review of JOURNEY

[Wheels Of Fyre]

Several months ago Rich of www.GeorgeTickner.com asked me if I'd be interested in writing a review of JOURNEY's debut album for the George Tickner website. I was immediately excited as I'd never been asked to write something of this stature before. Also, JOURNEY is one of my favorite and most personally influential albums in the catalogue.

It was difficult to find the words to describe the album but Rich wanted me to write in my own quirky fashion so I had to struggle to maintain my quirkiness without having it get too far away! Anyway, I completed it this morning and wanted to share it here. Hope you enjoy!

JOURNEY (1975)
Gregg Rolie – Keyboards, Lead Vocals
Neal Schon – Lead Guitar, Vocals
Aynsley Dunbar – Drums
George Tickner – Rhythm Guitar
Ross Valory – Bass Guitar, Piano, Vocals

Review by: John Lute (2006)

The 1975 self-titled debut album from JOURNEY is a cosmic experience of a lifetime. The album cover provides a sense of the adventure as it presents the five founding band members clad in test pilot jumpsuits bounding about mysterious mountains on some alien sphere. Hovering above this action is a flowing silver JOURNEY logo with its “J” and “Y” extending into wings – ancient symbolism for wisdom and spiritual flight.

This imagery is a reflection of the music and lyrics within as the sweeping, cinematic opening track ‘Of A Lifetime’ implores, “Well, keep your faith – Do what you choose!” This is the empowering call shouted by Gregg Rolie that initiates the experience and takes the listener to a higher place. It also happens to be the call that sent me on my own personal journey over 27 years ago.

I discovered JOURNEY when I was thirteen years old. As most young boys I was of the age where I took up the quest of finding myself. I was directed to a trail that tradition had blazed and left for me. I walked along that trail and slowly realized that it was taking me further away from myself. Then I heard another call. As the famous explorer Fridtjof Nansen expressed:

"We all have a land of Beyond to seek in life. Our part is to find the trail that leads to it. A long trail, a hard trail, maybe; but the call comes to us and we have to go. Rooted deep in the nature of every one of us is the spirit of adventure, vibrating under all our actions, making life deeper, higher, and nobler. There's a whisper of the night-wind, there's a star agleam to guide us, and the Wild is calling, calling. Let us go!"

The call I heard was answered by the lyric “Well, keep your faith – Do what you choose!” which confirmed that I could choose freedom – freedom to find my own way – to blaze my own trail to destiny.

I knew then that I found my journey!

Discovery can bring about a sense of rebirth – light and a new day when the blues can turn into thoughts and desires of love. How fitting that the next track on JOURNEY ‘In The Morning Day’ emulates the sunrise through the magic of Gregg Rolie’s keyboard while the lovelorn daydreamer in us all is echoed in the lyric, “I want to give you happiness just like the sun gives to the day.”

As the day turns to night and the Sun’s light rests in the beyond; distant stars and comets wake from their slumber and illuminate the heavens. The comet Kohoutek was discovered by Czech astronomer Luboš Kohoutek in 1973. The media hyped it as the “comet of the century” because it was theorized that it was an object from the Oort Cloud (an immense spherical cloud surrounding the planetary system) on it’s first journey to the inner solar system, which would result in a spectacular display of outgassing. On the contrary, Kohoutek’s display was considered unremarkable – a dud which led some to nickname it “Comet Watergate.” Closer studies of Kohoutek have identified it as a Kuiper Belt object (a disk-shaped region past the orbit of Neptune).

JOURNEY’s intrumental tribute to Kohoutek begins with a marked foreboding that climaxes into an explosion ushering in the comet’s arrival. The musical praise continues as Kohoutek’s orbit swings it around the Sun to begin a new journey back into the cosmos from whence it came. As it soars past Earth it whooshes a fond farewell – venturing on a solitary path for 75,000 years when it will return again in its time. What marvelous tales will it tell us then!

