Journey (band)
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Journey is an American rock and roll band formed in 1973 in San Francisco.
The band has gone through several phases, including one dominated by former members of Santana. The band's greatest commercial success came with a series of power ballads such as "Open Arms", "Separate Ways", and "Faithfully".
Many credit the group's success with Steve Perry's vocals and Neal Schon's guitar work.
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Beginnings
At the end of 1966, Tom Frazier (guitar) wanted to form a new rock band. Frazier would get together with Carlos Santana (guitar/vocals), Mike Carabello (percussion), Rod Harper (drums), Gus Rodrigues (bass), and Seattle native Gregg Rolie (organ/vocals), to form the Santana Blues Band (later just Santana).
Although born just a little over a month apart in the summer of 1947, as time went on Rolie and Santana started going different ways musically. Santana, naturally, wanted to move toward more ethnic Latin pieces, while Rolie was more influenced by the progressive rock movement, wanting to highlight more keyboards into the music, and play long instrumentals. The progressive movement pushed for longer songs, thematically linked music across all of the songs on an album, and used heavy influences of classical music. Carlos wanted shorter songs, the influence of the music of Mexico and his family heritage, with heavier emphasis on percussion.
After Santana was the surprise hit of the Woodstock Music and Art Festival, (commonly called just “Woodstock”) in 1969, they came back to San Francisco and made two smash albums, Santana and Abraxas. Because of Woodstock and the success of the albums the band started to disintegrate. 1971 would see major changes in the band and its’ lineup.
A young San Francisco Bay Area guitar prodigy, Neal Schon, was asked to join the band. He was also asked by Eric Clapton to join Derek and the Dominoes. Choosing Santana, he was brought into the studio to help clean up the “success mess”, brought on by the band's new found fame, Schon helped complete the third album, Santana 3. Schon, with a classical music background, was also more inclined to lean toward progressive rock, and at the same time he was helping Santana, he formed the band Azteca along with Larry Graham (bass) and Gregg Errico (drums), both from Sly and the Family Stone and Peter Sears (Hot Tuna, Jefferson Starship) keyboard. Santana bass player Tom Rutley would move into to the bass spot with Azteca. That band, also with heavy Latin influences, would eventually morph into Graham Central Station.
After Santana came back from a South American tour, which was cut-short in Peru when all their gear was confiscated, they started working on a new, fourth, album, Caravanserai. During the studio sessions, in December of 1971, Rolie deceded that it was time to go. He left and went home to Seattle, opening a restaruant with his father.
While all this was going on, there was another face on the scene; the road manager for Santana, Herbie Herbert. After the South America tour, Herbert was now on Carlos’s bad side, Herbie and Schon had become good friends on the tour. Herbie had the idea to take Schon and form a new band around his guitar playing talents. After Schon parted ways with Graham and company, he agreed. Herbert tapped George Tickner (guitar), Ross Valory (bass), and Prairie Prince (drums), to join the new effort.
The restaruant in Seattle was not going well. Rolie sold a majority of it, but still was on the hook financially. Herbert and Schon agreed that they should also bring in Rolie, and Herbie made the call. So in June of 1973 the Golden Gate Rhythm Section was formed. Their initial plan was to be a ready-made studio band for anyone wanting to cut a record in San Francisco. While waiting for a job to come along, Tickner started submitting ideas for the band's own, original, material. Tickner was leaning toward very progressive material, material that was probably not commecially viable, but was pushing musical boundries. They recorded some demo tapes and sent them to KSAN-FM the Bay Area power rock station (the station would help inspire a # 1 song for Starship, We Built This City, written by Bernie Taupin, Martin Page, Dennis Lambert, and Peter Wolf). After listeners heard the tapes, and where given some back ground on the band, they were invited to submit names for the band. There is some dispute as to who actually came up with the name Journey, but John Villaneuva, a Herbert associate, put it forward to Herbie, and the band had a new name.
