An introduction to Eclipse, from Jonathan Cain

[Don]

From Jon's site.



"On the eve of the release of our new album, Eclipse I thought it would be time for some insight on how things have been going in my world and the Journey camp during the making of our new CD—“Eclipse”.

After writing “City of Hope’ in a hotel room in Manila I was inspired by Arnel and his story. We needed an album in which he could express his personality and our core beliefs. It would be the rock record that Neal had wanted to make for a long time.

Neal and I began writing the rest of the songs in February. We used my studio, Wildhorse in Marin County and worked in two-week intervals. I would take the tracks home to Nashville and complete the lyrics and rough vocal ideas.

One of the first ideas, “Anything is Possible” came out a bunch of notes I had scribbled down over a period of five years. It was to be the answer to Don’t Stop Believin’ –or so I thought. When I finished it and played it for my daughters—they approved.

Returning to Fantasy to record our new album was a trip down memory lane. The place where we recorded two of our biggest albums Escape and Frontiers had re-opened after being abandoned for years. Not much had changed in the rooms so it was like going back in time. During the early Eighties, Randy Jackson was always there—recording with his band Taxi and producing projects for people, sticking his head in to listen to our playbacks. David Lee Roth had a solo album project there and would come into the common lunchroom cracking jokes and making us laugh. Roy Sigle, the old manager and his assistant Nina were gone so the Fantasy staff was all new and friendly-- we would be well looked after during our stay.

Living in my home and driving to Berkeley was a treat. Hotels can be depressing so to be able to sleep in a great bed, make strong black coffee and cook my own meals was a bonus—as well as having a world-class studio outside my driveway. Wanting my own wheels--I had kept my supercharged, 2006 GT Mustang to tool around in. I had been trying to sell it online with no luck at all. Guess it was meant to be-- cause the financial officer of my bank bought it and ended up taking it back to Nashville when I was through recording the album. The well- worn trip over the Richmond Bridge reminded me of recording and rehearsing with the Journey back in the Eighties---the days it seemed we ruled the airwaves and played “Day on The Green” for Bill Graham.

Unlike so many of our album projects, we were going to go into the studio—unrehearsed. Kevin Shirley only had so many weeks he could spare so we decided to wing it--on the fly. I had recorded the demos at Wildhorse with Neal and made CD’s for everyone in advance—so everyone had an idea of what we were going for.

During this time, Arnel had been on a tour raising money for his foundation so he came two weeks before the recording process took place. We wrote “She’s a Mystery" and he brought a fine song with him ”To Whom It May Concern".

The album was to be a concept album and Neal and I had stumbled upon Tantra—an ancient, Hindu belief that all energy is one—woven into an endless circle. I became fascinated with the mystical concept and after some research, decided to make it the theme of the album—spiritually---sensually and physically relating back to the—“many is one” idea. It had power and mystery and songs flowed easily. Sitting alone, looking out the window at Wildhorse, writing lyrics was empowering. I was back with my old friend for one last project. I should mention here that my longtime tech, Doc Shaffer, of 19 years had died of cancer last year. I got to say good-bye to him one afternoon-- on one of his last days. He had helped me build my place and poured his heart and soul into keeping it running. I soon realized it was my first time working on a project when he wasn’t there. His presence was everywhere I looked -- I was at a loss without him. A few times I broke down as I plugged in gear, reading his writing, admiring his amazing wiring and connections he carefully fabricated for me. I laughed as I noticed a can of Doc Shaffer “fish assholes” a joke he created –that was proudly displayed on one of the diffusers. I prayed everything would work without him --and it did. Doc we miss you.

I had found some more notes in my studio in a spiral notebook I had written years ago. They were scribbled on hotel stationary—


"One light shining bright…is made from many colors… just like
Every ocean's made from many drops of rain
One soul takes many shapes
To make up the human race...one fire...many lives
Share the same sun everyday

Old beliefs let us down
Many roads lead to heaven
One love...many faiths all share
A world in search of grace

Across the universe
The same force that moves the earth is
In my heart
Makes me whole…

Wash my doubt and fear away”

The words fit the melody to a ballad Neal and I had been working on. Unknowingly, I had written the opening verse to the song, Tantra, three years ago. Excited, I worked through the afternoon into the night and when I was finished-- I wept during the final playback. Was I just too emotional or was this song--special?

Days later after hearing “Tantra” our manager, John Baruck called me and said it had happened to him as well. I was in the right place at the right time creating in a magical place.

