Every Journey Album Ranked, from Worst to Best

01 Jan 2025 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

(via LounderSound) by Paul Elliott

Journey are one of the biggest rock bands of all time, and their most famous song was briefly the best-selling digital track from the 20th century (it’s since been usurped by two perennial classics, Elton John‘s Candle In The Wind and Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You). But global stardom might never have happened if not for a hard-hitting ultimatum from their record company back in 1977. As the band’s original drummer Aynsley Dunbar recalled: “We were told: ‘Get a singer, get some hit songs or you’re off the label.’”

At that time, the San Francisco-based band had made three albums for Columbia Records, and all three had stiffed. Guitarist Neal Schon and vocalist/keyboard player Gregg Rolie had previously played in Santana, but Journey’s early music, mixing Santana-style jazz fusion and progressive rock, was a hard sell, and Rolie’s voice wasn’t the strongest.

Everything changed when Steve Perry joined the band after they’d tried out another singer, Robert Fleischman. With a richly expressive voice, Perry could hit high notes that other singers could only dream of. His first album with the band, 1978’s Infinity, reinvented Journey as a mainstream rock act. The album promptly went platinum, and from there, the only way was up.

In the 80s, Journey became one of the biggest bands in America, with the Holy Trinity of AOR albums: Escape, Frontiers and Raised On Radio. Perry also had a huge hit in 1984 with his first solo album, Street Talk. But the pressures of fame led Perry to quit the band in 1987, leaving Journey on hiatus until his return in 1995. And when he quit again two years later, he was gone for good.

How to replace the irreplaceable? Journey survived by finding the best Steve Perry impersonators on the planet. They made two albums in the early 2000s with Steve Augeri, formerly the singer in cult AOR band Tall Stories. And in 2007, when Journey’s classic hit Don’t Stop Believin’ was featured in The Sopranos – making the song more famous than ever before, and putting the band’s name back in the spotlight – they unveiled a new singer who had been discovered via YouTube.

Filipino Arnel Pineda’s performance of Journey songs in covers band The Zoo was enough to secure him his dream job. He sounds uncannily like Steve Perry, and has now made three albums with Journey, including Freedom, released in 2022. And while internal and legal bickering may define the current band almost as much as their back catalogue, their best work remains unimpeachable…

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/every-journey-album-ranked-from-worst-to-best/ar-AA1qK9dk?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=e5e518695aa5403a997525cb96258265&ei=32

Director Rob Reiner Gives Hilarious Details on ‘Spinal Tap II’ Plot

01 Jan 2025 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

(via Q104.3 FM)

‘Spinal Tap II’ began production last spring, and director Rob Reiner has revealed what the fictional band’s members have been up to in the 40 years since ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ came out.

“Nigel [Tufnel, played by Christopher Guest] has been running a cheese and guitar shop in Berwick-upon-Tweed. He’s also been performing with a local folk band in the village that play penny whistle and mandolin, and he plays electric guitar with them. We show a little clip of that,” Reiner explained in a recent interview with Empire. “David St. Hubbins [played by Michael McKean] has been living in Morro Bay in California, and he’s been writing music for podcasts, particularly this one true-crime podcast called ‘The Trouble With Murder.’ He also writes the music that you hear when you’re on hold on the phone.”

“Derek [Smalls, played by Harry Shearer] is living in London and is now the curator of the New Museum of Glue. He’s curated glue from every country in the world – the whole history of glue – and he shows me around,” Reiner added, “He’s also been performing with a philharmonic orchestra, and he’s written this kind of symphony about the fact that the devil wears a bad hair piece. It’s called ‘Hell Toupée.’”

The idea for the sequel came when Tony Hendra died in 2021. Hendra played ‘Spinal Tap’s manager Ian Faith in the original film.

“[W]e came up with this idea that Ian Faith had willed his daughter, Hope, this contract that called for one more performance,” he said. “She thinks initially, ‘Well, this is not really worth anything…’ But then some big music star, while screwing around at a sound check, is filmed on an iPhone singing a Tap song, and it goes wild on social media. All of a sudden, the contract is worth something.”

