What Would Steve Perry's Playlist Be On A Solo Tour?

[Yoda]

As I said in another thread, it's obvious that if Perry keeps performing encores during Eels concerts, that he'll probably add in another song here and there, slowly building up a decent size playlist if he finally decides to have a concert of his own. So, with that said, what is a realistic playlist for Steve Perry, 2014, at this point? Let's say it's no more than 10 songs. Here's what I'm thinking, and keep in mind a few of these might be stretching it a bit, but songs that probably would be "required" if he were to do a solo tour:

1. Separate Ways (world Apart)
2. You Better Wait
3. Foolish Heart
4. Lovin' touchin' Squeezin'
5. Only Sixteen
6. Open Arms
7. Oh Sherrie
8. When You Love A Woman
9. The MF song
10. Faithfully

[tater1977]

Hopefully all new songs.
Maybe a few more Sam covers..

[nylady]

I agree with Tater and hope it would be mostly new stuff. I'm hoping these recent appearances were sort of a testing of the waters, both to see what the public response to him singing again would be, and his own response to being onstage again. We know the public response was overwhelmingly positive. Just have to wait to see (and hope) we'll hear more from Steve in the near future.

[jrny84]

1. Separate Ways
2. Foolish Heart
3. Lights
4. MF Song
5. New Perry song
6. Faithfully
7. Oh Sherrie
8. New Perry song
9. Ill Be Alright Without You
10. Any Way You Want It

Encore:
Send Her My Love
Dont Stop Believen
Be Good to Yourself

Personally, I would like to hear more new music from Perry as well. Throw in a handful of Journey tunes with 3 or 4 new songs in the mix too.

[tater1977]

I agree with Tater and hope it would be mostly new stuff. I'm hoping these recent appearances were sort of a testing of the waters, both to see what the public response to him singing again would be, and his own response to being onstage again. We know the public response was overwhelmingly positive. Just have to wait to see (and hope) we'll hear more from Steve in the near future.

He's always said..he can't get the 'vox' ...standing in his living room.

He needs that 'it' thing he gets from us, the fans..to make him reach for 'it'
and then in return we get 'it' back. Was he testing the waters for 'it' ?
Hopefully, he has seen the fan's reactions, that he still has his 'it' factor.

[Marabelle]

There are too many people out there singing Mr Perry's songs. We just had a thread with Steve Augeri singing a Journey song and then there's Arnel singing in front of the band night after night on tour. Every man sings the song differently but let's hear something different. He can sing one or two but I"d stay away from those songs. I do prefer Mr Perry singing the songs rather than those newbies but as he says that man is gone and we can hear him on You Tube; so if there's a choice in the matter I would love him to sing his heart's desire. Something new. Something different. Motherfu**er is great. Only Sixteen is done beautifully. I can only imagine him putting his voice behind other new tunes for us to hear. When I think of what he has sung and the reaction to his voice I think of that woman at the first concert with the Eels who was screaming out loud and above everyone else. Let him tug at our heart strings, let us fill his ears with our longing and let him feel our enthusiasm and love and joy on having him back on stage singing.

[tater1977]

This guy blogged about it pretty well...

Journey Reunion: Very Bad Idea
Wal Ozello
June 17, 2014

http://pencilstorm.com/blog/2014/6/8/jo ... y-bad-idea

While I've taken June off from blogging to finish my second novel, Revolution 1990, I've got to take a few minutes and share my thoughts on this whole Journey Reunion buzz that's going on.

For those of you who may have been under a rock for the past several weeks, Steve Perry (former lead singer of Journey) has made several surprise stage appearances. He's come on during the encore of a few EELS shows. This immediately raises two questions: first, "Who are the EELS?" and second, "When's the Journey reunion?"

While I'd love to time travel back to 1985 and see Journey live on stage during their Frontiers heydays, the last thing I want is a Journey reunion and subsequent tour.

Let me be clear: a Journey Reunion is an extremely terrible idea.

Here's the thing: I want to remember them how they were. If they perform today as Journey, they are going to sound like 60 year old guys trying to play Journey. To me, it's kind of depressing. Did you see the Ringo/McCartney reunion at the Grammys? It was pathetic. Do you want that to happen to your Journey memories?

It's been what, almost twenty years since Trial By Fire and even that was a far cry from their previous album Raised On Radio which wasn't even close to Frontiers. Trial By Fire is proof that as a band, Journey had tapped out their hit writing abilities.

Steve Perry has certainly moved on musically since then and that's what I want to hear. That guy has probably twenty-five years of melodies brewing in his head and I want to hear the best of them. Most likely it's gonna be more rhythm and blues than corporate rock. Steve even said it himself, 'Well, I hadn't sung in 20 years -- I sounded more like Otis Redding than I did in Journey." That's a hint, folks. He's ready to record and sing stuff that sounds more like "Hard To Handle" than "Open Arms."

Can you imagine the album that can come from Steve Perry's mind and voice today? After decades of the music critics trashing him for being corporate rock, he could comes back and nail it with a deep soul album. That would be huge.

And a concert that follows? Not one where he plays stadium crowds singing "The Girl Can't Help It," "Any Way You Want It," and "Don't Stop Believin'". No I'm talking one of those smaller venues as a singer in a smoky room, belting out Detroit Motown blues from Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, and Smokey Robinson.