Kevin headed up the production and we quickly got some great tracks. It came to a halt as Ross got the flu and couldn’t make it in to record for a week—so things slowed down a bit during the middle of the project. We soon got back on track as a band and finished Chain of Love, To Whom It May Concern and Resonate.

It was almost nostalgic to record and sing backgrounds on the very same spot we all gathered around one microphone and sang Don’t Stop Believin’, Stone in Love and Who’s Cryin’ Now. Full circle—the endless tantric circle was coming into play before us. After we sang the backgrounds on the song “Tantra,” Deen was so moved he had tears and hugged me. It was starting to take shape as our mystical circle was being completed.

In the final weeks I hammered out with Neal--the songs Resonate, Chain of Love, Human Feel and Ritual. We were originally going to record five or six songs. We had ended up with twelve in a matter of five weeks.

After living with the mixes Neal and I went back to Wildhorse, one last time, for guitar overdubs and rough mixes. It had been the very place that we wrote the songs for Trial By Fire, put the band back together in 1998 and wrote “Arrival”, “Red 13” and “Generations". After finishing up the rough mixes with Neal we set up a tripod and took one last picture together. The next day Wildhorse was dismantled and packed up in boxes. I had sold the house on the hill I had lived some thirty years. I wasn’t ready for the events and emotions that followed.

When you have lived in a house for thirty years, belongings get stuck in all the nooks and crannies. I searched through drawers looked in the corners of closets and found things we had forgotten. As I packed up the last few things I knew I would find pictures and memories that would remind me of how much of life I had lived there.

The house had been vacant for three weeks and when I came back to work in the studio. I arrived late in the evening to an empty shell .The only furniture that remained was a bed in the master suite and a TV we would leave behind. As I lay down to close my eyes I heard a creaking sound in the bay window that sounded as if something was pulling the walls from the outside. The creaking got louder and louder --as I felt a strange pressure in the room push on the windows. I sat up and saw two ink black apparitions floating above the fireplace. A coldness and a strange smell had come over the bedroom until it was obvious something or someone was preying on the leftover life force that we had left behind. I had heard about these ghosts floating into empty places and thought they were green. These were black and made them seem evil in nature. Was I seeing things or was this really happening? I hadn’t even had a drink on the airplane. I felt a shiver as watched their reflections loom in the mirror above the fireplace. The next moment they drifted toward the windows and vanished into the night…as if something I had startled them to run away. I was so tired I lay back down and drifted off to sleep trying to surround myself in the white light of meditation. Would they return? Who were they? I wondered. In the days that followed, I found that they would not return. Maybe my presence ran them off. I wasn’t sure. How strange to have witnessed entities revealing themselves on the last week of my stay.

Before I surrendered my home I wanted to make sure my backyard vineyard was taken care of. Turns out the harvesting of pinot noir grapes had to be expedited early--due to varmints eating the fruit. Javier, the vineyard manager took the grapes to De La Montanya for sorting and crush. They picked a half a ton of fruit that remained on the vines. The two hundred plants will yield about 24 cases. I plan to donate some of this special wine to various charities.

When the morning had come to lock the front door and return to the airport. I turned the key from the outside and pulled the door to make sure it was locked. I became transfixed in a moment… These are lyrics from a song I wrote in Nashville weeks later.


"Standing on the front porch as I close the door to walk away
A flood of memories rain down on me…end of story turn the page
This house was my safe harbor…leavin’s like losin’ my best friend.
And it breaks my heart to turn the key on a place I’d thought I’d always be
I guess good-bye means…I’m never comin’ back again”.


It was the end of an era…pages of my life…I will never forget.

Returning to Nashville, I worked with my daughter Madison on a few songs we had written together. Kim Tribble, our songwriting partner had been working with David Kalmusky, a talented young, Canadian engineer. When I heard a project he had played for me I wanted to use him for Madison’s demos. The demos went down smoothly and the roughs sounded amazing. I had a hard drive with our album, “Eclipse” with me and asked him to mix the song. “Anything Is Possible”. David had shared our vision of making “Eclipse” a big sounding rock album. When I heard what he had done I sent the mix off to Neal and John Baruck for comments. They loved what they heard and we made the decision to let David Kalmusky—to do the final mixes of our album.

Because of time limits with Kevin, we needed to give Arnel a few more passes on a few songs before we began the mix down session. Arnel flew from the road to Nashville and sang brilliantly for five days—completing the master vocals to our new album.

