“If you are over 40 years old and you claim to not know “Faithfully” by heart, you are either a recent immigrant from a non-English-speaking country or a congenital liar.”
Well I am but I don’t and I’m neither. But I do know that - despite or partly because of its odd arrangement - Don’t Stop Believin’ is the greatest rock and roll song ever.
...."Schon sent him “an email of his large penis, said email being sent for no other purpose than to humiliate and injure the Plaintiff.”
Had to re-read that line twice, as I thought Schon sent him his actual large penis via email, which is absurd.
I'm pretty sure you would hit an email server's MB sending limit by default when you do that. Also, Schon referencing King Missile's song Detachable Penis if he really did this is hilarious.
Fine musicians, but I think Bad Company was a better band. Journey was a bit too by-the-numbers and MOR for me. Also, there's no such thing as "south Detroit". That's called Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
My 10 best bands?
No particular order and I'm leaving out individual virtuosos like Rory Gallagher.
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue
Miles Davis: Bitches Brew
Grateful Dead: The '70s band with Keith and Donna Godchaux and both drummers is my favorite.
Allman Brothers
Mountain
Cream
Led Zeppelin
Any of Frank Zappa's bands, but the ones with Ian and Ruth Underwood are favorites (is there a pattern here?)
J. Geils Band
Benny Goodman (either the big band from the 1938 Carnegie Hall concert or the sextet with Charlie Christian).
To quote Doc Holiday, “I beg to differ, Sir” what you call “South Detroit” is a thing, we call it “Down River” as the linked documentary above explains.
Your mileage may vary, but I've lived in Detroit for 70 years and I've never heard Downriver (note the proper spelling) called South Detroit. The only time people use that phrase is ironically, when singing along with the song at Red Wings' games.
Benny Goodman! A real BRAVO to you, amigo. BTW, did you know that BG was the first nationally know musician to integrate his band? That was with Lionel Hampton. Couldn't give you a time frame.
Can't understand the blind disrespect for blacks at that time. People had to look at various ball players and musicians, for example and say, "These guys are really good." "Why aren't we using them?"
There was a lot of cross cultural stuff going on in music in the first half of the 20th century that gets obscured by focusing on racism. Goodman did a couple of klezmer tunes: And The Angel's Sing, and Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen and the clarinet in Rhapsody in Blue is straight out of klezmer. Conversely, there are a bunch of klezmer songs that were influenced by jazz and blues.
In my experience from hanging around musicians, they tend to respect chops, no matter who's got them.
Paul Rodgers lives not far from me in the small oceanside community of White Rock, BC. Apparently he sometimes takes a guitar down to the beach and sits on a bench and plays. People come up to him and marvel how much he sounds like “that guy from Bad Company!”
That sucks. It’s far too often these days that the talented artists from our youth are getting sick and/or dying. I know it’s a sign of my age, and ultimately inevitable for all of us, but it sucks anyway.
When I was a kid, most of my musical heroes were just 10-20 years older than me. I was nine years old when the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan. Paul McCartney was 21. I'm now 70. Do the math.
That's the thing, because of the path of the Detroit river, the only thing due south of Detroit is Canada.
"I ran the phonetics of east, west, and north, but nothing sounded as good or emotionally true to me as 'South Detroit,'" Perry said. "The syntax just sounded right. I fell in love with the line. It’s only been in the last few years that I’ve learned that there is no South Detroit. But it doesn’t matter."
I can only take a bit of Steve Perry because of him singing in a high register, but I can listen to Paul Rodgers all day long. He also did a great job fronting Queen.
There are lots of guitarists revered by guitar players who don't float my musical boat, like EVH or Malmsteen. I respect their technical abilities but I'd rather listen to Garcia, even with all his muffed notes and drunk-on-a-high-wire solos. Sounds more like music to me.
