Neal getting those sweet tones from that Roland synth guitar. That Kenny A. Bass thundering, M. Shrieves epic drum work, and Sammy's vocals are perfection with this band. The perfect rock-n-roll band. period.
I was in high school in the mid-late '80's, and ALL the "shredders" (except for Randy Rhoads) added together don't hold a candle compared to Neal being a complete musician and playing with great taste and Soul.
I bought this album when it came out, I was 10 years old - I heard Animation, Valley of the Kings, and Giza...I was blown away. To this day, these songs are among my all-time favorites and will be to the day I die.
I never heard a song from them, but I remember a write up in a music mag at the time they came out, Several years later, I saw it in a cut-out bin. I bought it and was only disappointed that I didn't get it years earlier when it first came out.
There is one thing on this that the observant guitarist and *true* Neal fan will know about the "Animation/Valley/Giza" track, and for that matter the entire album: In the transition from "Animation" to "Valley", you'll notice that Neal detunes his entire guitar down to a D-tuning! How? There weren't any reliable pitch-shifters that could have handled that feat back in 1983. So, what was his trick? Notice the collection of footpedals he had, and his "different' looking guitar? This is when Neal really started using the Roland Guitar Synthesizer system in a lot of his work. Since the Roland G-505 Guitar has a "hexaphonic" pickup (essentially a pickup with a coil for each string), it can get sounds from each string individually. This is then sent to the Roland G-700 Synthesizer unit on the floor (the big grey unit on the floor to Neal's left). You can detune the entire guitar to different intervals, or to even do dead-on split harmonies (albeit unintelligent pitch-shifting) - you can hear a little bit of him using that in the bridges inbetween verses in "Animation". Also, the Synth parts in "Hope & Fear" are all Neal. Truly a visionary guitarist!
SpasticConiption Neal Schon fan page I hate to disagree, but if you'll notice when he's fingering the root chord for "Valley/Giza", he's fingering E, not D. Sorry if you're not seeing that in the video. Additionally, tell us how he detuned his *entire* guitar down from the transitional chord (and not a single note) from "Animation" to "Valley", please? The only answer *is* the GR-700 and a voltage pedal connected to the "Pedal 1" input of the GR-700.
It's drop D. I was actually familiar G-505 because it was one of the first MIDI guitars of the early 80s. It can go a lot of cool "80s" stuff, but tracking was a problem. Look at demo's on RU-vid and you'll see. Neal used the 505 to "fill out" his sound, to give it a bigger, fuller sound by layering sounds over the guitar sound. For Animation and Valley of the Kings/Giza, Neal tuned to drop D (might as well throw My Home Town in there too). It's actually that simple. If you watch, you can see what he's doing at 2:58 for the verses; open E to open D...in drop D tuning. Not to mention he's playing the riff on the 7th fret, which, in this case is D lydian (the sharp 4th at the 9th fret of the B string). You can see that at 1:36. If that's not enough, then the bridge section seals the deal. At 2:19, during the first bridge section (we'll call it a bridge section), he's playing straight bar chords A to G, except with the drop D, the A has a G in the bass and the G has an F in the bass. Tune your guitar to Drop D and play those chords, it will sound the same.
Kenny Aaronson’s bass playing is delicious. So talented. Pompadour hair is fantastic as well. But being a massive Journey fan I found this album amazing. So great to hear Schon totally shred is fantastic. When Hear n’ Aid held the recording sessions, other guitar studs raved about Schon’s shredding. Schon is a god.
I bought this record on cassette back in 1985 or 1986 in a $5.00 bin at a grocery store!!!!!🙂😀😄🙂😁 It's by far one of my favorite guitar oriented albums besides Joe Satriani's Surfing With The Alien!!!! I wish This super group would have made more albums!!!!! Thanks for posting!!!!!😄😀😄🙂😃👍👍👍👍👍
Neal is among my fave guitar players. Not just because he’s fast, but because he has feeling and knows how to craft some killer riffs. In Journey, even on their lesser known songs, he’d rip something that just melted my brain, like in Lady Luck. SRV, Joe Perry, Neal Schon… just guys who aren’t always about how many notes a second they play, but if those notes matter, how they make you feel, and what they bring to the song.
I lifted this cassette off a young kid at my job back in 85---l did return it after l bought the album a month later:-) He went batsh#t when he couldn't find it!!!
