Songbook Interview
Feb 1, 2007 12:07:06 GMT -5
Post by arden on Feb 1, 2007 12:07:06 GMT -5
This was originally posted at BT by Matthewsvl. It is from one of the songbooks.
www.journeymusic.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/032849.html
Part 1
Give me a picture of "Any Way You Want It"
SP - It's from the Departure album. It was recorded in a studio in San Francisco. It was inspired by watching Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy, who opened for us on tour. I loved his ability and phrasing. This guy is one of the more under-recognized geniuses of that era. He inspired the original seed of the song, which has a guitar/vocal interchange: "She loves to laugh," guitar riff, "she loves to sing," guitar riff, "she does everything," guitar riff. It grew from there. Phil was a real poet; he was a frightening genius.
Did you plan the song with an a cappella vocal part?
SP - No. That was a last-minute thing. There is a vocal cluster in the chorus. I'm not sure of the exact inversions, but I found them in my head and sang them against each other. I was grateful to have Gregg Rolie there, who supported them and would come up with additional vocal clusters, too. Those vocal clusters -- the notes that were chosen -- are really unique and give the chorus its sort of timeless quality.
"Don't Fight It" is your most visible duet.
SP - I really wanted to write with Kenny Loggins. He had written some great music with Michael McDonald just previous to this, and his own material was always stunning. The time presented itself during a short break during a Journey tour. We sat down to write in his music room off to the side of the house. We were going to write something for his upcoming record. I had a bass guitar; he had a guitar. Nothing really happened. I think he was trying to do what an artist often does when he knows what his album needs, which is to write in a certain needed direction. We are all guilty of that sometimes. I felt like I was being pulled somewhere creatively -- but I didn't know what it was he was looking for.
Is it difficult because you have to be creative on the spot?
SP - Yes. I have never been an on-demand guy. When it's raining it really influences me. And when the sun is shining it influences me. I'm not able to write sunshine songs during the rain or rain songs during the sunshine. I am sort of stuck with wherever pulls me at the time. And there I was with him, being pulled in an area where I thought maybe I'm not so comfortable. I could see he was getting frustrated, and I think he would admit to this being true. He got up and said, "I'll be right back," and he went into the main house. I sat there and thought that maybe this wasn't going as well as it could, and I started thumping on the bass this pattern: (sings) "Don't fight it, don't fight it. It will only do you good." He came walking in and I was doing that. He sat down and grabbed the guitar and started playing along with me. He said, "What is that?" I said, "While you were gone, it was something I was thumping on." I could see that he liked it.
Did you record the vocals face to face?
SP - No, I went back on tour and he went in with his producer Bruce Botnick and recorded the track. I loved the track when I heard it. He put Neil Geraldo, originally with Pat Benatar, on guitar. I still think he is one of the most naturally talented geniuses around. When I got a break in the tour, I flew out to do my vocals. Kenny was in the control room with Bruce as I sang my parts against what he had already laid down. That was the first duet I had done. I recently did another one.
You're talking about "A Brand New Start," which is also in this book.
SP - "A Brand New Start" was written by me and David Pack, previously the lead singer/songwriter from Ambrosia. I always admired their songs and I definitely admired David's voice. I thought maybe someday we could get together, and all of a sudden the opportunity presented itself. I got a hold of him and then 9/11 happened and the antrax scare was showing up everywhere across the U.S. The country was in a lot of fear. It brought out in me a certain truth about how some of my relationships have fallen apart because of my lack of willingness to make some big changes. If you really listen to the lyrics, you will see that is the honest admission. "You tried to reach something you could not touch. Maybe there in the end we'll find we both cared too much. Here's where our blue skies sadly turn dark. We were almost a part of a brand new start." The idea that "you tried to reach something you could not touch" means I'm accessible but only to a certain point. That was probably one of the deepest admissions to date of some of my personal emotional limits.
"Don't Stop Believin" sounds like two different songs put together.
