SCHON & HAMMER – Untold Passion + Here To Stay [BGO Records remaster] HQ *Exclusive*

As requested, the two albums recorded by Journey guitarist / songwriter Neal Schon and renowned keyboardist / arranger Jan Hammer (Miami Vice TV theme, Jeff Beck, Tommy Bolin) as SCHON & HAMMER, in its BGO Records remastered release. The SCHON & HAMMER project recorded ‘Untold Passion‘ in 1981 and ‘Here To Stay‘ (1982).
Schon performed lead vocals & guitars, Hammer keys & drums, and there was bass player Colin Hodgkinson (Whitesnake, Mick Jagger) while Steve Perry, Steve Smith and Ross Valory perform in one track – so this is some kind of a ‘lost’ Journey song.
Additionally, talented Glenn Burtnick (Styx) provides bass, Backing & Harmony Vocals, but also co-wrote the ridiculously catchy AOR tune ‘No More Lies’, among other numbers.
SCHON & HAMMER were really good creating FM-ready melodic rock hooks, still adding a touch of hard and proggy waves to the music.

By 1981, when Schon and Hammer recorded the first of their two collaborations, Journey had seven albums under its belt, the most recent being Escape, released in July of that year and which was their highest charting album in the US at that point in their career (it topped the US albums charts and yielded four hit singles, including the much-covered anthemic pop/rock classic, ‘Don’t Stop Believin’).
As for Hammer, just prior to Untold Passion, he had recorded two strong albums under a band name, Hammer, for the Asylum label (Black Sheep in ’78 and Hammer in ’79), followed by albums in 1980 with Jeff Beck (There & Back) and Al Di Meola (Splendido Hotel). Despite his jazz-rock affiliations, he also had a point of commonality with Schon in that he had played with Santana, on Love, Devotion, Surrender, the guitarist’s 1973 summit with fellow axe maestro, John McLaughlin.

The sessions for 1981 Untold Passion took place in Kent, a mid-sized town located in Orleans County, New York, where Jan Hammer had his own studio, Red Gate, attached to his house.
The project presented both musicians with a chance to do something other than what was expected of them and certainly, the album offered Neal Schon an opportunity to express himself vocally as well as stretch out sonically and escape from the type of formatted rock songs that Journey were serving up during the same timeframe.
As for Jan Hammer, the album offered him a platform to showcase his prowess behind the drum kit as well as demonstrate his virtuosic keyboard ability (he also engineered the album).

In fact, the only other musician on the session was a Brit – left-handed Peterborough-born bassist Colin Hodgkinson, who played with British blues maven, Alexis Korner, before co-founding the cult trio, Back Door, in the early ’70s. It’s conceivable that Hodgkinson’s presence on the album was due to his previous association with Hammer, having played (and written songs) in the keyboardist’s band (he appeared on their two previously- mentioned Asylum LPs).

Untold Passion, then, documents the sound of a power trio at work and in terms of the recording process, it’s probable that the guitar, bass and drum tracks were laid down first with Hammer then adding keyboards as overdubs.
The opening track, ‘Wasting Time’ is an urgent ode about getting the most out of life and living every moment to the max. It’s a pounding rocker driven by Hodgkinson’s muscular but mobile bass and Schon’s power chords. The pair wrote the song together but it’s Schon who handles the vocals. The tune features some stunning duels between Hammer’s synth and Schon’s guitar, and was released as a single in 1981 (though it saw no chart action).

Propelled by a jogging rhythm track and chiming guitar, ‘I’m Talking To You’ was written by Hammer, Hodgkinson and Schon, with the latter providing vocals. A song about regret, loneliness and establishing a dialogue with an absent loved one, it bursts into life with an energetic chorus section bolstered with some sinewy riffs. Hammer and Schon also provide tasteful solos. The song turned up as the B-side to the single, ‘Wasting Time’.
‘The Ride’ is a bouncy instrumental written by Neal Schon and is driven by a melodic bass part, doubled with chunky low end notes from a synth. The verse section contrasts with a bridge passage defined by rising chords and shimmering keyboard work. The same section is used as a stomping coda to the fade where Schon displays his fretboard prowess with a blistering pyrotechnical solo.