The bands first public appearance came at Winterland New Year’s Eve 1973, and the next day they flew to Hawaii and played the Crater Festival. Prince, while he didn’t mind helping the band out, he was still tied to his other band, The Tubes, and didn’t really want make a commitment to join formally. So Herbert arranged for auditions for a new drummer, but nobody clicked. Herbert thought of Aynsley Dunbar, a drummer who played tours with Frank Zappa, John Mayall, and David Bowie. Schon remembered seeing him play with Zappa, and the hunt was on. Although Dunbar didn’t know the members of Journey, he saw the potential and joined the band. On 5 February 1973, the new line-up made their debut at the Great American Music Hall. The band was off and running.
Recent
On January 21, 2005 Journey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The band are currently working on a new studio album to be released in the summer of 2005.
Line-Up (past and present)
- Neal Schon (lead guitar; also a member of Santana, Azteca, Bad English, Hardline, Soul Sirkus, and Abraxas Pool)
- Steve Perry (vocals)
- Jonathan Cain (keyboards; also an original member of The Babys & Bad English)
- Gregg Rolie (keyboards/vocals; an original member of Santana, The Storm and Abraxas Pool)
- Aynsley Dunbar (drums; who left in 1978 to join Jefferson Starship)
- Deen Castronovo (also a member of Bad English, Hardline, and Soul Sirkus)
- George Tickner (rhythm guitar)
- Prairie Prince (drums; also with The Tubes)
- Robert Fleischman (vocals; replaced by Steve Perry in 1978; later performed with the Vinnie Vincent Invasion)
- Ross Valory (bass; also a member of The Storm).
- Randy Jackson (bass; of American Idol fame)
- Steve Augeri (vocals; also a member of Tall Stories and Tyketto)
- Steve Smith (drums)
- Mike Baird (drums; touring drummer circa 1986)
- Larrie Londin (drums; studio 1986)
The group's current lineup is Augeri (vocals), Schon (guitar), Cain (keyboards), Valory (bass), and Castronovo (drums). Augeri is frequently mistaken for Steve Perry — they share the same first name, resemble each other physically, and have similar voices.
Discography
(These are all studio albums unless stated otherwise):
- Journey (1975)
- Look into the Future (1976)
- Next (1977)
- Infinity (1978) -- first album featuring Steve Perry
- Evolution (1979)
- Departure (1980)
- Dream After Dream (1980)
- Captured (1981) Live
- Escape (1981)
- Frontiers (1983)
- Raised on Radio (1986)
- Greatest Hits (1988) (Greatest hits)
- Time3 (1992) Box set (includes both studio and live tracks)
- Trial by Fire (1996) -- last album featuring Steve Perry
- Greatest Hits Live (1998) Live
- Arrival (2001) -- first album featuring Steve Augeri
- The Essential Journey (2001) (Greatest hits)
- Journey 2001 (2001) (DVD of concert footage)
- Red 13 (2002) EP
- Generations (rumoured title) (to be released in summer 2005)
Singles Discography
- Of A Lifetime (1975)
- In My Lonely Feeling (1975)
- Mystery Mountain (1975)
- Midnight Dreamer (1976)
- On A Saturday Nite (1976)
- I'm Gonna Leave You (1976)
- Anyway (1976)
- Look Into The Future (1977)
- Spaceman (1977)
- People (1977)
- Nickel And Dime (1977)
- I Would Find You (1977)
- Wheel In The Sky (1978)
- Anytime (1978)
- Lights (1978)
- Just The Same Way (1979)
- Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' (1979)
- Lovin' You Is Easy (1979)
- Too Late (1980)
- Any Way You Want It (1980)
- Walks Like A Lady (1980)
- Good Morning Girl (1980)
- Stay Awhile (1980)
- Who's Cryin' Now (1981)
- Don't Stop Believin' (1981)
- Open Arms (1982)
- Still They Ride (1982)
- Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) (1982)
- Faithfully (1983)
- After The Fall (1983)
- Send Her My Love (1983)
- Chain Reaction (1984)
- Be Good To Yourself (1986)
- Suzanne (1986)
- Girl Can't Help It (1986)
- I'll Be Alright Without You (1987)
- Why Can't This Night Go On Forever? (1987)
- When You Love a Woman (1996)
- Message of Love (1996)
- Higher Place (2001)
- All The Way (2001)
See also
External references
Official website (http://www.journeytheband.com)de:Journey sv:Journey