‘This is gonna be hard to believe’: Former frontman ignored

[tater1977]

‘This is gonna be hard to believe’: Former frontman ignored Journey once Steve Perry took over

April 12, 2014

http://somethingelsereviews.com/2014/04 ... took-over/

When Robert Fleischman, Journey’s pre-Steve Perry frontman, tells you he’s never looked back, he means it. Gone since 1977, Fleischman is preparing to release a new album having largely ignored his old band ever since.

“I know this is gonna be hard to believe,” Fleishman tells RothnRoll, “but I’ve never really listened to any of their albums all the way through — except for Infinity.”

Fleischman entered the sessions for that 1978 project having already appeared on stage with Journey. He proceeded to co-write a number of songs, and recorded several demos, during the early sessions for Infinity before Perry was brought in. Three tracks co-credited to Fleischman ultimately made the album, including Journey’s breakthrough “Wheel in the Sky,” as well as “Winds of March” and “Anytime.”

Two members of his former band, Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon, appeared on Fleischman’s 1979 solo debut, called Perfect Stranger. He later worked with Kiss alum Vinnie Vincent’s Invasion and with Kelly Hansen, who now fronts Foreigner, before forming a new band called the Sky. Their latest release, ironically enough, is called Majestic — the title of a song from Journey’s follow up to Infinity, 1979′s Evolution.

Not that Fleischman has ever heard it: “I had no idea that Journey had a song called ‘Majestic,’ but I did have people tell me on Facebook about this, thinking I intentionally did that,” Fleischman says, before quipping: “I’m waiting for people to play the CD backwards, then ask if I have put in hidden messages.”

[Final Frontiers]

I was just struck by this question yesterday. How come Neal & Ross didn't ask Robert Fleischman to rejoin Journey? Why bother with Augeri if Robert Fleischman was someone that they liked and had worked with and had written "Wheel In The Sky" and "Anytime"? Herbie Herbert was out at this point- so he wouldn't be a factor. The publicity could have spun it as the former frontman's triumphant return after 20 years. Make it a big deal reunion thing. I don't know what Robert was doing in the '90s. Maybe someone could enlighten me.

I was looking up some info on whether or not Robert could pull off Perry and found these interesting tidbits.




DG: The musical direction for Journey, when it changed—I mean obviously when they became really huge was with Steve Perry, and that’s a very distinctive sound with that very high tenor voice going on there. And you have, I guess—would you call yourself a high baritone?

RF: No! I have a four-and-a-half octave range.

DG: Wow. So you could reach—could you actually reach those notes?

RF: Yeah. I could hit a high “B” full-on voice.

DG: That’s pretty high. And I know falsetto, you—

RF: I don’t have falsetto.

DG: In “For You,” I think you sang a little bit of—

RF: Nah, I never sang anything falsetto. Everything’s all full voice.

DG: Oh. That was really all full voice? Amazing.

RF: Uh-huh.

DG: Those are some really high notes towards the end of that song. But then, since the—your sound though, with Journey, I mean just from having heard “For You,” they constantly are comparing you to Robert Plant, in all the writing I’ve read about that. And given the situation with rock music in ’77, what with, I mean, one of the reasons I think Journey wanted to try to break into something new was because rock—a lot of people thought rock was on the outs what with the popularity of disco happening around that point. And the incredible sound that Journey subsequently came up with can be said to have—to an extent—revitalized that genre of music.




And then there's this- which is never mentioned around here:




DG: That’s an interesting way to put it.

RF: Well, that’s just what I came up with off the top of my head, but he brought in the ingredient, and I was the ingredient. But he had other individuals, he had people hounding him on the other line while I was trying to take my place. But I’m still friends with everybody! I mean when they did that album, you know, that just came out—

DG: Arrival.

RF: Arrival? They—Neal and Jon—called me up and asked me to come up to Vallejo and write songs with them! So I was up there for a little over a week writing songs with them!

DG: No kidding!

