Well, it happened...... Discuss!

[Deb]

But Perry doesn't belong in Journey anymore; his voice isn't up to par...........for the 30 year old Journey material.

Correction made, you're welcome Gid. It was definitely up to par on that Eels tune, and I believe it would be plenty up to par on anything ROR forward of the Journey material and probably some Frontiers as well.........Send her my Love comes to mind as being one he would still slay. The early stuff when it was all about the range, maybe not, but IMO anything Frontiers forward when it was alot more about his tone/timbre, delivery and storytelling.......would still be some very pleasant ear candy.

I agree with whoever made the comment of another album along the lines of Street Talk. Street Talk Part 2, hellz yeah!

[scarygirl]

I would be the first one in line, and would running over the naysayers in the concert parking lot.

Agree he sounds good. Surprised by the amount of people saying his voice sounds spent.
Who wouldn't take this guy as their lead singer RIGHT NOW?!

[scarygirl]

Street Talk 2 yes, just no more Reggae speel ala Summer of Love. Sorry that song deserved to be shelved.

But Perry doesn't belong in Journey anymore; his voice isn't up to par...........for the 30 year old Journey material.

Correction made, you're welcome Gid. It was definitely up to par on that Eels tune, and I believe it would be plenty up to par on anything ROR forward of the Journey material and probably some Frontiers as well.........Send her my Love comes to mind as being one he would still slay. The early stuff when it was all about the range, maybe not, but IMO anything Frontiers forward when it was alot more about his tone/timbre, delivery and storytelling.......would still be some very pleasant ear candy.

I agree with whoever made the comment of another album along the lines of Street Talk. Street Talk Part 2, hellz yeah!

[The_Noble_Cause]

Agree he sounds good. Surprised by the amount of people saying his voice sounds spent.
Who wouldn't take this guy as their lead singer RIGHT NOW?!

Let's see... cut ROR tour short, cut FTLOSM tour short, and bailed on the TBF tour. What band in their right mind would bet on Perry at this point? At least fellow vocal flame-outs like Lou Gramm, Eddie Money, and Bobby Kimball seem to want/need to perform and dont leave promoters wringing their dicks in their hands.

[Memorex]

Here you go TNC:

http://thenicestplaceontheinter.net/

[portland]

But Perry doesn't belong in Journey anymore; his voice isn't up to par...........for the 30 year old Journey material.

Correction made, you're welcome Gid. It was definitely up to par on that Eels tune, and I believe it would be plenty up to par on anything ROR forward of the Journey material and probably some Frontiers as well.........Send her my Love comes to mind as being one he would still slay. The early stuff when it was all about the range, maybe not, but IMO anything Frontiers forward when it was alot more about his tone/timbre, delivery and storytelling.......would still be some very pleasant ear candy.

I agree with whoever made the comment of another album along the lines of Street Talk. Street Talk Part 2, hellz yeah!

Oh MY HOW I have missed Giddy! I agree Deb bring on the new songs, can't wait to hear them!

[Monker]

Agree he sounds good. Surprised by the amount of people saying his voice sounds spent.
Who wouldn't take this guy as their lead singer RIGHT NOW?!

Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain.

[Monker]

Agree he sounds good. Surprised by the amount of people saying his voice sounds spent.
Who wouldn't take this guy as their lead singer RIGHT NOW?!

Let's see... cut ROR tour short, cut FTLOSM tour short, and bailed on the TBF tour. What band in their right mind would bet on Perry at this point?

Funny, I said that about 15yrs ago...except it was more about promoters, tour managers, venues, and making a tour happen.

[jrny84]

Top trends in social media May 27th

Number 1: Journey frontman Steve Perry performs with "The Eels" in a surprise encore.

Number 2: During President Obama's trip to Afganistan, the White House accidentally releases the name of a CIA official.

Number 3: New York City renames a block of 77th street to "Miles Davis Way" to honor the jazz musician.

http://www.myfoxlubbock.com/content/ent ... BPEMw.cspx

[AR]

I'm going to see Cheap Trick twice next week. Robin Zander still sounds almost exactly the same and his hip is just fine.

