MR

"I don't want any enemies. I wanna be having dinner with Neal Schon [JOURNEY] again as well someday in the future. I just hate any kind of division or separation amongst my peers and my colleagues."

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/jeff-s ... malmsteen/

If Neal was smart, he'd pick up the phone and start writing new Journey music with JSS.

EXACTLY right TNC! JEFF could have taken them places BUT...Jon wanted the legacy sound...so they looked and got Arnel. And that's that.

Totally agree on this. To me, "Believe In Me" was the pre-cursor to "Never Walk Away" and what potential future could've sounded like. Aside from that, the performances on stage were amazing and upped the game of the band. Pipe dream -- Journey Through Time band with JSS

I have to respectfully disagree. I can't stand JSS's voice, it grates on me. Just too rough and very little emotion there for me. Visually, I thought he was too aggressive to front the band. I never listen to any of the bootlegs with JSS at the helm. He's a talented guy I'm sure, but just not right whatsoever for Journey. I was at Augeri's final show (July 4th that year I believe) and as awful as that night was for Steve, I'm still thankful I saw that rather than JSS, who came on board a couple of days later. I know I'm likely in the minority, but just my feelings on the matter.

jrnyfan@nc.rr.com wrote:I have to respectfully disagree. I can't stand JSS's voice, it grates on me. Just too rough and very little emotion there for me. Visually, I thought he was too aggressive to front the band. I never listen to any of the bootlegs with JSS at the helm. He's a talented guy I'm sure, but just not right whatsoever for Journey. I was at Augeri's final show (July 4th that year I believe) and as awful as that night was for Steve, I'm still thankful I saw that rather than JSS, who came on board a couple of days later. I know I'm likely in the minority, but just my feelings on the matter.

I only saw one show with a JSS on that tour
I am grateful I saw the 6 shows between pnc and hershey
I always preferred Steve Augeri as lead singer
I think JSS is talented however i never thought he was the correct person to front journey
I didnt like the soul sirkus cd and feared that would be the direction had he continued with them
I thought the performance and singing was too heavy metal for journey esp on ask the lonely
Saw a video from that real music observer where he was saying they should have hired him for Foreigner just WTF
They tried that with johnny Edwards
I have to agree with this

lparn wrote:

jrnyfan@nc.rr.com wrote:I have to respectfully disagree. I can't stand JSS's voice, it grates on me. Just too rough and very little emotion there for me. Visually, I thought he was too aggressive to front the band. I never listen to any of the bootlegs with JSS at the helm. He's a talented guy I'm sure, but just not right whatsoever for Journey. I was at Augeri's final show (July 4th that year I believe) and as awful as that night was for Steve, I'm still thankful I saw that rather than JSS, who came on board a couple of days later. I know I'm likely in the minority, but just my feelings on the matter.

I only saw one show with a JSS on that tour
I am grateful I saw the 6 shows between pnc and hershey
I always preferred Steve Augeri as lead singer
I think JSS is talented however i never thought he was the correct person to front journey
I didnt like the soul sirkus cd and feared that would be the direction had he continued with them
I thought the performance and singing was too heavy metal for journey esp on ask the lonely
Saw a video from that real music observer where he was saying they should have hired him for Foreigner just WTF
They tried that with johnny Edwards
I have to agree with this

I think Edwards was great.

PianoMan1986 wrote: Pipe dream -- Journey Through Time band with JSS

I like that idea, PianoMan!

Soul Sirkus should have been a Journey album (if you take away the one song about the kid locked in the closest. That would be too dark for a Journey song.)

The band was talking out of both side of their ass after JSS. They wanted the legacy sound, so they got Arnel. But then they followed it up with Eclipse - which wasn't legacy in tone, and didn't play to Arnel's strengths at all. Think of Eclipse with JSS on vocals. Would have worked much better. All that said - it's hard to say in retrospect that hiring Arnel wasn't the right way to go.

I would love for jSS and Neal to patch things up and collaborate on something in the future, whether if it's Journey or something else. But, I don't know if Neal has the balls to bury the hatchet with Jeff. That was awful the way they went about cutting him loose.

FamilyMan wrote: But then they followed it up with Eclipse - which wasn't legacy in tone, and didn't play to Arnel's strengths at all.

