MR

I have been listening to both Bad English and the Storm music over the past couple of weeks. It made me wonder which of the two post Journey bands others preferred.

Bad English seemed too much "we want to be MTV video successful" for me. I love the music on Forget Me Not, but the lyrics (and even more so the video) were beyond ridiculously lame to me. And it seems like with their pedigree, it was really stooping low to have to pick up a Diane Warren song, even though it was a hit.

The Storm didn't have the success I think that they could have. Record label changes, grunge, etc. all combined to create issues that weren't overcome. The songs, though, were pretty good. You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone is probably my favorite.

Anyone have a preference?

Bad English... hands down.

Bad English, never really cared for The Storm.

Bad English.

Although, I do also love The Storm.

To an extent, The Storm did sound more similar to Journey. In addition to Rolie, Valory and Smith on the first album, they had a singer who sounds a lot like Perry and a guitarist who is similar to Schon. But I still prefer Bad English. Plus, obviously Bad English had Schon, Cain and Journey's future drummer (Castronovo) in addition to Waite and Phillips.

Bad English.

I agree with what you're saying about the MTV veneer but they weren't trying to be Journey without Perry. They were doing their own thing and they had a surprisingly strong chemistry with Waite on vocals.

The Storm on the other hand was absolutely trying to recreate the Rollie days of Journey. I like some stuff from the first album but Chalfant is no Steve Perry and Ramos is no Schon. Steve Smith's playing felt like it was phoned in. I did not feel his heart in his playing. In the end it felt like a knockoff.

Another vote for Bad English here, although I preferred "Backlash" to their debut album. Always loved the The Babys and Journey, so I thought Bad English was the shiz. Too bad we only got two albums out of them.

The Storm. Bad English had it's moments, but Eye of the Storm is a bonafide AOR classic. Even on his worst day, Chalfant beats Waite.

There's a reason BE succeeded and The Storm didn't. Far more firepower in BE. I like Chalfant, but he's a minor leaguer compared to Waite.

I wish Schon and Cain went with a different singer during this period than Waite, but hands down I would still have to pick Bad English over the Storm.

Ehwmatt wrote:There's a reason BE succeeded and The Storm didn't. Far more firepower in BE. I like Chalfant, but he's a minor leaguer compared to Waite.

Both bands fizzled after the second album. It can also be argued that Storm was playing music more in the classic rock vein that was no longer popular. Bad English was a little more hip - or at least tried to evolve with the times. Bad English's most famous song was written by Diane W. , not Waite. The Storm was in the business of delivering old school AOR licks and not chasing trends. For this same reason, much of Journey's material is timeless while Bad English is a dated pop culture footnote. I would urge everybody in this thread to give both Storm albums another listen. Waaay underrated.

the storm debut was good, but "eye of the storm" is a classic.
love bad english when they rocked, but the ballads (which most people associate with them) werent that great.
youve got schon, cain, and waite and you need diane warren (twice?)

With both Bad English and The Storm I much prefer the first albums. IMO Bad English's first album blows away Backlash. And I also prefer The Storm's first album over Eye Of The Storm.

If I were to rank all four of the albums in order, it would probably go....

Bad English S/T
The Storm S/T
Backlash
Eye Of The Storm

I like both, but if I have to pick one I would pick the Storm.

The Storm sounded more like Journey than Journey does. I mean that in a good way. Arrival sounded like the Storm, which was a good thing!

Bad English.

Ghost In Your Heart, Time Stood Still and Savage Blue are some of my favorite songs out of all artists.

I just listened to Savage Blue on YouTube. There is one video of a guy playing along with his drum kit in the middle of a cemetery. Seemed a little odd to me.

https://youtu.be/8cg8hFG2HpU

I miss Bad English. The Restless Ones is an amazing Journeyish tune. Love that one. Synth intro almost reminds me of Faith in the Heartland. Wish Schon/Cain would write some more tunes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_lAUYuqivY

The_Noble_Cause wrote:I miss Bad English. The Restless Ones is an amazing Journeyish tune. Love that one. Synth intro almost reminds me of Faith in the Heartland. Wish Schon/Cain would write some more tunes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_lAUYuqivY

I thought the same thing. The intro also reminds me of the intro to the song If You Ask Me To, sung by Patti Labelle first for the James Bond theme on License to Kill. It is a Diane Warren written tune which didn't do well until Celine Dion launched her career with it a few years later.

tj wrote:

The_Noble_Cause wrote:I miss Bad English. The Restless Ones is an amazing Journeyish tune. Love that one. Synth intro almost reminds me of Faith in the Heartland. Wish Schon/Cain would write some more tunes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_lAUYuqivY

I thought the same thing. The intro also reminds me of the intro to the song If You Ask Me To, sung by Patti Labelle first for the James Bond theme on License to Kill. It is a Diane Warren written tune which didn't do well until Celine Dion launched her career with it a few years later.