Neal Schon and EVH became good friends and opened for Journey in 78 on their 1st tour. In a recent interview Neal said he played HSAS to Ed who grabbed his guitar and asked Neal to play a part over and over trying to nail it. Eventually Neal said just let it play through. He said he Knew VH were going to be HUGE and Ed was a genius.
Still one of my faves. Not much into "supergroups" but this project came off great. I liked how they recorded live shows, added studio work and released that as an/ the album. What a great idea. Even if you had a local band and could get 50 to 100 people in a small venue and jam out an entire album live.
Represent the Bay. Was too young for this show at 14 but my friends older brother saw it (Lol :) Too bad so sad for me. No cell phones back then to record it, but glad someone did. They recorded a live album during this show and video taped it also. So it was a pro-shot production for SVHS.
This configuration of players was and is SO much better than Van Halen...it’s ridiculous !! Incredible skills and intensity....great emotion, and a good overall look !!
Man rock music nowadays just doesn't have the Balls or Soul that the music of the late 70s and 80s had. I wore this record out and bought many tapes because jamming this out for friends in my Blazer it always disapeared and i couldn't live without it. The opening cut is a bad ass jam Top or The Rock! These guys need to tour this material again maybe even bring along Jan Hamer for the Schon & Hamer albums they recorded. That would be a tour to see. Wkae up new artiat and write some original good material....and learn how to play your instruments!
Schon absolutely shredding - it's too bad that this superband produced just a single album. Hagar in this lineup was at his best - better than in Van Halen or solo.
I think the only reason players like Schon weren't more of a 'household name' is because once Eddie happened, even the best had to do it from his massive shadow. Schon has an amazing fluidity. I'm speaking more in terms of today. I've been watching his 'jam' videos on Facebook. He's probably three times the player now than back in 'the day'. He looks like it's just nothing. Like a breeze blew by and played these notes you're hearing. He's so damn smooth. I guess you'd have to see it, really. Ed's my GOAT. But Neal was among the leaders of the pack. RIP, Edward. Rock on, Neal. ✌🤘
I LOVE this album! Do you know how hard it is to find a copy now? In 30 years or so, I've only had two! Two!! I originally had it on cassette but it got munched in the deck of my 84 Mustang GT. Most people don't even know it exists and the ones that do? Most of them don't realize that the whole thing is a live gig. Where did you get these clips from and are they on some DVD we can get somewhere? Just finding the album itself is a bitch. I wonder how it would have been if they'd have took this farther like Asia did. And, what about all those lucky bastards that got to see these shows? I don't remember even finding out about it until after the fact and I sure as hell don't ever remember it coming to my area - or I'd have been on that like flies on shit! The one song that introduced them to this area and made airwaves was "Top of the Rock". Later, "Whiter shade of Pale" would be played but that took a few months. My brother had a copy on vinyl and was older than me so he first showed this to me. Had to have it! So..what'd I do? I stole the damn thing from him. He'd later go on to tell me that he saw me dining it redhanded and was going to bust me doing it..bur, chose not to. He just stood there grinning at the monster he'd just created - like something outta Frankenstein. He knew I pulled this shit but he got a kick outta watching little brother turn on to the groovy new tunes he's bring home and this was one of them. I lost my most recent copy in the player of my '01 GT that someone hit and totaled. I couldn't even get to the player to pry it out! I guess I should be thankful just to be alive after that one! It's nice to see that others know and appreciate this long sought after piece. Thanks for the upload!
Saw these guys in the early 80's in San Rafael, Marin County at the Marin Civic Center. Still remember when they played this song, Sammy explained it was an "experiment" they wanted to try live.Unbelievable closing vocals "Giza". Sammy had some pipes!!
BRILLIANT... apart from the tub-thumper tapping away incessantly as Neil plays the into solo... someone should have given the drummer a comic-book to read ;-)
Personally, I think that background drum helps with the feel of the "mysterious east". And that "tubthumper" played with Schon in a little band called Santana, when they did a song called Black Magic Woman. If he can handle the rhythm of Carlos Santana, he is more than a tubthumper.
Also Micheal Shrive was a teenager when he played with Santana. Then Kenny Aaronson was also in his teens, or close to it, when he was playing bass in a little band called Dust. Check out their song Love Me Hard.
I'm not worthy! I went to this show to see Hagar do some of his radio hits, I didn't even realize who Neal Schon was at the time. I don't think the played any of Hagar's hits so I was disappointed. I apologize to the world.
I'd wanna play the hell out of this if I had to play that sappy crap Journey songs all of the time. Go Neal! One of my top 5 albums of the 80's. HSAS kick ass!!!
