STEVE PERRY - The Songwriter

[Jubilee]

I am an absolute fan of Perrys work as a vocalist. He is/was among the finest in the world. While Perry has writing credits on the majority of "Classic Journey" hits, and of course his own solo work, I'm not sold on him as a songwriter. IMHO his weak writing was dramatically exposed on the FTLOSM CD. It was lack luster to say the least. I have to tell you, I cringe every time I hear someone mention the song "Missing You". What a dreadful, meandering, very nearly pointless piece of work that was. Beautiful melody. Horrible lyrics. Same goes for "It Won't Be You". It takes a special talent to come up with beautiful melodies like "Missing You" and "It Won't be You" and bury them under such maudlin words.

Your thoughts??

[stevew2]

Cause it didnt involve

[Don]

Without the three of those fuckers writng together, it's not the best product in the world for either side.

[Jubilee]

I think I get what you guys are hinting at ( )..but still, Perry should have spent enough years under the tutelage of a certain songwriter to know how to write a whining song without actually whining.

[Don]

:roll:

I think I get what you guys are hinting at ( )..but still, Perry should have spent enough years under the tutelage of a certain songwriter to know how to write a whining song without actually whining.

You should know better than to post new topics after curfew. It can only go one direction.

[*Laura]

I am an absolute fan of Perrys work as a vocalist. He is/was among the finest in the world. While Perry has writing credits on the majority of "Classic Journey" hits, and of course his own solo work, I'm not sold on him as a songwriter. IMHO his weak writing was dramatically exposed on the FTLOSM CD. It was lack luster to say the least. I have to tell you, I cringe every time I hear someone mention the song "Missing You". What a dreadful, meandering, very nearly pointless piece of work that was. Beautiful melody. Horrible lyrics. Same goes for "It Won't Be You". It takes a special talent to come up with beautiful melodies like "Missing You" and "It Won't be You" and bury them under such maudlin words.

Your thoughts??

So which is it? You say "Missing You" makes you cringe and one sentence later you say it's a beautiful melody. So it's only the lyrics that make you cringe, right? That means, according to your own evaluation, that SP is a great SONGwriter, but a bad lyricist. Whell, then you can't call Perry an overall weak songwriter.
As for the maudlinness of the lyrics what do you expect to hear in a song like "Missing You" or "It Won't Be You"? Those songs, as melodies, ARE overly sentimental, but very simple at the same time, so I doubt that some profound Shakespearean-like lyrics would suit them. I think Perry was always a clean kind of a lyricist - simple words for basic feelings, a simple message - straight to the point.

You know, why say "My heart flutters like the wings of a thousand frangible butterflies whenever you're around my thighs" when you can say everything that matters with a simple "I love you so much"?


p.s. "Pointless piece of work"? Why? What's pointless to somebody can make all the sense in the world to somebody else. I really think it's a matter of taste.

[slucero]

Funny,

For FLOTSM Perry wrote with lots of peeps... so blaming him solely for what you think are lousy songs just isn't fair. One could also say JC hasn't written a great song since SP was part of the writing team too...

1. "You Better Wait" (Perry, Lincoln Brewster, Paul Taylor, Moyes Lucas, John Pierce, George Hawkins) - 4:51
2. "Young Hearts Forever" (Perry, Clif Magness) - 4:43
3. "I Am" (Perry, Taylor, Brewster) - 4:54
4. "Stand Up (Before It's Too Late)" (Perry, Brewster, Taylor, Lucas, Larry Kimpel) - 4:49
5. "For the Love of Strange Medicine" (Perry, Taylor, Lucas, Brewster) - 5:52
6. "Donna Please" (Perry, Taylor, Stephen Bishop) - 4:02
7. "Listen to Your Heart" (Perry, Taylor, Brewster, Lucas) - 3:31
8. "Tuesday Heartache" (Perry, Magness, Taylor, Brewster, Lucas) - 6:00
9. "Missing You" (Perry, Tim Miner) - 3:48
10. "Somewhere There's Hope" (Perry, Taylor, Brewster, Lucas) - 6:05
11. "Anyway" (Perry, Miner) - 4:20
12. "If You Need Me, Call Me" (Steve Perry, Craig Krampf, Richard Michaels Haddad, Steve DeLacey) - 5:50 *
13. "One More Time" (Perry, Brewster) - 3:32 *
14. "Can't Stop" (Perry, Randy Goodrum, Michael Landau) - 4:08 *
15. "Friends of Mine" (Perry, J. Leo, Goodrum, Krampf) - 3:30 *
16. "Missing You (Live in San Francisco 12/9/94)" (Perry, Miner) - 4:13 *