SP - It is an unorthodox arrangement because it does have several choruses. The "strangers waiting" section is arguably a chorus unto itself. Then it has a second "Don't Stop Believin'" outro chorus. It is one of the more different songs that Jon Cain, Neal Schon and I ever wrote. Between Neal and I, we came up with the guitar/bass line. Jon Cain had the keyboard part started, and out of that came the melody. Later Jon and I sat down and wrot the lyrics from our own experiences. He being a Chicago boy and me remembering what it was like being in Detroit on tour the year before and seeing people down on the street at three or four in the morning, below my hotel room, still out creeping around looking for some more emotion somewhere. I never forgot that. That is where it came from with "Just a small town girl livin' in a lonely world. She took the midnight train going anywhere." I always loved trains. There was no commercial airport in my little hometown, but there was a train and the train represented freedom.
Were you surprised the song has had a strong second life?
SP - I am stunned that it has done so well. I have to give credit to not only Journey but also to many people like program directors across the country who continue to play it while the landscape of music evolves and changes around it. At the same time there were people like film director Patty Jenkins (Monster). Though she is an admitted punker from the original hardcore scene, she said she was also a closet Steve Perry/Journey fan. She loved this song from the first day she heard it. But she never could tell anybody because she was a hardcore punker. Patty loved skating to this song when she was a punker living in Lawrence, Kansas. When she wrote and directed Monster, starring Charlize Theron, she decided to use this song in the background during the first kissing scene in the roller rink. That scene became on the launching points of the film. A year or two later, another generation found the song by seeing it on Laguna Beach. A whole new generation has since embraced this song and that's a very cool thing.
What more could you want than to see it transition across all these generations and musical genres as time changes?
SP - This is the biggest gift a singer/songwriter could ever want. It was one of those songs that definitely came together is a George Martin fashion, in the studio. It was built. It was arranged to be sectional and have a chorus that was to be dwarfed only by the outro chorus. All those decisions were made in the writing and arranging process. But in the studio is where those sections had to truly stand on their own and be definitive unto themselves. The requirement, recording-wise and performance-wise, was demanding. But once it was achieved, Neal Schon came up with brilliant guitar parts.
I never knew it until later, but it sounds like a train on the tracks: diga, diga, diga. Then the second verse kicks in: "A singer in a smokey room. The smell of wine and cheap perform." I was that singer in a smokey room. I used to play nightclubs and it was exactly like that. The smell of wine and cheap perfume was everywhere. You bet your *** "for a smile you could share the night." And did that not, and does it not still, go on . . . and on . . . and on? It will forever go on. There are certain things that I've lived through, that Jon Cain lived through and people continue to live through, because it's all just part of the rites of passage in this world.
"Faithfully" is another important song for Journey.
SP - It was the closing song for all Journey shows and for my solo tour. That song was written solely by Jonathan Cain. I remember we were in the rehearsal hall in the East Bay of San Francisco, and he walked in with his demo. In the studio is where this one came alive. There was a certain thing I had emotionally when I sang the verses that I didn't have on any ballad I had done before. I think it was written in his key, which gave me a tone that brought out a certain emotion in me. When I sang the word faithfully at the very end, I reached for a note that was truly a cry out to my girlfriend at the time. If she could only hear it, if she could only believe that this is exactly how I felt, maybe her fears would go away.
What about the whoa's near the end, where you and Neal echo each other?
SP - They were all studio moments; nothing was written. It's about the environment of the studio; you are able to watch certain tracks become bigger than life, right in front of your eyes. A song goes from rehearsal to a track, and when it moves to a well-performed track, it's magic.
Was Neal doing that with you in the studio?
SP - He had done that outro thing. He played and I answered to him. I stopped when he was playing and then sang when he wasn't. I don't know how much of that was choreographed in rehearsal. But it instinctively happened in the studio. Let me tell you something you don't now. After this song was a hit, we got a tape from the management of Prince. There was a song called "Purple Rain," and the manager said this was going to be the title of his upcoming film. They were concerned about releasing it, thinking we might come after them for copyright infringement. We were given this cassette in advance of the release of the film, to make sure there were not going to be any problems. Prince had inadvertently used the same chord changes as in the outro of "Faithfully." Though he was singing the words "purple rain" over them, they were still the same changes. I remember Neal and Jon saying, "It's okay." I thought that if they're okay with it, then so was I so we told them it would not be a problem.