[Jana]

He sounds amazing. Hearing his cover was most interesting to me, because I want to hear from him new music, which he would create based on his vocal abilities and interests at this time in his life and would love to hear him in more current music. But I found he had a strong range when belting out, no cringing feeling for me that he couldn't hit the notes as I was listening. He was confident. He had no pitch problems. His vocals have some wear and tear on them, but he can still belt. Watching it made me teary-eyed.

[Jana]

No more DD for me. It's been done to death. I just want new.

Exactly.

[Jana]

There is no way he can pull off DD songs now. Aside from the fact his voice is deeper, courser, and probably can't reach to the heights of 20 years ago, he is also older and more matured. He is not even the same man he was back in the day.

Perry is an emotional guy and an emotional artist. That's the main reason I feel he could do the Eels song better than any of his own. He could feel that song, and that is where Perry will always excel, phrasing and emoting, and pouring out everything he feels into a song. The main reason I think he can't pull off the DD anymore, is less about octave and more about heart. He can't relate to or feel those songs anymore, and that, to me, is what his performance showed. For that reason, I would not like to see a Journey reunion.

Sure, a Perry/Journey reunion would be a way for everyone to cash in and ride off into the sunset, but I would rather see Perry do some songs that he feels, using the voice he has now and conveying the man he is today. Maybe Neal could play on a couple of tracks or whatever, but Perry is a different man and a different artist. That is what I want to experience, because it will really be something new, and, I think, probably great.

Spot on.

[portland]

Agree he sounds good. Surprised by the amount of people saying his voice sounds spent.
Who wouldn't take this guy as their lead singer RIGHT NOW?!

Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain.

Yeah millions of Youtube views would suck. No worries though it seems Steve is all right without them.

[portland]

He sounds amazing. Hearing his cover was most interesting to me, because I want to hear from him new music, which he would create based on his vocal abilities and interests at this time in his life and would love to hear him in more current music. But I found he had a strong range when belting out, no cringing feeling for me that he couldn't hit the notes as I was listening. He was confident. He had no pitch problems. His vocals have some wear and tear on them, but he can still belt. Watching it made me teary-eyed.

Hey Jana...good to see you type

[DrFU]

Dang, the gang is all here.

This might have already been posted, but I didn't see it. (From the Fan Asylum ladies on Facebook.)

http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/BL-SEB-81462

Sounds like he's been on a Journey of his own design.

[Monker]

Agree he sounds good. Surprised by the amount of people saying his voice sounds spent.
Who wouldn't take this guy as their lead singer RIGHT NOW?!

Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain.

Yeah millions of Youtube views would suck. No worries though it seems Steve is all right without them.

Nobody gets paid for YouTube views...so it's pretty much irrelevant.

What would suck is to let go of Arnel, schedule a reunion tour, and have Perry back out because he needs surgery or has bronchitis. Then Journey is pretty much over. So, no, I don't think they will take Perry back "right now".

[tanga]

"Ecstatic" is the word I described myself upon hearing his voice Tuesday morning. It felt like I was in my 30's again. It feels good to see him out there singing. The patented SP moves on stage is still there. At the age of 65, all I could say is "wow", this dude still has it. I bet Rockindeano is having a great time up there...

[Art Vandelay]

You know who benefits the most from this? The Eels. This has been a top internet story all week. I'm sure that there are tons more people who know of them now that prior to this past weekend (myself included). And you know that their version of It's a Mother****er is getting listened to a lot more as well.

[Final Frontiers]

Wow, this guy didn't even like Journey and Perry picked his band to sing with?!?!?! And not Nuno Bettencourt, Jeffery Scott Soto, or anyone anybody's ever heard of ?!?!?!?! What made it feel right that night? Maybe because there was no pressure. Never heard of the Eels before. Don't know of any other music they play. I'm sure Perry's inbox is full of invitations to sing with whatever band he pleases and appear on every talk show on earth. What's his next move?