Neal came back to Nashville for the mixdowns and worked tirelessly with David on the final tweaks while I stayed the “neutral set of ears” and gave my comments after they were finished. Neal and I were thrilled with the mixes. The size and width of the CD was huge. Even Kevin Shirley gave his blessings to our new sound.

David mastered the CD and Eclipse was completed here in Nashville—coast to coast the mystical tantric circle was intact again. On behalf of all the members of Journey we hope you enjoy our new CD—“Eclipse”

[brywool]

A lot of that would've made great liner notes for the album...

[Behshad]

A lot of that would've made great liner notes for the album...

Not to mention masturbation material for Tito !

[Saint John]

Um ... wow!

[Jana]

Very interesting. It sounds like they were definitely on the same page as to the theme of the album heading into making it. The friction I guess was on how guitar-driven Neal wanted it and not too ballady.

[ebake02]

Very nice.

[conversationpc]

He saw apparitions, huh? Interesting.

[escapefan]

Definite storyteller in the group.

[VirgilTheart]

Very interesting. It sounds like they were definitely on the same page as to the theme of the album heading into making it. The friction I guess was on how guitar-driven Neal wanted it and not too ballady.

Not necessarily. In Neal's interview at the PRS area at NAMM 2010, he mentioned having to get Jonathan on the same page on the matter that they already have a ton of radio hits and that there wasn't much room for bands like themselves on the radio anymore.

Most likely, the argument(s) occurred prior to going into the studio.

That said, wonderful read. While I appreciated the song 'Tantra' previously, reading Jonathan's explanation behind it makes me understand why the band seems to love that song so much.

[Majestic]

Another great find, Don, thanks for bringing it. Journey ought to put you on the pay roll to do their PR or run the fan site.

That was a great read. He seems like a very down to earth and interesting guy for a rock star.

[Eric]

Leaving a house you thought you wouldn't is very emotional.

Would be cool if artists told a story for each song like that.

[Intell]

Thank you for posting this. This explains and confirms things about Jonathan that I have wondered about for a while.

He IS a good story teller!

[FishinMagician]

he saw apparitions...is this one of those fan fiction things?

[FishinMagician]

he saw apparitions...is this one of those fan fiction things?

[Art Vandelay]

I thought that they said that Be Good To Yourself was the answer to DSB when ROR came out?

Oh wait, no, they said that about Can't Tame the Lion when TBF came out. Wait, no.....oh, I guess I shouldn't have stopped buying their new CDs. I need the REAL answer to DSB, damnit!!!!

[Michigan Girl]

I thought that they said that Be Good To Yourself was the answer to DSB when ROR came out?

Oh wait, no, they said that about Can't Tame the Lion when TBF came out. Wait, no.....oh, I guess I shouldn't have stopped buying their new CDs. I need the REAL answer to DSB, damnit!!!!

DSB is the answer to DSB, there will NEVER be another ...try as they might!!

[bluejeangirl76]

he saw apparitions...is this one of those fan fiction things?

I bet one of them was wearing red pants and the other one had a Giants hat on. Just a guess.

"Hey Jon... booga booga motherfucker!"

[Rhiannon]

he saw apparitions...is this one of those fan fiction things?

I bet one of them was wearing red pants and the other one had a Giants hat on. Just a guess.

"Hey Jon... booga booga motherfucker!"

Or Manbearpig?

[portland]

he saw apparitions...is this one of those fan fiction things?

I bet one of them was wearing red pants and the other one had a Giants hat on. Just a guess.

"Hey Jon... booga booga motherfucker!"

That made me LOL

[Rockindeano]

A lot of that would've made great liner notes for the album...

No. It could have been a lot more productive than liner notes. He could have done what Bruce just did, albeit on a much smaller scale. Please read this and tell me what you think.
They could have created a package entitled, "The Making of Eclipse" and either packaged it with the CD, or made it an entirely different animal- or both. Let me explain. Firstly, I am not going to go Deb on all you here with Mr Big overload(in my case Springsteen), but look at this picture closely if you can. I think this is such a neat idea. It's a box set and there are 5 discs, maybe 6, I can't remember...a few cd's and a few dvd's. Anyway, in addition to pictures of the players in the studio and playing/rehearsing, etc, the real golden tidbit is Bruce included all the handwritten notes, setlists, idea and everything- hand-written. It gives the package a "real" feel to it. See if you can see the handwriting here: It's hard to see....you can also see scotch tape and staples too.