The guitarist returns to the microphone on ‘I’m Down’, a stripped-down, blues- tinged rocker written by Hodgkinson about a character whose life is falling apart. It appears that the source of his pain and gloom is “a bad woman”, whom, he declares, “ain’t worth a dime.” The track is notable for an absence of keyboards (though Hammer can be
heard pounding the drum kit). On the verse section, Schon doubles the vocal melody with Jimi Hendrix-style guitar before a strutting bridge part eases into the chorus. The middle eight is a more powerful hard rock workout dominated by Schon’s incredibly virile saw-tooth axe lines. Then he breaks out with a screaming blues-inflected solo.

‘Arc’ is a fast and furious uptempo instrumental written by Jan Hammer who plays delicate but uplifting synth melodies over Schon and Hodgkinson’s scything rhythms. A coda section contains more intricate keyboard work and offers Hammer the chance to develop an athletic solo over mobile chord changes.
‘It’s Alright’ is a churning rocker about romantic rejection with its co-writer Schon on vocals while also providing
heavy guitar riffs. The tune’s more intricate middle section is built on a repeated motif doubled on bass and guitar where Schon and Hammer trade solos to the fade.

Written by Hammer and Hodgkinson, ‘Hooked On Love’ begins almost tamely with gentle, poetic descriptions of a fair maiden but then erupts into a roaring stadium rocker with a harmonised, anthem-like chorus. Its earthy style suits Schon’s extrovert fretboard wizardry.
‘On The Beach’ is a dynamic Neil Schon instrumental and begins with a squall of solo guitar notes fed through an effects processor before the arrival of a thrusting rock rhythm, where guitar and bass are playing a riff in unison. In a contrasting passage, Hammer plays keyboard arpeggios that lead to a long synth solo characterised by the generous use of a pitch bender.
The album’s closing title song, written by Jan Hammer, is more meditative: a moody, classical music- meets-prog-rock soundscape beginning with slow but relentless arpeggios from Hammer’s keyboards. It’s a grandiose musical edifice that builds in intensity via howling solos from the two main protagonists.

Untold Passion rose to a peak position of No. 115 in the USA during its six-week stay in the Billboard 200, that country’s list of bestselling pop albums (Schon was also in the charts at the same time, though placed considerably higher, with the Journey album Escape).

Neil Schon reconvened with Jan Hammer for a second collaborative venture for Columbia, Here To Stay, recorded at Red Gate studios in late 1982. This time, though, the trio of Schon, Hammer and Hodgkinson were augmented on one track by three other members of Journey (vocalist Steve Perry, bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith), while singer/songwriter Glen Burtnik, who later joined rock band Styx in the 1990s, co-wrote two tunes and appeared as a background vocalist.

The memorable ‘No More Lies’ gets Here To Stay underway in a classic melodic hard rock fashion. It’s more overtly commercial than any of the tunes on Untold Passion. Written by Hammer and Schon with Glen Burtnik – who also provides backing vocals on the song’s super-catchy chorus – it’s a taut and energetic number with plenty of squealing guitar histrionics.
Not surprisingly, the song was deemed to have commercial potential by Columbia Records and was released as a single. The duo also shot an eye-catching video for the single:

The single’s B-side was the album’s second track, ‘Don’t Stay Away’. There’s a stately feel to this midtempo vocal track, a plaintive power ballad from the pens of Jan Hammer and Neal Schon. It features Schon on vocals, who also supplies a soaring guitar solo in the middle, while Jan Hammer plays some delicate, wispy synth lines on the outro. Colin Hodgkinson’s bass keeps the tune anchored together with Hammer’s solid drums.

‘(You Think You’re) So Hot’ is a Jan Hammer song built on a muscular unison guitar and bass riff. A midpaced poppy track spotlights Schon and Hammer jousting with fleet-of- finger solos. A brief sequenced keyboard part begins the intro to ‘Turnaround’, whose music was written by Hammer, who also co-authored the song’s lyrics with Hodgkinson. The tune quickly morphs into a strutting, rambunctious hard rock outing.

Unlike the rest of the album, ‘Self Defense’ was produced by Mike Stone and Kevin Elson and features all of Journey except for keyboardist Jonathan Cain, though he did co-write the song with Steve Perry and Neal Schon. Opening with a rapid-fingered guitar riff over a speeding rhythm section, the tune features Schon on vocals, who is supported by Steve Perry’s high falsetto vocal on the chorus.

