Pat Benatar On A Horse?

On the back album cover, she's on a horse which would have made the title of this post make more sense.

Continuing Journey Week, I thought I would continue to chart their career through the backwoods of their legacy before going for the obvious stuff. One of the fun curios of Journey's peak period was the album Tane' Cain, an album featuring Jonathan Cain's then-wife released in 1982. The record stands out in my memory because my older cousin had it back then (he was a huge Pat Benatar fan) and he liked the record cover.

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In an interview with Journey manager Herbie Herbert, Herbert claimed that shortly after Cain joined Journey that Cain refused to follow through on his commitment to the band unless Herbert helped get his wife signed. Tane' Cain had been a professional singer since the 70's and is the daughter of actor Doug McClure. Producer Keith Olsen said the music industry was hot for anything Journey following the Escape album, either way Tane' Cain was signed to RCA records.

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Jon Cain wrote much of the music for his wife's album and Neal Schon contributed some guitar. Tane' Cain's voice had a very Pat Benatar sound to it (dramatic and kind of Operatic), though she resisted that comparison. The music is state of the art (for 1982) pop rock, a solid mix of catchy pop tunes with mild guitars and busy bass lines. She was able to score one Top 40 hit, the single "Holdin' On" reached #37 on the charts. The other singles "My Time To Fly", "Danger Zone" and "Temptation" failed to make an impact. Jonathan Cain puts everything he has into this album, writng, co-producing, even singing on the duet "Almost Any Night". Despite the Cain's best efforts, the album was only a fair success and Tane' Cain's recording career was over.

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Jon Cain wrote "Faithfully" to Tane', the song would become one of Journey's biggest hits. Tane' would continue to try her hand at music and acting, forming the band Trianglz and appearing in the film Terminator (it's Tane' and the band playing in the night club when Ah-nold faces Linda Hamilton for the first time). The Cains divorced in 1984 and Tane' would revert to her maiden name McClure. Eventually, she would become a prolific B movie actress and occasionally appear in Hollywood films like Legally Blonde.

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Rock stardom can bring a lot of things in the music business: video games named after the band, bumper stickers, movie roles...but nothing says success like a vanity recording. And while it may seem unfair to lump Tane' Cain/McClure in that category because she actually can sing a little, that's essentially what this is. What seals the deal is the preening self infatuated performance given by Tane' in the music video, it's wrecks any credibility she may have had going in.

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It took some time, but I was able to dig up the actual video. Here it is, Tane' Cain in "Temptation"-the new Flashback!

Temptation - Tane Cain

Mr. Mike's High School Record Collection: Bad English (1989)

Jon Cain, John Waite, Ricky Phillips, Deen Castronovo and Neal Schon = Bad English. My favorite review of their album said "Grammar is the least of this bands problems". Burn!

My wonderful wife went out to Wal Mart today and picked up the new Journey disc Revelations, I'm looking forward to listening to it very soon. But before that, I wanted to continue Journey Week with a CD that I played to death at the end of the 80's-Bad English.

Bad English started with the end of Journey, in 1987 Steve Perry called it quits effectively ending the band (which at that point was only a trio with Jon Cain and Neal Schon). Jonathan Cain began working with his former bandmate from the Baby's, singer John Waite. John Waite is another one of my favorite vocalists, his thin reedy voice and slightly off time singing has a lot of personality. Waite had taken a break from music in the mid 80's and failed to make a comeback in '87 with his Rovers Return album (a very good album by the way). The duo decided to form a band, so ex Baby's bassist Ricky Phillips was brought into the fold. Waite asked about finding a guitar player, and Jon Cain happened to know one who was just as out of work as he was- Neal Schon. Schon brought in drummer Deen Castronovo. Naming themselves after a bad pool shot, Bad English had formed.

1. Best Of What I Got - The tone is set early as this pumping, Bon Jovi-ish track packs in shiny synths, Schon's blazing guitarwork and John Waite squeezing in the thesauraus of sexual metaphors. One of my favorite songs on the album, it was also featured in the closing credits of the Sly Stallone/Kurt Russell flick Tango & Cash. Yo Adrian!

2. Heaven Is A 4 Letter Word - The sex fixation continues, I took these first two songs to be a sort of kick in the teeth on Journey's more sensitive lyrics. A slower, meaner groove takes shape as Bad English gets nasty about...doing the nasty. The fourth single from the album failed to do much on the charts.

3. Possession - The first ballad on the album is a keeper, Schon's acoustic and electric guitarwork is both subtle and powerful which is made all the more impressive by the fact he didn't write this song. A nice, haunted ballad with true yearning by the masterful John Waite.