[Liz22562]

Well, one thing is for sure......this news has gotten this forum ginned up again and some people who haven't posted here for a long time are being heard from. Welcome back friends!

Yes indeed! It's been many years since I have posted. Happily I see some old familiar names....a few seem to be missing... Unless they are using something different. Wonder if Andrew has felt a hit with increased views?

[Final Frontiers]

Another interview with E of the Eels. This is really doing a bunch for The Eels. I bet they got a bunch of downloads. They got "The Perry Bump". It's officially a thing. Glee got it, Monster got it, The Sopranos got it, The Wedding Singer got it.

http://www.stereogum.com/1683659/qa-e-e ... interview/





An Eels concert in St. Paul took a surprising turn earlier this week when former Journey frontman Steve Perry emerged to perform Eels’ “It’s A Motherfucker” and Journey’s “Open Arms” and “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’.” That video of Perry’s first public performance in 19 years has now gone viral — over 1 million views in a couple of days — so I called up Eels leader E (AKA Mark Oliver Everett) to find out how it happened. What followed was a window into Eels’ unique relationship with Perry as well as their stirring new album The Cautionary Tales Of Mark Oliver Everett and the future of the band.


STEREOGUM: How long have you known Steve?

E: There’s this kind of whole secret inner life to the Eels, and one of the weirder parts of it is that we’ve been friends with Steve Perry for years. It started because he’s been coming to our shows for a long time — like 10 years. And occasionally he would send word backstage that he wanted to meet me, but I always felt awkward about it because when I grew up I didn’t have an appreciation for Journey, and I felt like, “Well, I don’t know what I’ll say to him.” So I avoided him for years, and then one day I had lunch with the film director Patti Jenkins, who made the Charlize Theron movie Monster, and she happened to be good friends with Steve, and she said, “You should really meet Steve. He’s the greatest guy.” So I did, based on that recommendation, and found that she was absolutely right. Steve’s the greatest guy. So then I invited him to one of our weekly Sunday croquet matches, which is another part of our secret inner life that I guess is no longer a secret, and he came one Sunday and never left. He became a regular for years, and he just became one of our good friends. There’s no one in our circle that doesn’t just love the shit out of Steve. He really is just a great guy. Then he started showing up unannounced to our tour rehearsals every year. He would just sit there and watch us. And then slowly over the years, guys in the band would try to bait him by playing a Journey song hoping he would grab the microphone and start singing, but he never would. He would just laugh. He was always a good sport about it. And then one tour rehearsal probably three or four years ago, it happened, where he surprised us all and grabbed the microphone. And for the first time in 18 years or something, he started singing a Journey song. And it sent shivers down my spine, and I instantly gained an appreciation for his voice and Journey, something that I never got before. And now when I hear Journey on the radio, I turn it up. And the other thing about Steve is that he’s the real deal as an artist. He’s pure heart. There’s no head with Steve. It’s all from the heart. And that’s what I want out of an artist. So I just have incredible respect for him now.

STEREOGUM: How did he end up singing with you in St. Paul?

E: We started talking to him about it, like, “Hey maybe you’d want to do this on stage with us sometime.” And he’d say, “Nah, too much pressure.” Because it is, you know? When you’re that well-known for something you do that well, and you haven’t done it for so long, it’s kind of a big deal. I get it. But this year it was different. He showed up to our tour rehearsals like he always does, but on the second day he came in carrying his own microphone that he brought with him. And I thought, “Huh, this is different. I wonder what’s going on here.” And he started talking about doing it on stage. And we all decided that we’re not going to get too excited about it because it’s more likely to not happen than to happen with him. And then he actually came out to St. Paul — and I don’t know why he chose St. Paul. Only he could tell you that. And even that day when we were there, I still thought, “It’s probably not going to happen. I’ll believe it when I see it.” It wasn’t until he actually got on the stage and he started singing that I realized, “Oh wow, it’s really happening!” And it was such a beautiful moment. Again, it sent chills down my spine just to be there with him in his element doing what he was made to do. And as my friend, it felt good to see him feeling so good about that.

