REAL ROR Poll, not some Slanted Euro Version

[Deb]

In fact, Rolie's vocals are the weak link on all the first three albums...for me, anyway.

Darwin Award Nominee.

You officially are a fag. Please tell me you don't prefer Garfriga's chords over Gregs?

Garfriga's voice isn't up to much either. I never understood why the Journey keyboard players were allowed anywhere near a microphone.

It's called a duet...and in this case, you wanted something different. You had Perry and then you needed someone who could sing with him.. What you suggest, Ross? LOL..Neal, not quite. Smith is as loud as a bull mouse. Greg has a strong voice. Garfriga doesn't. You don't want me to publicly talk about the secrets of Garfrigas pipes do you? No, you don't.

The contrast between Perry and Rolie was magical. Feeling That Way, Anytime, Just The Same Way to name a few. Great stuff.

Get outta my head SJ! I just posted something like that.

[Saint John]

In fact, Rolie's vocals are the weak link on all the first three albums...for me, anyway.

Darwin Award Nominee.

You officially are a fag. Please tell me you don't prefer Garfriga's chords over Gregs?

Garfriga's voice isn't up to much either. I never understood why the Journey keyboard players were allowed anywhere near a microphone.

It's called a duet...and in this case, you wanted something different. You had Perry and then you needed someone who could sing with him.. What you suggest, Ross? LOL..Neal, not quite. Smith is as loud as a bull mouse. Greg has a strong voice. Garfriga doesn't. You don't want me to publicly talk about the secrets of Garfrigas pipes do you? No, you don't.

You? Who? I didn't want any duets. Just Perry on lead vocals and layered Perry over-dubs for harmonies. Everyone else can concentrate on what they're good at.

Journey was exceptional at harmonies. The overdubbed bullshit is ludicrous. If there is one bitch I have about ROR, it's that. Those songs sounded MUCH better live with Friga and Neal singing the harmonies. Go give it a listen. GCHI and IBAWY sounded so much better live than on the album BECAUSE of those harmonies. Normally, you're a pretty good poster, but today I think you need to change the air in your head.

[Saint John]

The contrast between Perry and Rolie was magical. Feeling That Way, Anytime, Just The Same Way to name a few. Great stuff.

Glad you enjoy them, Saint John. But to me those songs suffer from the almost absurd difference in quality between the two voices.

That's the WHOLE point. And it wasn't quality, it was range and resonance. Greg-low, Perry-high. Fuckin' brilliant shit.

[Rockindeano]

Fuckin' brilliant shit.

That is an amazing line.

Fuckin- adjective

Brilliant- adverb

Shit- Noun.

It flows beautifully.

That is Edgar Allen Poe quality.

[Matthew]

Journey was exceptional at harmonies. The overdubbed bullshit is ludicrous. If there is one bitch I have about ROR, it's that. Those songs sounded MUCH better live with Friga and Neal singing the harmonies. Go give it a listen. GCHI and IBAWY sounded so much better live than on the album BECAUSE of those harmonies. Normally, you're a pretty good poster, but today I think you need to change the air in your head.

Yes, Cain added something to the last section of Only The Young too. I wasn't against the rest of the band doing backing vocals. But the Perry overdubs are the true spine-tinglers - especially on ROR. I could listen to the final seconds of GCHI on a loop for hours.

Of course...someone will now inform me that it wasn't just Perry at the end of GCHI and my argument will officially collapse.

[Rockindeano]

Yes I get the low / high dynamic. But I also hear the crap / brilliant dynamic too.

Matthew, you're fucked up, but you just proved a very important point.

Perry was obviously the shit, and proved that Journey should have only one lead singer. Generations also proved that is was a terrible idea to "share" the mic. That cheapened the band in my eyes. At the time, I thought it was fun and comical, but now, looks like a cheapened gimmick. However, Greg certainly was worthy of being in front of the mic.

[X factor]

The contrast between Perry and Rolie was magical. Feeling That Way, Anytime, Just The Same Way to name a few. Great stuff.

Glad you enjoy them, Saint John. But to me those songs suffer from the almost absurd difference in quality between the two voices.

That's the WHOLE point. And it wasn't quality, it was range and resonance. Greg-low, Perry-high. Fuckin' brilliant shit.

Ah-HA! We are finally in agreement, sir!
I think, honestly, Gregg just sorta suffered by comparison. In any other band (I dunno...say SANTANA, for instance) if Gregg was the lead singer you wouldn't say "Boy, THAT guy has a shit voice". Up next to PERRY, however, most rock singers seem pretty inept...
I love JTSW, and I totally wish they'd pull it out now with JSS and Dean.

[Ms_M]

Would love to hear JTSW, FTW/Anytime with JSS and Deen. Anyone have an idea if they are working on those??

[Saint John]

The contrast between Perry and Rolie was magical. Feeling That Way, Anytime, Just The Same Way to name a few. Great stuff.

Glad you enjoy them, Saint John. But to me those songs suffer from the almost absurd difference in quality between the two voices.

That's the WHOLE point. And it wasn't quality, it was range and resonance. Greg-low, Perry-high. Fuckin' brilliant shit.

