‘It was pretty wild; he was a maniac’: Steve Perry wasn’t th

[tater1977]

‘It was pretty wild; he was a maniac’: Steve Perry wasn’t the only reason Journey took off with Infinity
by Something Else!

http://somethingelsereviews.com/2013/10 ... -infinity/

Steve Perry’s arrival with Journey in 1978 has long been credited with sending the group toward platinum-selling superstardom. Turns out Queen had something to do with it, as well. At least, indirectly.

Neal Schon on Roy Baker Producer Journey Interview

http://youtu.be/whVG-SlGl14


Journey’s addition of Perry as a vocalist coincided with that of producer Roy Thomas Baker, who had already helmed five albums dating back to their 1973 eponymous debut for Queen. He brought a whole new technological savvy to what had been, to that point, a jam-happy rock outfit led by Gregg Rolie. Having never had an album get higher than No. 85 on the charts, Journey saw Infinity — on the strength of the hits “Lights” and “Wheel in the Sky” — shoot into the Top 20. The album would eventually go triple-platinum.

Listen closely, and you’ll hear many of the same studio tricks that Baker used with similar chart success Queen, from an armada of guitars to those familiar multi-layered vocals.

“On Infinity there are guitar parts that are quadrupled, then he’d put them way in the backround — and it sounds like an electric-guitar violin,” Schon tells Classic Rock Society. “It was pretty wild. He was a maniac.”

Infinity was followed by the Baker-produced three-times-platinum smash Evolution in 1979, which spawned Journey’s initial Top 20 hit in “Lovin,’ Touchin,’ Squeezin’” — and the band was on its way.

“He introduced all kinds of things to me that I never even thought about doing in the studio,” Schon says of Baker. “A lot of it was multi-tracking guitars, multi-tracking vocals — stuff he had done prior with Queen. I would have to say that Queen was a band where they come up with that whole concept. We didn’t quite take it that far, because we didn’t want to sound like Queen. Not that we didn’t like them; I love them. But we didn’t want to sound exactly like them.”

[brandonx76]

And yet those albums are basically unlistenable to me now with the production quality being what they are/were...the one thing I'll say I dug was the double drums on "City of the Angels" I guess for the time, they were pretty cool

[JohnH]

Yes, hard to listen to. Roy Baker was famous for cranking up all the inputs into the board into the red. This creates distortion on everything, where it's not needed. I hear it every time I listen to Wheel in the Sky .

[Arkansas]

And yet those albums are basically unlistenable to me now with the production quality being what they are/were...the one thing I'll say I dug was the double drums on "City of the Angels" I guess for the time, they were pretty cool

Yes, hard to listen to. Roy Baker was famous for cranking up all the inputs into the board into the red. This creates distortion on everything, where it's not needed. I hear it every time I listen to Wheel in the Sky .

I guess this finally explains why I can't hardly stand the overall sonic of those records. I mean, although that lineup had some of my favorite songs, they mostly just sound bad (to me). And I never knew why. I just assumed it was the state of the art then - something about analog & vinyl, or that the distant thin cloudy feel was what they wanted.

Btw, I think I remember one NS interview where he said that on one song (Wheel?), he played an acoustic through an amp with distortion at one end of a hallway, and they recorded with a mic at the other end...or something like that.


later~

[RPM]

I agree, sonically not good at all. probably why I dont play them as well.

[ForceInfinity]

You guys th

And yet those albums are basically unlistenable to me now with the production quality being what they are/were...the one thing I'll say I dug was the double drums on "City of the Angels" I guess for the time, they were pretty cool

Yes, hard to listen to. Roy Baker was famous for cranking up all the inputs into the board into the red. This creates distortion on everything, where it's not needed. I hear it every time I listen to Wheel in the Sky .

I guess this finally explains why I can't hardly stand the overall sonic of those records. I mean, although that lineup had some of my favorite songs, they mostly just sound bad (to me). And I never knew why. I just assumed it was the state of the art then - something about analog & vinyl, or that the distant thin cloudy feel was what they wanted.

Btw, I think I remember one NS interview where he said that on one song (Wheel?), he played an acoustic through an amp with distortion at one end of a hallway, and they recorded with a mic at the other end...or something like that.


later~

You think that's bad, you should listen to Dream after Dream (Destiny in particular) where if you thought City of Angels was pegged to the red on inputs, then Destiny would be infrared and beyond.