The Perry/Piñeda Controversy

Considering the majority of the visitors here, if not all of them, are Steve Perry fanatics, my guess is that you have heard of this new Journey singer, Arnel Piñeda. Well, I would like to take the opportunity to explain my opinions on this. Be aware, though, that my intention is not to insult him. I am merely going into detail about how I feel about it in relation to Mr. Perry.

First of all, I’ll state the obvious argument. If there was a Journey before Steve Perry, does that mean there should be one after him? In many circumstances, I would see nothing wrong with a band carrying on without the singer that made them famous, however, I believe this one is questionable.

When Steve and the band legally broke their ties, Steve told Neil Schon (according to the interview on men.style.com) “Look, you go call whatever you wanna do with whomever you’ve checked out something else. Call it the J-Boys. Call it anything. But don’t call it Journey, y’know? Because I am gonna get this done, eventually.” And in case you didn’t catch it, the “this done” is referring to his hip surgery. So, just for the record, those people who claim he “left” Journey, he did, but he planned on coming back. They just weren’t willing to wait. Despite the pleas of this humble man, “Journey” continued without him. Okay, it happens… There is more though. The singer they first replaced him with, Steve Augeri, sounded somewhat similar to Perry. The band hadn’t even attempted to change the sound! It was like telling Steve Perry “We don’t need you. We can find someone that sounds kind of like you and be just fine.” I will admit that Augeri has an incredible voice. My point is that as wonderful as it is, it’s also quite similar to Steve Perry’s. If they were so into changing the band completely, they should have taken the time to do just that; change it. Perhaps my opinion is that of an ignorant Perry fan. Who knows? Either way, again, it’s only an opinion.

Back to Arnel Piñeda. He’s a remarkable vocalist; any disagreements? Something that needs to be set straight, however, is that he is not Steve Perry. Personally, I couldn’t care less if one even prefers him over Steve. What ruffles my feathers is when people claim they sound exactly alike. WHAT!? That’s really a slur to both of them. No one wants to be considered a copy. And even if Journey wants to continue busting out hits… okay. Fine.

My biggest point in this rant is this: Journey has recently re-recorded some of their old hits including, but not limited to, “Faithfully”, “Any way you Want it”, “Open Arms”, and “Wheel in the Sky.” Any way you twist it, the way I see it, that is wrong. I can’t help but imagine what that would feel like to put my heart and soul into writing/co-writing and singing my songs and then see someone else make a living off of re-recording them. Performing the old tunes for concert purposes is understandable. Re-doing them, not so much.

Basically, I believe a Journey after Steve Perry is their decision, and although I don’t like it, I’ll deal, but the only way I’m going to just shrug my shoulders at it is if they release solely new material. I am happy for Arnel. I believe he deserves the opportunity he has been given. In fact, I would even venture to say that I rather like Journey’s new songs. I simply feel for Steve and want to be sure to speak up for him. I would love to know your opinions, even if they differ to the extreme. All that I ask is that we keep comments respectful. Thanks for reading! Also, please let me know by commenting if I made any grammatical or informational errors. I know there are a few sentence fragments, but that's just for the effect. [=