Who's crying now: Journey fires Valory and Smith

[Ooba Tooba]

In other news, Journey was still around.

 

[bubba-b]

in glancing over the documents, i believe the side deal that kept the name 'Journey' between perry, schon, and cain (elmo partners) was executed in 1985. smitty and valory were already fired from journey by then. so they weren't around to be able to participate in such an agreement.

my question is how didn't smitty's and valory's lawyer not know that fact before they charged in?

all i know is i'm done. seems like there's quite a few detractors here but i've been a longtime Journey fan since 1980. y'all can crack on them putting out 'sloppy' and 'weak' slow songs but the perry/schon/cain collaboration was responsible for quite a few timeless classics. listen to 'mother/father' off of the 'escape' cd and tell me that perry's vocal dynamics and the arrangements are 'soft'.

there was a time a few years ago when they had a chance to properly take the name 'Journey' into the new millennium by having jeff scott soto be the lead singer and have a front man that can write, play bass and keys, and command a stage. but they decided to become a 'hits only' touring act. bringing smitty back a few years ago was a nice touch but too little, too late.

deen castronovo (their drummer from '98-'15) will probably retake the chair for their tour with the pretenders. neal's worked with marco mendoza so he's a possibility for the bass chair. people mentioned randy jackson but i'm pretty sure perry brought him in during the 'raised on radio' cd and tour. not saying randy is loyal to perry but could be weird nonetheless.

i'm pretty sure they already have someone in mind. they've used a couple of nashville guys for backup keys/vox on the past few tours so maybe a nashville vet might be in the cards.

or they can shoot me a text. i'll do the gig for chicken sammiches and a diet dr. pepper!

 

[Rib 13]

When it comes to tribute bands, I think there are more Journey tribute bands ( many which are spectacular) than almost any other artist ....... Some of these are so good that you can spend less ticket money and arguably get a better show......

 

[alaskaleftybass]

In fairness I can understand why they'd want to establish income once they are finally done touring. As it stood only Schon, Cain and Perry would continue to receive checks. I think.

This is my take on it also. Schon and Caine wanted to continue to rack in the money while touring and the other two longtime members would be left holding their,... well you know.

I'll bet they all have enough money to retire right now but being rich always leads to more greed. Such a pathetically said situation. I've been a Journey fan for over 40 years but this is souring me on them. ALL of them.

 

[Axstar]

Never liked 'em, anyway.

Yup. Tacky soccer mom band at the best of times.

 

[alaskaleftybass]

in glancing over the documents, i believe the side deal that kept the name 'Journey' between perry, schon, and cain (elmo partners) was executed in 1985. smitty and valory were already fired from journey by then. so they weren't around to be able to participate in such an agreement.

my question is how didn't smitty's and valory's lawyer not know that fact before they charged in?

all i know is i'm done. seems like there's quite a few detractors here but i've been a longtime Journey fan since 1980. y'all can crack on them putting out 'sloppy' and 'weak' slow songs but the perry/schon/cain collaboration was responsible for quite a few timeless classics. listen to 'mother/father' off of the 'escape' cd and tell me that perry's vocal dynamics and the arrangements are 'soft'.

there was a time a few years ago when they had a chance to properly take the name 'Journey' into the new millennium by having jeff scott soto be the lead singer and have a front man that can write, play bass and keys, and command a stage. but they decided to become a 'hits only' touring act. bringing smitty back a few years ago was a nice touch but too little, too late.

deen castronovo (their drummer from '98-'15) will probably retake the chair for their tour with the pretenders. neal's worked with marco mendoza so he's a possibility for the bass chair. people mentioned randy jackson but i'm pretty sure perry brought him in during the 'raised on radio' cd and tour. not saying randy is loyal to perry but could be weird nonetheless.

i'm pretty sure they already have someone in mind. they've used a couple of nashville guys for backup keys/vox on the past few tours so maybe a nashville vet might be in the cards.

or they can shoot me a text. i'll do the gig for chicken sammiches and a diet dr. pepper!

Now that Ross is gone I'll do the gig for one of those rotisserie chickens they cook onstage during the show... oh wait, that's Rush....

 

[Lagado]

Money changes everything.

