Journey's "Dead or Alive": Hidden Progressive Rock Brilliance - Part 3

 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 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
Part 2

Unfairly Effortless - Steve Perry's Vocals

Like the guitar part, I've known the vocal part and sung along with Steve Perry for years.  Prior to delving into this analysis, my impressions of the vocal was that from a technical perspective, this song is one that didn't particularly highlight Perry's well-known vocal capabilities.  I had programmed the drum part, recorded the bass and guitar parts, and added the piano part - I decided that I might as well and go ahead and record a scratch vocal track.  Now, I would never even begin to put myself anywhere near Perry's echelon of vocals, but I can carry a tune and have a decent range.  When I tried actually recording the vocals though, yet again I gained a new respect for Steve Perry as an incredible singer and musician.

During the verses, the melody is actually doesn't span a large range of notes. The melody fits with the mood and energy of the song by being staccato and syncopated throughout the verse. This is actually much more difficult than it sounds, particularly at the tempo and note range, yet Steve makes it sound effortless. Perry's timing is impeccable and it is easy to hear that he started out as a drummer with his attention to the rhythm and accuracy.  The chorus, with a two-part harmony, has some of that classic Journey arena rock sound.  On the studio cut, it sounds to me that Perry is singing both the harmony and melody. On the live version from a 1981 concert, Cain and Schon are taking the lower harmony parts.

Just so one doesn't forget that we are dealing with a vocalist of nearly superhuman capabilities, Perry ends the last chorus with an octave-and-a-half vocal glissando, ending on E above middle C.  Steve had used this type of styling previously such as on Infinity's Can Do.  Whereas in Can Do the technique comes off a little corny, in Dead or Alive it works to great effect, clicking up the energy one more notch as the song burns toward the finish line.  The uniqueness of this last vocal line stands out from the pop norm, also adding to the progressive rock nature of the tune.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning that the topic of this song has nothing to do with summer nights, falling in love, romance, making rock music, dancing, or drugs.  That alone separates it from 99.9% of 80's pop music!

Epilogue - Outlaw

I mentioned way back in part 1 that the impetus for this analysis came from an idea I had to create cover or homage to the song.  I had been practicing guitar, and happened to have a clean sound on the amp. I played the lead line of the song, with a bit of a swing feel and thought "this song might sound pretty cool as a country-rock shuffle."  So, once I had analyzed and mimicked all of the parts, I rearranged things a little, added a swing feel, slowed the tempo slightly, and changed up the instrumentation, turning the song into an instrumental, that certainly had some stylistic influences from another of my musical heroes, Steve Morse.  Check out the final version here.  Comments welcome!