Frank could write accessible music like Peaches en Regalia, Blessed Relief, Joe's Garage, and Lucille (a great, great blues song) but he also wrote stuff that even musicians have a hard time liking, like Black Pages. I think he liked pissing people off too much. Still, I think he will be one of the few musicians from the '60s and '70s who will be listened to many years from now.
I've tried to listen to Zappa, I've really really tried, thinking I was somehow functionally or musically illiterate (or all three) because I couldn't somehow get excited or even mildly interested with him. There are people I know that think I'm somehow brain dead for not enjoying his music. I don't hate it, it just doesn't...work.
I'd rather listen to most of the albums by WASP (Blackie Lawless), or even worse, all of the music (?) from the Crash Test Dummies than listen to anything by Zappa.
I very much appreciate this piece. While I do not have the music experience and encyclopedic knowledge you have, I can appreciate Journey and Neil himself.
One of the many observations I've made about the 80s is that no one hated Journey. There were people who hated hair metal. There were people who hated trucker country. There were people who hated all the unending loops of Elton John party rock and yacht rock. But no one, not ever, hated Journey.
I think that alone makes them special because Neil more or less crafted something very high level but approachable for the average knucklehead listening to Casey Kasem dole out the American top 40. I guess he deserves to be not quite normal and a bit privileged for properly using his youthful genius to throw everything at a passion project.
"When Journey was reimagined for the Eighties as a pop-rock band with the addition of Jonathan Cain and Steve Perry, they went to #1 on the charts with “Open Arms”, the most effective power ballad in human history... If you are over 40 years old and you claim to not know “Faithfully” by heart, you are either a recent immigrant from a non-English-speaking country or a congenital liar."
I'm over 70, I had to look up both of those songs, and neither of them sounds familiar to me. Of course, I'm congenitally unhip.
When I see the Billboard Top 100 from the 1960s and early '70s, an era when I listened to Top 40 radio stations, I often see songs that were national hits that never got a lot of airplay in Detroit. Before the consolidation of radio stations, there was more regional individuality in terms of what got on the air.
Where would you put Glen Campbell as a guitar player? Friend of mine caught him opening for BrandX a long time ago and was shocked at just how good of a jazz player he was.
Roy Clark could keep up with Campbell. There are lots of clips of them playing together (including on a single guitar). Jerry Reed played with him too.
Here's Clark on a Telecaster and Cambpell doing single note runs on an Ovation electric 12 string.
I often wonder what it would be like to play with such effortless fluidity. It must feel something like flying. I put together two bars and I think I’m really doing it.
I know what you mean. Back when I used to take lessons, at one point I was working on Santana's "Europa", and during the moments when I was able to "flow", it did feel like flying. I at once understood odd and unusual facial expressions musicians can make during a performance, as well as the feeling(s) that lead them to it.
I haven't played for almost ten years, since I hurt my hand, and I miss that feeling desperately.
I still have the Schon & Hammer albums on vinyl; wonder if the old videos are on the web? When it comes to being an asshole, can any rocker claim to have ever exhibited more self importance than Frank Sinatra?
"Schon sent him “an email of his large penis, said email being sent for no other purpose than to humiliate and injure the Plaintiff.” The text included with the picture was brief and to the point: “I am fucking your wife.”"
if this ever happens to me im committing a homicide or just cutting his off i dont care what happens after that
"There’s something about the creative process that demands a little bit of ego, a little bit of irrationality, a little bit of psycho-or-socio-pathy."
ive thought about this for a while with regards to "reimaginings" and restomods. it does take some ego to say "well yes what youve done is incredible and well loved but i can improve upon it". fortunately theyre right sometimes but usually wrong
"there is no “south Detroit”"
excuse me windsor might irrelevant but it still exists
“If you are over 40 years old and you claim to not know “Faithfully” by heart, you are either a recent immigrant from a non-English-speaking country or a congenital liar.”