Ah-HA! We are finally in agreement, sir!
I think, honestly, Gregg just sorta suffered by comparison. In any other band (I dunno...say SANTANA, for instance) if Gregg was the lead singer you wouldn't say "Boy, THAT guy has a shit voice". Up next to PERRY, however, most rock singers seem pretty inept...
I love JTSW, and I totally wish they'd pull it out now with JSS and Dean.

Rolie had a VERY good voice. He just didn't have the Everest-like range Perry had. And you're right, most would seem inept next to Perry. Astute post, dickhead.

[Rockindeano]

Would love to hear JTSW, FTW/Anytime with JSS and Deen. Anyone have an idea if they are working on those??

They aren't working on anything right now.

[Ms_M]

Would love to hear JTSW, FTW/Anytime with JSS and Deen. Anyone have an idea if they are working on those??

They aren't working on anything right now.

Thanks for the update. I hope they decide to put those on their "to do" list in the future.

[X factor]

The contrast between Perry and Rolie was magical. Feeling That Way, Anytime, Just The Same Way to name a few. Great stuff.

Glad you enjoy them, Saint John. But to me those songs suffer from the almost absurd difference in quality between the two voices.

That's the WHOLE point. And it wasn't quality, it was range and resonance. Greg-low, Perry-high. Fuckin' brilliant shit.

Ah-HA! We are finally in agreement, sir!
I think, honestly, Gregg just sorta suffered by comparison. In any other band (I dunno...say SANTANA, for instance) if Gregg was the lead singer you wouldn't say "Boy, THAT guy has a shit voice". Up next to PERRY, however, most rock singers seem pretty inept...
I love JTSW, and I totally wish they'd pull it out now with JSS and Dean.

Rolie had a VERY good voice. He just didn't have the Everest-like range Perry had. And you're right, most would seem inept next to Perry. Astute post, dickhead.

Much obliged....mouth breather...

[bluejeangirl76]

"Frontiers" beats out "Escape" just barely. To my ears "Dead or Alive", though it's a good tune, kinda messes up the flow of "Escape" enough to drop it into second place, more so than "Back Talk" does for "Frontiers".

For my two cents on that, no song messes up any album more than what Back Talk does to Frontiers. Yikes.
And no keyboard playing messes up any song more than the keyboard playing on Dead or Alive. I still love the song, but FUCK that one should have had the Frig on guitar, like Stone in Love, because it's hard to appreciate the awesomeness of Schon and Smith on that song with all that fucking plinking going on.

Anyway... If I must rank these albums... damn this is hard to do -

Evolution
Escape
Departure
Raised on Radio
Infinity
Frontiers
Trial By Fire

TBF would be a lot higher had they originally included "I Can See It In Your Eyes" and set fire to that reggae thing that they snuck on there as a hidden track. Who was smoking WHAT when those choices were made? The same with Frontiers and it's track listing. And I have those two pretty much tied, but TBF takes last place thanks to all the fucking sound effects. Did we really need the rainforest music? One thing I do like about TBF though, is that I don't listen to it and hear any particular "era" of music. Frontiers and ROR both scream "80s!" but TBF really doesn't scream anything. I don't think it sounds "90s".

And Radio beats out Frontiers strictly on the basis of vocals. It has more songs I like, too. And again, I might have been inclined to be more open to Frontiers had the track listing looked the way it should have in 1983 instead of waiting until the reissue in 2006.

[ohsherrie]

1/2. ROR/TBF alternately depending on my mood or whim.

3/4. Escape/Frontiers (see above)

5. Infinity
6. Evolution
7. Departure

My reasons being that I liked the music better after Cain joined and liked it even more as it matured along with Perry's voice.

I agree with Matt about Rollie's voice. He was certainly better than anyone else in Journey before or after Perry, until Jeff came, but he wasn't good enough to sing with Perry.

[Rick]

The contrast between Perry and Rolie was magical. Feeling That Way, Anytime, Just The Same Way to name a few. Great stuff.

Glad you enjoy them, Saint John. But to me those songs suffer from the almost absurd difference in quality between the two voices.

That's the WHOLE point. And it wasn't quality, it was range and resonance. Greg-low, Perry-high. Fuckin' brilliant shit.

Sure was. I remember the first time I heard that duet, I thought, DAMN that sounds great. Now I'm thinking, DAMN that was a long time ago..lol Still sounds great though.

[7 Wishes]

1. Escape: With the exception of "Dead or Alive", what else can be said? Absolutely one of the 5 greatest albums in the history of rock and roll.
2. Trial By Fire: Perry was absolutely brilliant. If they had toured, five of the songs on this record would have charted, at least.
3. Frontiers: 'Nuff said. Would have been #1 all-time if they had gone with the original plan and included "Only the Young" and "Ask the Lonely".
4. Infinity: "Winds of March." Say no more.
5. Street Talk: A rare solo release that you can listen to, beginning to end
6. Raised on Radio: Very good album, but I'm still pissed at Perry for becoming Napoleon
7. Departure: Brought them back from the brink of Evolution
8. For the Love of Strange Medicine: Anyway & You Better Wait - world class stuff; a lot of fluff otherwise
9. GH Plus 5: would have ranked higher had it been a full album
10. Evolution: a few good tracks, but a de-evolution musically.