For those who would be interested, this may be some really great news.

I was interested and his very first line was about being in the back seat with a girl. Even though the context was a memory.....He’s 69 years old. I chose not to listen any further and will pretend he didn’t record this album. Btw I’m a huge Journey fan.

wow. I guess I don't understand what age would have to do with that.

It just seems kind of creepy and gross, and frankly disappointing. One would hope that the decades of silence would have resulted in something a little deeper than that lyrically.

This is coming from someone who feels that he had THE best voice in rock of all time. I was listening to a Journey greatest hits compilation over the weekend and thought to myself “there is no voice that sounds quite like his did, and what a great pop-rock writing team Schon and Cain turned out to be with Steve putting the icing on the cake. My teenage kids love Journey and every teen in our town knows the words to “Don’t Stop Believin”, which I honestly believe would not have been a hit without his voice singing it.

Edited to add this link of other famous singers and musicians born in 1949. Imagine any of these folks releasing their first recording in 20+ years and the first leaked song starts out recollecting back seat adventures.
http://patheticfacts.com/famous-musicians-born-in-1949.html

Not quite as bad for me. You could tell he was stretching his voice a bit on the chorus and there's a little raspiness added to his voice when comparing to his old stuff, expected. Recording tracks is one thing and live touring is another. I'm not sure his voice could handle a tour at this point in his life. I still like him though. The Steve Perry days have always been my favorite part of Journey although I've seen them many times since.

Ow wow, Caaron, I see it's you and me now dude.

Don't Stop Feeling
by Caaron and David
PG Music Forum Song of the Year

Oooooooh!
Don't stop--feelin'!
Yeah, keep on--feelin'!!!
Feelin'.....
in the back of your car!!
Keep on--feelin'!!
Feelin' and believin'!!!
One day
You're gonna be a star!!!!!

Ooaaaaooooh yeah!!!!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

All right man, that's it, I'll send you the files tonight and you can start working it up and gettin' ready to do those vox.

This is gonna be our break man.

All good. I was just clarifying. I get your point. It would have been much cooler if the lyrical content would have been different.

I was actually surprised he had the range he did. I heard a clip of him doing a few songs with some band and they lowered the songs (if I remember correctly).

Still an amazing tone.

As far as tour, I'm not sure if I'm hoping he does or doesn't. I don't feel I would want to hear lowered versions of the songs if it would be that. I'm a big fan of him; but was an even bigger fan of him with Journey.

If he would tour, I'm guessing it would be very limited dates. Maybe I would have time to check out some live clips before buying tickets.

There is NO way we could fail with that! NONE.

I'm a little underwhelmed by this, not going to lie - I'm hopeful the next ones will be better! His voice isn't as good as it used to be, but he's also much older than he was when he recorded "Don't Stop Believing." His voice is good nonetheless - all around I think I'm just not a big fan of the song itself. There's much worse out there, and I'm still hopeful

Hmn, not quite what I was expecting. I have to say I am a little disappointed in this song. I guess I expected something more? Oh well, they can't all be winners!

rockstar_not,

I entirely get what your saying. Country singer Luke Bryan has a song called M-O-V-E that I feel the same way about. The song itself is infectious but one line ruins the song every time I hear it and the line is repeated MANY times. It's something like "and girl you're so d*mn hot".

Best guess I can come up with is the songwriter was lazy. I will say this though, coarse language presently seems to be in vogue, same with tattoos and piercings.

Different times, different standards.

Resurfacing this thread after listening to an interview with Steve Perry on the Sodajerker songwriting podcast.

Steve admits in the podcast that his songwriting inspiration is his high school years.

What is really confusing, is that a bunch of the podcast talks about the relationship he had with a PhD psychologist for many years, all while knowing from the very beginning that she was riddled with cancer. It was very moving.

Steve - WRITE ABOUT THAT!

For those interested in listening to the podcast - which I recommend you do as it's all about songwriting - here's the URL for the episode:

https://www.sodajerker.com/episode-126-steve-perry/

For those from the UK - can you tell me where the hosts are from based on their accents? It's from somewhere that the accent has rising tone on the end of every sentence; like most people do when asking a question.

After listening, if I don't know who this was and you asked me to guess my first guess would probably be some Rod Stewart demo song that never made an album. I don't think its a very good song, but certainly beats my own songwriting skills.
Either way, regardless of singer, writer, band, recording, etc,... If I look at it on a song for the song itself basic it's all mediocre in the scope of pop rock hits. I'm not trying to minimize a true vocal legend and a unique one at that. But, it sure would have been nice if they called me to sing back ground and play guitar on it. (wishful thinking)
Seams to me his vibrato tends to bend below and back up to pitch quite a lot. I'm 53 and I am often practicing to prevent excessive vibrato in my own voice. Seams my most common technique is to not hold notes very long.
Anyway, it is good to see older musicians out there still hitting it and giving it their best. Well, except for the Oak Ridge Boys. Those guys would do well to stay off of stages. But, then again, maybe one day I'll be planning my own "I Shouldn't Still Be Alive Tour".