[Majestic]

I Couldn't disagree with you more about the song missing you. The melody and orchestration on that song are beautiful, Steve's voice is emotional and powerful, and I think the lyrics are excellent—very sincere, introspective and melancholy.

If Steve is a poor songwriter, I don't think you picked the right song to argue your case! I know Steve has written songs much worse than this gem.

[Suzanne]

Without the three of those fuckers writng together, it's not the best product in the world for either side.

+ 1

[Jubilee]

So which is it? You say "Missing You" makes you cringe and one sentence later you say it's a beautiful melody. So it's only the lyrics that make you cringe, right? That means, according to your own evaluation, that SP is a great SONGwriter, but a bad lyricist. Whell, then you can't call Perry an overall weak songwriter.
As for the maudlinness of the lyrics what do you expect to hear in a song like "Missing You" or "It Won't Be You"? Those songs, as melodies, ARE overly sentimental, but very simple at the same time, so I doubt that some profound Shakespearean-like lyrics would suit them. I think Perry was always a clean kind of a lyricist - simple words for basic feelings, a simple message - straight to the point.

You know, why say "My heart flutters like the wings of a thousand frangible butterflies whenever you're around my thighs" when you can say everything that matters with a simple "I love you so much"?


p.s. "Pointless piece of work"? Why? What's pointless to somebody can make all the sense in the world to somebody else. I really think it's a matter of taste.

Yes and no. Now, I didn't say Perry was an overall weak songwriter, but, you're right, what I should have said is I think Perry is a little light in the lyricist department. And according to my evaluation, exposes some weakness and that makes Perry a merely adequate songwriter. I don't know about the butterflies and thighs thingy, but I can understand the less is more approach to writing song lyrics, however I don't think that is the issue here.

The reason "Missing You" strikes me as pointless, is because the song never tells you "what happened" and there's no "resolution". Most songs, like any story, have a beginning, a middle and and end. This story has a long meandering "middle". I don't doubt the sincerity. It's just awkward, IMO.

As far as "It Won't Be You" is concerned, I never really thought of the melody on that track as being "overly sentimental". To me it's very romantic. It' s very sensuous, lush, and down-right gorgeous. I simply never understood why he wasted that piece of music on those lyrics. Incongruous, if you ask me.

[Jana]

So which is it? You say "Missing You" makes you cringe and one sentence later you say it's a beautiful melody. So it's only the lyrics that make you cringe, right? That means, according to your own evaluation, that SP is a great SONGwriter, but a bad lyricist. Whell, then you can't call Perry an overall weak songwriter.
As for the maudlinness of the lyrics what do you expect to hear in a song like "Missing You" or "It Won't Be You"? Those songs, as melodies, ARE overly sentimental, but very simple at the same time, so I doubt that some profound Shakespearean-like lyrics would suit them. I think Perry was always a clean kind of a lyricist - simple words for basic feelings, a simple message - straight to the point.

You know, why say "My heart flutters like the wings of a thousand frangible butterflies whenever you're around my thighs" when you can say everything that matters with a simple "I love you so much"?


p.s. "Pointless piece of work"? Why? What's pointless to somebody can make all the sense in the world to somebody else. I really think it's a matter of taste.

Yes and no. Now, I didn't say Perry was an overall weak songwriter, but, you're right, what I should have said is I think Perry is a little light in the lyricist department. And according to my evaluation, exposes some weakness and that makes Perry a merely adequate songwriter. I don't know about the butterflies and thighs thingy, but I can understand the less is more approach to writing song lyrics, however I don't think that is the issue here.

The reason "Missing You" strikes me as pointless, is because the song never tells you "what happened" and there's no "resolution". Most songs, like any story, have a beginning, a middle and and end. This story has a long meandering "middle". I don't doubt the sincerity. It's just awkward, IMO.