Tell me the story behind "Patiently"
SP - I was living in L.A. at the time. Craig Krampf, a drummer friend of mine, put together a group with Steve Delacey on guitar, and Richard Michaels Haddad on bass and myself. We called ourselves the Alien Project. We were also called Street Talk for a while because there was talk on the street about this band. Unfortunately, the bass player, Richard, was in a fatal car accident during the 4th of July weekend. The next week we were supposed to talk about contracts with two major labels. I was shattered, as were the rest of the guys. He was so good that he was irreplaceable. A few weeks went by, and then I got a call from Don Ellis, who was running Columbia Records on the West Coast. He said, "I'm sorry to hear about your bass player" and he let me know how much he loved the band. Then he said, "We want to know if you would be at all interested in checking out this group called Journey, who we made three albums with. They want to make a musical change more towards songwriting. They need a singer and they have been looking, and we think you would be somebody they should check out. We are going to suggest that, if you would be interested." The next thing I knew, I found myself sharing a room with Neal Schon in Denver -- where Journey was opening for an ELP tour (Emerson Lake Palmer). That night Neal and I sat in a hotel room and write "Patiently." It happened in about ten minutes. The lyrics reflect exactly what was going on with me at that moment, waiting "for your lights to shine on me, for my song inside of me." I really wanted to join the band.
How soon after writing "Patiently" were you offered the gig?
SP - Not right away. They wanted to check me out first. I think the first thing that happened was that I met the band in San Bernardino, where they were opening for Thin Lizzy. I met them backstage and sang them a song I had written, "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'". I sang it live in a backstage locker room that had great echo. That was the first time I sang for the band with the hope of being accepted. I love the na na part. The na na's came later. The song was written and finished. One time on the road, the na na's suddenly came out when I was playing the bass with Neal backstage somewhere in America. I just started singing the na na's. Gregg Rolie played some of the best rock-and-roll honky-tonk piano on this track. It's reminiscent of Nicky Hopkins. Gregg Rolie instinctively drifted that way on his keyboard parts, and it took the song into a real honky-tonk bar room, rock-and-roll kind of atmosphere. Brilliant, I'd say!
“Lights” is a San Francisco theme song.
SP – It was originally started in LA when I was starving; I couldn’t get a gig. Originally, it went “When the lights go down in the city and sun shines on LA.” That was all I had. I thought it would be a little piece I would sing and they could use it to start the six o’clock news. I just wanted to play music and eat. Shortly thereafter I got the phone call to meet Journey. After I joined the band and we were writing songs for what was to become the Infinity album, I pulled that song out and we finished it. I have always loved San Francisco from the very first time I went there, so I switched the lyric to “city by the bay” because that’s San Francisco’s nickname.
Where is the spark in that one?
SP – I would guess in live performance. I think that’s where this song sounded the best. The album version, though it’s great, was recorded and assembled with me stacking all my voices and all the parts in a small San Francisco studio called His Masters Wheels, but live it would really open up. The Neal Schon guitar solo is the most definitive “city by the bay” guitar solo I have ever heard come out of San Francisco from that era. I can see the City when I hear his solo.
What’s the story behind “Oh Sherrie”?
SP – “Oh Sherrie” was first written by Bill Cuomo on keyboards, Craig Krampf thumping on a drum pad, and myself. We had the whole song – the melody and the idea. I believe I originally thought of having it start a capella, with a single voice. I wanted the opening to be as strong as in the song where I first heard that done, “Bernadette,” by the Four Tops. “Bernadette,” by itself said so much. I was a kid when I first heard Levi Stubbs scream it out by himself, and I never forgot it. When it came time to write “Oh Sherrie,” I wanted the opening line, “Should have been done,” to have that same desperate reaching out. The lyrics weren’t done but the music and melodies were all completely finished. Then I sat down with Randy Goodrum and he helped me make sense of some of my phonetic intentions. He was very talented in that way. Some of them almost sounded exactly like what I was trying to say, but I hadn’t said it. Together we straightened out the phonetics emotionally into a real personal story. The piano parts in “Oh Sherrie,” especially the intro piece that happens before the voice, came from a very prolific keyboardist named Bill Cuomo. He showed up with the idea and his Chroma – an instrument sort of like an electric harpsichord. I loved the sound of it. It had to be the foundational instrument of the song, because it was so beautiful when you plugged it directly into the console or through a Marshall (amp). Bill wanted to end the song with the Chroma part. I said not only should we end it, we should have the option of starting it that way too, with the a cappella line coming in after it. Bill is truly a genius classical keyboardist.