Well I am but I don’t and I’m neither. But I do know that - despite or partly because of its odd arrangement - Don’t Stop Believin’ is the greatest rock and roll song ever.
...."Schon sent him “an email of his large penis, said email being sent for no other purpose than to humiliate and injure the Plaintiff.”
Had to re-read that line twice, as I thought Schon sent him his actual large penis via email, which is absurd.
I'm pretty sure you would hit an email server's MB sending limit by default when you do that. Also, Schon referencing King Missile's song Detachable Penis if he really did this is hilarious.
Hell-to-the-fuck-yeah!!!!
Holy crap, Jack!
I cannot believe how similar our life experience has been. I grew up in Austin, Texas and would regularly go see Eric Johnson play live.
You are the first person I have ever read or seen who has mentioned Eric Johnson. I was at the release party for “Tones” and many other shows.
And yes, Alex Lifeson had a hard time matching his studio riffs. “La Villa Strangiata” was never quite right.
And of course, Tony was wacked by “Members Only Jacket Guy”, all the bread crumbs were there in previous episodes explaining the ending.
Bravo!!!
Eric Johnson is the reason I ran the cheap Radio Shack batteries in my distortion pedal!!!!
I'm not sure if I admire Steve Ridinger for selling cheap-ass carbon 9V zinc-carbon Danelectro batteries or think it's a grift.
I saw Eric Johnson play at the Cullen Auditorium at the University of Houston when I was a student there in 91 or 92. Good times!
Fine musicians, but I think Bad Company was a better band. Journey was a bit too by-the-numbers and MOR for me. Also, there's no such thing as "south Detroit". That's called Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
My 10 best bands?
No particular order and I'm leaving out individual virtuosos like Rory Gallagher.
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue
Miles Davis: Bitches Brew
Grateful Dead: The '70s band with Keith and Donna Godchaux and both drummers is my favorite.
Allman Brothers
Mountain
Cream
Led Zeppelin
Any of Frank Zappa's bands, but the ones with Ian and Ruth Underwood are favorites (is there a pattern here?)
J. Geils Band
Benny Goodman (either the big band from the 1938 Carnegie Hall concert or the sextet with Charlie Christian).
https://youtu.be/L05gLEZ83tw?si=cxD8LquLdue1RtYX
To quote Doc Holiday, “I beg to differ, Sir” what you call “South Detroit” is a thing, we call it “Down River” as the linked documentary above explains.
Your mileage may vary, but I've lived in Detroit for 70 years and I've never heard Downriver (note the proper spelling) called South Detroit. The only time people use that phrase is ironically, when singing along with the song at Red Wings' games.
Fair enough, I was tongue in cheek. I only visit Detroit for work a few times a year and work Downriver in Taylor area. 😀
Benny Goodman! A real BRAVO to you, amigo. BTW, did you know that BG was the first nationally know musician to integrate his band? That was with Lionel Hampton. Couldn't give you a time frame.
Can't understand the blind disrespect for blacks at that time. People had to look at various ball players and musicians, for example and say, "These guys are really good." "Why aren't we using them?"
There was a lot of cross cultural stuff going on in music in the first half of the 20th century that gets obscured by focusing on racism. Goodman did a couple of klezmer tunes: And The Angel's Sing, and Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen and the clarinet in Rhapsody in Blue is straight out of klezmer. Conversely, there are a bunch of klezmer songs that were influenced by jazz and blues.
In my experience from hanging around musicians, they tend to respect chops, no matter who's got them.
To clarify, I took it to mean the part of Detroit south of its geographic center.
Paul Rodgers lives not far from me in the small oceanside community of White Rock, BC. Apparently he sometimes takes a guitar down to the beach and sits on a bench and plays. People come up to him and marvel how much he sounds like “that guy from Bad Company!”
Apparently, he's having some health issues.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2025-11-05/bad-company-paul-rodgers-rock-roll-hall-of-fame-health
His work with Free and The Firm wasn't bad either.
