The big hurrah before it all started to come apart

July 16, 2023 2:52 PM

Journey - Frontiers & Beyond [1h30m] records the band Journey's 1983 tour supporting the Fronteirs album. Peculiarly, it was done by NFL Flims, not an outfit I'd normally turn to for a rock and roll documentary. It's a lot about logistics and the crew who put on the show, as well as the band who were at the absolute height of their powers.
posted by hippybear (24 comments total)

"the band Journey's 1983 tour supporting..."
posted by hippybear at 3:00 PM on July 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

And a spelling mistake, too. Great FPP making, hippybear.
posted by hippybear at 3:00 PM on July 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

Damn you, hippybear, you're gonna make me reconsider my teenage anti-Journey posturing. Thank you.
posted by Glomar response at 3:13 PM on July 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

When I was in the 7th grade the coolest kid in the 8th grade had backstage passes to see Journey on tour, the “Escape” tour. “Don’t Stop Believin’”. He had all the girls swirling around him, all the boys either trying to buy them off him or just quietly seething.

Reader, he did not have backstage passes to see Journey.
posted by chavenet at 3:57 PM on July 16, 2023 [5 favorites]

Journey is peculiarly a band I have zero affinity for now or back when they were popular and on the charts, but that somehow I know probably eight songs from. I did enjoy watching this documentary although I will admit it's a slow build.
posted by hippybear at 4:01 PM on July 16, 2023

Looking forward to watching it. I've been searching for a rock documentary that focuses on the crew. I'm a little amazed at how they travel so much and get everything set up in time for each show. I understand why Journey's logistics company is called Nightmare, Inc.
posted by perhapses at 4:05 PM on July 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

I acquired most of my CD collection via best-ofs/greatest hits compilations but never bothered to get Journey's – they were more like the Muzak of my youth. They had quite a run though . . . reading the Frontiers Wikipedia article I see my favorite "Only the Young" coulda been on it too but they shelved it.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 4:08 PM on July 16, 2023

They were a corporate rock machine with next-to-no artistic integrity.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 5:07 PM on July 16, 2023 [3 favorites]

They were a corporate rock machine with next-to-no artistic integrity.

Perhaps, but there was no denying Steve Perry's voice. After the Fall still gets to me.
posted by fuse theorem at 5:30 PM on July 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

"Journey is an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1973 by former members of Santana, Steve Miller Band, and Frumious Bandersnatch." Not really a fan, but you have to acknowledge their bona fides, and boy, can (could? Is he still?) Steve Perry sing.
posted by Floydd at 6:59 PM on July 16, 2023

Journey had a similar trajectory to Fleetwood Mac. Before Steve Perry joined, Journey made three albums of mostly prog rock (including a Beatles cover). Then Perry joined, changed the sound, and led them to mainstream success.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:07 PM on July 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

They were a corporate rock machine with next-to-no artistic integrity.

They did three albums of jazzy prog that went nowhere, found a commercial lead singer, and went for the golden ring. Not my cup of tea but I can't hate a band for wanting to make a living. Neal Schon and Greg Rolie do have serious chops (and are still respected for that).

Like many bands, there's been a lot of lineup changes and controversy (see prog act Yes for world class turmoil). Current keyboardist Jonathan Cain is engaged in a feud with Schon right now because the former is a devotee of the Tangerine Tyrant and Schon is definitely NOT. Schon's collaborations with Jan Hammer and his solo stuff is interesting, at least to guitar geeks like me that want to hear the pyrotechnics without all the cheese.
posted by Ber at 8:36 PM on July 16, 2023 [3 favorites]

I totally listened to Journey in high school and thought they were amazing, and I'm not going to pretend like I'm too cool for them now, forty years later.
posted by mecran01 at 10:08 PM on July 16, 2023

I had literally zero exposure to AOR until the Guitar Hero / Rock Band games, which introduced me to hits by bands like Journey, Kansas and Boston in my mid-to-late 20s, and this was a surprisingly great introduction. You can recognize how someone would hate these, and also see how someone would love them either as a guilty pleasure or with no hints of irony whatsoever. Having no nostalgia attached gives a sort of distance where you can more or less judge them for what they are, and let's be honest, songs like "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" are just genuinely fantastic. "Artistic integrity" and other such blatantly silly snobbery can take a long walk off a short pier.
posted by jklaiho at 1:17 AM on July 17, 2023 [4 favorites]

"Artistic integrity" and other such blatantly silly snobbery can take a long walk off a short pier.

I just want to repeat this. The idea that a band should be like ... artistically pure? ... is one of the dumbest things in the Gen X ethos.

Journey fuckin rules.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:49 AM on July 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

Sometimes Journey is the friends we made along the way.

[trivia point that my dad always insists on pointing out: South Detroit is Canada]
posted by chavenet at 5:13 AM on July 17, 2023 [3 favorites]

Years ago, a friend of mine bought Steve Smith’s 1980s Toyota Camry, and I rode in it several times. Honorary Journey road crew?
posted by klausman at 5:39 AM on July 17, 2023

"Artistic integrity" and other such blatantly silly snobbery can take a long walk off a short pier.

Stab, shoot and spit to your satisfaction. Take a look at the liner notes for 'Departure' - it features an ad and endorsement for their record label. Not a 'thank you', but an full-on ad. From the fourth record onward they were committee-governed product and everyone at the time knew it.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 12:49 PM on July 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

Take a look at the liner notes for 'Departure' - it features an ad and endorsement for their record label.

So, I'm examining the album packaging on discogs.org, which has full documentation of the cover and the inner sleeve. I'm not seeing an ad for their record label. I'm hoping maybe you can point it out to me? I'm looking at this page and clicking "more images" under the album cover to see the full group of images from the album as it was first released.
posted by hippybear at 1:58 PM on July 17, 2023

I was never a huge fan, but I bought one or two albums and still know their biggest hits (Wheel in the Sky, Lights, Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin', Any Way You Want It, and Don't Stop Believin') by heart. "Lights" always seemed like a magical song to me, living in San Francisco, even though it was written about Los Angeles and not San Francisco. My favorite DJ, Dave Morey, would often play "Lights" on special San Francisco sets on his Ten at Ten show.

I enjoyed the other Journey doc, Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey, but maybe mostly because Arnel Pineda's story is so great. But this sounds like a really interesting perspective, focusing on the crew, and I'm looking forward to checking it out.

Thanks so much for posting this, hippybear! I love that you share all these great documentaries with us.
posted by kristi at 2:22 PM on July 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

their biggest hits (Wheel in the Sky, Lights, Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin', Any Way You Want It, and Don't Stop Believin')

It's interesting that you remember their rock hits, but I know you also know their gigantic ballads Open Arms and Faithfully, and even if you don't know it by name, Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) contains THE early Eighties synth line right from the opening.

They're so peculiarly ubiquitous.
posted by hippybear at 2:35 PM on July 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

And that's literally the eight songs I know by them that I mentioned in my comment much earlier in this thread.
posted by hippybear at 2:41 PM on July 17, 2023

(Heh. I do indeed know their ballad hits, I just don't like them as much. [grin] )
posted by kristi at 3:56 PM on July 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

Just in case you're like, "I like documentaries about concert productions, but don't care about Journey," I assure you this is a helluva movie that shows a lot more production details and road stories and stuff like that than concert footage.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:12 PM on July 18, 2023 [1 favorite]