End Part 1
www.journeymusic.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/032849.html
Part 1
Give me a picture of "Any Way You Want It"
SP - It's from the Departure album. It was recorded in a studio in San Francisco. It was inspired by watching Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy, who opened for us on tour. I loved his ability and phrasing. This guy is one of the more under-recognized geniuses of that era. He inspired the original seed of the song, which has a guitar/vocal interchange: "She loves to laugh," guitar riff, "she loves to sing," guitar riff, "she does everything," guitar riff. It grew from there. Phil was a real poet; he was a frightening genius.
Did you plan the song with an a cappella vocal part?
SP - No. That was a last-minute thing. There is a vocal cluster in the chorus. I'm not sure of the exact inversions, but I found them in my head and sang them against each other. I was grateful to have Gregg Rolie there, who supported them and would come up with additional vocal clusters, too. Those vocal clusters -- the notes that were chosen -- are really unique and give the chorus its sort of timeless quality.
"Don't Fight It" is your most visible duet.
SP - I really wanted to write with Kenny Loggins. He had written some great music with Michael McDonald just previous to this, and his own material was always stunning. The time presented itself during a short break during a Journey tour. We sat down to write in his music room off to the side of the house. We were going to write something for his upcoming record. I had a bass guitar; he had a guitar. Nothing really happened. I think he was trying to do what an artist often does when he knows what his album needs, which is to write in a certain needed direction. We are all guilty of that sometimes. I felt like I was being pulled somewhere creatively -- but I didn't know what it was he was looking for.
Is it difficult because you have to be creative on the spot?
SP - Yes. I have never been an on-demand guy. When it's raining it really influences me. And when the sun is shining it influences me. I'm not able to write sunshine songs during the rain or rain songs during the sunshine. I am sort of stuck with wherever pulls me at the time. And there I was with him, being pulled in an area where I thought maybe I'm not so comfortable. I could see he was getting frustrated, and I think he would admit to this being true. He got up and said, "I'll be right back," and he went into the main house. I sat there and thought that maybe this wasn't going as well as it could, and I started thumping on the bass this pattern: (sings) "Don't fight it, don't fight it. It will only do you good." He came walking in and I was doing that. He sat down and grabbed the guitar and started playing along with me. He said, "What is that?" I said, "While you were gone, it was something I was thumping on." I could see that he liked it.
Did you record the vocals face to face?
SP - No, I went back on tour and he went in with his producer Bruce Botnick and recorded the track. I loved the track when I heard it. He put Neil Geraldo, originally with Pat Benatar, on guitar. I still think he is one of the most naturally talented geniuses around. When I got a break in the tour, I flew out to do my vocals. Kenny was in the control room with Bruce as I sang my parts against what he had already laid down. That was the first duet I had done. I recently did another one.
You're talking about "A Brand New Start," which is also in this book.
SP - "A Brand New Start" was written by me and David Pack, previously the lead singer/songwriter from Ambrosia. I always admired their songs and I definitely admired David's voice. I thought maybe someday we could get together, and all of a sudden the opportunity presented itself. I got a hold of him and then 9/11 happened and the antrax scare was showing up everywhere across the U.S. The country was in a lot of fear. It brought out in me a certain truth about how some of my relationships have fallen apart because of my lack of willingness to make some big changes. If you really listen to the lyrics, you will see that is the honest admission. "You tried to reach something you could not touch. Maybe there in the end we'll find we both cared too much. Here's where our blue skies sadly turn dark. We were almost a part of a brand new start." The idea that "you tried to reach something you could not touch" means I'm accessible but only to a certain point. That was probably one of the deepest admissions to date of some of my personal emotional limits.
"Don't Stop Believin" sounds like two different songs put together.
SP - It is an unorthodox arrangement because it does have several choruses. The "strangers waiting" section is arguably a chorus unto itself. Then it has a second "Don't Stop Believin'" outro chorus. It is one of the more different songs that Jon Cain, Neal Schon and I ever wrote. Between Neal and I, we came up with the guitar/bass line. Jon Cain had the keyboard part started, and out of that came the melody. Later Jon and I sat down and wrot the lyrics from our own experiences. He being a Chicago boy and me remembering what it was like being in Detroit on tour the year before and seeing people down on the street at three or four in the morning, below my hotel room, still out creeping around looking for some more emotion somewhere. I never forgot that. That is where it came from with "Just a small town girl livin' in a lonely world. She took the midnight train going anywhere." I always loved trains. There was no commercial airport in my little hometown, but there was a train and the train represented freedom.
