Journey's "Dead or Alive": Hidden Progressive Rock Brilliance - Part 2

 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

All About the Bass

80’s pop rock and arena rock are notorious for having very simple quarter or eight note basslines that basically just pump the root note of each chord. While Dead or Alive takes this approach somewhat in the vocal sections, Ross Valory on bass keeps it interesting with little bass fills that fit the song well. He also reminds us that he is no average bass player by doubling the tricky guitar line of the “part A” motif.  From my perspective, this puts the bass well into the “progressive” category from my perspective.

Guitar, Guitar, Guitar

Just after the opening drum fill, Neal Schon announces that this is clearly a rock-guitar driven song, with his aggressive "Part A" riff. Amidst the odd time signature, the line seems to flip and turn around yet still groove.  Melodically it is rooted in the E mixolydian scale, with the flat 3rd adding the blues-rock, or maybe even a country-influenced, vibe.  Upon listening closely, it is so impressive how impeccable Neal's timing and ability to inflect notes is on this song, while cooking away at a 190ish BPM. And then there's the guitar solo. Neal constructs the solo using several of his signature riffs and patterns.  The solo has a nice melodic arc and creates excitement throughout.  Near the end as he rips through a blistering lick high on the neck, he uses the whammy bar to great effect, coaxing a vocal-like "Whaa-Whoo" out of his instrument.  Then finishes the solo with an tri-tone sounding riff that ends on a C, which should be dissonant to the A blues/mixolydian that the solo section is in, but instead works as a beautiful flat 7 that resolves to the D major of the chorus.

During the outro part, during the 7/4 section, Neal's accenting of the top note G is crucial to keeping the groove driving hard before finally coming to a breathless stop on the Hendrix-esque E7#9.

Jonathon Cain on the Keyboards

At the time of the Escape album, Jonathon Cain had just joined Journey, replacing founding keyboardist Gregg Rolie.  Cain is credited with co-writing every tune on the Album, but on "Dead or Alive" the keyboard part is quite sparse, mostly accented octaves in the higher register which fills out the spectrum nicely, and a few finger-slides that echo back to Jerry Lee Lewis era rock.  I have no idea how the song really came together in the studio, of course, but I imagine something like this:  Jonathon is familiar with the Journey hits, and knows that Neal is an incredible guitarist.  They have been playing and jamming together for a bit and maybe even recorded a couple of the other Escape tunes.  One day Jonathon walks into the studio and hears Neal, Ross, and Steve Smith jamming on the song that will become "Dead or Alive.  Damn. How am I supposed to keep up with that?!? Jonathon thinks to himself.  "Hey guys, that sounds really great.  Umm, I'm going over there to help Perry with the lyrics, 'kay?"  To be fair, Jonathon is no slouch and on the subsequent Frontiers album created some of the most definitive synth riffs of the 80s; but I think it would have been incredibly intimidating to be in the same room with these guys in 1980/1981.

In the concluding Part 3, we will touch on Steve Perry's vocal part, highlight that this song didn't just live in the studio, and I'll share my homage to the song, which started this whole analysis in the first place...