So, back to Journey. Ok, I am not advocating a 6 disc, 119 dollar package, but what about a nice 3 disc set; disc 1- Eclipse. Disc 2- "The Making of Eclipse" where a dvd shows recording songs, throwing ideas off one another, joking around in the studio, even arguments, and disc 3- a live dvd perhaps; a live dvd could be anything, but IMO, they could steal the idea from Bruce and play to a small crowd of about 100-200 folks, and crew and family. Fans could get tickets via raffle, by donating money to a charity, anything really. So what Journey could have done is record and play live Eclipse(either a handful of tunes or the entire cd). Make sure the locale is a good sounding venue...perhaps a San Francisco landmark...Fog City Diner? maybe too small, or maybe a Cable Car Warehouse, something like that. Film the show, 90 minutes or so, have a little Q and A with fans, show the band hamming it up and being friendly, etc.
So let's recap. Journey could sell Eclipse by itself for the 10 bucks-or- sell "Journey Returns- The Making of Eclipse" for 69 dollars.
The Making Of includes:

Eclipse
The Making Of- DVD- show the ins and outs of recording a record...ideas, laughs, arguments, even cuss words...you get the idea
Live DVD- recorded in a San Francisco Landmark- How about down at Fisherman's Wharf?
The "Package" includes tons of pictures, a semi chronological story much like Cain wrote here n this thread. Have Cain write a long story from beginning to end of the process of Eclipse, and sprinkle in pictures, unique ideas, funny things that happened, and notes...I cannot stress this enough. Looking at hand written notes look so authentic....not only notes, but alternative verses. songs written out on long form. For instance, You would see Cain's cursive writing for "Tantric" and along the borders you would see arrows and brackets suggesting new words, verses, etc....then maybe the next page, you would see "Tantric" but with completely different phrases and words(assuming there were any, and most songs do have multiple writings. You could have tentative "song order" ideas etc. The possibilities are endless.
To sum it up, not everything has to be done "like Bruce did it," lol. Just saying, I liked the ideas of his box set a lot, and think Journey, if they wanted to put a little coin behind their product, could make something nice to sell, kind of put some worth in their name. That is one thing I have noticed as a lifelong Journey fan- their brand has been cheapened and further cheapened. By that I mean, When Escape, Frontiers and ROR were out, they looked good, had promo to back them, and it was like seeing a Cadillac on a lot with Buicks. Even when TBF came out, it was a diamond in the rough....But then after Perry departed, you started to see IMO, half-assed efforts(in all phases)..Arrival was ok, but things started happening that weren't good; in Arrival's case, we had leaked material. Not Journey's fault, but nonetheless, it was there...then they threw that "experimental" pig vomit Red13 out there ....ok, I'll give that a pass because at least they were trying to re-brand their image and take some chances. Next up came Generations. Somebody in the band should have received the death penalty for that atrocity. To the point of argument, remember how cheap that crap was? From it's looks(recoloured captured cd cover), to the cardboard sleeves, to giving it away free..good Lord already. Then the cheapness continued, in the form of Revelation. 3 discs for 7 bucks? ok, not pure accuracy, but you get my point. Now, they supposedly line a shot off the wall for a double, only to see the cd packaged in Mexican architecture- cardboard.
With my idea, you are giving the buying fan a legitimate choice. A CD or a Package.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
OR
It just hit me. I still love this idea, however, try this on for size.
Instead of doing a project centering around Eclipse, they could have done this super Box Set with Escape. Now hold on....Escape was a monster. Escape is celebrating it's 30th anniversary. With Escape, they could have made a 6 dvd/cd set, and they could have included Eclipse as one of the discs. Yes, it would work. You are celebrating the super status of Escape and at the same time, introducing the fan, either new or longterm, Eclipse.
disc 1- Escape
disc 2- Escape DVD Houston
disc 3- The Making of Escape (they have so much to pull from here)
disc 4- Leftovers from Escape? Were there any songs that didn't make the final cut of Escape? (In Springsteen's case, that's what the Promise was- holdovers from the Darkness on the Edge of Town record)
disc 5- Open(Make up something here)
disc 6- Eclipse

[Deb]

A lot of that would've made great liner notes for the album...

