Journey - Journey [17]

Title: Journey - Journey
Year/Genre/Sub-Genre/City: 1975, Progressive Rock, Jazz Rock, San Francisco, California 10/26
Matrix #: KC 33388 (Columbia, US, red label; side labels AL 33388 / BL 33388); runout not legible in photo
Condition: EX (LM) | Members: Gregg R (47' - ), Neal S (54' - ), George T (46' - 23'), Ross V (49' - ), Aynsley D (46' - ) | Producer: Roy Halee
Cultural Facts: [17]

1. A Fake Contest Winner Named Toby Pratt: The band started in 1973 as the Golden Gate Rhythm Section, a backup group for Bay Area acts put together by Santana's old manager Herbie Herbert. They asked KSAN-FM listeners to rename them, with free tickets for life as the prize, but the entries were useless, with names like The Mound Pounders. Roadie John Villanueva came up with Journey, and the band announced a made-up winner named Toby Pratt so the contest would still have one.
2. From Rhythm Guitar to Stanford Medicine: This is the only Journey album with founding rhythm guitarist George Tickner, who came over from the San Francisco psych band Frumious Bandersnatch with bassist Ross Valory and co-wrote three songs here, including the instrumental Topaz. Worn down by the touring schedule, he left after it came out and went to Stanford Medical School on a full scholarship, leaving Neal Schon to cover every guitar part until Jonathan Cain joined in 1981.
3. 28 Drummers Later: Journey's first show was New Year's Eve 1973 at Winterland in front of 10,000 people, and the next day they flew to Hawaii to play Diamond Head Crater. Original drummer Prairie Prince went back to the Tubes, and after auditioning up to 28 drummers they hired Englishman Aynsley Dunbar, fresh from David Bowie and Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. Four days later they played the Great American Music Hall for Columbia executives and walked away with a record deal.