 

[Spidey2112]

What perfect timing, too. Does their tour kickoff in a little over a week?

Now's the time for the, 'I learned 50 songs in nine days' thread.

I can think of only one person qualified to undertake this mission...

... paging... @Joeykun.

 

[Spidey2112]

... listen to 'mother/father' off of the 'escape' cd and tell me that perry's vocal dynamics and the arrangements are 'soft'.

I think Perry is one of the best vocalists I've ever listened to... the reason I soured on them is every time I turn on the radio in my vehicle, I'm bombarded with their 'hits'... sometimes, twice a day. Ugh... give us a break.

 

[dpaul]

Sad... I saw Journey when Greg Rolie was the front man. I thought they were great live. Had an energy that seemed to be lacking on their early records.

I actually like some of their earlier stuff when Greg Rolie was in the band. When Steve Perry came along and became more the focus of the band is when I lose interest. I still think ‘Just The Same Way’ ‘Feeling That Way/Anytime’ are great songs

 

[nozkcb]

So this puts Journey two members shy of a tribute band

 

[2112]

Musicians gonna musician.

 

[Relayer71]

Yup. Tacky soccer mom band at the best of times.

Oh come on, they were a pretty good band with one of the best vocalists of all time and a great guitarist. Neil Schon was a hell of a soloist.

Ballads were not all they did (and their ballads were pretty powerful and hearfelt, far from cheesy).

I'm not a fan (though I was for a couple of albums in the 80s), but I give credit where it's due.

I hope you are reincarnated in the next life as a soccer mom

 

[Joeykun]

I can think of only one person qualified to undertake this mission...

... paging... @Joeykun.

Haha, I want no part of this drama!

 

[Spidey2112]

Haha, I want no part of this drama!

Lol! Just trying to help.

 

[carrythatweight]

In other news, Journey was still around.

If you've ever been to Joplin, MO for any length of time, you'll see why. I've never seen a collection of people so into Journey in my life. It's really odd, but there's this pocket of Journey fans there. You can't go into a bar in town without hearing them on the jukeboxes most nights. If you spend a whole night in a bar, you'll hear at least five Journey songs.

All this occurred about 13 years ago whne I lived there, so it may be different now, but it was fascinating. They came through on tour every year for a bit there.

 

[Richland123]

I am looking to sell my business and play more. Hey, Neal, I am available right now and I play a Steinberger Bass like Ross did.

 

[rtslinger]

The vast majority of non-touring money (mechanical and performance royalties) go to the songwriters and their publishing companies. Valory had a handful of shared songwriting credits on some of the albums, Steve Smith, almost none (except for the 1980 soundtrack Dream, After Dream). On the huge, multi-platinum albums, Smith and Valory got very little in the way of royalties, reflecting their limited writing contributions.

This is just the way it is in the recorded music business if you don't write and publish the songs. (Unless, that is, you can convince your bandmates to give you a share of their royalties just because you're a good guy.)

Yeah but it's not about that, their situation is they can't use any thing that says they were part of Journey just like when BTO got kick in the a@@ even though it was Randy and his brothers Bachman– Fred Turner they lost the ability to use it to continue riding on any fame that they had created with BTO. It would be like if Gene Simmons didn't do his due diligence and he was no longer able to connect himself with Kiss and or his own make up design or image

 

[logdrum]

When they came to NM in 2014, they stayed at the Tamaya resort and my wife gave horse trail rides to Deen and Ross was there too. They gave my wife VIP tickets and backstage pass. My wife considers them cheesy so I went by myself mainly to see Tower of Power who they were touring with. I did sit for the show but Neal was using AxFX and his guitar sounded bad, one song was a real amp and that sounded good. I wanted to say hi to Arnel and they kept us waiting. Ended up chatting with Ross. Great down to earth guy - I think after 3 sentences about gear we talked about other things. Arnel never came out but had nice chat with Ross.

I know 2 Journey songs only because when I was young, you cue em up when you're dating a girl and hoping to get a score after she listens to Open Arms.

 

[Richland123]

Maybe Ross will reform his late 1960s band Frumious Bandersnatch he had with original Journey member George Tickner.