LEGENDS n SONG STORIES D BRFAKOUTS

Journey's keyboardist
Jonathan Cain (at center in
photo at left) is opening a
new recording studio, Ad-
diction Sound, in Nashville
in 2012. Learn about his solo
career and charity work at
ionathancain.com.

THE JOURNEY OF
Don't Stop Believinn
BY JONATHAN CAIN

THREE DECADES INTO ITS RELEASE, JOURNEY'S'DON'T STOP BELIEVIN'" at first, with just a driving eighth-note figure
seems even more popular than when it hit radio airwaves in i981. From shows throughout. My original chorus looked like Ex.l.
like G/ee to the Broadway musical Rock of Ages to almost any jukebox in [Lead singer] Steve Perry liked the chords so
any bar, it feels like it's everywhere. This is the story of how it went from an much that he wanted to use them for the entire
unfinished chorus l'd penned at home to the song we all know today. song, breaking them down to sing the verses
over. So we started exploring the chords, and
Not long before joining Journey, I was struggling me to join and contribute material to finish up Perry said to me, "Instead ofjust playing chords,
in the music business in Los Angeles, without theEscape album. I brought my chorus in, and give me one of your rolling, signature piano riffs."
a record deal, aqrd I a taken a break from music. that's where it all began. Id just left the band the Babys, where our song
But my father always believed I would succeed, The original chorus included the chords, "Turn and Walk Away" had a rolling piano intro.
and would regularly say 'Jon, don't stop melody, and the lyrics "Don't stop believing, hold Perry was looking for something that captured
believing" on the phone to me from Chicago. on to that feeling." I didn't knowwhat the next that side of my musical personality, so I broke
So I wrote that down, and started working line was going to be at that point, but I knew. the chords up into an eighth-note riff. Because
on it as a chorus. When Journey's original the melody would go up at the end to complete we had the same chords for verses and chorus,
keyboardist Gregg Rolie left the band, they asked the phrase. The bass line was also different we needed to make the verse stand out. So we

Ke6ord 12.2011
disguised the chords in the arpeggiated piano
everyone lmows today. Perry and I loved classic
soul artists like Marvin Gaye, who could write great
songs with just four chords repeating over and over
again. That was the goal we set for ourselves.
Perry then said "Let's keep the chords, but
come up with a different bass line." The goal
was to make each section of the song unique. So
Iguitarist] Neal Schon started experimenting
with the bass line, and came up with a new one
riff over my moving piano part, which he showed
to [bassist] Ross Valory. Ross had a unique bass
sound, almost like a cellist. He tweaked his amp
and added a flanger to get his parts to really
bark. The piano and bass parts together are
shown in Ex. 2.
Perry then started looking for a melody to
sing over the verse that would take the same
chords into more soulful territory. We hadn't
crafted the lyrics yet, but he was humming what
would eventually become the song's soaring
melody. It sounded great to all of us.
Next, he decided we'd play another verse.
While we played the chords as the re-intro to
the second verse, Neal started playing what
would become his signature, sixteenth-note
"going down the train tracks" descending
guitar arpeggio, which he played double-time
over my eighth-note piano part.
After the second verse, the song felt like

Ex.1

=u-q-e il
Esus E B Cf,minz A

Esus E B Cfmin A etc...

Ex.2

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12.2011 t(eybod Gil

Ex.3

Keys/Guitar

Bass

it needed to go to the M chord. But instead of just playinga standard IV

chord on the B-section, Neal had the idea to play the V chord over the IV
bass note, rocking back and forth between that and the II/ chord. I doubled
Neal's guitar part on keyboards, using an ARP Omni string patch through a
Roland Dimension-D chorus. Perry picked up on Neal's alternating chordal
figure, eventually using the same melody notes for the B-section lyrics
"strangers" and "waiting." This added an element of tension and release,
and can be seen in Ex. 3.
The next day, after we d decided on an arrangement, I went to Steve
Perry's house and we worked on lyrics. He sang and played bass while we t
U
listened to the tapes from the daybefore. I said, "This sounds like a train I
I
U
going down the tracks." Perry agreed, and we started looking for clues to
F
tell the song's story. I said, "I love the song'Midnight Train to Georgia.' zU
t
What if this is the midnight train going anywhere?" We knew we were on m

to something. Later, Perry and I would craft the B-section lyrics out of our
time spent cruising the Sunset Strip in L.A., with its endless menagerie
of wandering souls. I'd think, "Where did all these people come from, and
what the hell are they doing here?" They would eventually become the
"streetlight people" in the chorus, completing the song that changed the
course of my life forever.J)
l'm embracing the new Roland V-Piano Grand on
Journey's current Eclipse tour. l'm also playing the
new Jupiter-8O, which is an amazing synth. Those two
keyboards have just been tremendous. Having them
on tour has made things much easier on everyone.
We're more of a rock band now, and using my Fazioli
acoustic piano on stage has become almost
impossible. lt was hard to get the piano up in the mix,

'lll!ililh 9 ffi."!JF:"ffilif*":nr;,.' and it was howling in the P.A. as well. The V-Piano
solved all of that. Now, the Faz will have a permanent
home in my new studio.

Key&oad 12.2011