Were you surprised the song has had a strong second life?
SP - I am stunned that it has done so well. I have to give credit to not only Journey but also to many people like program directors across the country who continue to play it while the landscape of music evolves and changes around it. At the same time there were people like film director Patty Jenkins (Monster). Though she is an admitted punker from the original hardcore scene, she said she was also a closet Steve Perry/Journey fan. She loved this song from the first day she heard it. But she never could tell anybody because she was a hardcore punker. Patty loved skating to this song when she was a punker living in Lawrence, Kansas. When she wrote and directed Monster, starring Charlize Theron, she decided to use this song in the background during the first kissing scene in the roller rink. That scene became on the launching points of the film. A year or two later, another generation found the song by seeing it on Laguna Beach. A whole new generation has since embraced this song and that's a very cool thing.
What more could you want than to see it transition across all these generations and musical genres as time changes?
SP - This is the biggest gift a singer/songwriter could ever want. It was one of those songs that definitely came together is a George Martin fashion, in the studio. It was built. It was arranged to be sectional and have a chorus that was to be dwarfed only by the outro chorus. All those decisions were made in the writing and arranging process. But in the studio is where those sections had to truly stand on their own and be definitive unto themselves. The requirement, recording-wise and performance-wise, was demanding. But once it was achieved, Neal Schon came up with brilliant guitar parts.
I never knew it until later, but it sounds like a train on the tracks: diga, diga, diga. Then the second verse kicks in: "A singer in a smokey room. The smell of wine and cheap perform." I was that singer in a smokey room. I used to play nightclubs and it was exactly like that. The smell of wine and cheap perfume was everywhere. You bet your *** "for a smile you could share the night." And did that not, and does it not still, go on . . . and on . . . and on? It will forever go on. There are certain things that I've lived through, that Jon Cain lived through and people continue to live through, because it's all just part of the rites of passage in this world.
"Faithfully" is another important song for Journey.
SP - It was the closing song for all Journey shows and for my solo tour. That song was written solely by Jonathan Cain. I remember we were in the rehearsal hall in the East Bay of San Francisco, and he walked in with his demo. In the studio is where this one came alive. There was a certain thing I had emotionally when I sang the verses that I didn't have on any ballad I had done before. I think it was written in his key, which gave me a tone that brought out a certain emotion in me. When I sang the word faithfully at the very end, I reached for a note that was truly a cry out to my girlfriend at the time. If she could only hear it, if she could only believe that this is exactly how I felt, maybe her fears would go away.
What about the whoa's near the end, where you and Neal echo each other?
SP - They were all studio moments; nothing was written. It's about the environment of the studio; you are able to watch certain tracks become bigger than life, right in front of your eyes. A song goes from rehearsal to a track, and when it moves to a well-performed track, it's magic.
Was Neal doing that with you in the studio?
SP - He had done that outro thing. He played and I answered to him. I stopped when he was playing and then sang when he wasn't. I don't know how much of that was choreographed in rehearsal. But it instinctively happened in the studio. Let me tell you something you don't now. After this song was a hit, we got a tape from the management of Prince. There was a song called "Purple Rain," and the manager said this was going to be the title of his upcoming film. They were concerned about releasing it, thinking we might come after them for copyright infringement. We were given this cassette in advance of the release of the film, to make sure there were not going to be any problems. Prince had inadvertently used the same chord changes as in the outro of "Faithfully." Though he was singing the words "purple rain" over them, they were still the same changes. I remember Neal and Jon saying, "It's okay." I thought that if they're okay with it, then so was I so we told them it would not be a problem.