No. It could have been a lot more productive than liner notes. He could have done what Bruce just did, albeit on a much smaller scale. Please read this and tell me what you think.
They could have created a package entitled, "The Making of Eclipse" and either packaged it with the CD, or made it an entirely different animal- or both. Let me explain. Firstly, I am not going to go Deb on all you here with Mr Big overload(in my case Springsteen), but look at this picture closely if you can. I think this is such a neat idea. It's a box set and there are 5 discs, maybe 6, I can't remember...a few cd's and a few dvd's. Anyway, in addition to pictures of the players in the studio and playing/rehearsing, etc, the real golden tidbit is Bruce included all the handwritten notes, setlists, idea and everything- hand-written. It gives the package a "real" feel to it. See if you can see the handwriting here: It's hard to see....you can also see scotch tape and staples too.

LOL, I'm my own little street team. Adding to The Bigs' fanbase, one fan at a time baby one fan at a time. Have to laugh at having my own verb.... "go Deb on ya".

[Art Vandelay]

A lot of that would've made great liner notes for the album...

No. It could have been a lot more productive than liner notes. He could have done what Bruce just did, albeit on a much smaller scale. Please read this and tell me what you think.
They could have created a package entitled, "The Making of Eclipse" and either packaged it with the CD, or made it an entirely different animal- or both. Let me explain. Firstly, I am not going to go Deb on all you here with Mr Big overload(in my case Springsteen), but look at this picture closely if you can. I think this is such a neat idea. It's a box set and there are 5 discs, maybe 6, I can't remember...a few cd's and a few dvd's. Anyway, in addition to pictures of the players in the studio and playing/rehearsing, etc, the real golden tidbit is Bruce included all the handwritten notes, setlists, idea and everything- hand-written. It gives the package a "real" feel to it. See if you can see the handwriting here: It's hard to see....you can also see scotch tape and staples too.

So, back to Journey. Ok, I am not advocating a 6 disc, 119 dollar package, but what about a nice 3 disc set; disc 1- Eclipse. Disc 2- "The Making of Eclipse" where a dvd shows recording songs, throwing ideas off one another, joking around in the studio, even arguments, and disc 3- a live dvd perhaps; a live dvd could be anything, but IMO, they could steal the idea from Bruce and play to a small crowd of about 100-200 folks, and crew and family. Fans could get tickets via raffle, by donating money to a charity, anything really. So what Journey could have done is record and play live Eclipse(either a handful of tunes or the entire cd). Make sure the locale is a good sounding venue...perhaps a San Francisco landmark...Fog City Diner? maybe too small, or maybe a Cable Car Warehouse, something like that. Film the show, 90 minutes or so, have a little Q and A with fans, show the band hamming it up and being friendly, etc.
So let's recap. Journey could sell Eclipse by itself for the 10 bucks-or- sell "Journey Returns- The Making of Eclipse" for 69 dollars.
The Making Of includes:

Eclipse
The Making Of- DVD- show the ins and outs of recording a record...ideas, laughs, arguments, even cuss words...you get the idea
Live DVD- recorded in a San Francisco Landmark- How about down at Fisherman's Wharf?
The "Package" includes tons of pictures, a semi chronological story much like Cain wrote here n this thread. Have Cain write a long story from beginning to end of the process of Eclipse, and sprinkle in pictures, unique ideas, funny things that happened, and notes...I cannot stress this enough. Looking at hand written notes look so authentic....not only notes, but alternative verses. songs written out on long form. For instance, You would see Cain's cursive writing for "Tantric" and along the borders you would see arrows and brackets suggesting new words, verses, etc....then maybe the next page, you would see "Tantric" but with completely different phrases and words(assuming there were any, and most songs do have multiple writings. You could have tentative "song order" ideas etc. The possibilities are endless.
To sum it up, not everything has to be done "like Bruce did it," lol. Just saying, I liked the ideas of his box set a lot, and think Journey, if they wanted to put a little coin behind their product, could make something nice to sell, kind of put some worth in their name. That is one thing I have noticed as a lifelong Journey fan- their brand has been cheapened and further cheapened. By that I mean, When Escape, Frontiers and ROR were out, they looked good, had promo to back them, and it was like seeing a Cadillac on a lot with Buicks. Even when TBF came out, it was a diamond in the rough....But then after Perry departed, you started to see IMO, half-assed efforts(in all phases)..Arrival was ok, but things started happening that weren't good; in Arrival's case, we had leaked material. Not Journey's fault, but nonetheless, it was there...then they threw that "experimental" pig vomit Red13 out there ....ok, I'll give that a pass because at least they were trying to re-brand their image and take some chances. Next up came Generations. Somebody in the band should have received the death penalty for that atrocity. To the point of argument, remember how cheap that crap was? From it's looks(recoloured captured cd cover), to the cardboard sleeves, to giving it away free..good Lord already. Then the cheapness continued, in the form of Revelation. 3 discs for 7 bucks? ok, not pure accuracy, but you get my point. Now, they supposedly line a shot off the wall for a double, only to see the cd packaged in Mexican architecture- cardboard.
With my idea, you are giving the buying fan a legitimate choice. A CD or a Package.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
OR
It just hit me. I still love this idea, however, try this on for size.
Instead of doing a project centering around Eclipse, they could have done this super Box Set with Escape. Now hold on....Escape was a monster. Escape is celebrating it's 30th anniversary. With Escape, they could have made a 6 dvd/cd set, and they could have included Eclipse as one of the discs. Yes, it would work. You are celebrating the super status of Escape and at the same time, introducing the fan, either new or longterm, Eclipse.
disc 1- Escape
disc 2- Escape DVD Houston
disc 3- The Making of Escape (they have so much to pull from here)
disc 4- Leftovers from Escape? Were there any songs that didn't make the final cut of Escape? (In Springsteen's case, that's what the Promise was- holdovers from the Darkness on the Edge of Town record)
disc 5- Open(Make up something here)
disc 6- Eclipse

