Didn't know the History of "Lights" changed ???

[tater1977]

Journey, Steve Miller Band bring 'San Francisco Sound' to USANA

Doug Fox - Daily Herald

http://www.heraldextra.com/entertainmen ... 205ad.html

There was a poignant moment in the middle of Journey’s set Thursday night at USANA Amphitheatre that tied the whole evening together.

It came in the form of the song “Lights,” the band’s popular ode to its San Francisco roots. As the band brought the slow-burning song to life, it was accompanied by picturesque views on the giant video monitors at the back of the stage of the Golden Gate Bridge, downtown San Francisco and fog majestically rolling in off the bay.

It was a moment of sublime perfection -- especially as it fit into the evening’s “Sound of San Francisco” theme, featuring other popular Bay Area-based acts Steve Miller Band and Tower of Power.

Well, perfect, we suppose, if one chooses to overlook the historical tidbit that the song, according to comments by former lead singer Steve Perry, was originally written about Los Angeles. And I do.

Schon directly downplayed that discrepancy while introducing “Lights.”

“I wrote this song with a very dear friend of mine, Gregg Rolie,” Schon said of the band’s original keyboardist and lead singer. “We wrote it in about 10 minutes. It’s about San Francisco, not Los Angeles. San Francisco!”

Steve Miller also touched on the San Francisco theme during his set, introducing one song by breaking down the area’s burgeoning music scene in the 1970s when all three bands on the bill were just starting out.

“There was a diversity of sound. Nothing was the same,” Miller said, noting that different styles of bands were playing night after night at the famous Fillmore auditorium. “We were all, like, 20 years old and saw B.B. King at the Fillmore and thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to be doing that all these years later?’ ”

Another sign of the San Francisco sound, apparently, is Top 40 radio dominance for long stretches of time -- as hits from the ’70s, ’80s and beyond flowed freely throughout the sets of both Journey and Steve Miller.

Miller set the tone with a 17-song set that hit on most of his major career highlights. “Jungle Love,” “Take the Money and Run” and “Abracadabra” were early pace-setters and “The Joker,” “Swingtown,” “Rock ’n’ Me,” “Jet Airliner” and “Fly Like an Eagle” brought everything home at the end. The middle of his set was populated with some additional well-known tunes and album tracks -- and included a two-song, solo acoustic guitar segment by Miller of “Wild Mountain Honey” and “True Fine Love.”

Miller’s lead guitar playing was fluid throughout. The 70-year-old does not move around the stage much, but his playing still resonates -- and was especially enjoyable on rockers like “Space Cowboy” and “The Stake.”

One can’t watch the six-member band live without noticing the antics of background singer Sonny Charles. Dude is hilarious. From beginning to end, Charles was dancing up a storm, gesturing to the audience and deploying all manner of arm movements and gyrations. He sang lead on “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” and definitely added a level of entertainment value to what was an otherwise straightforward stage performance for the band as a whole.

Miller is marking the 40th anniversary of his breakthrough album, “The Joker.” He played three songs off the album, which was released in late 1973, and even donned a similar mask that he wore on the album cover when he played the title track Thursday.

“Well, I told you it was his 40th birthday,” Miller said after putting on the mask. “You didn’t think he was not going to show up, did you?”

“The Joker” has some of the most iconic lyrics in all of pop-dom. And while I still have no idea what the “pompateuse of love” actually means, the line still brought a wry smile to my memory all these years later.

The laid-back vibe left by Miller’s mostly casual set was obliterated by Schon’s very first power chord as Journey launched into “Be Good to Yourself” and elevated the energy level exponentially. The pace stayed quick early as the band followed with “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” and “Any Way You Want It.” Journey’s focus on pace was apparent as those first three songs have all been concert openers for the band for many of its tours.

Much has been made of Arnel Pineda’s lead vocal turn in Journey. There will always be those who pine for the return of Perry -- not that there’s anything wrong with that -- but one can’t fault Pineda for who he isn’t. What he does bring to the stage -- in addition to vocals that sound very similar to the band’s original recordings -- is an unbridled enthusiasm and effervescent personality. His excitement and energy were certainly contagious Thursday as segments of the crowd followed his prompts and gestures with devotion.

A main focus of any Journey show, however, falls to Schon’s guitar playing. (Would it be plagiarizing the movie “Almost Famous” to refer to it as incendiary? Hmmmm ... ) Much like a few other classic rock outfits that get a bit too-well known for a couple power ballads, Journey sometimes gets a bad rap for being too safe or too Top 40. Whatever one’s opinion on that, the same can’t be said for Schon’s guitar artistry. Whether delivering a flurry of notes as fast as his fret fingers can fly or caressing a melodic lead that inevitably adds a bit of punch on slower numbers, his contribution is absolutely noteworthy.

