time album collaborations with Jan Hamner back in the day. But what gets me is the old argument that SP was wrong by going "commercial" with his solo effort (Street Talk), while Neal was just "satisfying a creative need." You don't record albums, do promos, and produce videos for MTV showings (I don't know NS songs like I do SP's

, but there were at least 3 songs from the Schon/Hamner albums that got made into videos) ... and say there was no intent to be commercial.
The fact that ST sold 2M copies and people barely heard of the S/H albums is not for lack of trying.
I just don't buy that at all. As you say, you don't know NS songs... there's very little of what Schon & Hammer produced that was 'commercially' accessible. They were able to do promos/videos because Journey was enormous at that time. If the opportunity is there to record a video, why not pursue it? But watch those videos and it's hard to believe anyone was waiting all night in front of the TV for 'Talking to You' to come on, like we did for an endless amount of mainstream/melodic/pop acts back then. There's much to dispute in the comments Neal's made over the years, but you gotta see the truth in what he said about him stretching out (with S&H, HSAS, etc), while Espee was recording and building fame on songs that easily could have
found a home on a Journey album. And playing a large number of Journey songs on his 'solo' tour.
We'll have to agree to disagree, then. I haven't heard all the songs on the S&H albums, but the ones that got made into videos sound mainstream pop rock, to me. I don't hear Street Talk as totally Journey=ish. Lot's of R&B, motown influence, there. That sound just happened to carry over to ROR, with Jon Cain's blessings. Why do you think so many hardcores called it a non-Journey record?
Both Neal and Steve got to play their solo songs in Journey concerts. And, they both played Journey songs outside of the
band...Neal with Santana revisited, Steve with FTLOSM. What's the problem?