Journey/Survivor wrote:Alright, here goes...
First of all Journey are still very relevant without Steve Perry. Attention everyone, Journey would NOT have hit songs on the radio now with Steve Perry. All of these jackass comments about Journey not having any hits since Perry left are pointless, because the state of the music world right now does not support AOR/Melodic Rock bands anymore.
And this makes them relevant, how? Listen, you can speculate 7 ways 'til Tuesday, about whether or not Journey would have a hit or not, with Perry at the helm! I can assure you that you'll NEVER find a single post by me here, or anywhere else, suggesting that Journey would be guaranteed to have a "hit" if Perry were still singing! All I do know is that with all speculation aside, the facts are what they are! The band calling themselves Journey had endless hits with Perry. They then disappeared from the music scene for 10 long years, and reappeared in 1996 with a single that debuted at #17 (and reached #3 on the Billboard charts, which is their second highest charting single, EVER, behind "Open Arms")on the Billboard charts, and an album that debuted at #3 on the Billboards charts! As for your point that the state of the music world not supporting Melodic Rock bands anymore...I'd suggest rewinding your internal clock to 1996, and tell me which Melodic Rock bands were on top of the world then, when everything was grunge!
Journey/Survivor wrote:I'll grant you all that they would sell even more tickets and CD's with Perry back in the band (that's assuming that Perry still sounds good) but they still do really damn good in ticket sales without Perry. I don't remember the numbers, but how many fucking millions of dollars has Journey made on tour alone since their first tour with Augeri in the band? To say that Journey aren't relevant without Perry is ridiculous.
I have said and will continue to say that they are irrelevant without Perry, in spite of how "ridiculous" you think it is. Selling out 5000 seat venues doesn't make them musically relevant, in my opinion. Also, let us not forget that it's the name "Journey" that is responsible for the ticket sales. The name "Journey" was built upon a sound, that was HEAVILY influenced by the soaring vocals of Steve Perry! If you seriously believe that most casual "Journey" fans, showing up at these shows has ANY idea of the revolving door at lead singer, you're very naive! As Jeff Scott Soto said on this very site, most fans he met after shows were "shocked" to learn that Perry wasn't in the band, and this was 10 years after the guy left the band! Most people are showing up for the songs, and couldn't tell you the name of one single guy on the stage. If you're not a hardcore fan, you simply have no idea who is who in a band!
Journey/Survivor wrote:Second, there's no way that Perry's making more money sitting at home than Journey are when their making new albums and touring their asses of. The biggest money does come from songwriting, so obviously Perry's making great money from royalties, but so are Schon, Cain, Rolie and others who have been involved in the songwriting. But Those other guys are making big bucks out on the road on top of royalties.
This, I actually agree with you on, but not because of your "making new albums" argument. I don't know what Journey's sales numbers are for any of their post-perry albums, but I would imagine that all of them combined resulted in embarrassing sales numbers, for a band with Journey's name! The fact that Perry co-wrote most of the Journey hits with Cain means that Cain would be entitled to the same royalties, but is earning the tour money that Perry is not earning. I would still say that nobody is holding any telethons for Perry, any time soon! He's making a pretty good living, without having to be some old dude, playing nostalgia tours!
Journey/Survivor wrote:Third, and this is similar to the first point. Yes, Journey have existed before Steve Perry was in the band, and they exist after. All these people keep saying that Journey never would have any hits or fans without Steve Perry having been in the band. There's no way any of you can be sure of that. .
The argument that Journey "could have" had a hit without Perry is flat out moronic! As you said, they existed for FIVE long years, before Perry was brought into the band, and there weren't 10 people who knew who they were! You could sit around and say any band "could have" had a hit with another lead singer. It doesn't change what the facts are! The difference with Journey is that they existed for a very long time without Perry, and did NOTHING that anyone paid any attention to, so the evidence is quite compelling.
Journey/Survivor wrote: Fleischman was the main writer of "Wheel In The Sky." And who says that Steve Perry would have ever had any hits without Neal Schon and Gregg Rolie? Street Talk and FTLOSM did very well, but they didn't sell like Escape and Frontiers. .
Who is to say that Perry would have had any hits without Neal and Gregg? As far as I can tell, Billboard Magazine says he did! He had three top 20 hits, without the name Journey attached to it, and that's three more than ANY other member of Journey had! The reality is that Perry had a single that reached #3 on the Billboard charts, and only one Journey track (Open Arms) got any higher than that! As for your argument about Robert Fleischman...I've listened to the guy sing, so please don't tell me that Journey was primed for this big success if only Fleischman was "given a chance"! You do realize the guy was replaced because the band was going nowhere fast, with the guy, right? The fact that Fleischman wrote "Wheel in the Sky" simply means he could write a song. Jonathan Cain wrote "Faithfully" all by himself, with no help from anyone else in Journey. I'd suggest you listen to his version of "Faithfully" and then tell me it would have had the same success that Perry's version had! Cain sounded like he was torturing farm animals, trying to sing that song! My point is that you can have the greatest lyrics in the world, but if you don't have someone with the pipes to pull it off, the song will never see the light of day!
Journey/Survivor wrote:And even though Arrival, Red 13 and Generations haven't sold a ton of copies doesn't mean that their not great albums, which they are! Too many people seem to think that sales are what defines greatness. .
We'll agree to disagree that "Red 13", "Arrival" and "Generations" are "great" albums! I certainly don't think any of them were "great" and actually thought two out of the three SUCKED! Just because you think something is "great" doesn't mean that everyone else shares your opinion!
Journey/Survivor wrote:And I've got news for you...Journey are going to do very well with Arnel in the band.
I guess it just comes down to what your definition of "very well" is. I personally like Arnel's voice a lot. The guy can flat out sing, and I think that anyone who thinks he can't isn't listening to the same guy I'm listening to. Having said that, I suspect Journey's future isn't going to be that much different than the past 10 years have been for them. They had their time, and 2008 isn't their time!
John from Boston
). And then I got the Arrival Live 2001 DVD, learned the classics that way, THEN got into the back catalogue. Backwards, I know.
They're as much Neal and Jon's songs as they are Perry's. God forbid Neal and Jon try to *gasp* earn some money and do what they like doing! 
) Journey's still out there playing the songs and he's sitting on his ass cashing royalty checks. To each his own, I guess. Too bad Perry didn't know that the band Journey could continue on without him. Maybe he would have signed a 25 year deal then.