Just when one begins to think that there can’t possibly be a better voice match for Perry than Pineda, then Deen Castronovo takes lead vocals for a spin. The drummer, a constant blur of motion behind the kit, tackled “Mother, Father” vocally and came away unscathed. The deep album track from “Escape” sounded fantastic and was a highlight in the mostly hit-heavy set.

Ross Valory was as constant on bass as he has been a member of the band. One of two originals, Schon being the other, Valory meandered around stage in his quirky yet mostly nonplussed way, keeping things in lock step with Castronovo.

Jonathan Cain’s keyboards are a big part of the Journey sound, and he also steps in on rhythm guitar for several numbers during the night. Cain took a piano solo -- touching on segments of “Who’s Cryin’ Now,” “Patiently” and “Send Her My Love” among others -- before leading the band into “Open Arms,” which seemingly caused many couples to confuse the aisles for a dance floor.

Journey played a pair of numbers off its most recent studio release, 2011’s “Eclipse,” in the form of “She’s a Mystery” and “Ritual.” As good as those songs were, there was still a noticeable jump in enthusiasm when the band reverted to its main hits catalog. Songs like “Stone in Love,” “Escape,” “Wheel in the Sky,” “Faithfully” and, of course, “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” had fans everywhere on their feet and joyously singing along.

The band did a near-nine-minute version of “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’ ” for an encore as the proceedings came to a close. Journey is an extremely active band -- both touring and releasing new albums -- so local fans can likely catch another Journey sighting within a couple years.

Tower of Power brought the brass and the funk in a 40-minute, opening-slot appearance. Other than its San Francisco roots, the 10-man ensemble -- sporting a five-man horns section -- seemed an odd fit with the more rock-oriented co-headliners. However, the band was an enjoyable act and received some love from the crowd. A lot of credit goes to lead singer Ray Greene, who has only been in the band seven months. Greene, sporting a white suit coat despite the high temperatures, worked the crowd with a seasoned flair.

“Don’t Change Horses (In the Middle of a Stream),” featuring a vocal breakdown segment by Greene, and “What Is Hip?” were the set highlights.

[Memorex]

If I was Rolie, I'd be pissed. Perry must have stolen the writing credit and royalties all of these years and Rolie never seemed to mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lights_(Journey_song)

You know, I finally got tickets to see them on this tour so I could see Neal again. But God damn he doesn't make it easy. Just shut up and play. He's a melodic genius, not a wordsmith.

[Journey/Survivor]

I wrote this song with a very dear friend of mine, Gregg Rolie,” Schon said of the band’s original keyboardist and lead singer. “We wrote it in about 10 minutes. It’s about San Francisco, not Los Angeles. San Francisco!

Neal made that exact same comment at the Cleveland show on July 8th.

[EightyRock]

I don't get why he's hell bent on re-writing history. His jealousy of the attention Perry receives when he opens his mouth about anything at all....let alone sing something....is hilarious. So all the years they were together, doing gazillions of press and radio interviews, Neal never spouted off about this until now? As always, he needs to STFU and just play.

[tater1977]

“I wrote this song with a very dear friend of mine, Gregg Rolie,” Schon said of the band’s original keyboardist and lead singer. “We wrote it in about 10 minutes. It’s about San Francisco, not Los Angeles. San Francisco!”

Hmmm..if you are going to re-write history...at least mention SP.
Maybe, something like...

“I wrote this song with a very dear friend of mine, Gregg Rolie,” Schon said of the band’s original keyboardist and lead singer. “We wrote it in about 10 minutes, ' we were down in Steve Perry's basement' ...
It’s about San Francisco, not Los Angeles. San Francisco!”

[annpea]

Neal is sounding more and more like a jealous ex.. WTF is going on is he losing his mind? It's too late to change the story now. If it was a lie that he and Steve wrote the song, and he really wrote it with Gregg Rollie, why wait until now to say something like that? It would have been stupid for Gregg to let someone,or anyone steal that much money from him. Gregg was not a newbie in the business and certainly should/would have known how to protect himself from something like that happening. If Neal co-wrote the song and allowed it to happen then he was just as guilty as Steve , so it's pointless for Neal to try and make Steve look bad when he's basically saying "I stole money from my friend Gregg and gave it to my friend Steve" With a statement like that what's to stop Gregg from suing Neal, Steve, and Journey as a whole for his loses? maybe the fact that Gregg really didn't co-write the song and should step- up and put a stop to his dear friend trying to pull him into a one sided cat fight is reason enough. JMO oh!! there's more to this story than we need or want to know

[annie89509]

This is getting bizarre. Last week, Neal wants to set the record straight. This week, switching his co-writer of a 36 yr old song (Lights - Steve Perry/Neal Schon). So much for goodwill of the past year .