RF: So my relationship with them is still good and intact, and all the fallacies are not true—they’re just false.




http://www.journey-zone.com/Features/In ... -03/RF.htm

So Robert was right there with Neal & Jonathan writing for a week. Did they ever play and sing together? What happened to those songs they worked on? Robert doesn't have a writing credit on "Arrival". Did any of those songs end up on any of his solo work? Plus he claims to be able to sing in the Perry range. Did the idea even come up? Did he even want the job? Inquiring minds want to know.

[steveo777]

Does anyone have the latest Sky album, Majestic? I do and I can tell you there are songs on it where he can and does sing in Perry's range. I feel it's more in Perry's range on TBF though. I'd sure like to have those who own the album weigh in on what they think of Robert's vocals. I think he sounds pretty damn good and the album is an underrated gem, which has gone largely unheard. I think Andrew is gonna review it, but don't know when.

[steveo777]

Here is a tune from the new album. Kinda mellow but it sounds pretty good.

The Sky - In My Head
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZj5wnjunsc

Go to this link and you can listen to 3 songs from the album.
http://www.theskyofficial.com/music.html

Still I'll wait sounds awesome!

[Majestic]

Wow, he has listened to Infinity all the way through!

That's way more than I have listened to any Fleischman stuff.

[Pacfanweb]

Does anyone have the latest Sky album, Majestic? I do and I can tell you there are songs on it where he can and does sing in Perry's range. I feel it's more in Perry's range on TBF though. I'd sure like to have those who own the album weigh in on what they think of Robert's vocals. I think he sounds pretty damn good and the album is an underrated gem, which has gone largely unheard. I think Andrew is gonna review it, but don't know when.

He can get up pretty high, but he's more of a screamer-type voice. Totally different sound/vibe than Perry singing the same notes.

[Final Frontiers]

I've listened to all 3 songs. They sound really good, really contemporary, like they could be on the radio right now. If Journey themselves are having/have had a hard time getting new music on the air, I can't imagine The Sky doing any better. Whether or not Robert name checks Journey or not. But that doesn't mean he can't get them on a streaming service like Pandora, Spotify, Beats Music, etc.

I didn't hear anything particularly Perryesque either.

I have Pandora but don't listen to it that much because I don't want to hit the limit and start being charged . But I thought when I made Journey a radio station that I would get all their associates/other bands/etc like- Santana, Steve Miller, The Storm, solo work, Hammer/Schon, etc. But that's not really the case. I usually only get other '80s bands and only their hits. Nothing too obscure. Does anybody else get anything different? Or does it depend on the service? Does Spotify or Beats or whatever play ALL of a musician's catalog?

[annie89509]

Does anyone have the latest Sky album, Majestic? I do and I can tell you there are songs on it where he can and does sing in Perry's range. I feel it's more in Perry's range on TBF though. I'd sure like to have those who own the album weigh in on what they think of Robert's vocals. I think he sounds pretty damn good and the album is an underrated gem, which has gone largely unheard. I think Andrew is gonna review it, but don't know when.

He can get up pretty high, but he's more of a screamer-type voice. Totally different sound/vibe than Perry singing the same notes.

According to Herbie, the band got along fine with Robert … it was he who pushed SP on them. On the BTM show, Gregg pretty much confirmed this (“we wanted a screamer, not a crooner”). YT has the only Journey live show ever recorded w/RF as their frontman, taken in a Hawaii concert (1977):

http://youtu.be/mYzAOiIwClk

RF’s singing style is more like Robert Plant, maybe that’s what the guys liked at the time. Listen to Anytime, WOM, WITS… he’s very shrill…not at all like how SP interpreted and sang those same 3 songs later. Herbie got the right guy.

[Final Frontiers]

How is it that Gregg Rolie says that he didn't think Steve Perry wanted him to sing, yet it's Robert Fleischman who sings "Anytime" and "Winds Of March" solo? When, when Steve Perry joined the band those songs became duets or songs they sang together in concert? Part of the reason Herbie wanted to get rid of Robert was that he wanted to do all the singing. Yet, Steve Perry gets painted with the microphone hog brush . Gregg Rolie says that it was never spoken out loud that SP didn't want him singing, but thats the way it all worked out. Even though he wanted to sing more. I still don't understand how he didn't get to sing more in his own band.