STEREOGUM: How did you guys choose which songs you were going to do?

E: That’s all up to him, you know? You can’t really tell Steve Perry what to do. You just go along for the ride, you know? And that’s what he wanted to do.

STEREOGUM: You were saying that you only recently gained your appreciation of Journey, but do you have favorite Journey songs?

E: Well, I love “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’,” one of the ones we played. I really have a genuine appreciation for those songs now. Like “Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’,” that is such a great lyric. The “squeezin’” part is so graphic, and it really makes you feel the hurt and jealousy of the situation. I love that! I like the one called “Lights” — “When the lights go down in the city.” I like them all because, you know — a part of it’s because of my friendship with Steve, and part of it’s because I really have a respect for the man as an artist and how it’s all coming from his heart and how pure he is. And also, I’d like to say that I actually like his voice better now than it was back in the day. Like, my favorite Sinatra period was the later period where his voice got deeper. And Steve’s got a version of that going on where he basically sounds the same, he’s just got a little more experience and grit, and he sounds more like Sam Cooke than ever. I just think his voice is dynamite now.

STEREOGUM: Do you think he’ll do this again? Have you communicated about that at all?

E: I have no idea. Steve does what Steve does, and you either go along for the ride or you don’t. I would love to do it again because it was such a fun experience, and I hope he will, but I totally understand if he doesn’t. It’s all up to him. I’m at least glad it happened this one time. In the meantime, I’ll just try to not stop believing. I mean, for now, he’s on the midnight train going anywhere. I don’t know where it’s going to stop.


STEREOGUM: Since Steve’s obviously a big fan of Eels, has he told you what about your music drew him in?

E: We have a song called “I’m Going To Stop Pretending That I Didn’t Break Your Heart,” and he told me this really touching story about how he heard that song and it totally woke him up and led to him rekindling a very important relationship in his life. And that was really touching to hear.

STEREOGUM: What do you think the chances are of him appearing on an Eels album?

E: Actually, that is something he’s brought up before, now that I think about it. He always says he wants to do background vocals. I’m like, “You’re not a background vocalist. You’re a monstrous lead vocalist. You don’t belong in the background.”

STEREOGUM: This new Eels record is more low-key — it’s not as bombastic as you’d expect from a Journey song — but it would be interesting to hear what Steve does with it.

E: I see where you’re going with this — like the Steve Perry remix of our entire new album. I’d love to hear that. I think he could kill it.

STEREOGUM: What was the impetus to make this stripped-down, bare collection of songs?

E: This was an incredibly uncomfortable album to me. To make it was uncomfortable. To put it out was uncomfortable. To write the songs was uncomfortable. But I knew this was going to be uncomfortable, and I decided that it was going to be worth it. Because I kind of had to sacrifice some of my dignity to do this and throw myself under the bus by making myself the subject of some really harsh songs. And putting my face and name on the cover of the album was really uncomfortable for me. And I think it’s easy to misinterpret, and I think some people might not — especially in this day and age when you can only give things a cursory glance or listen; this is something you really need to give it some time and some repeated listenings to get it. But the purpose of it all is to set an example and to say, “Maybe you can avoid some of the mistakes that this idiot, me, made.” And that’s the same thing we’re doing with our concerts right now. It’s a really kind of rich musical evening, where it can be kind of harsh at times, but by the end of the night there’s always this great feeling in the house. There’s this healing kind of feeling. That sounds like a Journey title: “Healing Kind Of Feeling.” It’s just a great experience. I’ve always felt like I’m playing the long game, and the concerts we’re doing right now are the mini example of a long game. The way it starts out is nothing like how you feel when it’s over.

STEREOGUM: Are you following the typical format of doing the new stuff first and breaking out the old hits at the end, or is it more complicated than that?

E: There’s some of that, but it’s a little more complicated than that, yeah. But there is some of that. We like to take old songs and do them like we would do them now — you know, get them right this time.