That sucks. It’s far too often these days that the talented artists from our youth are getting sick and/or dying. I know it’s a sign of my age, and ultimately inevitable for all of us, but it sucks anyway.
When I was a kid, most of my musical heroes were just 10-20 years older than me. I was nine years old when the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan. Paul McCartney was 21. I'm now 70. Do the math.
Same with F1 drivers. Saw a picture of Prost a while back. He’s a little old man now.
Bad Company’s first album is one of the best debut albums ever.
The Firm was excellent. Largely lost to history, unfortunately.
I always assumed he meant the south part of Detroit, not a separate municipality.
That's the thing, because of the path of the Detroit river, the only thing due south of Detroit is Canada.
"I ran the phonetics of east, west, and north, but nothing sounded as good or emotionally true to me as 'South Detroit,'" Perry said. "The syntax just sounded right. I fell in love with the line. It’s only been in the last few years that I’ve learned that there is no South Detroit. But it doesn’t matter."
"Also, there's no such thing as "south Detroit". That's called Windsor, Ontario, Canada"
thank you ronnie
Bad Company > Journey.
I can only take a bit of Steve Perry because of him singing in a high register, but I can listen to Paul Rodgers all day long. He also did a great job fronting Queen.
"And Neal Schon is… well, go watch any other live rock guitar performance of the era then come back for comparison. "
What about Frank Zappa?
This is a show from 1981
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUZeNT6GJXs (some of the solos are Steve Vai).
Put 100 guitarists in a room and 95 of them will pick Schon over Zappa.
Put 100 normal people and it will be 100 to 0. Intellectually I have a vague respect for Zappa but his music is unlistenable for most.
There are lots of guitarists revered by guitar players who don't float my musical boat, like EVH or Malmsteen. I respect their technical abilities but I'd rather listen to Garcia, even with all his muffed notes and drunk-on-a-high-wire solos. Sounds more like music to me.
Frank could write accessible music like Peaches en Regalia, Blessed Relief, Joe's Garage, and Lucille (a great, great blues song) but he also wrote stuff that even musicians have a hard time liking, like Black Pages. I think he liked pissing people off too much. Still, I think he will be one of the few musicians from the '60s and '70s who will be listened to many years from now.
Yes anyone who writes “help I’m a rock” is definitely on another plane
"I am a rock
I am an island." - Paul Simon
There’s that but the context was way different armoring yourself not literally a rock as Zappa was implying
I've tried to listen to Zappa, I've really really tried, thinking I was somehow functionally or musically illiterate (or all three) because I couldn't somehow get excited or even mildly interested with him. There are people I know that think I'm somehow brain dead for not enjoying his music. I don't hate it, it just doesn't...work.
I'd rather listen to most of the albums by WASP (Blackie Lawless), or even worse, all of the music (?) from the Crash Test Dummies than listen to anything by Zappa.
While I’m not the hugest Journey fan, there are quite a few of their songs stored in my favourites.
I’m listening to the Escape concert right now while I clean the garage. It really is phenomenal.
I very much appreciate this piece. While I do not have the music experience and encyclopedic knowledge you have, I can appreciate Journey and Neil himself.
One of the many observations I've made about the 80s is that no one hated Journey. There were people who hated hair metal. There were people who hated trucker country. There were people who hated all the unending loops of Elton John party rock and yacht rock. But no one, not ever, hated Journey.
I think that alone makes them special because Neil more or less crafted something very high level but approachable for the average knucklehead listening to Casey Kasem dole out the American top 40. I guess he deserves to be not quite normal and a bit privileged for properly using his youthful genius to throw everything at a passion project.
Once Perry came aboard, I hated Journey.
Gregg Rollie and Aynsley Dunbar thank you for your service!
I saw the 1971 version of the Mothers with Dunbar and Flo & Eddie. Yes, they did Happy Together. Mark Volman R.I.P.
