STEVE PERRY SOLO NO. 2 - FOR THE LOVE OF STRANGE MEDICINE

 https://youtu.be/aonBs1ckhh0?si=cNQOJGAHygJRzTrk

STEVE PERRY has a very active fan club in the United States, one that would like to see nothing more than have their beloved veteran rock singer back in the ranks of AOR band JOURNEY, in place of filipino ARNEL PINEDA, who was in a band called THE ZOO prior to his 2007 drafting into JOURNEY.

Perry reunited with JOURNEY in the mid 90`s to record the album TRIAL BY FIRE in 1996, after having not been in the band since the days of the RAISED ON RADIO album in the mid to late 80`s. 

Just like Perry had done in 1984 when he upstaged the entire JOURNEY catalogue with the more classic rock sounding and less AOR sounding solo album STREET TALK, which had a good helping of soul of R&B in the mix, Perry's 1994 solo album FOR THE LOVE OF STRANGE MEDICINE makes TRIAL BY FIRE sound mediocre and manufactured by comparison. 

To me JOURNEY always held Perry back from greatness, and forced him to sing within a very narrow paradigm tailor made for creating pleasant sounding but soulless adult orientated rock which you cant deny sold by the mountain full. 

But Perry was never meant to be in a AOR band or a hard rock band, he was a white soul singer who always sounded more convincing on his two solo albums where he really let his hair down and dabbled in different musical styles outside the tiresome AOR format. 

Half a dozen songs off FOR THE LOVE OF STRANGE MEDICINE are better than average tunes, still basically AOR but with a much more contemporary flavour than anything he ever recorded with JOURNEY. 

The opening track and single YOU BETTER WAIT captures Perry at what he does best, and that is to sing high and hold onto a note until you suck every drop of emotion out of it, the two guitar solos in the song performed by LINCOLN BREWSTER are fantastic, not quite as epic as DAVID GILMOUR and COMFORTABLY NUMB but all the same a very convincing display of progressive rock musicianship. 

My second favourite song on the album, which wasn't released as a single is the tribute to the late THIN LIZZY great PHIL LYNOTT called YOUNG HEARTS FOREVER, in recognition of the friendship between Lynott and Perry prior to Lynott's tragic death in 1986.