[jestor92]

I was just struck by this question yesterday. How come Neal & Ross didn't ask Robert Fleischman to rejoin Journey? Why bother with Augeri if Robert Fleischman was someone that they liked and had worked with and had written "Wheel In The Sky" and "Anytime"? Herbie Herbert was out at this point- so he wouldn't be a factor. The publicity could have spun it as the former frontman's triumphant return after 20 years. Make it a big deal reunion thing. I don't know what Robert was doing in the '90s. Maybe someone could enlighten me.

I was looking up some info on whether or not Robert could pull off Perry and found these interesting tidbits.




DG: The musical direction for Journey, when it changed—I mean obviously when they became really huge was with Steve Perry, and that’s a very distinctive sound with that very high tenor voice going on there. And you have, I guess—would you call yourself a high baritone?

RF: No! I have a four-and-a-half octave range.

DG: Wow. So you could reach—could you actually reach those notes?

RF: Yeah. I could hit a high “B” full-on voice.

DG: That’s pretty high. And I know falsetto, you—

RF: I don’t have falsetto.

DG: In “For You,” I think you sang a little bit of—

RF: Nah, I never sang anything falsetto. Everything’s all full voice.

DG: Oh. That was really all full voice? Amazing.

RF: Uh-huh.

DG: Those are some really high notes towards the end of that song. But then, since the—your sound though, with Journey, I mean just from having heard “For You,” they constantly are comparing you to Robert Plant, in all the writing I’ve read about that. And given the situation with rock music in ’77, what with, I mean, one of the reasons I think Journey wanted to try to break into something new was because rock—a lot of people thought rock was on the outs what with the popularity of disco happening around that point. And the incredible sound that Journey subsequently came up with can be said to have—to an extent—revitalized that genre of music.




And then there's this- which is never mentioned around here:




DG: That’s an interesting way to put it.

RF: Well, that’s just what I came up with off the top of my head, but he brought in the ingredient, and I was the ingredient. But he had other individuals, he had people hounding him on the other line while I was trying to take my place. But I’m still friends with everybody! I mean when they did that album, you know, that just came out—

DG: Arrival.

RF: Arrival? They—Neal and Jon—called me up and asked me to come up to Vallejo and write songs with them! So I was up there for a little over a week writing songs with them!

DG: No kidding!

RF: So my relationship with them is still good and intact, and all the fallacies are not true—they’re just false.




http://www.journey-zone.com/Features/In ... -03/RF.htm

So Robert was right there with Neal & Jonathan writing for a week. Did they ever play and sing together? What happened to those songs they worked on? Robert doesn't have a writing credit on "Arrival". Did any of those songs end up on any of his solo work? Plus he claims to be able to sing in the Perry range. Did the idea even come up? Did he even want the job? Inquiring minds want to know.

I'm not sure how he sounds now, but man could he hit some high notes in the 80's when he sang for the Vinnie Vincent Invasion.

[Memorex]

How is it that Gregg Rolie says that he didn't think Steve Perry wanted him to sing, yet it's Robert Fleischman who sings "Anytime" and "Winds Of March" solo? When, when Steve Perry joined the band those songs became duets or songs they sang together in concert? Part of the reason Herbie wanted to get rid of Robert was that he wanted to do all the singing. Yet, Steve Perry gets painted with the microphone hog brush . Gregg Rolie says that it was never spoken out loud that SP didn't want him singing, but thats the way it all worked out. Even though he wanted to sing more. I still don't understand how he didn't get to sing more in his own band.

I guess he was really pissed when the other guys wanted to share Gregg's keyboard duties. Oh, wait....