"When Journey was reimagined for the Eighties as a pop-rock band with the addition of Jonathan Cain and Steve Perry, they went to #1 on the charts with “Open Arms”, the most effective power ballad in human history... If you are over 40 years old and you claim to not know “Faithfully” by heart, you are either a recent immigrant from a non-English-speaking country or a congenital liar."
I'm over 70, I had to look up both of those songs, and neither of them sounds familiar to me. Of course, I'm congenitally unhip.
I’m 31, and I can’t imagine I was older than 6 or 7 when I first heard them lol.
I’m 64, and “Faithfully” doesn’t sound familiar to me after just listening to it. I do know “Open Arms”. Both are really bad.
When I see the Billboard Top 100 from the 1960s and early '70s, an era when I listened to Top 40 radio stations, I often see songs that were national hits that never got a lot of airplay in Detroit. Before the consolidation of radio stations, there was more regional individuality in terms of what got on the air.
No question. Part of it was airplay for local bands mixed in. I’ll bet you heard “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” before most of us did.
Where would you put Glen Campbell as a guitar player? Friend of mine caught him opening for BrandX a long time ago and was shocked at just how good of a jazz player he was.
Has anyone ever figured out how many sessions he played on as part of the wrecking crew before he went solo?
I'm sure they have records on it. I just know it was a lot
People are still finding sessions that Eddie Cochran played on prior to his death in 1960.
I'd place him among the very best. Tommy Emmanuel often is cited as the best acoustic picker but he has nothing on Glen.
Roy Clark could keep up with Campbell. There are lots of clips of them playing together (including on a single guitar). Jerry Reed played with him too.
Here's Clark on a Telecaster and Cambpell doing single note runs on an Ovation electric 12 string.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_kbgjsuCec
I'm glad to see that Tommy Emmanuel and Billy Strings have played together.
I often wonder what it would be like to play with such effortless fluidity. It must feel something like flying. I put together two bars and I think I’m really doing it.
I know what you mean. Back when I used to take lessons, at one point I was working on Santana's "Europa", and during the moments when I was able to "flow", it did feel like flying. I at once understood odd and unusual facial expressions musicians can make during a performance, as well as the feeling(s) that lead them to it.
I haven't played for almost ten years, since I hurt my hand, and I miss that feeling desperately.
Try harmonica.
What a lovely surprise on a Friday night.
First big concert I ever attended was the evening before starting my high school junior year, Aug 31 1981. Blossom Music Center. Journey.
As for anyone whining about South Detroit, people have been singing for decades of the Shenandoah River being in WV. Get over it already.
“Captured” is probably the most underappreciated live rock album of all time.
Agreed. It deserves a wider listen but the track list is very much Early Jazzbo Journey.
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
I still have the Schon & Hammer albums on vinyl; wonder if the old videos are on the web? When it comes to being an asshole, can any rocker claim to have ever exhibited more self importance than Frank Sinatra?
Reading the Kitty Kelley book... my God, if a third of it was true, he should have been hanged by the neck.
Hanged or hung?
This is a penis joke
"Schon sent him “an email of his large penis, said email being sent for no other purpose than to humiliate and injure the Plaintiff.” The text included with the picture was brief and to the point: “I am fucking your wife.”"
if this ever happens to me im committing a homicide or just cutting his off i dont care what happens after that
"There’s something about the creative process that demands a little bit of ego, a little bit of irrationality, a little bit of psycho-or-socio-pathy."
ive thought about this for a while with regards to "reimaginings" and restomods. it does take some ego to say "well yes what youve done is incredible and well loved but i can improve upon it". fortunately theyre right sometimes but usually wrong
"there is no “south Detroit”"
excuse me windsor might irrelevant but it still exists
When your gut says she’s cheating, trust it and move on.
Just a city boy
Born and raised in Canada
Just doesnt hit
He took the midnight train
Making sixty cents on the dollar