STEREOGUM: You’ve taken it almost as small-scale as you can go with the stripped-down approach. Do you have a vision for what direction you might take the next one?

E: I really don’t. There’s nothing on the horizon. We’ve been pretty busy the last several years. Maybe I’m inspired by Steve Perry. When I heard that applause he got for stepping on stage for the first time in 20 years, it made me think, “Oh, maybe I should go away for 20 years, and then I could come back and have that kind of applause.” So maybe that’s my next move. Steve Perry is such an inspiration.

STEREOGUM: Well, as someone who only recently got into your work, I hope you don’t go away, but I can’t dispute the reasoning.

E: You know, I’ve been working hard for over 20 years, and that is why this album was written. It’s about the other side of that. You keep your nose to the grindstone so intensely, your life becomes too unbalanced and one-sided. You pay a price for that, and that’s exactly what this album is about is the price that I have paid for working so hard on music and nothing else for over 20 years. So me going away is probably a really smart idea for me personally, but we’ll see.

[Aaron]

I think it's a good start for Steve if he wants to come back. He showed signs of his range in a 10 second snippet which I believe it lays the ground work. If he's willing to work his tail off to get his muscle strength back I think he'll be fine if he wants to cover the catalog, but it will be a lot of work. Steven Tyler has shown he can continue to have a strong voice and I think Steve can come back to a reasonable level with a LOT of work.

The emotion in is voice is, and has always been there. Well done sir. I would welcome anything he has to give, he still "Chirst on a Mic".

Thank you Steve Perry for giving a 10 minute show. We need more, at a higher level, we'll support you through your development to get there, keep rockin and give us more!

[jrny84]

Perry's youtube video has almost reached 1.5 million views!!

[Monker]

:P Perry's youtube video has almost reached 1.5 million views!!

Oh, great...now he's going to be on Tosh 2.0.

[portland]

:P Perry's youtube video has almost reached 1.5 million views!!

Oh, great...now he's going to be on Tosh 2.0.

Don't worry it's irrelevant anyway

[The_Noble_Cause]

Steven Tyler has shown he can continue to have a strong voice and I think Steve can come back to a reasonable level with a LOT of work.

Oh please. Steven Tyler never went into reclusion for over a decade. Tyler is a professional singer. Perry, at this late stage, is a professional celebrity, who makes random cameos at red carpet events...alot like the Kardashians.

[Art Vandelay]

Steven Tyler has shown he can continue to have a strong voice and I think Steve can come back to a reasonable level with a LOT of work.

Oh please. Steven Tyler never went into reclusion for over a decade. Tyler is a professional singer. Perry, at this late stage, is a professional celebrity, who makes random cameos at red carpet events...alot like the Kardashians.

Comparing a legendary rock singer to people who are famous for being famous (and making home made porn movies)...yeah that's logical.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Comparing a legendary rock singer to people who are famous for being famous (and making home made porn movies)...yeah that's logical.

NOT what I said. Don't quote me out of context, illiterate asshole. Perry hasn't toured in decades, and his voice is very rough. If he sang with the Eels and sounded like Mickey Thomas, I would be first in line to start a petition to have Arnel forcibly removed. The illogical ones are the sad fools (like yourself) who think this one-off performance is anything more than a retiree reliving his heyday. Fuck off.

[Art Vandelay]

Comparing a legendary rock singer to people who are famous for being famous (and making home made porn movies)...yeah that's logical.

NOT what I said. Don't quote me out of context, illiterate asshole. Perry hasn't toured in decades, and his voice is very rough. If he sang with the Eels and sounded like Mickey Thomas, I would be first in line to start a petition to have Arnel forcibly removed. The illogical ones are the sad fools (like yourself) who think this one-off performance is anything more than a retiree reliving his heyday. Fuck off.

The only thing I'm calling you out on is your comparison of Perry to the Kardashians...which is what you said.
"Perry, at this late stage, is a professional celebrity, who makes random cameos at red carpet events...alot like the Kardashians."