4. Forget Me Not - Released as the lead single, "Forget Me Not" was a heaven sent blast of AOR energy. The band brings down the house with this tense anthem that has Waite's caustic attitude, Cain's indelible melody and Schon's barnstorming closing solo. This track immediately advertised this group would be a tougher lot than either Journey or The Babys. The video is linked below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfUMswVj5hg

5. When I See You Smile - Diane Warren's pop chart dominance was still in its infancy when Bad English tackled one of the penultimate power ballads of the 80's. The Warren trademarks are there, simple yet effective keyboard opening, wordy lyrics and a glowing chorus. Waite's talk-singing gives a more intimate feel and of course handing a guitar solo to the guy who wrote the book on power ballad solos is just asking for greatness. Oddly, my strongest memory of this song is working at a theme park in 100+ degree weather without air conditioning. I was mildly delirious from the heat and absently warbled this song at customers while they shopped. A #1 smash hit and 2nd single from the disc.

6. Tough Times Don't Last - The most Journeyesque track on the album, a sleek and shiny slice of melodic rock. Midtempo, upbeat and anthemic like classic AOR, it's a great song and find end to what would have been the close of the first album side.

7. Ghost In Your Heart - One of many favorites from this album, a dramatic ballad with a downbeat mood and cavernous percussion. Deen Castronovo turns in a fine performance on Bad English, particularly on this track. A well written song.

8. Price Of Love - Another power ballad and the 3rd single, "Love" followed "When I See You Smile" into the Top 10 on the Pop charts. A more classic Journey styled power ballad written by Cain and Waite. After hearing this it's hard to believe that when Cain tried to play "Open Arms" for Waite in The Babys, Waite dismissed it as "syrupy". If that was Waite's true opinion, by the end of the decade the Englishman had become Mrs. Butterworth. That's just as well, 'cause when it comes to slow songs John Waite is wicked awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kqgobBVnio

9. Ready When You Are - Once Schon was brought into the band it was clear he had a different vision than Cain and Waite. Schon was inspired by Bad Company and encouraged a more ruff n' ready approach. Much of the second side of the album is like this, Castronovo pounds his drums into submission while Schon cuts loose with an edgy guitar riff. When this song comes on, it's a little jarring compared to the slickness of the first eight songs.

10. Lay Down - Yet another killer track, "Lay Down" follows the Bad Company template of big guitar, big beat and drawled out singing. And in case you've forgotten the sex angle, the chorus "Lay Down / Stay Down / For My Love" drives the point home. Sort of like "Holy Water" era Bad Company.

11. The Restless Ones - After the two rampaging rockers, a return to the slick Schon-less songwriting on one of the few forgettable tunes on this great album. Cain's tinkling piano gives the cut a pleasant mall rock flair, but I can't remember much else about this one. I guess I was the restless one because I used to fast forward past this song.

12. Rockin' Horse - Back to the Blooze rock, back to the sex sex sex. Who knew the guys that wrote "Missing You" and "Faithfully" had such one track minds? I think there's even panting on this cut. But when it's done this well, it's hard to argue with the results. A strutting, meaty slab of Hard Rock.

13. Don't Walk Away - The other song from outside songwriters, this song also showed up on David Foster's River of Love album. A nice, subdued ending to a hard rockin' album.

After a successful tour, Bad English fell apart. By the time they got to the follow up Backlash (1991), Waite was recording his vocal and music video parts separate from the rest of the band. In fact, by the time the album came out, Bad English was no more. Most of the members fell back into solo careers until the mid-90's...but that's another story. For one album, Bad English surpassed their hype and was the second coming of Arena Rock. Like my favorite phrase of the moment says, Bad English was Wicked Awesome.

Artist Spotlight: Journey 1973-1977 "In The Beginning"

Four Men and an Afro: Journey circa 1977

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Shortly after my wife and I were married, we took up record collecting and used to trade records with a local guy named Ziggy. Ziggy would take our used records in exchange for a whole mess of store credit in his used record shop that we rarely got anything from because he had more junk than good stuff. Anyway, one night while he was blasting his music the subject of Journey came up. My wife mentioned how she had bought Journey videos from him for me and I said Journey with Steve Perry was great (there hadn't been any official replacement singers yet).

"Steve Perry", Ziggy said dismissively, "I f*ckin' hate what he did to that band."

Ziggy then went on to defend Aynsley Dunbar, who we both agreed is a great drummer, but is an unwitting part of what I call The Aynsley Dunbar Effect (more on that later). Anyway, Ziggy and I didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things other than he liked my money and I sometimes liked to buy music from him.