Now that you mention it, I can hear that comparison also.

License To Kill is in my top 5 favorite Bond films. I watch it at least once a year every year. I never really noticed any similarity to the intro's of TRO and IYAMT. But I hear it a little now that you mention it.

Even though License To Kill is in my top 5 favorite Bond films, I always thought that it was one of the weakest for the theme songs. At least until the Daniel Craig films. Gladys Knight's "License To Kill" is decent. But I never liked Patti Labelle's "If You Ask Me To."

The Storm, both CDs were fantastic, the second is better than the first. They could have been the missing link to Journey in the off years, if it wasn't for grunge.
Bad English first CD is a little bit better than the Storms, but their second one was lacking big time.

While Ramos was a good guitarist, Schon is the best. Both had great keyboardist and both had strong back beat, former Journey and future Journey. The vocalist for both band were outstanding, but more people knew John Waite than Kevin Chalfant. Never cared for Waite's Baby's cds or most of his early solo pre Bad English. I only became a fan of his once he joined the band. Kevin, I have always been a fan and still am. The man can sing, and should have been a natural to take Perry's place in JRNY. Heck he was part of JRNY till Perry came back.

So over all The Storm.

Abitaman wrote:The Storm, both CDs were fantastic, the second is better than the first. They could have been the missing link to Journey in the off years, if it wasn't for grunge.
Bad English first CD is a little bit better than the Storms, but their second one was lacking big time.

While Ramos was a good guitarist, Schon is the best. Both had great keyboardist and both had strong back beat, former Journey and future Journey. The vocalist for both band were outstanding, but more people knew John Waite than Kevin Chalfant. Never cared for Waite's Baby's cds or most of his early solo pre Bad English. I only became a fan of his once he joined the band. Kevin, I have always been a fan and still am. The man can sing, and should have been a natural to take Perry's place in JRNY. Heck he was part of JRNY till Perry came back.

So over all The Storm.

Very well said.

Thanks to Ross and Steve Smith, I do believe that Bad English would win a retrospective "which of the two bands had better hair" contest. Neither of those two ever seemed to do much in the way of hairspray.

Bad English.
Their debut is a monster.

Very close. I go with BE. But then again I am one of the very few that prefer Backlash over the debut.

SF-Dano wrote:Very close. I go with BE. But then again I am one of the very few that prefer Backlash over the debut.

Backlash would have been a lot better, if it had been released first as their debut album. It is that their debut is so strong, IMO, that Backlash pales in comparison to it.

tj wrote:I have been listening to both Bad English and the Storm music over the past couple of weeks. It made me wonder which of the two post Journey bands others preferred.

Bad English seemed too much "we want to be MTV video successful" for me. I love the music on Forget Me Not, but the lyrics (and even more so the video) were beyond ridiculously lame to me. And it seems like with their pedigree, it was really stooping low to have to pick up a Diane Warren song, even though it was a hit.

The Storm didn't have the success I think that they could have. Record label changes, grunge, etc. all combined to create issues that weren't overcome. The songs, though, were pretty good. You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone is probably my favorite.

Anyone have a preference?

No question, Bad English. A beautiful marriage of Journey and 80' s pop. I have really come to like Waite's singing. Neal is incredible in Bad English.

I gotta go with The Storm. I knew that they were probably going to be a one-off band, but they filled the Journey void for me at the time much more than Bad English did. It was also neat to hear what Journey would have sounded like if Gregg had never left.

Art Vandelay wrote:I gotta go with The Storm. I knew that they were probably going to be a one-off band, but they filled the Journey void for me at the time much more than Bad English did. It was also neat to hear what Journey would have sounded like if Gregg had never left.

Gregg's all over the new Santana album. Pick it up if you have not already.

The_Noble_Cause wrote:

Art Vandelay wrote:I gotta go with The Storm. I knew that they were probably going to be a one-off band, but they filled the Journey void for me at the time much more than Bad English did. It was also neat to hear what Journey would have sounded like if Gregg had never left.

Gregg's all over the new Santana album. Pick it up if you have not already.

Oh, it's definitely on my to-do list...thanks, bud!

The_Noble_Cause wrote:

Art Vandelay wrote:I gotta go with The Storm. I knew that they were probably going to be a one-off band, but they filled the Journey void for me at the time much more than Bad English did. It was also neat to hear what Journey would have sounded like if Gregg had never left.

Gregg's all over the new Santana album. Pick it up if you have not already.

Picked it up last night, but it never made it to my ears....feel a sleep before I even pushed play.