[Pacfanweb]

How is it that Gregg Rolie says that he didn't think Steve Perry wanted him to sing, yet it's Robert Fleischman who sings "Anytime" and "Winds Of March" solo? When, when Steve Perry joined the band those songs became duets or songs they sang together in concert? Part of the reason Herbie wanted to get rid of Robert was that he wanted to do all the singing. Yet, Steve Perry gets painted with the microphone hog brush . Gregg Rolie says that it was never spoken out loud that SP didn't want him singing, but thats the way it all worked out. Even though he wanted to sing more. I still don't understand how he didn't get to sing more in his own band.

You have to remember, Herbie parted ways with Perry on very bad terms, by Herbie's own admission, and in the interview that's quoted so much here, it's pretty obvious Herbie still holds a large grudge. So I take anything he says about Perry with a grain of salt.
Not that there might not be some truth to what he says, but probably nowhere near as bad as he claims.

And yeah, Journey got the right singer. They might have wanted a screamer, but IMO they are just another forgotten 70's band with RF.

It's easy with any big band to look at a former member, or someone who auditioned and didn't get the gig before the band hit it big, and say "well look at what that guy did after that. He'd have been great in band xxx. Imagine all those hit songs with him playing/singing".

Thing is, with those "what if" scenarios.....people forget that none of those songs/albums would have happened the way they did, if at all, if you changed the band's makeup at the start.

Just listen to Wheel in the Sky with RF singing. And the stuff that came afterwards....might not have even existed. Rolie might have stayed in the band. No Jonathan Cain=No big Journey hits in the 80's=Journey isn't that big now. And that's just one possible scenario.
Changing the singer would have changed everything. It's not as simple as just plugging RF's voice in place of SP's on songs like Stone in Love and Mother/Father and imagining how it would be....those songs likely wouldn't have even existed.

It'd be like wondering if Van Halen had Sammy Hagar from the get-go (and that was suggested back then) instead of DLR. Just because Hagar was a big solo act, and Van Hagar was big from 86-on doesn't guarantee they'd have even had the first hit in 1977, much less had 2 Diamond-selling albums (10 million+) like Van Halen and 1984 became.

[Final Frontiers]

How is it that Gregg Rolie says that he didn't think Steve Perry wanted him to sing, yet it's Robert Fleischman who sings "Anytime" and "Winds Of March" solo? When, when Steve Perry joined the band those songs became duets or songs they sang together in concert? Part of the reason Herbie wanted to get rid of Robert was that he wanted to do all the singing. Yet, Steve Perry gets painted with the microphone hog brush . Gregg Rolie says that it was never spoken out loud that SP didn't want him singing, but thats the way it all worked out. Even though he wanted to sing more. I still don't understand how he didn't get to sing more in his own band.

You have to remember, Herbie parted ways with Perry on very bad terms, by Herbie's own admission, and in the interview that's quoted so much here, it's pretty obvious Herbie still holds a large grudge. So I take anything he says about Perry with a grain of salt.
Not that there might not be some truth to what he says, but probably nowhere near as bad as he claims.

And yeah, Journey got the right singer. They might have wanted a screamer, but IMO they are just another forgotten 70's band with RF.

It's easy with any big band to look at a former member, or someone who auditioned and didn't get the gig before the band hit it big, and say "well look at what that guy did after that. He'd have been great in band xxx. Imagine all those hit songs with him playing/singing".

Thing is, with those "what if" scenarios.....people forget that none of those songs/albums would have happened the way they did, if at all, if you changed the band's makeup at the start.

Just listen to Wheel in the Sky with RF singing. And the stuff that came afterwards....might not have even existed. Rolie might have stayed in the band. No Jonathan Cain=No big Journey hits in the 80's=Journey isn't that big now. And that's just one possible scenario.
Changing the singer would have changed everything. It's not as simple as just plugging RF's voice in place of SP's on songs like Stone in Love and Mother/Father and imagining how it would be....those songs likely wouldn't have even existed.

It'd be like wondering if Van Halen had Sammy Hagar from the get-go (and that was suggested back then) instead of DLR. Just because Hagar was a big solo act, and Van Hagar was big from 86-on doesn't guarantee they'd have even had the first hit in 1977, much less had 2 Diamond-selling albums (10 million+) like Van Halen and 1984 became.

