It was a little shocking when Steve Perry left Journey in 1997 after a very brief reunion. Even more shocking was his swift replacement by Steve Augeri of the little-known Tall Stories. It did not take long for them to release new music with the fresh-faced singer. “Remember Me” came in the summer of ’98 on the back of the hit movie soundtrack for Armageddon.
The new track sounded exactly like Journey! A little bit harder than much of the recent Trial By Fire music. Notably (and noticeably), “Remember Me” also features their new drummer, Deen Castronovo. The lead singer change was the bigger news of course, but with Augeri, Journey cut a hot first track. The classic Journey hard rock anthem sound was recaptured.
“Remember Me” begins with the chyme of an acoustic guitar but soon bursts into life with the rest of the band. Jonathan Cain’s tinkling keyboards create a melodic undertone, but Augeri is front and center of the track. He can hit the notes with the right amount of power, and fooled a few people into thinking he actually was Steve Perry! Not a bad debut.
Remember me
Find myself all alone In darkness without you Now I can’t turn away From what I must do You know I’d give my life for you More than words can say I’ve shown you how to love someone I know you’ll find a way
Say goodbye Close your eyes Remember me Walk away The sun remains Remember me
I’ll live on somewhere in your heart You must believe Remember me
No way I can change my mind I don’t have the answers If you could see through my eyes You’d let go of your fears And though I have to leave you now With the thought of each other I miss your touch You call my name I am with you forever
Say goodbye Close your eyes Remember me Walk away The sun remains Remember me
With the change we can’t explain Remember me
I’ll live on somewhere in your heart You must believe Remember me
You know I’d give my life for you More than words can say I showed you how to love someone I know you’ll find a way
Say goodbye Close your eyes Remember me Walk away The sun remains Remember me
Be there to watch over you Remember me Feel I’m gone My heart lives on Remember me
Don’t you think of this as the end I’ll come into your dreams Remember me
Close your eyes… Say goodbye… Remember me Say you will
The old saying goes “Better late than never”. This is often true, especially in music. It is never too late to discover an old band. Be it Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, or Queen, it has been pretty easy for me to catch up. As is my modus operandi, when I discover a band I tend to jump in headfirst and not look back.
I took a similar path with Journey. Journey were never considered “heavy metal”, and although metal magazines did cover them, I was never exposed to their music as a kid. If they were not on the Pepsi Power Hour in the 1980s, then chances are, I didn’t hear them until later on.
Prior to official “discovery”, I think I only knew two Journey songs. “Any Way You Want It” was used on the Simpsons in a memorable scene. I also remember hearing “Wheel in the Sky” on the radio while eating out with my sister and my grandmother. “Who is this?” I kept asking. The song was incredible!
I didn’t find out for many years that it was Journey, although I did form an idea of what Journey sounded like otherwise. Dream Theater covered “Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin'” on their Change of Seasons EP. “I hate that song!” said T-Rev upon seeing the EP. I didn’t care for it either. But I was still curious why Joey Belladonna from Anthrax counted Journey as one of his favourite bands. Something to do with the singer?
I really had no idea who Steve Perry was. I heard of him. I didn’t know he was one of the most influential singers of the 70s and 80s! In 1994, his solo album For Love of Strange Medicine was released. It was my first year at the Record Store and I still didn’t really know who he was. I remember stocking the CD, but I kind of blew it when I sold my first copy to a customer.
“This is supposed to be great,” said the lady buying the Steve Perry CD.
“Yeah,” I said, trying to make conversation where I shouldn’t have. “He’s a great guitar player.” Wrong guess.
“He’s also an amazing singer!” said the lady with class, trying not to embarrass me.
I will never forget calling Steve Perry a great guitar player. What a clueless poser I was!
My moment of discovery finally came in 1998. T-Rev, Tom and I were in a mall in Burlington, as I recall. The new Journey song came on: “Remember Me”. This was one a one-off track from the Armageddon soundtrack. It was credited as “Journey (featuring lead vocals by Steve Augeri)”. As I would later find out, Steve Perry quit the band and was replaced by a similar sounding Steve. I didn’t care about that, because the song was incredible! I looked forward to eventually getting the CD, which I would have been buying anyway for new Aerosmith and Our Lady Peace.
That was my gateway: a soundtrack song with a replacement singer, from a shitty Michael Bay movie. Embarrassing yes, but the truth it is.
My bosses and co-workers cringed as I jumped right into my new favourite band. First up: Greatest Hits, remastered of course. Bought it, loved it. It was a little light, with all those ballads, but I expected that. It was songs like “Only the Young” and “Separate Ways” that slayed me. To me it sounded as if Bon Jovi ripped off every trick he had right from Journey. Early Bon Jovi, for sure. Not everyone agreed with me on that, particularly Bon Jovi fans, but I don’t think it’s a stretch.