Tell me the story behind "Patiently"
SP - I was living in L.A. at the time. Craig Krampf, a drummer friend of mine, put together a group with Steve Delacey on guitar, and Richard Michaels Haddad on bass and myself. We called ourselves the Alien Project. We were also called Street Talk for a while because there was talk on the street about this band. Unfortunately, the bass player, Richard, was in a fatal car accident during the 4th of July weekend. The next week we were supposed to talk about contracts with two major labels. I was shattered, as were the rest of the guys. He was so good that he was irreplaceable. A few weeks went by, and then I got a call from Don Ellis, who was running Columbia Records on the West Coast. He said, "I'm sorry to hear about your bass player" and he let me know how much he loved the band. Then he said, "We want to know if you would be at all interested in checking out this group called Journey, who we made three albums with. They want to make a musical change more towards songwriting. They need a singer and they have been looking, and we think you would be somebody they should check out. We are going to suggest that, if you would be interested." The next thing I knew, I found myself sharing a room with Neal Schon in Denver -- where Journey was opening for an ELP tour (Emerson Lake Palmer). That night Neal and I sat in a hotel room and write "Patiently." It happened in about ten minutes. The lyrics reflect exactly what was going on with me at that moment, waiting "for your lights to shine on me, for my song inside of me." I really wanted to join the band.
How soon after writing "Patiently" were you offered the gig?
SP - Not right away. They wanted to check me out first. I think the first thing that happened was that I met the band in San Bernardino, where they were opening for Thin Lizzy. I met them backstage and sang them a song I had written, "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'". I sang it live in a backstage locker room that had great echo. That was the first time I sang for the band with the hope of being accepted. I love the na na part. The na na's came later. The song was written and finished. One time on the road, the na na's suddenly came out when I was playing the bass with Neal backstage somewhere in America. I just started singing the na na's. Gregg Rolie played some of the best rock-and-roll honky-tonk piano on this track. It's reminiscent of Nicky Hopkins. Gregg Rolie instinctively drifted that way on his keyboard parts, and it took the song into a real honky-tonk bar room, rock-and-roll kind of atmosphere. Brilliant, I'd say!
“Lights” is a San Francisco theme song.
SP – It was originally started in LA when I was starving; I couldn’t get a gig. Originally, it went “When the lights go down in the city and sun shines on LA.” That was all I had. I thought it would be a little piece I would sing and they could use it to start the six o’clock news. I just wanted to play music and eat. Shortly thereafter I got the phone call to meet Journey. After I joined the band and we were writing songs for what was to become the Infinity album, I pulled that song out and we finished it. I have always loved San Francisco from the very first time I went there, so I switched the lyric to “city by the bay” because that’s San Francisco’s nickname.
Where is the spark in that one?
SP – I would guess in live performance. I think that’s where this song sounded the best. The album version, though it’s great, was recorded and assembled with me stacking all my voices and all the parts in a small San Francisco studio called His Masters Wheels, but live it would really open up. The Neal Schon guitar solo is the most definitive “city by the bay” guitar solo I have ever heard come out of San Francisco from that era. I can see the City when I hear his solo.
What’s the story behind “Oh Sherrie”?
SP – “Oh Sherrie” was first written by Bill Cuomo on keyboards, Craig Krampf thumping on a drum pad, and myself. We had the whole song – the melody and the idea. I believe I originally thought of having it start a capella, with a single voice. I wanted the opening to be as strong as in the song where I first heard that done, “Bernadette,” by the Four Tops. “Bernadette,” by itself said so much. I was a kid when I first heard Levi Stubbs scream it out by himself, and I never forgot it. When it came time to write “Oh Sherrie,” I wanted the opening line, “Should have been done,” to have that same desperate reaching out. The lyrics weren’t done but the music and melodies were all completely finished. Then I sat down with Randy Goodrum and he helped me make sense of some of my phonetic intentions. He was very talented in that way. Some of them almost sounded exactly like what I was trying to say, but I hadn’t said it. Together we straightened out the phonetics emotionally into a real personal story. The piano parts in “Oh Sherrie,” especially the intro piece that happens before the voice, came from a very prolific keyboardist named Bill Cuomo. He showed up with the idea and his Chroma – an instrument sort of like an electric harpsichord. I loved the sound of it. It had to be the foundational instrument of the song, because it was so beautiful when you plugged it directly into the console or through a Marshall (amp). Bill wanted to end the song with the Chroma part. I said not only should we end it, we should have the option of starting it that way too, with the a cappella line coming in after it. Bill is truly a genius classical keyboardist.
End Part 1