While others claimed Kohoutek a “dud” JOURNEY championed it. Rather than discrediting the comet for not meeting theorized expectations, JOURNEY celebrated it for the heavenly body that it is. The lesson here is that imposing expectations leads to vanity and bitterness for it’s not the duty of anything in the Universe to fulfill an expectation. Rather, it’s to be expected that the Universe is capable of anything.

Everything is relative. In answer to relativity Dr. Wayne Dyer makes this observation regarding his balding head, "In a bowl of soup – THIS is a LOT of hair.

I prefer Dr. Dyer’s perspective. I consider Kohoutek and say, "In a Universe of heavenly bodies – THAT is an amazing comet."

JOURNEY’s tribute to Kohoutek comes as no surprise. Consider the words of George Tickner, the original rhythm guitarist who also contributed much to the sound of JOURNEY:

“This is who we are. We are the forgotten, the castoffs, the castaways, the unwanted. We were and are the fat, the ugly, the unpopular, the not in your club. We were taken advantage of and abused. That is who we are and so much more.

We were told to stop, not that loud, not that way, don't do that and don't do it here! We love each other and would do anything for each other and the family that we belong to. To the bullies out there, we have banded together and you should be afraid.

I wish everyone the best. Bring out your best art! Be the best person you can be! Help a friend! Help a stranger! Turn an enemy into a friend! Give something back!”
-from www.GeorgeTickner.com

It’s no wonder that JOURNEY reveres Kohoutek – something considered by so many to be less than what it is.

JOURNEY is an expression of graciousness – a voice of gratitude. Further evidence of this is found in the next track ‘To Play Some Music’ where it’s proclaimed, “Say, everybody and everyone – we’ve been waiting so very long – to play some music and have some fun – bring some happiness to everyone.” So clear is the JOURNEY vision quest.

That clarity of mission is carried on in the instrumental ‘Topaz’. Topaz is a gemstone of the setting Sun and the Egyptians believed that it was colored with the golden glow of Ra: the mighty Sun God. This endowed it with a power and made it an amulet that protected the faithful against harm. The mystical, curative powers of Topaz are said to wax and wane with the phases of the moon. JOURNEY’s ‘Topaz’ also waxes and wanes as it bids farewell to the setting Sun.

As the Sun sets loneliness can rise in the heart. ‘In My Lonely Feeling/Conversations’ is an exploration of the lonely heart as it wonders perhaps one of life’s most enduring questions, “Am I the master of my soul?” As the heart converses with itself it changes reasoning. Fear fades away and belief is confirmed, “Yes, I’m the master of my soul!”

This confirmation revives one from the depths of solitary conversations and places one upon the mountain. ‘Mystery Mountain’ speaks to the mighty powers of creation and regeneration:

“Releasing the pressure built over the years
The mountain is crying hot lava tears
Molten rock created under
Vibrations of subterranean thunder!
Ejecting boulders like pieces of sand
The mountain is giving birth to the land!”

More conversation with the mountain:

“Your cumulus cloud glows misty red
As Apollo sets beyond your head.”

How fitting that JOURNEY mentions Apollo – the Greek and Roman God of the Sun and patron of musicians and poets! Apollo carries a lyre (a stringed instrument strummed like a guitar) and his symbol represents the “egg of creation”. An Olympian God and son of Zeus and Leto; Apollo is considered the ideal of manly beauty and a very handsome man might be called an “Apollo”. He is a mortal medical healer who was so successful in ancient times that he was reputed to have the ability to bring the dead back to life.

Being brought back from the dead carries many implications. Doctors revive the dead every day on operating tables around the world. There's also the rebirth of the spirit. This is what I found in JOURNEY so many years ago when I began the walk of life only to find myself on the wrong trail. What a blessing to hear my true calling and being empowered to answer it by JOURNEY's, “Well, keep your faith – Do what you choose!” For me it was a moment when I felt freedom and was reborn into myself. I had arrived and found my trail – my journey.

I’m reminded of the old children’s song ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat.’

