There were two completely different Journey bands.
The first one was before Steve Perry. It made the first three Journey albums. It was some of the the finest pure rock music every made. It was beyond fantastic - it was incredible.
Then it changed. It went rock-pop with Perry and became Platinum, etc. And yeah, I like the second Journey okay, and millions of people love them like that.
But the first Journey was something irreplaceable, and I still miss it all these years later.
They opened my eyes to a new kind of way...
(Yeah, I know SP was already in the band on Infinity, but it was still the old group)
I’m coming in here on the tail end of the story. What you mention is in this fantastic documentary.
The charter band members say that they were nicknamed “Grateful Dead on Steroids.” They were selling out concerts, but not selling records.
CBS Records gave them an ultimatum. BEcome more of singing band, radio friendly or we’re canceling you.
So they changed to a top 40 group.
They now consider themselves coming full circle with Arnel Pineda, who brings a lot of energy to the group. This energy matches the youthful guys still in the group. These guys are in their 4th and 5th decades but you wouldn’t know it, esp when you listen to the guitar work of Schon and the Dean the drummer.
Kind of like Genesis with Peter Gabriel.
They NEVER play any of the old stuff on the radio (like they used to in the South Bay back in the mid-70s - Journey was a local band). It's too bad, because people would like it.
Here's an example: People
Like Chicago before Peter Cetera took charge and turned their massive horn sounds into ballad crap.
Like The Commodores before they let Lionel Richey turn them from a funk band into whiney ballad producing crap.
Like The Doobie Brothers before Michael McDonald took their tight instrument backed sound into ballad hell.
Etc.