This is the equivalent of saying that Edge of the Blade didn't play to Perry's strengths. Both singers can pretty much sing anything.

One of Arnel's touted strengths is being a vocal chameleon. Eclipse is guitar-driven melodic rock. It's not thrash metal. I think AP acquits himself very capably here and does not sound out of his depth at all. If the songs were keyboard driven, a lot of this stuff would have sounded more dated and more "legacy sound." But let's keep it real - Eclipse is not Sons of Apollo or Metallica.

The_Noble_Cause wrote:
I think Edwards was great.

I agree...loved his show with Foreigner.

We may never know what happened with JSS fronted Journey.

I liked Soul Sirkus & thought it deep & reflective perhaps too much so for the hardcore as it was not typical Journey pop.

It was more on a Dream After Dream sound & we all know how well that one did but I liked it!

FamilyMan wrote:The band was talking out of both side of their ass after JSS. They wanted the legacy sound, so they got Arnel. But then they followed it up with Eclipse - which wasn't legacy in tone, and didn't play to Arnel's strengths at all. Think of Eclipse with JSS on vocals. Would have worked much better. All that said - it's hard to say in retrospect that hiring Arnel wasn't the right way to go.

They keep talking out of both sides of their mouth. Jon and Neal keep saying they want the legacy sound, but want to make a brand new album with a new direction. They need to call their new album Nostalgia, and make it sound just like Escape and Frontiers era. Jon can write some ballads and Neal can write some rockers. Together, they can make them both better. And then maybe get some help from others to put some harmonies back in Journey. A rocking melodic rock album with harmonies should be their goal.

Eclipse was closer to a classic Journey album than anybody wants to admit. Listen to Someone, and you cannot tell me that couldn't have been on the Greatest Hits album if it had come out in the 1980's.

JourneyHard wrote:Eclipse was closer to a classic Journey album than anybody wants to admit. Listen to Someone, and you cannot tell me that couldn't have been on the Greatest Hits album if it had come out in the 1980's.

On some tracks, like "Someone", I agree 100%. People hear what they want to hear tho.

Yep Someone should have been the single. Like Resonate and AIP the 3 sound right off Frontiers.
I love when Cain disregards the album when Schon said Cain wrote most of it.

Jeff’s career seems to be flourishing right now so writing with Neal would a step backwards at this point.

The_Noble_Cause wrote:

JourneyHard wrote:Eclipse was closer to a classic Journey album than anybody wants to admit. Listen to Someone, and you cannot tell me that couldn't have been on the Greatest Hits album if it had come out in the 1980's.

On some tracks, like "Someone", I agree 100%. People hear what they want to hear tho.

I love the music on Eclipse but I can’t the lyrics on half the songs.

Man to me it's all about what you want to do. Look backwards or move forward. I LOVED Believe In Me and thought JSS was killer on the track. I was not a fan of him covering Jesus' parts. If they would have pulled the lever like VH and moved forward it could have worked. However, the capability of Jesus made it extremely difficult to cover anything new. Bottom line is, if Perry was DLR, JSS could have stepped in an made a great difference with better capability on the mic. The problem is Perry was Jesus on a mic.

Now if they could have gotten Sammy to come in, man! .......

Abitaman wrote:

The_Noble_Cause wrote:
I think Edwards was great.

I agree...loved his show with Foreigner.

He seems very talented however i think Kelly Hansen is doing a tremendous job fronting Foreigner

I love "someone" from Eclipse
Even on this current tour they aren't utilizing Arnel's strengths
Saw a few clips from opening pm and there's no energy

lparn wrote:
He seems very talented however i think Kelly Hansen is doing a tremendous job fronting Foreigner

Edwards was replaced by Lou coming back. Nobody is dissing Kelly.

The_Noble_Cause wrote:

lparn wrote:
He seems very talented however i think Kelly Hansen is doing a tremendous job fronting Foreigner

Edwards was replaced by Lou coming back. Nobody is dissing Kelly.

I appreciate that!
Yes, I do know Lou rejoined the band
Which sadly due to his health he's not quite the vocalist he once was
I do appreciate and respect his and the former band's contributions
I am a huge supporter of the current lineup including Kelly Hansen