The only album ever recorded by this supergroup of the time. It’s always listed as a studio release, but the only thing that was studio was all the guitar overdubs. If you listen closely, you can still hear the crowd in certain songs that they couldn’t remove. This was recorded when Steve Perry was having voice problems, Schon was obviously bored and needed an outlet, and Sam The Sham would do anything to lift his profile at the time.
A very weird choice for the single with a Whiter Shade Of Pale, I get that it’s a cover and everyone has heard of it, but surely Missing You and Top Of The Rock would have been better choices as these are great tunes. Schon, as usual, plays his ass off and is obviously enjoying stepping out of his day job. Some of his playing is on a different level here, especially on Animation where he really lets loose, and on album closer, My Home Town, where it’s definitely welcome to the Neal Schon show! To be honest, he really rips throughout the album. Awesome stuff!
This is one of the few albums I can actually tolerate Hagar, and Valley Of The Kings is a definite highlight of the album. Everything is held together by a killer rhythm section of Michael Shrieve on the pots and pans, and Kenny Aaronson on bass. As a one off project, it’s pretty killer and it gets 9/10 from The Grooveman for Schon’s brilliance.