I'm not talking about "What if Gregg Rolie never quit. Or what if Robert Fleischman never left.", because Journey wouldn't've become the icons that they are if Perry and Cain never joined. If Gregg Rolie never left, their biggest songs would still be "Lovin, Touchin', Squeezin'" and "Anyway You Want It". And ATWI would be their "Eye Of The Tiger". I'm only speculating would a difference have been made if Fleischman rejoined instead of Augeri. Of course at that point in the '90s not much would've gotten them noticed. Of course no one ever asks if a huge difference would've been made if Aynsley, George, or Prarie had stayed.

[Kor'n]

How is it that Gregg Rolie says that he didn't think Steve Perry wanted him to sing, yet it's Robert Fleischman who sings "Anytime" and "Winds Of March" solo? When, when Steve Perry joined the band those songs became duets or songs they sang together in concert? Part of the reason Herbie wanted to get rid of Robert was that he wanted to do all the singing. Yet, Steve Perry gets painted with the microphone hog brush . Gregg Rolie says that it was never spoken out loud that SP didn't want him singing, but thats the way it all worked out. Even though he wanted to sing more. I still don't understand how he didn't get to sing more in his own band.

It appears NO ONE else wanted him to sing more either, so he blames it on Steve Perry. He had his three + years to sell platinum with his voice and keep them signed to the label, but he FAILED. His only noticeable songs also have SP singing on them. Journey has gone continuously the route of Steve Perry karaoke, not Gregg Rollie karaoke.

[tater1977]

Somewhere, in one of Herbie's intereviews...he's quoted as saying...
And I'm going to paraphrase HH here...

..By the time Gregg left Santana, his vox was going, as he was their
lead singer.
By the tiime he left Journey, it was blown...


Gregg's vox to me when he left Journey..didn''t sound blown..
Anyone remember which interview /
Ok now I gotta go look...

[Final Frontiers]

Somewhere, in one of Herbie's intereviews...he's quoted as saying...
And I'm going to paraphrase HH here...

..By the time Gregg left Santana, his vox was going, as he was their
lead singer.
By the tiime he left Journey, it was blown...


Gregg's vox to me when he left Journey..didn''t sound blown..
Anyone remember which interview /
Ok now I gotta go look...

Now that is a quote I'd like to see. Nobody singing lead in a band can last forever. But the kind of singing that Gregg does and the kind that Steve Perry does are two totally different things. Steve Perry is all about holding and sustaining long notes. Gregg is more sing-talking, low key, no wailing. Not like Robert Fleischman either.

How is it that Gregg Rolie says that he didn't think Steve Perry wanted him to sing, yet it's Robert Fleischman who sings "Anytime" and "Winds Of March" solo? When, when Steve Perry joined the band those songs became duets or songs they sang together in concert? Part of the reason Herbie wanted to get rid of Robert was that he wanted to do all the singing. Yet, Steve Perry gets painted with the microphone hog brush . Gregg Rolie says that it was never spoken out loud that SP didn't want him singing, but thats the way it all worked out. Even though he wanted to sing more. I still don't understand how he didn't get to sing more in his own band.

It appears NO ONE else wanted him to sing more either, so he blames it on Steve Perry. He had his three + years to sell platinum with his voice and keep them signed to the label, but he FAILED. His only noticeable songs also have SP singing on them. Journey has gone continuously the route of Steve Perry karaoke, not Gregg Rollie karaoke.

Even though Cain was hired to sing for Gregg- it seems he never did it until Augeri was there. Why did Cain & Perry never duet?

[Pacfanweb]

Somewhere, in one of Herbie's intereviews...he's quoted as saying...
And I'm going to paraphrase HH here...

..By the time Gregg left Santana, his vox was going, as he was their
lead singer.
By the tiime he left Journey, it was blown...


Gregg's vox to me when he left Journey..didn''t sound blown..
Anyone remember which interview /
Ok now I gotta go look...

Rolie to me, still sounded the same in Journey as he did in Santana.

Apparently Herbie thinks that any singer that had anything to do with Journey was losing their voice when they left.