In addition to the surviving members of the original cast, ‘Spinal Tap II’ also features cameos from Elton John, Paul McCartney and others.

He’s Just Mad About What?!

28 Dec 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: ,

Hearing Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow” recently in a department store, it occurred to me that had he not showed a measure of discretion and a degree of ambiguity in the lyric…

…if indeed he’d spelled it all out in the 2nd verse like he later did in live performances…

…the song would probably be cancelled by now.

Quite rightly!

The Most Beautiful Christmas Carol I’ve Ever Heard…

28 Dec 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: ,

…is an ancient sacred carol from Brittany (Celtic northern France). The language is Breton, not French, although the beauty of the music transcends language. The refrain translates as:

Descend from the Heavens, joyful spirits/Come once again to sing praise to Jesus/Proclaim his goodness in hymns of glory/Peace has just arrived on earth

I don’t know anything more about the song or the recording, and I don’t want to know. I don’t want to watch a YouTube video to see what the singers look like.

This song carved out and occupies an inviolate niche in my mind, a place of almost unreal beauty. It stirs me in a way no other recording does, and any further information I could learn about it would only break the spell.

I can find five minutes of perfect joy inside this song.

Quora: John Lennon and “Aunt Mimi”

24 Dec 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

by Carl Schultz

Abandoned by his parents at an early age, John Lennon was raised by his strict, austere, sharpminded aunt, Margaret Smith, whom he referred to as his Aunt Mimi.

Despite Aunt Mimi’s well-known, well-intentioned early advice to her strong-spirited, artistically-inclined nephew (“The guitar’s okay, John, but you’ll never earn a living with it”), John loved his aunt dearly, and throughout his life remained steadfast in his loyalty, respect, and devotion.

As John became successful—and very, very rich—he bought Mimi a well-appointed home overlooking the Atlantic Ocean (“If you don’t take it, I will,” he told her), and supported her for the rest of his life.

Lennon took Aunt Mimi along on at least one of The Beatles’ overseas tours—to Australia and New Zealand, where Mimi visited with some distant, long-lost family. And even at the end of his life, when John was living in New York City, he’d phone his Aunt Mimi at least weekly to check up on her, seek her advice on everyday matters—and just to talk.

John Lennon was looking forward to a trip back home to England, London, Liverpool, and a visit with his Aunt Mimi when he was murdered in front of his apartment on December 8, 1980.

Seven unreleased rock albums that would have radically changed artists’ careers

15 Dec 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

(via AudioPhix) by Danilo Castro

We’re living in an increasingly singles-driven market thanks to streaming playlists and platforms like TikTok. In many ways, we’ve reverted back to the 1950s model, where albums were compilations of filler songs with a few big singles. That said, the album is still viewed by many as the true marker of musical artistry.

A classic album is a necessary calling card to be considered a great artist, and there are numerous stories about albums that changed artists’ lives that were nearly scrapped, or made under the stress of record label expectations. The success stories are fun, but we’re here to discuss the albums that never quite made it across the finish line.

The ones that did get scrapped, and would have altered the course of their artists’ careers had they actually seen the light of day. For better, or for worse. Albums are being scrapped every other day, but these are the ones we felt were the most notable in terms of what “could have been.”

Human Highway (1973) – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Human Highway was meant to be a comeback after Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young spent the first half of the decade putting out solo material. Nash even snapped a photo of the four mercurial members on a beach. Unsurprisingly, egos, drugs and debates over which songs made the album led to it being scrapped, and songs being scattered amongst subsequent solo releases.

Crosby, Stills & Nash had a triumphant comeback with their self-titled (and Young-less) album in 1977, but they’d already aged out of their prime by then. Human Highway could have been another folk rock classic, solidifying their classic lineup and perhaps even resulting in more CSNY material…

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/seven-unreleased-rock-albums-that-would-have-radically-changed-artists-careers/ar-AA1v9f1L?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=04e198724f464edb8ef602a11c31945b&ei=12

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