Next I acquired their Time3 box set, at which point I finally got a proper Journey education. From their progressive jam band beginnings to a bitter ending at the close of the 80s, the Time3 box set got me up to speed. Almost.
One thing was missing: Journey’s 1996 reunion album with none other than Steve Perry. Fortunately for me, one of my regular customers (whom the bosses hated because he chewed gum when he spoke) brought me a mint condition Japanese version of Trial By Fire, complete with bonus track. Something about the album clicked with me, and to do this day — do I dare say it? — I think it’s my favourite Journey. Trial By Fire is exceptional. It is diverse, perhaps even more so than prior Journeys. It is passionate, and Steve Perry’s seasoned voice is the real journey.
Of course all this new Journey love meant I was playing them in store, constantly. One kid named Matty K absolutely loathed every time Steve Perry sang “Whoa-oh-oh oh” in any form. Everybody else probably thought I lost my shit. What can I say? Journey’s music actually made me feel good. Of course I wanted to play it often, and I’m sorry the others hated it. And hate it they did!
Steve Perry didn’t want to tour after Trial By Fire and so was replaced by Steve Augeri for a couple releases…who was then replaced by Jeff Scott Soto in a killer lineup that didn’t last…and Soto was replaced by current singer Arnel Pineda. His remarkable story is the stuff for a whole other article, but I still love Journey.
Since I missed out the first two times around, I would love to hear a Journey reunited with Steve Perry once again. It doesn’t matter that his voice has changed. There is nothing quite like hearing him sing. Or play guitar? I can’t remember!
I chose an obscure, semi-forgotten release to end the Week of EPs. Time seems to move slowly in Journey-land. Their first track released with “new” singer Steve Augeri was in 1998, and the album Arrival was released in 2000. (2001 in America.) Generations wouldn’t come out until mid-2005. There was a lot of upheaval at the time for classic rock bands like Journey who were lacking key original members. No longer on a major label, Journey tried releasing a self-produced EP on their website in 2002. It came and went without a lot of people even noticing. Fans who knew what was going on were interested in what Journey might sound like now, free of the constrictions of a record company.
I don’t know where the title Red 13 comes from, but if you add up studio albums including the soundtrack Dream After Dream, Red 13 would be the band’s 13th studio release.
The fact that there’s an intro (simply called “Red 13”) tells you that Journey are at least stretching their wings a bit. It’s an interesting intro, with programmed techno beats, new-agey prog keyboards, and noisy, exotic Schon licks. Even though I loathe these kinds of beats, I am at least excited by the sound of Journey experimenting with their sound again. This intro takes us directly into a song called “State of Grace” which expands on the exotic vibe. It’s one of the heaviest things recorded by Journey to date. Augeri lacks the vocal superpowers of Steve Perry, but he fills the role acceptably well. “State of Grace” combines anthemic Journey with experimental, guitar-dominated hard rock. It is a successful mix. Red 13 is off to a promising start.
The track simply titled “The Time” is a Zeppelin-esque slow groove, with nary a keyboard to be found. Instead, Schon and Jonathan Cain lay on the rhythm guitars, complimenting what the other player is doing. While something like “The Time” is an admirable achievement to a listener such as myself, I don’t think average Joe Six-pack Journey Fan will appreciate what the band are doing here. They might consider it a “piss break” song. Meanwhile I’m hanging on waiting to see what Schon’s going to do for a solo. (Answer: he does what Schon does!) I’ll also single out drummer Deen Castronovo as an MVP on this song. I’ve always been candid about my preference for Steve Smith in Journey, but this song is a different kind of Journey and Deen’s frenetic fills are more than ample.
The third song “Walking Away from the Edge” was co-written by, of all people, Geoff Tate. This is a solemn piano-based ballad. It resembles some of the things the band did in the past with Steve Perry. Unfortunately it’s not as memorable as, say, “Send Her My Love”. It does boast a powerful chorus but at 6:17, the song is a little too long. It fades abruptly, and then the final song is “I Can Breathe”. This one is little more than a standard sounding Journey rocker. It is not particular special unfortunately, until close to a 3-minute mark when a horn section kicks in. They should have had the horns there from the start!
Red 13 is not a bad EP, but the production is sub-par, as can happen when bands self-produce. However, had a producer been there in the studio the songs would undoubtedly turned out differently so that’s the trade off. The worst thing about it is the band photo, which just looks cheap and bad. What is that on your face, Neal? Dirt?
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