One of my other favorite bands is Journey because as I said before, I am a sucker for a good vocal melody and whether you believe it or not, Steve Perry is a magnificent singer when all is said and done. Add to this the fact that the other members are all wonderfully talented musicians and I was hooked almost instantly when I heard them. At first I was in awe of drummer Steve Smith's raw talent. When I first became aware of them, I was still a drummer and Smith seemed such a well rounded player that I couldn't help but become a fan. As the years passed and I began learning guitar, I fell in love with Neal Schon's playing as well. He was one of the most musical soloists I had ever heard for his ability to always leave me humming his solos after the music faded. The first album after Perry joined the band was a giant step in a new direction for the band having been just another jam band prior to the release of the first record with Perry, "Infinity".
"Infinity" was an instant smash hit for many reasons but the most obvious was how different it was taken in the context of the day. It featured songs with catchy hooks and some of the best vocal harmonies ever produced on a rock record. The two vocal leads, Perry and Greg Rolie, were the perfect compliment to each other. Rolie and Schon had both come from Carlos Santana's band with Rolie's voice behind the hit 'Black Magic Woman'.
"Infinity" was released in 1978, two years after Rush released 2112 and during the time Rush was busy redefining the genre of prog rock.
Journey became an instant radio favorite with songs that first and foremost fit the radio paradigm of short songs and by appealing to the widest audience possible.
Rush, on the other hand, had charted a very different course of exploration and a belief that if they did what they loved the audience would come around to their way of thinking.
Journey wrote hit songs with mass appeal while Rush more interested in writing songs that would appeal to a much more sophisticated, intelligent audience.
Riding the wave of the success of "Infinity" Journey went back into the studio and produced what can only be called a sequel to the previous output in the album "Evolution" which is a misleading title at best because the album showed very little growth musically. The only change they made to their formula was the ouster of drummer Aynsley Dunbar in favor of Steve Smith.Ultimately, "Evolution" turned out to be more of the same with massive stacked harmonies and Schon's patented use of blistering leads and Perry's soaring vocals.
Rush, in the meantime had just released 'Hemispheres', what many of the prog rock faithful call the pinnacle of complex writing and musicianship not seen before.
The next few albums for each band would showcase the radical differences between the two with Journey taking the, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." approach to song writing so heavily favored and expected by record labels and radio stations alike, and Rush choosing instead to completely destroy the walls of confinement set in place by those entities.
Rush grew beyond what was expected, always favoring to grow as musicians while Journey never strayed from the box of "rock star" status they had garnered after writing hit after hit about love and all the ephemera that comes with it.
There they stayed album after album, locked into a musical prison of their own design, unable to break free.
The one defining characteristic of Rush' music has been the never ending desire, almost a burning need, to push themselves beyond what they thought they could do into territory never ventured into by the arena bands that had become so favored over the years. Bands like Journey, Styx and REO Speedwagon commanded huge concert audiences while Rush chugged along undeterred despite being ignored by radio stations and the wider rock press, building an enormous and wildly faithful following.
The appeal of Rush was ultimately due to the fact that they were so radically different than the vast majority of what was popular on radio at the time.
Radio stations spoon fed their audiences with music that was easy to digest in small three minute bites.
Record labels also promoted the idea of hit singles as a way to make more money on album sales because that's primarily where they made their money.
The incestuous relationship between radio and record labels served to stunt the growth of the music business as a whole and led to a great deal of schlock music being produced and heard on radio.
Rush stood against the tide and never faltered in their desire to do what made them happy as musicians, always taking chances with their music that other bands would never dream of doing. Free from the constraints placed on bands like Journey to always write hit singles that record labels and radio stations would approve of, Rush was able to do exactly as they pleased which ultimately pleased an ever growing, rabidly loyal fan base. Journey, on the other hand, was unable to meet the demands of labels and radio stations and eventually wound up in obscurity after the album, "Raised On Radio", an unfortunate title when you consider that it was radio that ultimately led to their demise.
A line from the Rush song, 'Freewill' springs to mind as I write this.
"I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose freewill."
There is no better way to describe the Rush formula for success. Ignore the path that seems to be laid out for you and choose instead to walk your own. It might be more difficult but it will definitely be much more enlightening and entertaining.
No comments:
Post a Comment