Would any hardcore fan really shell out $69 for a product from the new line-up? And to ask the casual listener just strolling through Wal-Mart to do so would be like taking a month's worth of other Wal-Mart essentials out of their cart.

The Escape Monster package, on the other hand......

[marco17]

A lot of that would've made great liner notes for the album...

No. It could have been a lot more productive than liner notes. He could have done what Bruce just did, albeit on a much smaller scale. Please read this and tell me what you think.
They could have created a package entitled, "The Making of Eclipse" and either packaged it with the CD, or made it an entirely different animal- or both. Let me explain. Firstly, I am not going to go Deb on all you here with Mr Big overload(in my case Springsteen), but look at this picture closely if you can. I think this is such a neat idea. It's a box set and there are 5 discs, maybe 6, I can't remember...a few cd's and a few dvd's. Anyway, in addition to pictures of the players in the studio and playing/rehearsing, etc, the real golden tidbit is Bruce included all the handwritten notes, setlists, idea and everything- hand-written. It gives the package a "real" feel to it. See if you can see the handwriting here: It's hard to see....you can also see scotch tape and staples too.

So, back to Journey. Ok, I am not advocating a 6 disc, 119 dollar package, but what about a nice 3 disc set; disc 1- Eclipse. Disc 2- "The Making of Eclipse" where a dvd shows recording songs, throwing ideas off one another, joking around in the studio, even arguments, and disc 3- a live dvd perhaps; a live dvd could be anything, but IMO, they could steal the idea from Bruce and play to a small crowd of about 100-200 folks, and crew and family. Fans could get tickets via raffle, by donating money to a charity, anything really. So what Journey could have done is record and play live Eclipse(either a handful of tunes or the entire cd). Make sure the locale is a good sounding venue...perhaps a San Francisco landmark...Fog City Diner? maybe too small, or maybe a Cable Car Warehouse, something like that. Film the show, 90 minutes or so, have a little Q and A with fans, show the band hamming it up and being friendly, etc.
So let's recap. Journey could sell Eclipse by itself for the 10 bucks-or- sell "Journey Returns- The Making of Eclipse" for 69 dollars.
The Making Of includes:

Eclipse
The Making Of- DVD- show the ins and outs of recording a record...ideas, laughs, arguments, even cuss words...you get the idea
Live DVD- recorded in a San Francisco Landmark- How about down at Fisherman's Wharf?
The "Package" includes tons of pictures, a semi chronological story much like Cain wrote here n this thread. Have Cain write a long story from beginning to end of the process of Eclipse, and sprinkle in pictures, unique ideas, funny things that happened, and notes...I cannot stress this enough. Looking at hand written notes look so authentic....not only notes, but alternative verses. songs written out on long form. For instance, You would see Cain's cursive writing for "Tantric" and along the borders you would see arrows and brackets suggesting new words, verses, etc....then maybe the next page, you would see "Tantric" but with completely different phrases and words(assuming there were any, and most songs do have multiple writings. You could have tentative "song order" ideas etc. The possibilities are endless.
To sum it up, not everything has to be done "like Bruce did it," lol. Just saying, I liked the ideas of his box set a lot, and think Journey, if they wanted to put a little coin behind their product, could make something nice to sell, kind of put some worth in their name. That is one thing I have noticed as a lifelong Journey fan- their brand has been cheapened and further cheapened. By that I mean, When Escape, Frontiers and ROR were out, they looked good, had promo to back them, and it was like seeing a Cadillac on a lot with Buicks. Even when TBF came out, it was a diamond in the rough....But then after Perry departed, you started to see IMO, half-assed efforts(in all phases)..Arrival was ok, but things started happening that weren't good; in Arrival's case, we had leaked material. Not Journey's fault, but nonetheless, it was there...then they threw that "experimental" pig vomit Red13 out there ....ok, I'll give that a pass because at least they were trying to re-brand their image and take some chances. Next up came Generations. Somebody in the band should have received the death penalty for that atrocity. To the point of argument, remember how cheap that crap was? From it's looks(recoloured captured cd cover), to the cardboard sleeves, to giving it away free..good Lord already. Then the cheapness continued, in the form of Revelation. 3 discs for 7 bucks? ok, not pure accuracy, but you get my point. Now, they supposedly line a shot off the wall for a double, only to see the cd packaged in Mexican architecture- cardboard.
With my idea, you are giving the buying fan a legitimate choice. A CD or a Package.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
OR
It just hit me. I still love this idea, however, try this on for size.
Instead of doing a project centering around Eclipse, they could have done this super Box Set with Escape. Now hold on....Escape was a monster. Escape is celebrating it's 30th anniversary. With Escape, they could have made a 6 dvd/cd set, and they could have included Eclipse as one of the discs. Yes, it would work. You are celebrating the super status of Escape and at the same time, introducing the fan, either new or longterm, Eclipse.
disc 1- Escape
disc 2- Escape DVD Houston
disc 3- The Making of Escape (they have so much to pull from here)
disc 4- Leftovers from Escape? Were there any songs that didn't make the final cut of Escape? (In Springsteen's case, that's what the Promise was- holdovers from the Darkness on the Edge of Town record)
disc 5- Open(Make up something here)
disc 6- Eclipse

Like the second idea.... I think you'd probably hit a larger fanbase. That or they are saving all the outtakes and stuff like that for one last boxset the covers all the incarnations of the band.... They could do a lot with that, and with that many singers by the time they retire.

[Deb]

Like the second idea.... I think you'd probably hit a larger fanbase. That or they are saving all the outtakes and stuff like that for one last boxset the covers all the incarnations of the band.... They could do a lot with that, and with that many singers by the time they retire.

Now that might be kinda cool.

[bluejeangirl76]

LOL, I'm my own little street team. Adding to The Bigs' fanbase, one fan at a time baby one fan at a time. Have to laugh at having my own verb.... "go Deb on ya".

Never anything wrong with that, doll. We all have our one Big (pun intended) musical passion.

<---- guess Who my band is

[Saint John]

he saw apparitions...is this one of those fan fiction things?

I bet one of them was wearing red pants and the other one had a Giants hat on. Just a guess.

FYI, just their careers are dead. Not them.

[bluejeangirl76]

he saw apparitions...is this one of those fan fiction things?

I bet one of them was wearing red pants and the other one had a Giants hat on. Just a guess.

FYI, just their careers are dead. Not them.

Har dee har! Fine. Their dead careers are haunting Frigalicious. Maybe he will cry out another sappy ass ballad about it.

[Tito]

I bet one of them was wearing red pants and the other one had a Giants hat on. Just a guess.

"Hey Jon... booga booga motherfucker!"

I gotta give you credit and admit I laughed at this.

I knew someone would bring up Perry but not in a humorous way. Made me laugh. Well played.

[Tito]

From Jon's site.

Javier, the vineyard manager took the grapes to De La Montanya for sorting and crush.

Javier, better have a fuckin' legit social security number, if you know what I mean. I won't even let Cain slide on this.

[steveo777]

A lot of that would've made great liner notes for the album...

No. It could have been a lot more productive than liner notes. He could have done what Bruce just did, albeit on a much smaller scale. Please read this and tell me what you think.
They could have created a package entitled, "The Making of Eclipse" and either packaged it with the CD, or made it an entirely different animal- or both. Let me explain. Firstly, I am not going to go Deb on all you here with Mr Big overload(in my case Springsteen), but look at this picture closely if you can. I think this is such a neat idea. It's a box set and there are 5 discs, maybe 6, I can't remember...a few cd's and a few dvd's. Anyway, in addition to pictures of the players in the studio and playing/rehearsing, etc, the real golden tidbit is Bruce included all the handwritten notes, setlists, idea and everything- hand-written. It gives the package a "real" feel to it. See if you can see the handwriting here: It's hard to see....you can also see scotch tape and staples too.

