MR

I don't know who Amber Ward is, but she made a list of weak links in rock bands. She claims Neal Schon is the weak link in Journey. Did Steve Perry pay her to say this? Neal Schon is the strongest and most important member of Journey from the start.

JourneyHard wrote:I don't know who Amber Ward is, but she made a list of weak links in rock bands. She claims Neal Schon is the weak link in Journey. Did Steve Perry pay her to say this? Neal Schon is the strongest and most important member of Journey from the start.

The other day on YouTube I spotted a link for a video that was going to talk about weak links in bands, but I didn't click on it.
I don't know if that's the thing that you are referring to or not?

One way or another, this Amber Ward, whoever the hell she is, is a complete moron!

In my honest opinion, Neal Schon is a better guitarist than even Perry was as a singer.

Only a true moron would ever say that Neal Schon is a weak link in any band!

This isn't the Amber that's Neal disgruntled ex-wife is it?

ebake02 wrote:This isn't the Amber that's Neal disgruntled ex-wife is it?

She's someone who doesn't like a lot of guitar in songs, even when were talking about a virtuoso guitarist like Neal Schon.

She likes her guitarists to be neutered while recording songs or performing them live.

Journey/Survivor wrote:

ebake02 wrote:This isn't the Amber that's Neal disgruntled ex-wife is it?

She's someone who doesn't like a lot of guitar in songs, even when were talking about a virtuoso guitarist like Neal Schon.

She likes her guitarists to be neutered while recording songs or performing them live.

Then this woman is moron, Journey was built around Neal’s guitar so the idea that he’s the weakest is just stupid nonsense.

No music authority would ever claim Neal was a weak link. What a crock.

I'm not sure what she is even getting at here. OK, maybe I can forgive her for the comment about the first three albums. They are a bit of an acquired taste. But, "a lack of taste" for Escape, Frontiers, and even ROR...feels like she doesn't even know what she' talking about. Neal was at his best when he was NOT "extravagant" but more reserved and letting Perry be the lead instrument, and then Perry pulling back and letting Neal take over. That dance is what made Journey great back then. He may have WANTED to be Eddie Van Halen, but the music did not need that. I would say he tries to "show off" more nowadays than he did back then...and I am not sure that is a true "weak link", but trying to drive the band forward.

Neal Schon - Journey
A lot of music that emerged from the the early 70s prog-rock scene has aged pretty badly. The same can be said of the more pop-oriented rock of the 80s. Journey has the distinction of belonging to both camps.

Clearly they're skilled musicians, but their lack of taste is often quite staggering, particularly from guitarist Neal Schon, whose extravagance frequently topples over into self-parody.

Weak link as in the one most detrimental to the bands image, professionalism, finances, etc. for sure !
Weak link as in musically, not at all!