As far as "It Won't Be You" is concerned, I never really thought of the melody on that track as being "overly sentimental". To me it's very romantic. It' s very sensuous, lush, and down-right gorgeous. I simply never understood why he wasted that piece of music on those lyrics. Incongruous, if you ask me.

I agree with a lot of what you said, Jubilee. There's some good songs on both solo albums, but especially on FTLOSM many weak ones and overly sappy for my taste and created a snoozefest for me by the end. I know he brought in a lot of different songwriters, but the best combo will always be Jonathan Cain with Perry and the input of Neal to bring the rock to it. Cain never gets enough credit, to me. Give me Arrival any day over FTLOSM as a whole, even though Perry was so much better vocally. That was a more consistent album as far as lyrics with melody, with some very soulful songs.

[journeyrock]

So which is it? You say "Missing You" makes you cringe and one sentence later you say it's a beautiful melody. So it's only the lyrics that make you cringe, right? That means, according to your own evaluation, that SP is a great SONGwriter, but a bad lyricist. Whell, then you can't call Perry an overall weak songwriter.
As for the maudlinness of the lyrics what do you expect to hear in a song like "Missing You" or "It Won't Be You"? Those songs, as melodies, ARE overly sentimental, but very simple at the same time, so I doubt that some profound Shakespearean-like lyrics would suit them. I think Perry was always a clean kind of a lyricist - simple words for basic feelings, a simple message - straight to the point.

You know, why say "My heart flutters like the wings of a thousand frangible butterflies whenever you're around my thighs" when you can say everything that matters with a simple "I love you so much"?


p.s. "Pointless piece of work"? Why? What's pointless to somebody can make all the sense in the world to somebody else. I really think it's a matter of taste.

Yes and no. Now, I didn't say Perry was an overall weak songwriter, but, you're right, what I should have said is I think Perry is a little light in the lyricist department. And according to my evaluation, exposes some weakness and that makes Perry a merely adequate songwriter. I don't know about the butterflies and thighs thingy, but I can understand the less is more approach to writing song lyrics, however I don't think that is the issue here.

The reason "Missing You" strikes me as pointless, is because the song never tells you "what happened" and there's no "resolution". Most songs, like any story, have a beginning, a middle and and end. This story has a long meandering "middle". I don't doubt the sincerity. It's just awkward, IMO.

As far as "It Won't Be You" is concerned, I never really thought of the melody on that track as being "overly sentimental". To me it's very romantic. It' s very sensuous, lush, and down-right gorgeous. I simply never understood why he wasted that piece of music on those lyrics. Incongruous, if you ask me.

Here is my opinion, for whatever it's worth. Perry writes from his heart and I would be willing to bet that 95% of what he writes is directly from personal experience. I think his writing is more to express his feelings rather than writing concentrating on beautiful lyrics. I believe Steve has a hard time expressing his emotions and he is able to do that and get them out there through his music.

So I think FTLOSM was a beautiful album because it was where Perry was at the time. If you listen very closely to most of those songs, they emulate a theme.......a theme to where he was in his life.

That's why he says he doesn't produce an album just because it's time to put one out. If he doesn't have anything to say, you won't hear from him. "Missing You" was his amends to Sherrie just as "Anyway" was his amends to the guys in the band for his part in the insanity.

It's the emotion and delivery of those songs that make them beautiful and that is what makes Steve Perry stand out in the industry.

[Jubilee]

I agree with a lot of what you said, Jubilee. There's some good songs on both solo albums, but especially on FTLOSM many weak ones and overly sappy for my taste and created a snoozefest for me by the end. I know he brought in a lot of different songwriters, but the best combo will always be Jonathan Cain with Perry and the input of Neal to bring the rock to it. Cain never gets enough credit, to me. Give me Arrival any day over FTLOSM as a whole, even though Perry was so much better vocally. That was a more consistent album as far as lyrics with melody, with some very soulful songs.

+100

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Jonathan Cain's considerable songwriting influence is conspicuous by its absence from Perry's solo work.