So, back to Journey. Ok, I am not advocating a 6 disc, 119 dollar package, but what about a nice 3 disc set; disc 1- Eclipse. Disc 2- "The Making of Eclipse" where a dvd shows recording songs, throwing ideas off one another, joking around in the studio, even arguments, and disc 3- a live dvd perhaps; a live dvd could be anything, but IMO, they could steal the idea from Bruce and play to a small crowd of about 100-200 folks, and crew and family. Fans could get tickets via raffle, by donating money to a charity, anything really. So what Journey could have done is record and play live Eclipse(either a handful of tunes or the entire cd). Make sure the locale is a good sounding venue...perhaps a San Francisco landmark...Fog City Diner? maybe too small, or maybe a Cable Car Warehouse, something like that. Film the show, 90 minutes or so, have a little Q and A with fans, show the band hamming it up and being friendly, etc.
So let's recap. Journey could sell Eclipse by itself for the 10 bucks-or- sell "Journey Returns- The Making of Eclipse" for 69 dollars.
The Making Of includes:

Eclipse
The Making Of- DVD- show the ins and outs of recording a record...ideas, laughs, arguments, even cuss words...you get the idea
Live DVD- recorded in a San Francisco Landmark- How about down at Fisherman's Wharf?
The "Package" includes tons of pictures, a semi chronological story much like Cain wrote here n this thread. Have Cain write a long story from beginning to end of the process of Eclipse, and sprinkle in pictures, unique ideas, funny things that happened, and notes...I cannot stress this enough. Looking at hand written notes look so authentic....not only notes, but alternative verses. songs written out on long form. For instance, You would see Cain's cursive writing for "Tantric" and along the borders you would see arrows and brackets suggesting new words, verses, etc....then maybe the next page, you would see "Tantric" but with completely different phrases and words(assuming there were any, and most songs do have multiple writings. You could have tentative "song order" ideas etc. The possibilities are endless.
To sum it up, not everything has to be done "like Bruce did it," lol. Just saying, I liked the ideas of his box set a lot, and think Journey, if they wanted to put a little coin behind their product, could make something nice to sell, kind of put some worth in their name. That is one thing I have noticed as a lifelong Journey fan- their brand has been cheapened and further cheapened. By that I mean, When Escape, Frontiers and ROR were out, they looked good, had promo to back them, and it was like seeing a Cadillac on a lot with Buicks. Even when TBF came out, it was a diamond in the rough....But then after Perry departed, you started to see IMO, half-assed efforts(in all phases)..Arrival was ok, but things started happening that weren't good; in Arrival's case, we had leaked material. Not Journey's fault, but nonetheless, it was there...then they threw that "experimental" pig vomit Red13 out there ....ok, I'll give that a pass because at least they were trying to re-brand their image and take some chances. Next up came Generations. Somebody in the band should have received the death penalty for that atrocity. To the point of argument, remember how cheap that crap was? From it's looks(recoloured captured cd cover), to the cardboard sleeves, to giving it away free..good Lord already. Then the cheapness continued, in the form of Revelation. 3 discs for 7 bucks? ok, not pure accuracy, but you get my point. Now, they supposedly line a shot off the wall for a double, only to see the cd packaged in Mexican architecture- cardboard.
With my idea, you are giving the buying fan a legitimate choice. A CD or a Package.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
OR
It just hit me. I still love this idea, however, try this on for size.
Instead of doing a project centering around Eclipse, they could have done this super Box Set with Escape. Now hold on....Escape was a monster. Escape is celebrating it's 30th anniversary. With Escape, they could have made a 6 dvd/cd set, and they could have included Eclipse as one of the discs. Yes, it would work. You are celebrating the super status of Escape and at the same time, introducing the fan, either new or longterm, Eclipse.
disc 1- Escape
disc 2- Escape DVD Houston
disc 3- The Making of Escape (they have so much to pull from here)
disc 4- Leftovers from Escape? Were there any songs that didn't make the final cut of Escape? (In Springsteen's case, that's what the Promise was- holdovers from the Darkness on the Edge of Town record)
disc 5- Open(Make up something here)
disc 6- Eclipse

What do you think of the album, dickweed?