LEGENDS n SONG STORIES D BRFAKOUTS

THREE DECADES INTO ITS RELEASE, JOURNEY'S'DON'T STOP BELIEVIN'"seems even more popular than when it hit radio airwaves in i981. From showslike G/ee to the Broadway musical Rock of Ages to almost any jukebox inany bar, it feels like it's everywhere. This is the story of how it went from anunfinished chorus l'd penned at home to the song we all know today.

Not long before joining Journey, I was struggling me to join and contribute material to finish up

in the music business in Los Angeles, without theEscape album. I brought my chorus in, and

a record deal, aqrd I a taken a break from music. that's where it all began.

But my father always believed I would succeed, The original chorus included the chords,

and would regularly say 'Jon, don't stop melody, and the lyrics "Don't stop believing, hold

believing" on the phone to me from Chicago. on to that feeling." I didn't knowwhat the next

So I wrote that down, and started working line was going to be at that point, but I knew.

on it as a chorus. When Journey's original the melody would go up at the end to complete

keyboardist Gregg Rolie left the band, they asked the phrase. The bass line was also different

-D

Ke6ord 12.2011

Journey's keyboardistJonathan Cain (at center inphoto at left) is opening anew recording studio, Ad-diction Sound, in Nashvillein 2012. Learn about his solocareer and charity work ationathancain.com.

THE JOURNEY OF

Don't Stop BelievinnBY JONATHAN CAIN

at first, with just a driving eighth-note figure

throughout. My original chorus looked like Ex.l.[Lead singer] Steve Perry liked the chords so

much that he wanted to use them for the entiresong, breaking them down to sing the verses

over. So we started exploring the chords, and

Perry said to me, "Instead ofjust playing chords,

give me one of your rolling, signature piano riffs."I d just left the band the Babys, where our song"Turn and Walk Away" had a rolling piano intro.Perry was looking for something that captured

that side of my musical personality, so I broke

the chords up into an eighth-note riff. Because

we had the same chords for verses and chorus,

we needed to make the verse stand out. So we

disguised the chords in the arpeggiated piano riffeveryone 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, butcome 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

Ex.1

Ex.2

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

Esus E B Cf,minz=u-q-e ilA

Esus E B Cfmin A etc...

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Ex.3

Keys/Guitar

Bass

it needed to go to the M chord. But instead of just playing a standard IVchord on the B-section, Neal had the idea to play the V chord over the IVbass 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

listened to the tapes from the daybefore. I said, "This sounds like a traingoing down the tracks." Perry agreed, and we started looking for clues to

tell the song's story. I said, "I love the song'Midnight Train to Georgia.'

What if this is the midnight train going anywhere?" We knew we were on

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 onJourney's current Eclipse tour. l'm also playing thenew Jupiter-8O, which is an amazing synth. Those twokeyboards have just been tremendous. Having themon tour has made things much easier on everyone.We're more of a rock band now, and using my Fazioliacoustic piano on stage has become almostimpossible. lt was hard to get the piano up in the mix,and it was howling in the P.A. as well. The V-Pianosolved all of that. Now, the Faz will have a permanenthome in my new studio.

tUIIU

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-D

Key&oad 12.2011