DSB

[escapefan]

Does anyone know the story behind how DSB was written and where? I have heard a couple of versions now. I am hoping Lora or Cyndy can answer for me...

[Don]

It took Journey 30 minutes to write one of the most enduring songs in rock history. “Don’t Stop Believin’” is, in many ways, more popular now than when the band first released it in 1981. It turned up in the “The Sopranos” finale, got a huge boost when it was featured on the first season of “Glee” and is the go-to song for wedding parties and bar crawlers looking to end a night of revelry with a bang.

The song is the best-selling catalog track on iTunes (more than 2 million downloads), and in January it charted twice in the UK’s Top 10: the original at No. 6, the “Glee” cover at No. 5.

The song was written by keyboardist Jonathan Cain, guitarist Neal Schon and singer Steve Perry while the band was writing and rehearsing new material for the album “Escape” in an Oakland warehouse Schon had bought from a member of Sly and the Family Stone. One day, Cain came in with a chorus melody and the lyric, “Don’t stop believin.’ ”

“The phrase came from my father,” Cain says. “I had a tough time trying to get down the road in the music business, and he used to tell me that stuff, ‘Don’t stop believing’ and, ‘Stick to your guns.’ ”

From there, Perry mostly dictated the structure.

“He worked backwards,” Cain says. “He said, ‘You need to start this thing like it’s going somewhere. Give me some rolling piano.’ So I started playing. Then I think Neal came up with the bass line. Steve scat on that.”

Schon then added his urgent, 16th-note arpeggiated guitar riff, played on a Les Paul, after Perry suggested he needed to sound like “a train.”

The next day, Cain went over to Perry’s house, and the two wrote the full lyrics about a “small-town girl” and a “city boy.” The line about taking a “midnight train going anywhere” was a reference to Gladys Knight’s “Midnight Train to Georgia,” while the lyric, “Strangers waiting/Up and down the boulevard” was pulled from Cain’s time living in LA in the early 1970s.

“My brother and I used go down Sunset Boulevard on a Friday night, and it was like a zoo, all those people cruising,” he says. “I never knew where they all came from or what they wanted.”

The song’s structure is unconventional, in that it builds slowly and has the chorus at the end of the song.

“To this day, even my [current] producer Kevin Shirley says it’s the oddest arrangement ever,” Schon says. “So I think, maybe that’s why it’s so big. It’s a bit unpredictable.”

[Michigan Girl]

What about Streetlight People, that came from South Detroit ...looking out of a hotel window after
a show at Cobo ...per SP somewhere, we must find it!!!

[annie89509]

Does anyone know the story behind how DSB was written and where? I have heard a couple of versions now. I am hoping Lora or Cyndy can answer for me...

Only what's been quoted out there for us fans to read. As expected, the guys have been asked about this song over the years. I recall a few. Others can add to it.

SP: unwinding from a show at Cabo Hall in Detroit. Couldn't sleep and looked out his hotel room at the night life --"street people" lurking around.

JC: moved out to LA trying to make it in the music biz...but having a hard time getting work. His father would always try to cheer him up with "don't stop believin'."

NS: the song came quickly in a jamming session at their warehouse in (Berkeley?). Steve and Jon walked into the room with these lyrics to a song. Neal added the guitar tone, and all the guys played as Steve sang the melody and dictated the structure of the song.

[annie89509]

I see Don (GB) came up with the most recent article on it. I was thinking back to other, much older interview material I've read on the 'net.

Actually, DSB first came back to the American music conscious with the 2003 movie Monster. From there, the song got featured (played) on many, many TV shows.

[Don]

A little more info on DSB and licensing

Based on what other TV shows have previously paid for music licensing, Sopranos producers likely paid $100,000 for the right to use the song, netting a nice pay day for Sony BMG Music Entertainment, which owns the master recording of the song, and Journey's then-lead singer Steve Perry, guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain, who teamed up to write the song. Also among the beneficiaries will be Perry's own Lacey Boulevard Music and Schon and Cain's Weed High Nightmare Music, administered by Wixen Music Publishing.

Every time Time Warner-owned HBO airs a rerun of the series finale, it will also have to pay a performance royalty to the songwriters and their respective publishing companies, much like terrestrial radio stations have to pay publishing royalties whenever they play a song on the air.