Row, row, row your boat.
(Row your boat and not someone else’s boat.)
Gently down the stream.
(Not madly up the stream but gently with the current.)
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily…
(Happily, joyfully, cheerfully, contentedly…)
Life is but a dream.
(Life is but a beautiful journey.)

With the defining work of JOURNEY Gregg Rolie, Neal Schon, Aynsley Dunbar, George Tickner, and Ross Valory set into motion a journey of a lifetime.

- John Lute

[Wheels Of Fyre]

Several months ago Rich of www.GeorgeTickner.com asked me if I'd be interested in writing a review of JOURNEY's debut album for the George Tickner website. I was immediately excited as I'd never been asked to write something of this stature before. Also, JOURNEY is one of my favorite and most personally influential albums in the catalogue.

It was difficult to find the words to describe the album but Rich wanted me to write in my own quirky fashion so I had to struggle to maintain my quirkiness without having it get too far away! Anyway, I completed it this morning and wanted to share it here. Hope you enjoy!

JOURNEY (1975)
Gregg Rolie – Keyboards, Lead Vocals
Neal Schon – Lead Guitar, Vocals
Aynsley Dunbar – Drums
George Tickner – Rhythm Guitar
Ross Valory – Bass Guitar, Piano, Vocals

Review by: John Lute (2006)

The 1975 self-titled debut album from JOURNEY is a cosmic experience of a lifetime. The album cover provides a sense of the adventure as it presents the five founding band members clad in test pilot jumpsuits bounding about mysterious mountains on some alien sphere. Hovering above this action is a flowing silver JOURNEY logo with its “J” and “Y” extending into wings – ancient symbolism for wisdom and spiritual flight.

This imagery is a reflection of the music and lyrics within as the sweeping, cinematic opening track ‘Of A Lifetime’ implores, “Well, keep your faith – Do what you choose!” This is the empowering call shouted by Gregg Rolie that initiates the experience and takes the listener to a higher place. It also happens to be the call that sent me on my own personal journey over 27 years ago.

I discovered JOURNEY when I was thirteen years old. As most young boys I was of the age where I took up the quest of finding myself. I was directed to a trail that tradition had blazed and left for me. I walked along that trail and slowly realized that it was taking me further away from myself. Then I heard another call. As the famous explorer Fridtjof Nansen expressed:

"We all have a land of Beyond to seek in life. Our part is to find the trail that leads to it. A long trail, a hard trail, maybe; but the call comes to us and we have to go. Rooted deep in the nature of every one of us is the spirit of adventure, vibrating under all our actions, making life deeper, higher, and nobler. There's a whisper of the night-wind, there's a star agleam to guide us, and the Wild is calling, calling. Let us go!"

The call I heard was answered by the lyric “Well, keep your faith – Do what you choose!” which confirmed that I could choose freedom – freedom to find my own way – to blaze my own trail to destiny.

I knew then that I found my journey!

I wanted to bump this. This is why I'm a JOURNEY fan.

[ArnelRox]

Fyre, I'm on pain meds, happy pills, & even on them, this post made me feel ill

I didn't read it all, I couldn't concentrate long enough. But really! That album SUCKED. Start w/Infinity, work ur way up, stop at Frontiers. NOW review that album. Ok move along, listen to ROR & TBF. Go back again, review that album. Move along again & listen to Arrival, Red 13 & even the suck-ass Generations. Go back & review that album then. See what I'm getting at? No, probably not. It is u after all.

[Wheels Of Fyre]

Fyre, I'm on pain meds, happy pills, & even on them, this post made me feel ill

I didn't read it all, I couldn't concentrate long enough. But really! That album SUCKED. Start w/Infinity, work ur way up, stop at Frontiers. NOW review that album. Ok move along, listen to ROR & TBF. Go back again, review that album. Move along again & listen to Arrival, Red 13 & even the suck-ass Generations. Go back & review that album then. See what I'm getting at? No, probably not. It is u after all.

LOL!

I think you've missed the point. It's not a review to necessarily espouse the musical genius of the album. I happen to be a big fan of it however it's more of a personal recollection of how I became a JOURNEY fan through it.