Can you imagine Steve Perry's version of "Who's Lovin' You?" That would be awesome. That would be an evolution of Steve Perry and a departure from his Journey years. (Pun intended there, folks.)

That's what I want to hear.

Come back Steve. But don't regress, be the Steve Perry of 2014 and not the Steve Perry of 1984.

Wal Ozello is the author of Assignment 1989: The Time Travel Wars . He's a resident of Upper Arlington, Ohio and a frequent customer at Colin's Coffee.

Learn more about Wal Ozello and other Pencilstorm contributors by clicking here

[Marabelle]

Oh I don't hear that. Really?

[slucero]

I think Perry should sing whatever he wants... he'll know what works and what doesn't..

[tanga]

I would like to hear him sing "When I think of You" and "Still She Cries" plus the new 2014 SP songs, that would be a nice early Christmas present.

[scarygirl]

Dude is entitled to sing whatever the hell he wants, Journey or no. I would love some new music though.

[annie89509]

I agree with the blogger (thanks, Tater, for posting that)... SP does not need to go back and re-create his Journey days. In 2014, at 65, Steve has moved on and obviously in another musical place. When the time is right for new music, Steve will probably be back to his r&b roots, as he should be. And, if there were to be live performances, he'll probably do the new songs, and just throw in a few Journey ballads for which he is know for: Lights, OA, L-T-S... delivered in his current soulful voice ... and sounded great.

[Art Vandelay]

I always thought he would be able to do a killer version of Dobie Gray's 'Drift Away'. Would love to see/hear that.

[slucero]

I always thought he would be able to do a killer version of Dobie Gray's 'Drift Away'. Would love to see/hear that.

I second that.

Would love to hear him sing anything David Ruffin sang...

[Sassie]

I third that. Drift Away is one of my all time favorite songs and I have thought the same thing many times.

[Tomulator]

Whatever he does, I hope he'll raise the Journey tunes a step or so...I personally thought he struggled a wee bit on the lower register notes in a few places. If he raised the key up a whole step (still probably a step or so down from the original key of these songs), he'd be much more "in his wheelhouse" for the majority of the songs.

I suspect he took the "conservative" approach (and rightly so after all these years) and lowered the keys lower than he actually needed to.

Still, it was AWESOME to hear him sing again!!

[Yoda]

Honestly, I would hope Steve would have more new songs in his setlist. I guess I'm just going by what I know is out there to hear now. I personally would love to hear him sing some songs from Trial By Fire.

[Pacfanweb]

Ideally, I'd say something like this would be pretty special:

Couple of Sam Cooke songs
A Motown song or two
A few new ones
2-3 Journey songs, reworked. I'd prefer the less-played hits. Ones that sound better when tuned down a bit, at least better than Open Arms. I don't prefer that song tuned down, and am just over it in general, anyway.
Solo hits

So that's what...about 14-15 songs, give or take?

I said this before, but I'll say it again: Perry should do a Vegas residency. Play 3 shows a week, like the Axl Rose Band, or Garth Brooks. You won't have to tour. People will come see you. All you have to do is show up and sing. You get your adrenaline rush, then you have a few days off to do whatever else you want to do. It's ideal.

[Tomulator]

As much as I am a fan of SP...he's not that big to command a Vegas gig like that.

[Pacfanweb]

As much as I am a fan of SP...he's not that big to command a Vegas gig like that.

Sure he is, in a smaller venue. Certainly, he's not going to play in a venue like GnR is doing. Heck, David Lee Roth had a Vegas act. Now of course, Van Halen is a considerably bigger band than Journey, but still.....there's precedent. Roth hadn't been doing much when he went to Vegas. Hadn't been 20 years since he'd performed, either, though.

[scarab]

Would love to hear his live version of When you love a woman, along with my favorite song on TBF Still she Cries,
But I guess you would hear the magic moment song before that as it was written for his Mom.

[Yoda]

Would love to hear his live version of When you love a woman, along with my favorite song on TBF Still she Cries,
But I guess you would hear the magic moment song before that as it was written for his Mom.

I would love to hear Message of Love, When You Love a Woman, If He Should Break Your Heart, and Still She Cries from Trial By Fire.

[scarygirl]

The ground hog has gone back into his hole. I don't think we'll see a solo tour. I think the ground has sung!

[JBlake]

1. Separate Ways
2. Foolish Heart
3. Lights
4. MF Song
5. New Perry song
6. Faithfully
7. Oh Sherrie
8. New Perry song
9. Ill Be Alright Without You
10. Any Way You Want It

Encore:
Send Her My Love
Dont Stop Believen
Be Good to Yourself

Personally, I would like to hear more new music from Perry as well. Throw in a handful of Journey tunes with 3 or 4 new songs in the mix too.

Definitely would like to hear that one. Also would like to add: "Still They Ride".

Some of the others are nice like the top successful ones such as DSB, AWYWI, Faithfully, SW, etc. but have been done over and over again so much I'm starting to get tired of hearing them. If SP was to play, I'd like to hear a set list a lot less predictable.

[Yoda]

The ground hog has gone back into his hole. I don't think we'll see a solo tour. I think the ground has sung!

Maybe we should check the Eels' tour schedule. I know they were going to be touring in Europe for several dates, so it's possible that Steve is just waiting for them to return to the States. But yeah, just when it sounds like he's getting himself cranked up again, I'd hate for him to go right back on the shelf.