What's particularly gratifying about such licensing deals is that they provide the kind of publicity that marketers are often willing to pay for in the form of product placements. Most importantly, for Journey and Sony BMG, the Sopranos' use of "Don't Stop Believin" provided great exposure for a song that probably hadn't been on the radar of many viewers for quite some time.

It's just the latest high-profile example of the growing use of music licensing by TV networks, Hollywood studios and advertising agencies.

For the recording industry and performers, licensing songs provides a welcome source of additional revenue and publicity at a time when sales of recorded music continue to fall. And with so many other options available for consumers to access music and other entertainment options, recording artists recognize that licensing deals provide a valuable way of getting their music heard above the din.

Now think about AWYWI being used by ATT and how many times that commercial probably aired on the thousands of stations across the nation. How many DVDs were sold of Monsters Vs Aliens (10 million), Charlies Angels Full Throttle, or the Shrek Christmas Special and how many times those movies will be shown on Cable over the years. And we're not even mentioning all the other films that have used Journey music that get shown in syndication.
If you were a songwriter for Journey during it's heyday, you are making serious money right now.

[annie89509]

What about Streetlight People, that came from South Detroit ...looking out of a hotel window after
a show at Cobo ...per SP somewhere, we must find it!!!

You and I are thinking of the same interview, MG. Too many and too hard to find (at least for me) .

[Don]

What about Streetlight People, that came from South Detroit ...looking out of a hotel window after
a show at Cobo ...per SP somewhere, we must find it!!!

You and I are thinking of the same interview, MG. Too many and too hard to find (at least for me) .

I had read that story also many years ago, that's why I was surprised with Cain's revelation. Of course it was great to hear Jon talking about Steve constructing the music the way he did. Can you imagine Arnel standing there saying "Jon, get me something rolling... Neal, we need a train noise here." Shows there's more to creating a legacy then just having a good voice.

[Peartree12249]

I think Steve also talked about how DSB was written in the interview he did for CBC radio last summer.

[SP Fan in Oregon]

Did u know that despite how great this song is that Rolling Stone Magazine did not include DSB
on their list of top 500 songs of all time!

[annie89509]

What about Streetlight People, that came from South Detroit ...looking out of a hotel window after
a show at Cobo ...per SP somewhere, we must find it!!!

You and I are thinking of the same interview, MG. Too many and too hard to find (at least for me) .

I had read that story also many years ago, that's why I was surprised with Cain's revelation. Of course it was great to hear Jon talking about Steve constructing the music the way he did. Can you imagine Arnel standing there saying "Jon, get me something rolling... Neal, we need a train noise here." Shows there's more to creating a legacy then just having a good voice.

Absolutely, GB (I'm too used to Gunbot ). I think as fans (okay, loons), we appreciate that SP was at the forefront of every one of those Journey legacy tunes--he was the architect...the melody-"meister". Even on the 2 he had no hand in writing (Faithfully, WITS), he put his vocal stamp on it. As Jon once said, speaking about Faithfully, "he took my song and made it his own." And, WITS, he created the "my my my" and humming the high note in perfect synch with Neal's solo (I would bet).

[Babyblue]

Did u know that despite how great this song is that Rolling Stone Magazine did not include DSB
on their list of top 500 songs of all time!

Yes that bites

[escapefan]

Wow thanks guys. I have heard the two stories also. But was thinking Perry did an interview in the past year that told how some of it was written also.. Guess it's youtube time. Don thanks so much, Annie thanks too.

What amazes me is the youth that knows DSB and who Journey (Perry fronted) is. Their music is truely timeless. They should be be proud of what they accomplished together...

I don't know that much about Arnel. Other than he has caught a lot of grief for being the new frontman as did all the others. Doesn't seem very fair.

I love the Perry fronted Journey and that will always be the Journey I prefer. I sure wouldn't want to have to fill Perry's shoes, singing or writing.

[annie89509]

Did u know that despite how great this song is that Rolling Stone Magazine did not include DSB
on their list of top 500 songs of all time!

Hadn't heard that, SPFiO. Well, since it's RS, not surprising. They've never thought much of Journey or their music.