Review the other albums...? With the exception of Dream After Dream and Infinity no other JOURNEY album has spoken to me as much as their debut. I'm probably in a very SMALL minority!

[ArnelRox]

I happen to be a big fan of it however it's more of a personal recollection of how I became a JOURNEY fan through it.

Review the other albums...? With the exception of Dream After Dream and Infinity no other JOURNEY album has spoken to me as much as their debut. I'm probably in a very SMALL minority!

Wow! Ok u get the label of a TRUE Journey fan then. To be perfectly honest, I could never have gotten into Journey from exposure of their first 3 albums sans Perry. They just wouldn't have done it for me. All that being said, ESC4P3 is NOT my favorite album by far. Infinity & Evolution are the ones I play most often. I have an affinity for Departure as it's the first Journey album I ever heard tho. I like ESC4P3, I like Frontiers, but I go back to the older ones more often. Maybe because ESC4P3 & Frontiers were just overplayed? ROR & TBF, I also like bits of, but not the whole albums, like Infinity, Evolution & Departure. Now, I love everything SP did solo. Not sure what kind of fan that makes me.

[Classic Rock]

Fyre, I'm on pain meds, happy pills, & even on them, this post made me feel ill

I didn't read it all, I couldn't concentrate long enough. But really! That album SUCKED. Start w/Infinity, work ur way up, stop at Frontiers. NOW review that album. Ok move along, listen to ROR & TBF. Go back again, review that album. Move along again & listen to Arrival, Red 13 & even the suck-ass Generations. Go back & review that album then. See what I'm getting at? No, probably not. It is u after all.

LOL!

I think you've missed the point. It's not a review to necessarily espouse the musical genius of the album. I happen to be a big fan of it however it's more of a personal recollection of how I became a JOURNEY fan through it.

Review the other albums...? With the exception of Dream After Dream and Infinity no other JOURNEY album has spoken to me as much as their debut. I'm probably in a very SMALL minority!

The minority might not be as small as you think. I’m only 20 so the dirty dozen is what lead me to Journey. I was shocked to discover that there were 3 albums without the great Steve Perry that everyone seemed to be raving about. I checked them out and found out that each one of them were excellent in their own way. I listen to them as regularly as the rest of the catalog; hell I like them better than ROR. Great review by the way, I saw it the first time around and forgot to comment on it.

[Melissa]

Fyre, I'm on pain meds, happy pills, & even on them, this post made me feel ill

I didn't read it all, I couldn't concentrate long enough. But really! That album SUCKED. Start w/Infinity, work ur way up, stop at Frontiers. NOW review that album. Ok move along, listen to ROR & TBF. Go back again, review that album. Move along again & listen to Arrival, Red 13 & even the suck-ass Generations. Go back & review that album then. See what I'm getting at? No, probably not. It is u after all.

LOL!

I think you've missed the point. It's not a review to necessarily espouse the musical genius of the album. I happen to be a big fan of it however it's more of a personal recollection of how I became a JOURNEY fan through it.

Review the other albums...? With the exception of Dream After Dream and Infinity no other JOURNEY album has spoken to me as much as their debut. I'm probably in a very SMALL minority!

The minority might not be as small as you think. I’m only 20 so the dirty dozen is what lead me to Journey. I was shocked to discover that there were 3 albums without the great Steve Perry that everyone seemed to be raving about. I checked them out and found out that each one of them were excellent in their own way. I listen to them as regularly as the rest of the catalog; hell I like them better than ROR. Great review by the way, I saw it the first time around and forgot to comment on it.

Hey you moved Rush up, cool, hubby will be pleased to hear, lol. Alter Bridge- AWESOME (new fan here, lol).

[JeremyP]

To me the first three Journey albums are like 70's Dream Theater. Prog excellence.

I always think, "Man, those guys can PLAY!" when I listen to them.

[ProgRocker53]

The self-titled debut is my second favorite Journey album.

[Classic Rock]

Hey you moved Rush up, cool, hubby will be pleased to hear, lol. Alter Bridge- AWESOME (new fan here, lol).