As I noted in one of the earlier threads, SP has sprouted Lights' origin from Day 1 (1978). Many SP/Journey Interviews, over the years, contain excerpt of such story. It's archived in print, audio recorded on cd, etc. Wow...Neal just seems so spiteful ... small.

[Tomulator]

NS sounds like a spiteful, jealous, little child.

I hope you read this Neal...you seriously need to check yourself.

[SF-Dano]

Screw all this discussion. The song is about San Francisco.

[scarab]

yes i agree it is about San Fran, but it was originally an LA song, if we were to believe Perry. Dont know why Schon has a hard time with that, also don't know he would give a songwriting credit to him if it was written by Rolie.

[JohnH]

Bizarre and makes no sense at all. Seems totally untrue- can't believe Herbert didn't mention it , surely he would know if Steve stole the credit!

[tanga]

Neal, your fucking legend with your fingers but please, just STFU dude. Your extra curricular activities are well noted and documented. Just play the music and earn your respect.

[EightyRock]

Circus magazine 1983 interview definitely says it's was written about LA and changed to San Francisco because "it was the base of their operations". Almost sounded as if words could have been changed by suggestion from Herbie.

[EightyRock]

A Perry interview with Joe Benson says Perry had written the song, except for the bridge, when he was living in LA. He finished it with Neal and it was changed to San Fran.

[Pacfanweb]

yes i agree it is about San Fran, but it was originally an LA song, if we were to believe Perry. Dont know why Schon has a hard time with that, also don't know he would give a songwriting credit to him if it was written by Rolie.

Same reason he gets pissed and says something dumb and spiteful any other time Perry has dared to utter a word in public.

Perry already had the song, was writing it about LA. Okay, so? He joins Journey, brings the song with him, and they finish it off and it becomes about San Fran, and since this is Neal's only memory of the song that was already being written before he even knew Perry, in his view it's only ever been about San Fran.......except that in interviews decades old, Perry had already confirmed that he was originally writing it about LA. So it's not like this is news.

And regardless, who the hell cares? It's a song.

As far as Neal's claim he wrote it with Rolie, whatever. How many songs have these dudes written in their lives? Not like they can remember every detail of everything they ever did, even important things. Nobody can. This is no different than Cain kind of glossing over the brief moment that Chalfant had with Journey....that obviously wasn't that important to him and didn't register in his memory. I'm sure if KC reminded Cain what they did, he'd remember, just like if Perry talked to Neal and said "Don't you remember, I brought the song and we finished it together?" along with some details, I'm sure Neal would go "Oh yeah, I do remember that".

[tater1977]

And regardless, who the hell cares? It's a song.

Probably be the same if Schon had said, SP and him wrote Faithfully...
without any mention of Cain. Nobody would mind....

[RedWingFan]

I bet Neil didn't step up to the mic and claim to write those 2 shit songs off Eclipse that nobody in the audience wanted to hear. Hell, he might as well blamed Perry for writing those to make himself look better.

[tater1977]

I bet Neil didn't step up to the mic and claim to write those 2 shit songs off Eclipse that nobody in the audience wanted to hear. Hell, he might as well blamed Perry for writing those to make himself look better.

[Art Vandelay]

Wow, this topic has gotten so old and stale so quickly. It was nothing more than an interesting Storytellers moment that Perry offered. There was no intentions of changing the meaning of the song. EVERY song ever recorded has some history behind it, and most likely it has nothing to do with what the listeners may have thought.

Let it go, Neal...let it go.

[Eric]

One perspective that is missing in this thread is that just because Perry says something doesn't make it true.

[The_Noble_Cause]

I bet Neil didn't step up to the mic and claim to write those 2 shit songs off Eclipse that nobody in the audience wanted to hear. Hell, he might as well blamed Perry for writing those to make himself look better.

You consider this a shit song? Really?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9kNIVDmXHc

[Eric]

I bet Neil didn't step up to the mic and claim to write those 2 shit songs off Eclipse that nobody in the audience wanted to hear. Hell, he might as well blamed Perry for writing those to make himself look better.