Not so fast but still nippy is ‘Long Time’, written by Hammer with Glen Burtnik. It’s more of a pop-rock outing with Beatles-esque vocal harmonies, glistening synth parts and a pulsating bass line courtesy of Hodgkinson.
No 1980s rock album would be complete without a mellow power ballad to illustrate a band’s sensitive side and show that underneath their hard rock exterior, lurked both a heart and soul. ‘Time Again’ is such a tune. It’s a Hammer original that finds the musician laying down a slow but steady drum beat while overdubbing celestial keyboards on top. Schon complements his subdued vocals with suitably tasteful guitar parts.

The crisp rocker ‘Sticks And Stones’, written by Schon, Hammer and Hodgkinson, picks up the pace. Defined by a metronomic beat, it features some fine hard rock-style interplay between the three musicians.
In acute contrast, relatively short, Schon- Hodgkinson-scribed ‘Peace Of Mind’ is a hazy and delicate instrumental that glistens with pastel tone colours and finds Jan Hammer playing high synth notes that have a harmonica-like sound.
With its ominous-sounding intro – dark, minor key chords over a throbbing bass line the album’s closing song, ‘Covered By Midnight’, has a cinematic aura. On this chugging, nocturnal rocker, Schon’s vocals are restrained, contrasting with the shrieking high notes he produces from his guitar as the song reaches its climax. As the music fades around it, Hammer’s crystalline keyboard is left alone in the spotlight.

The music to Here To Stay came adorned in a cover art that “borrowed” US baking soda company (and future toothpaste manufacture) Arm & Hammer’s logo. Though released at the end of 1982, it gained some traction from the energy created by Journey’s eighth album, Frontiers, released in March 1983, and charted around the same time. It wasn’t able to match the sales, or indeed, chart position, of Frontiers, but plateaued at the No. 122 spot during a 12-week run in the Billboard 200.

At that point in time, Neal Schon was arguably the more well-known of the two musicians given his role in Journey but in 1985, Jan Hammer achieved wider fame via his soundtrack music for a hugely popular and influential TV series called Miami Vice about two cool crime-fighting detectives.
Hammer’s ultra-modern electronic Score dominated by synthesisers, sequencers and drum machines – was an important component of the show’s success and a single from the soundtrack, ‘Crockett’s Theme’, released on MCA, topped America’s pop charts and later won two Grammy awards. The parent album, Miami Vice Soundtrack, also rose to pole position in the Billboard 200 and its sales went quadruple platinum.
From that point onwards, Hammer was in demand in Hollywood and has scored countless movies and documentaries since then.

Just as Miami Vice was coming to an end, Neal Schon recorded his first solo album, releasing Last Nite in 1989, the first of nine LPs to date, which came in the wake of Journey’s demise three years earlier (though the group returned in 1996 and have continued to release a new album every five years or so).

The two albums in this BGO two-offer remind us what this unlikely duo was capable of doing working together as a team. They presented music which was markedly different from what they had been doing before, and revealed other, perhaps freer and more relaxed, sides to their playing.
The music they made couldn’t be described as groundbreaking but it was, above all else, a honest expression of their creativity and the sense of enjoyment they had making the two records comes shining through the nineteen songs on offer here.
Highly Recommended

Untold Passion remastered:
01 – Wasting Time
02 – I’m Talking to You
03 – The Ride
04 – I’m Down
05 – Arc
06 – It’s Alright
07 – Hooked On Love
08 – On the Beach
09 – Untold Passion
Here To Stay remasterd:
10 – No More Lies
11 – Don’t Stay Away
12 – (You Think You’re) So Hot
13 – Turnaround
14 – Self Defense
15 – Long Time
16 – Time Again
17 – Sticks and Stones
18 – Peace of Mind
19 – Covered By Midnight

Lead Vocals, Guitar, Guitar Synthesizer – Neal Schon
Drums, Keyboards, Synthesizers – Jan Hammer
Bass – Colin Hodgkinson
Backing & Harmony Vocals – Glen Burtnick (tracks: 10, 11, 16)
Backing Vocals (track 14) – Steve Perry
Bass (track 14) – Ross Valory
Drums (track 14) – Steve Smith

Produced by Jan Hammer & Neal Schon
Track 14 Produced by Kevin Elson & Mike Stone
Remastered by Andrew Thompson

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