Journey's "Dead or Alive": Hidden Progressive Rock Brilliance - Part 1

The rock band Journey is known by most for straightforward 80’s rock anthems like “Don’t Stop Believin’” and Steve Perry’s love-it-or-hate-it soaring vocals.  They have been derided as a sellout or a commercial rock band.  Most people are unaware of their jazz-rock fusion origins, where on their first few albums you were likely to catch several instrumental tracks, guitar-keyboard solo trade-offs, odd time-signatures, and lengthy tunes – hallmarks of progressive rock.  In 1981, when their Escape album hit the record stores, Journey had already established themselves as pop icons, with the FM radio regularly transmitting “Any Way You Want It”, “Lights” and “Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'”.  But Journey hadn’t completely abandoned their progressive roots, nor had their musician’s skills eroded in any way, as shown by the 8^th cut on the Escape album, "Dead or Alive".
I started playing guitar in 1984, and Journey’s Neal Schon was (and continues to be) one of my heroes.  I remember learning the guitar part to "Dead or Alive" in the late 80's, and I’ve always loved it.  But it wasn’t until this year, when I had an idea to re-arrange it, that I really delved into the other parts of the song. It was then I realized what a hidden gem of progressive rock this song actually is.

Part 1

Song Structure

Okay, so I kind of already had this one for free, since I’ve known the guitar part for so long.  I always appreciated the emphasis on the different instrumental sections of the song, along with the typical verse/chorus sections.  This is how the song is structured:

So what is so progressive about this structure?  For starters, there are more instrumental sections than vocal sections.  But more importantly, the variations in the sections really emphasize the progressive nature of the song. The “part A” motif is played several times, but each time there is a variation. It is played through up a fourth the third time, and then leading into the solo, the structure is abbreviated, as well as a final quote to finish the song like it started, creating nice symmetry.  Another really subtle variation -  a single extra beat is added when the “part B” section is reprised near the end of the song.

Tempo, Timing and Drums

This whole journey (ha!) started when I thought I’d just whip up a midi drum track for my new arrangement.  Shouldn’t be too hard, I already know the guitar part, right?  Oh, so wrong.  After my initial underestimation, I sat down and brought my analysis skills to bear.  My approach was to create a MIDI track that I could A|B compare with the original track and to the best of my ability add each part of the drum kit mimicking Steve Smith’s performance.  I set up the track, matched the initial tempo, and…kept getting out of synch.  I realized that the original recording certainly wasn’t performed to a click track.  It took some effort, but eventually I recreated the tempo - they look something like this: 

Although the changes are subtle, part of the energy of the recording is the organic “breathing” of the tempo, which shifts a few percent throughout the recording.

Even though I had learned the guitar part long ago, it wasn’t until I was transcribing the drums that I had to really figure out the time signature.  Both instrumental sections are far from a straight 4/4.  Like iconic progressive rock groups such as Kansas or Genesis, Journey has several songs that feature odd time signatures. Dead or Alive has its roots in straight, quick 4/4, but the “part A” motif is a little all over the place.  Here’s how I ended up mapping it out:

The “Part B reprise” section near the end of the tune is in 7/4, but to my ear wasn’t obvious since it seems to flow and groove without seeming that different in feel from the rest of the song.  Part of this is accomplished by the drum patterns themselves.

Steve Smith took a “four to the floor” approach on this song, the same as he did to the iconic “Don’t Stop Believin’”, with the kick drum pulsing out every quarter note.  This approach can serve to obscure odd beat measures since the kick drum doesn’t change like it would in a standard 1-3 approach.  Smith is locked-in with the syncopation of the guitar and bass parts throughout the song, emphasizing the accents.  The other thing that I really appreciated about the genius of Smith’s playing on this song was how he consciously varies the looseness of the hi-hat, creating more energy as the end of a section approaches.

In the next installment, we'll explore the bass, guitar and piano parts of this song...
Part 2