a peak experience

Journey circa 1976 KILLED. This, and their eponymous first album, remain the best examples of the only-in-San-Francisco mix of psychedelia/heavy metal/fusion/santana soul to have ever been committed to vinyl.

As evidenced by numerous Winterland and Day on the Green concert efforts (along with several unfortunate dates at the death-of-all-acoustics barn "Cow Palace"), this group rocked like no other.

Neal Schon blazed though this disc, offering world-class riffing and soloing throughout. The intense solo in "She Make Me (Feel Alright)" is beyond anything Page recorded, and the middle solo in the title track is sublime. "Midnight Dreamer" and "I'm Gonna Leave You" leave the listener in a puddle. Gregg Rolie's backing organ is the closest link to jazz-rock (see numerous early nineties John Abercrombie albums for comparison), and Aynsley Dunbar was every bit a peer of Bonham.

"Anyway" is the moody power ballad that in concert was extended to 20 minutes or so of intense blues rock, while "Saturday Nite" was the hit that didn't happen that could have averted the Steve Perry abortion that followed for 20+ years.

If only Journey could have followed this with a strong effort instead of the tepid "Next," the finest instrumental quartet in the history of rock could have offered us more insanely beautiful/intense music for the ages. Those of us who hoped for the more of the same will have to content ourselves with such 1974-76 classics as "Look Into the Future," "Kohoutek," "Anyway," "Topaz," "Mystery Mountain," "You're On Your Own," and "Of a Lifetime."

If you saw them live during this period, you know what I'm talking about. Journey was it.

Buy this--and the first album--and see the American answer to the power of Zeppelin and the intricacy of Yes--unfortunately never fully appreciated outside of their home town Bay Area.

"Yes I'm coming home, I'm coming home someday...."

Didn't the singer here sing with Santana?

He sure was a lot better with Santana...apparently, these guys thought that being hot players would cut them some slack on the vocals...-wrong-. I'm not a Steve Perry fan ,.but these guys should thank their lucky stars for him, and not just the commercial poart..he just plain sings way better than anyone they've had before ,(or since).

Journey's best album and best song

If you are a fan of Journey's hits and Steve Perry's vocals, you will probably hate this CD. This is Journey's second CD. It is about 42 minutes long. The music style is significantly different than when Journey hit it big.



The style on this CD is British influenced, hard rock/progressive music. It is a lot like early Deep Purple (first three albums) or early Uriah Heep. It reminds me most of Armageddon (Kieth Relf's band after the Yardbirds and Renaissance). If you really like this album, you should definetly check out Armageddon's one and only CD.



Midnight Lover, with its keyboard and guitar solos sounds like it was pulled right out any one of a hundred British progressive rock albums.



This CD even includes an obligatory Beatles song. Almost all early British progressive bands (Yes, Deep Purple, etc.) included a Beatles song on their first or second album. It must have been a law in Britain.



This isn't the softer, art-rock kind of later type of progressive music of Yes or Emerson, Lake and Palmer. This is the early style of progressive rock (like Deep Purple before Ian Gillan joined) that is harder. In concert, Journey played much harder and noiser than this album. When I first saw them, I couldn't believe it was them (I thought it was another group).



As you probably know, Journey was a spin off from Santana. Neal Schon was a teenage guitarist that Santana stole away from Eric Clapton, who appeared on the third and fourth Santana albums. He was joined shortly by Greg Rolle the singer and keyboardist on the first 3 Santana albums. The original drummer, Praire Prince (who now plays with Jefferson Starship) was replaced by Ansley Dunbar (a British drummer who played with Frank Zappa and a number of progressive bands in UK).



Greg Rolle's unique voice and keyboards gave both Santana and Journey a rich atmosphere to the music. I feel that Steve Perry's high pitched, screeching, corporate rock vocals ruined the band. But, obviously, my tastes in music isn't what reaches the masses or sells albums.