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Dream After Dream
by Greg Carpenter

In 1980 Journey was asked to compose and perform music, both vocal and instrumental, for the Japanese film Dream After Dream directed by fashion designer Kenzo Takada. The film is a love story told as a stylized fantasy. This project allowed the band to be very free in the studio to compose and record a very progressive album, unrestrained by label or management influence since its primary purpose was a soundtrack and not a commercial release.

What is important to understand about Dream After Dream is that the band did not simply submit songs which were featured in the film as was the case with their inclusion on soundtracks for films such as Out Of Bounds, Caddyshack, Heavy Metal or the recent Armageddon. They were responsible for scoring Dream After Dream (composing background music), and it is that factor which makes this album a very unique item in the Journey catalog.

This article will review each track on the album, but before we begin the song analysis, it must be stressed that this album was never really meant to be an album. This is a movie soundtrack, much like the soundtrack by Toto for the movie Dune.

When listening to Dream After Dream, you will hear melodies from previous Journey songs, especially songs from Departure, including "Where Were You," and future songs, particularly from Escape, including "Mother, Father" and "Escape." Part of the fun of listening to Dream After Dream is picking out these melodies, but that will not be the focus of this article. I would hate to spoil anybody's fun.

Dream After Dream begins with the song "Destiny," one of the three vocal tracks on the album. "Destiny" is arguably the high point of the album as it incorporates all of the elements that makes Dream After Dream great. The song, though a ballad overall, can be broken down into four parts: a prelude, a vocal section, an up-tempo instrumental bridge and an instrumental postlude. The production on this song is very dense with dramatic orchestration, layered vocals and layered guitars.

Steve Perry contributes a very emotional vocal to the song, and Neal Schon shows his range, providing very moving guitar parts in the ballad sections and muscular leads in the up-tempo section (reminiscent of "Patiently"). The only detractor is the way Perry's vocals were recorded. As on certain Departure tracks, Perry's vocals sound distorted as if the gain was turned up too high. As this happens frequently on Dream After Dream and Departure, it is probably intentional, but it seems a shame to distort one of the best vocalists in rock this way.

After the last fading guitar note, there is about 50 seconds of incidental music from the film which is basically percussion and eerie keyboards. This serves as an interesting transition from "Destiny" to "Snow Theme" which is a beautiful piano melody by Gregg Rollie accompanied solely by a string section.

The next song on Dream After Dream is "Sandcastles," another vocal track and a showcase for the jazz technique of drummer Steve Smith. This song has a more conventional structure than "Destiny" but there is a fusion element in this song that is missing in the rest of the album. Smith is very busy on this track, there are some nice woodwind solos, and Rollie provides interesting keyboards. At first listen, one can not help but think of Pink Floyd during their Dark Side Of The Moon period.

Perry, for the most part, contributes a restrained vocal on the song with occasional flourishes. The rest of the band follows Perry's lead, letting the spotlight fall on Smith. This is the only jazz fusion song that Journey recorded during the Perry era, and it is a breath of fresh air on the album. The orchestration on the song provides a nice counter to Perry's vocals and helps the song fit into the continuity of the album overall.

More incidental music follows "Sandcastles" in the form of "A Few Coins." This is a short 40 second interlude that serves as a transition to "Moon Theme" which features Schon as the featured player. While Rollie played a duet with the string section on "Snow Theme," Schon's guitar melody is accentuated by the string section on "Moon Theme," letting Schon command this instrumental track.

"When The Love Has Gone" is a bluesy instrumental ballad which would sound great as a late night cop show theme and would also fit nicely on Schon's Electric World album. This track is simply a slow burn that allows Schon to showcase some of his blues licks, and it is a very cool track. This song is slightly out of place in the continuity of the album stylistically, but the quality of the playing is on par with anything else on the album.

"Festival Dance" is a short, percussion heavy track that sounds like, well, a festival. What's cool about this track is the totally unexpected thunder crash at the end which leads directly in to "The Rape." This is a tension filled track with gothic undertones featuring orchestration and a tolling bell. It is a very unsettling composition and along with the rest of the incidental music on the album, like "Festival Dance," is completely different than anything found on any other Journey album.

The final song on Dream After Dream is a familiar song to many Journey fans. "Little Girl" is the power ballad found on the b-side of the "Open Arms" single and is on the Time3 box set. It is the most Journey-esque song on Dream After Dream and the most accessible to the casual music listener.

The song's style is in keeping with the Departure ballads, and Schon rips through a monster solo that is among his best. Perry, again, sounds great. Remember when I said above that Journey borrows melodies from Dream After Dream for future releases? Well, listen to "Little Girl" and then listen to "Mother Father."

Dream After Dream has earned a special place in the hearts of the fans that have embraced it. The album gives a look into a different musical path than the one Journey chose to take in the 80's and allows each member to showcase their talents. The most obvious elements that cause the album to stand out in the catalog are the use of a string section on most of the songs, a freedom in strong structure that allows for differing tempos within the songs, the influence of several genres including blues and fusion, and the elevation of instrumentation to the same level as vocals, or even to the exclusion of vocals, on most of the album.

It is a shame then Dream After Dream has only seen a vinyl release in the U.S., and even then, the vinyl release happened over half a decade after the initial release in Japan (though I believe it could be ordered through the old Journey Force fan club). Sony Japan has released the album on CD, but Sony U.S. has yet to release it on CD in the States. Of course, Sony is probably more concerned with their bottom line than releasing Journey's complete back catalog, remastered and on CD (including the first three albums), but it is sad that fans that can't afford a Japanese import or aren't willing to pay import prices for a 35 minute CD will miss out on this special release.

So, in the final analysis, this is Journey at their progressive best and holds up against any Genesis or Yes album of the same period. While the album has a continuity, there are disjointed moments as this is a collection of film music pieces. Each band member is highlighted and bassist Ross Valory even gets to play recorder while Rollie gets a harmonica solo. This album is a definite must for your Journey collection and shows the brilliance of the band as players and composers when given the freedom to experiment without commercial pressure.