You consider this a shit song? Really?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9kNIVDmXHc

Great, great tune that is even better live.

[Pacfanweb]

One perspective that is missing in this thread is that just because Perry says something doesn't make it true.

That goes for anyone, but IMO if you look at each of the two people in the topic here, I'd think Perry has more credibility on this subject.

You have evidence presented here that he's been telling this story for decades. And Neal only now speaks up and claims the song was "only ever about SF"?....and he does this right after several apparently butthurt, petty comments about Perry over the last six months or so? This just seems like another one.

Yeah, I believe Perry on this one.

[tater1977]

A friend posed this question to me...
Did you consider the possibility of...because of the LOUDNESS of
a concert, the author of the article may not have heard every
single word spoken and therefore the article is inaccurate?

So went looking...
Seems Schon's been doing a similar intro to Lights on this tour.
The intro did change though after Steve sang Lights with The Eels.
With Schon adding the...

”It’s about San Francisco, not Los Angeles. San Francisco!”


Journey - Lights - Hollywood Bowl - 5/16/14

http://youtu.be/ykfEQBSyPi8

Journey - Lights 5/23/2014 LIVE in Houston

http://youtu.be/zLdKE3n98_o

Journey 2014 in Chula Vista (San Diego)

http://youtu.be/JIdAi2lewKg

at 3.13

This one maybe the closest to what the author heard or didn't hear
at SLC.
Listen and make your own decision...

Journey Lights Live Blossom July 8 2014

http://youtu.be/BZIkcMT0BMU

[Memorex]

This one maybe the closest to what the author heard or didn't hear
at SLC.
Listen and make your own decision...

Journey Lights Live Blossom July 8 2014

http://youtu.be/BZIkcMT0BMU

Well, even thought he whole LA/SF thing is petty to even mention in this case, this interpretation changes the whole thing. I guess I can go to the show after all.

[MysteryMountain]

"We wrote a song about our hometown...,San Francisco...,..It's called Lights"

Steve Perry's intro of the song from Captured (1980). Strange how Perry now intros it with the LA backstory, and Neal wants to rewrite history.

Old people.... (insert Buttheads laugh here)

[annpea]

A friend posed this question to me...
Did you consider the possibility of...because of the LOUDNESS of
a concert, the author of the article may not have heard every
single word spoken and therefore the article is inaccurate?

So went looking...
Seems Schon's been doing a similar intro to Lights on this tour.
The intro did change though after Steve sang Lights with The Eels.
With Schon adding the...

”It’s about San Francisco, not Los Angeles. San Francisco!”


Journey - Lights - Hollywood Bowl - 5/16/14

http://youtu.be/ykfEQBSyPi8

Journey - Lights 5/23/2014 LIVE in Houston

http://youtu.be/zLdKE3n98_o

Journey 2014 in Chula Vista (San Diego)

http://youtu.be/JIdAi2lewKg

at 3.13

This one maybe the closest to what the author heard or didn't hear
at SLC.
Listen and make your own decision...

Journey Lights Live Blossom July 8 2014

http://youtu.be/BZIkcMT0BMU

It didn't sound like he said he wrote it with Gregg, only that he was in Gregg's basement at the time. , so it's possible that the author may have quoted Neal incorrectly...whew! i was just about to dump all of my Journey cd's JK

[Eric]

When I heard it I thought he meant he wrote it with Perry in Gregg's house.

[annpea]

When I heard it I thought he meant he wrote it with Perry in Gregg's house.

That's the impression I got too.

[RedWingFan]

I bet Neil didn't step up to the mic and claim to write those 2 shit songs off Eclipse that nobody in the audience wanted to hear. Hell, he might as well blamed Perry for writing those to make himself look better.

You consider this a shit song? Really?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9kNIVDmXHc

May be okay as a bonus track off of Revelation or something , but nothing that I'd ever care to hear again.
A few months ago my older brother (who was a bigger journey fan than me) said he'd just listened to Eclipse on Spotify asked me, "How could Journey put out an album and not have 1 good song on it?" Just nothing on there I care to hear again. Other bands Night Ranger, Loverboy, Reo (even w/o Richrath). All their latest stuff at least has stuff that pulls you back in for another listen. In contrast, I remember watching the BTM when it first aired and hearing Perry talk, then hearing Augeri doing the new Arrival stuff and being excited as hell for the new journey. Now it's just gone completely off the rails for me.