But what he said, in my realm of Journeyness, was important because it was the first time I ever heard anyone say they really liked the original Journey. For me (and a lot of fans) Journey started with Steve Perry and the Infinity record. Before Perry, there was...a blank slate made up of three records that were always in the cut out bin but never bought. But after Perry was fired, Schon said time and again that this was HIS band. And in a recent interview, Perry (weakly) explained that his infamous "I was never really part of the band" quote from VH1's Behind The Music stemmed from his initial introduction to Journey as Neal Schon's band.

Journey 1973-1975

Journey started when Carlos Santana broke up the original version of Santana. Roadie Herbie Herbert approached teenage guitar prodigy Neal Schon, who had started playing in Santana when he was fifteen (he was also asked to join Derek and the Dominoes at the same time), about starting a band that would back other musicians. Also joining was organist/vocalist Gregg Rolie also from Santana who had sung "Black Magic Woman" among other hits. Rolie played an important position in the original band as only his constant display of chest hair could offset Schon's mighty Afro. Bassist Ross Valory formerly of the Steve Miller Band and Frumious Bandersnatch and guitarist George Tickner came aboard as well. Originally titled The Golden Gate Rhythm Section, the band set out to be a sort of Booker T and the MGs of the Bay Area and performed with a variety of drummers. The main drummer they worked with was Prarie Prince of The Tubes. Led by Herbert's drive and vision, the band developed to the point of writing original music.

Following a failed "Name the Band" contest at the local rock station KSAN (a little funny to me because this radio station was Country & Western as far back as I could remember) roadie John Villanueva came up with the name Journey. The band signed onto Columbia records as they had developed a sound that mashed up Progressive Rock with Jazz Fusion. Prarie Prince decided to commit full time to The Tubes at this point and ex-John Mayall drummer Aynsley Dunbar was brought in.

Journey (1975)

The band was sent into the studio with Simon & Garfunkel producer Roy Halee to record their debut album. Journey is the definitive statement by the original band, an almost freeform mix of Jazzy Progressive Rock that could move fluidly yet catch fire. Schon blazed away on guitar as Rolie's pumped up Organ riffs and Dunbar's powerful drumming brought the group's dense, technical sound to bear. Rolie supplied the occasional vocals, most memorably on "Of A Lifetime". Instrumentals like the jagged "Kahoutek" and the ominous "Mystery Mountain" were mixed in with the happy go lucky Rolie sung "To Play Some Music". Journey failed to capture an audience and afterwards George Tickner quit.

Journey "Kahoutek"

Look Into The Future (1976)

What it boiled down to was there was no disputing the band's chops but also no hiding that they couldn't write structured music. They could jam better than most other bands, but without radio play or a crowd ready for Allman Brothers style jamming on Prog Rock that's not by Frank Zappa it seemed like they were playing in an empty cave. For Look Into The Future, the group focused more on writing shorter songs and succeeded in dabbling in blues rock ("On A Saturday Night"), Hendrix style rave ups ("She Makes Me Feel Alright") and George Harrison covers ("It's All Too Much"). But despite more songs for Gregg Rolie to sing, the songs weren't strong in commercial terms. A point made all the more obvious when former tourmates Kansas borrowed part of Journey's "I'm Gonna Leave You" and turned it into "Carry On Wayward Son", Kansas's breakthru hit.

Journey "On A Saturday Night"

Next (1977)

Future sold less than Journey, which is like saying people like rotten apples over rotten oranges. The band went to take singing classes and handed over the lyric writing to drummer Dunbar, who hadn't really written much beforehand. Dunbar gave it his best shot and the band did have cool song titles like "Spaceman" and "Hustler", but amateur songwriting and singing can only go so far. Next tries hard to fit the band's fusion rock in a commercial setting but as always the musicianship exceeded the quality of the songs. Schon started taking lead vocal turns on this record which added some variety. In total, Next was a decent platter but it even further defined them as unsellable. With Next, Journey had failed the old school record industry standard of having a break out album on the third try.

Journey "Nickel and Dime"

Enter the Fleischman 1977

After three albums of steadily declining sales, Columbia basically said get some hits or go away. Herbert responded by bringing in a lead singer: Robert Fleischman. Fleischman was a Robert Plant type wailer from the Windy City and was either well liked or despised depending on who you talk to. He contributed to the songwriting on tunes like "Anytime" and "Wheel In The Sky" for what would become the Infinity record. But Herbert wasn't happy with Fleischman and soon after Journey's first lead singer was nothing but a memory. However, like any good manager he had someone waiting in the wings.

For a link of Fleischman in action with Journey, here's a link to a recording from 1977 called "For You"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wDxlrijN7c

After all this the band would start a string of Platnum albums and hit singles. The saga of Journey will continue...