[bluejeangirl76]

I agree with a lot of what you said, Jubilee. There's some good songs on both solo albums, but especially on FTLOSM many weak ones and overly sappy for my taste and created a snoozefest for me by the end. I know he brought in a lot of different songwriters, but the best combo will always be Jonathan Cain with Perry and the input of Neal to bring the rock to it. Cain never gets enough credit, to me. Give me Arrival any day over FTLOSM as a whole, even though Perry was so much better vocally. That was a more consistent album as far as lyrics with melody, with some very soulful songs.

+100

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Jonathan Cain's considerable songwriting influence is conspicuous by its absence from Perry's solo work.

Yeah, agreed, but Perry's considerable songwriting influence is obviously absent from Cain's solo work as well. Perry/Schon/Cain... it's a recipe for success. Cain by himself... eeeeesh!! One more sappy wedding song and I'm gonna blow someone away for the hell of it.

[barnsley4]

I am an absolute fan of Perrys work as a vocalist. He is/was among the finest in the world. While Perry has writing credits on the majority of "Classic Journey" hits, and of course his own solo work, I'm not sold on him as a songwriter. IMHO his weak writing was dramatically exposed on the FTLOSM CD. It was lack luster to say the least. I have to tell you, I cringe every time I hear someone mention the song "Missing You". What a dreadful, meandering, very nearly pointless piece of work that was. Beautiful melody. Horrible lyrics. Same goes for "It Won't Be You". It takes a special talent to come up with beautiful melodies like "Missing You" and "It Won't be You" and bury them under such maudlin words.

Your thoughts??

My thought's are "you don't know what you are talking about" also if you think the lyrics are weak and dreadful " don't listen to them"!!!!

[moangel58]

I love "It Won't Be You" and "Missing You"...well it is a wonderful song, it just goes right back to his love for her again. I am not knocking the guy for finding that kind of love, I am sure we all had that special ONE in our lives, i know I did, but there is a time to move on.

[walkslikealady]

Sometimes simple lyrics can tell a story better. don't you think? Also, maybe the story wasn't finished so it didn't have an ending.

[jrnyman28]

Funny,

For FLOTSM Perry wrote with lots of peeps... so blaming him solely for what you think are lousy songs just isn't fair. One could also say JC hasn't written a great song since SP was part of the writing team too...

1. "You Better Wait" (Perry, Lincoln Brewster, Paul Taylor, Moyes Lucas, John Pierce, George Hawkins) - 4:51
2. "Young Hearts Forever" (Perry, Clif Magness) - 4:43
3. "I Am" (Perry, Taylor, Brewster) - 4:54
4. "Stand Up (Before It's Too Late)" (Perry, Brewster, Taylor, Lucas, Larry Kimpel) - 4:49
5. "For the Love of Strange Medicine" (Perry, Taylor, Lucas, Brewster) - 5:52
6. "Donna Please" (Perry, Taylor, Stephen Bishop) - 4:02
7. "Listen to Your Heart" (Perry, Taylor, Brewster, Lucas) - 3:31
8. "Tuesday Heartache" (Perry, Magness, Taylor, Brewster, Lucas) - 6:00
9. "Missing You" (Perry, Tim Miner) - 3:48
10. "Somewhere There's Hope" (Perry, Taylor, Brewster, Lucas) - 6:05
11. "Anyway" (Perry, Miner) - 4:20
12. "If You Need Me, Call Me" (Steve Perry, Craig Krampf, Richard Michaels Haddad, Steve DeLacey) - 5:50 *
13. "One More Time" (Perry, Brewster) - 3:32 *
14. "Can't Stop" (Perry, Randy Goodrum, Michael Landau) - 4:08 *
15. "Friends of Mine" (Perry, J. Leo, Goodrum, Krampf) - 3:30 *
16. "Missing You (Live in San Francisco 12/9/94)" (Perry, Miner) - 4:13 *

I think that 's equally the point. Doesn't Perry have only ONE solo writing credit? I htink his strength when it comes to songwriting is in vocal melody and ideas. But his lyrical writing has never seemd strong to me. As pointed oout, Perry seems to work best with a collaboration, ESPECIALLY with Cain and Schon. But before Cain, the songwriting took a minor step up with the addition of Perry so he obviously has something to offer.

But here is one other thought: With all the perfectionism and control Perry has exhibited maybe it is still possible that when it comes to fully crafting a song alone he is not confident enough? I know it sounds crazy, but maybe for some reason Perry just didn't feel confident enough and THAT is why he always brought in collaborators. Maybe after all these years we will get a true Perry solo album and then we can judge?