Yea I reevaluated and added some after you said something, lol. See the thing about you being a new Alter Bridge fan is that you are going to get new music in probably less than a year, hopefully only 6 months. I’ve been waiting since August 2004 after I played the disc non stop. The new album is going to rock, I’m sure of that even though I’ve only heard 3 piss poor quality live songs that might or might not make the album.

[Classic Rock]

The self-titled debut is my second favorite Journey album.

Which one is ahead of it? Where do you place Look Into The Future and Next?

[Moon Beam]

Thanks for posting this Fyre.
I bought Next after I started
on my love for Journey.
I found it very different and as a
young teen it opened my ears to
a new sound.
Topaz was my fave on this album.


Jeremy P, love the new fesitive avatar.
You rock fella!

[Wheels Of Fyre]

I happen to be a big fan of it however it's more of a personal recollection of how I became a JOURNEY fan through it.

Review the other albums...? With the exception of Dream After Dream and Infinity no other JOURNEY album has spoken to me as much as their debut. I'm probably in a very SMALL minority!

Wow! Ok u get the label of a TRUE Journey fan then. To be perfectly honest, I could never have gotten into Journey from exposure of their first 3 albums sans Perry. They just wouldn't have done it for me. All that being said, ESC4P3 is NOT my favorite album by far. Infinity & Evolution are the ones I play most often. I have an affinity for Departure as it's the first Journey album I ever heard tho. I like ESC4P3, I like Frontiers, but I go back to the older ones more often. Maybe because ESC4P3 & Frontiers were just overplayed? ROR & TBF, I also like bits of, but not the whole albums, like Infinity, Evolution & Departure. Now, I love everything SP did solo. Not sure what kind of fan that makes me.

The exposure I had to Infinity caught me in some ways. In fact when I first began writing the review I was going to discuss that but I felt it was long enough!

I first heard Wheel In The Sky on the radio. I heard Sam Cooke in Steve Perry and was immediately caught. Neal's guitar caught me, too. I only knew that WITS was JOURNEY and I liked them. I actually discovered the debut album in a Woolworth's discount bin! It was the cassette - state of the art back then! I took it home and threw it into the player. Of A Lifetime blew me away and upon hearing the lyric lyric “Well, keep your faith – Do what you choose!” I became a JOURNEY fan.

WITS may have caught my attention but that lyric and album helped me find my way and in turn become a JOURNEY fan.

[frostbite]

For anyone who hasn't heard the album before, your review tells the reader little to nothing about what the record sounds like! What was the point of the review? (Not being rude...honest question.)

[Melissa]

Hey you moved Rush up, cool, hubby will be pleased to hear, lol. Alter Bridge- AWESOME (new fan here, lol).

Yea I reevaluated and added some after you said something, lol. See the thing about you being a new Alter Bridge fan is that you are going to get new music in probably less than a year, hopefully only 6 months. I’ve been waiting since August 2004 after I played the disc non stop. The new album is going to rock, I’m sure of that even though I’ve only heard 3 piss poor quality live songs that might or might not make the album.

Cool. Yep I missed out the last 2 years huh? lol- but that's great, new cd should be awesome, I'm loving the 1st one, listened to it on the way to work just this a.m., lol. "One Day Remains" is my fav on there, going to lose my hearing if I don't stop listening to it so loud in the car lol

[Wheels Of Fyre]

For anyone who hasn't heard the album before, your review tells the reader little to nothing about what the record sounds like! What was the point of the review? (Not being rude...honest question.)

It wasn't intended to be a musical review so I'm glad you picked up on that!

The review was more of a personal recollection of what the album means to me. When Rich asked me he noted that anyone could write a "standard" review and simply comment on each song as to how they sound, etc. He didn't want that. He wanted a more personal perspective.

[Wheels Of Fyre]

To me the first three Journey albums are like 70's Dream Theater. Prog excellence.

I always think, "Man, those guys can PLAY!" when I listen to them.

Oh, yeah! They go places in those albums!