Why do Journey leave so much money on the table

[youkeepmewaiting]

I’m sick of all of these other bands releasing lovely vinyl and CD box sets, rare live recording, live videos and unreleased tracks etc. Even Ratt have released some nice stuff.

Is it literally because it’s impossible to get the 3 to agree on anything? It must be Perry holding this stuff back because I’m sure Schon and Cain would be happy for the extra income

[youkeepmewaiting]

I would spend big money on a lot of stuff

[Loneman1]

Amen to all of that. I've found that the new standard for amazing box sets for albums as been set by Metallica over the last few years. They've released a great set for every album up to the Black album so far with many more to come, and the content as been off the charts while trying to keep it fairly affordable. This one is the largest so far since its for their biggest album, so it had to exceed their previous $200 limit they imposed. I mean check out this stuff......



Here's all it includes - https://www.metallica.com/store/metalli ... es#start=1

THIS is the kind of thing that Sony should be putting together, but unfortunately these sets from Metallica are a labor of love pretty much assembled by the guy that moderates their message board. He goes through all the material in the various "vaults" from whatever era they are on bit by bit and chooses the stuff he likes and thinks the fans would appreciate, and then gets the band's ok. Sadly I think everything in the Journey camp is waaaaay too dysfunctional to make sets with that process, but there should be SOMETHING everyone can agree on, at the very least for the "Escape" album. That seems like a no brainer.......but then again, here we are.

[Monker]

If you read the interviews with Perry for "Separate Ways" on Stranger Things, it was said that Perry told the group working on it that he is usually very reluctant to give permission to use songs like this. That is for use in TV, which is different than a box set of audio. BUT, for video to release it they need all members permission to release a concert on video....they have a right to control images released of themselves (it's called "synch rights"). So, Perry or any of the others can stop a video release.

For audio. IMO, it is Perry and/or Sony who is responsible for not releasing any box sets and such. For unreleased or unfinished songs, I would think if Sony is not going to release a box set, there is no reason to release those unfinished songs.

Years ago, Neal said that it was Perry holding most of this stuff up, that the rest of the band was all for it. For live stuff, I think Perry is a perfectionist (or was) about how his voice sounds and on a lot of the live stuff he doesn't like how it sounds. Think of the songs that were recorded that are not on Captured or GHLive, Patiently, Opened the Door, Winds of March. All of those have vocals that just blow me away and I find it incredible that they were never released...the full concerts of those should absolutely be released. IMO, it was Perry who held them up. Also, IMO, I doubt Sony has much interest in releasing them now. New stuff from Journey just doesn't sell. Freedom songs had tens of thousands of views on YT. Extreme has MILLIONS, so did Def Leppard. Did GHLive even go gold? What about the MTV Escape concert on CD? Is it gold? If Sony doesn't KNOW it is going to be a platinum seller, I doubt they are going to release it.

If Neal were smart (and he's not), instead of all this BULLSHIT of suing everybody who looks at him wrong, and over spending on his lifestyle (charged to Journey or not), he would have concentrated on buying back Journey's catalog and masters to those old concerts and demos so Journey could release these without Sony. But, that's hindsight.

[Loneman1]

If Neal were smart (and he's not), instead of all this BULLSHIT of suing everybody who looks at him wrong, and over spending on his lifestyle (charged to Journey or not), he would have concentrated on buying back Journey's catalog and masters to those old concerts and demos so Journey could release these without Sony. But, that's hindsight.

This is a big difference between Metallica like I mentioned above and Journey (one of MANY). Probably close to a decade ago or possibly more Tallica bought all of their masters and everything back from Elektra and own literally everything about their brand so they have the freedom to do sets and anything else they do like they do because owning their legacy was a very big priority for them. Sony has ALL the Journey stuff, at least video-wise. That interview with Herbie where he mentions Neal pretty much just gave all their Nocturne recordings to Sony just hurt my soul. Any future archive releases will be subject to Sony's whim, Perry's perfectionist nature as you pointed out holding up anything coming out that doesn't meet his high standard, and the rest of the band's inability to come together on anything without it turning into a shitshow.

Its really sad if you think too long about it knowing that unless there's suddenly some profitable reason for Sony to dig into old Journey stuff, we've probably seen all we're going to see released other than maybe a half-assed small project here and there. There's gotta be sooooo much material they could clean up and release. Those original demo tapes and whatnot have to be sitting somewhere, probably multiple copies for the various band members. Rough mixes would be fun too. Hell, I'd loved to just hear half baked ideas like the unknown soundcheck song in Dallas '83 that was posted here awhile back. While not their hottest album, if the stories are true about tons of tape being left on the cutting room floor for what became the ROR sessions alone could probably fill a CD or two.