[Don]

Besides LTS, what other song has Perry written by himself?

[walkslikealady]

I think he's the only songwriter listed for "The Party's Over/Hopelessly In Love".

[Don]

I think he's the only songwriter listed for "The Party's Over/Hopelessly In Love".

Ahhh. Forgot that one, seeing as it never gets played.

[walkslikealady]

Was "Party's Over" put out as a single?

I used to play the song a lot 'cause I liked the "Captured" album.

[Don]

Was "Party's Over" put out as a single?

I used to play the song a lot 'cause I liked the "Captured" album.

Yes it was.

[journeyrock]

Wasn't it a B side to another song?

[Don]

I put the complete chart history of Journey singles in a thread upstairs for those interested.

[journeyrock]

Thanks, GB!

[walkslikealady]

"Sweet And Simple" lists him as the only songwriter, too.

[perryswoman]

I Couldn't disagree with you more about the song missing you. The melody and orchestration on that song is beautiful, Steve's voice is emotional and powerful, and I think the lyrics are excellent—very sincere, introspective and melancholy.

If Steve is a poor songwriter, I don't think you picked the right song to argue your case! I know Steve has written songs much worse than this gem.

Got to agree with you here! It is one of my all time favs!!

[SP Fan in Oregon]

So which is it? You say "Missing You" makes you cringe and one sentence later you say it's a beautiful melody. So it's only the lyrics that make you cringe, right? That means, according to your own evaluation, that SP is a great SONGwriter, but a bad lyricist. Whell, then you can't call Perry an overall weak songwriter.
As for the maudlinness of the lyrics what do you expect to hear in a song like "Missing You" or "It Won't Be You"? Those songs, as melodies, ARE overly sentimental, but very simple at the same time, so I doubt that some profound Shakespearean-like lyrics would suit them. I think Perry was always a clean kind of a lyricist - simple words for basic feelings, a simple message - straight to the point.

You know, why say "My heart flutters like the wings of a thousand frangible butterflies whenever you're around my thighs" when you can say everything that matters with a simple "I love you so much"?


p.s. "Pointless piece of work"? Why? What's pointless to somebody can make all the sense in the world to somebody else. I really think it's a matter of taste.

Yes and no. Now, I didn't say Perry was an overall weak songwriter, but, you're right, what I should have said is I think Perry is a little light in the lyricist department. And according to my evaluation, exposes some weakness and that makes Perry a merely adequate songwriter. I don't know about the butterflies and thighs thingy, but I can understand the less is more approach to writing song lyrics, however I don't think that is the issue here.

The reason "Missing You" strikes me as pointless, is because the song never tells you "what happened" and there's no "resolution". Most songs, like any story, have a beginning, a middle and and end. This story has a long meandering "middle". I don't doubt the sincerity. It's just awkward, IMO.

As far as "It Won't Be You" is concerned, I never really thought of the melody on that track as being "overly sentimental". To me it's very romantic. It' s very sensuous, lush, and down-right gorgeous. I simply never understood why he wasted that piece of music on those lyrics. Incongruous, if you ask me.

Here is my opinion, for whatever it's worth. Perry writes from his heart and I would be willing to bet that 95% of what he writes is directly from personal experience. I think his writing is more to express his feelings rather than writing concentrating on beautiful lyrics. I believe Steve has a hard time expressing his emotions and he is able to do that and get them out there through his music.

So I think FTLOSM was a beautiful album because it was where Perry was at the time. If you listen very closely to most of those songs, they emulate a theme.......a theme to where he was in his life.

That's why he says he doesn't produce an album just because it's time to put one out. If he doesn't have anything to say, you won't hear from him. "Missing You" was his amends to Sherrie just as "Anyway" was his amends to the guys in the band for his part in the insanity.

It's the emotion and delivery of those songs that make them beautiful and that is what makes Steve Perry stand out in the industry.

Ditto to everything you said Journeyrock

[Michigan Girl]

"Sweet And Simple" lists him as the only songwriter, too.

One of my FAVS, very sweet, very simple, it takes the voice to pull this one off...