In the early 1980s, rock-guitar fans were becoming obsessed with superstrats and Van Halen-esque fretboard hijinks. It was a time of “more is more” and pressure to be the next big thing. Riding high with the radio-hit-making Journey, Neal Schon was the poster child for melodic restraint. But, he had an itch to express himself in other ways.
Looking to step up his guitar work after the release of Journey’s 1983 album, Frontiers, Schon, started jamming with Sammy Hagar (who was riding high on the success of Three Lock Box), drummer Denny Carmassi, and Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson. They got together a handful of times over a couple weeks, laying down a different style of rock that indulged Schon’s desire to shred. That March, though, Schon had to join Journey for a tour, and by the time he returned in September, Carmassi had been asked to join Heart and Petersson had bowed out. Schon then approached bassist Kenny Aaronson (Rick Derringer) and drummer Michael Shrieve, his bandmate in the “classic” Santana lineup.
“Kenny had opened for Journey, playing with Billy Squier,” Schon told VG. “He was a strong player with a cool vibe. And I suggested Michael Shrieve because I wanted it to be more-progressive and not so straight-ahead.”
Compiling their surname initials, they dubbed the band HSAS and went to work in Journey’s rehearsal space in Oakland. Hagar and Schon wrote songs with the idea of recording them in front of an audience, then booked Westwood One’s Concertmaster mobile studio and two nights at the Warfield Theatre in November.
“We wrote it in a week, rehearsed for a week, then played it,” Schon recalled. “We had two shows to get it right. Some of it we got, some of it got close. But we thought that would be the quickest way. We said, ‘It’s a live progressive-rock record; what we get is what we get. Throw it out there and see what happens.’ Then, Sammy left me in the studio to mix everything (laughs). We added some overdubs [at Fantasy Studios], but it was pretty much live.”
Schon’s main guitar was the Roland G-505 controller paired with the GR-300 Analog Guitar Synthesizer. The performance (which can be seen on Youtube) displays Schon riffing like a beast, using the Duet Mode of the GR-300.
Flawed but powerful, Through The Fire is what happens when inspiration and virtuosity meet chemistry, and captures the essence of a “put up or shut up” performance. Schon’s playing is mesmerizing, intense, and brutal; “Animation,” “Valley Of The Kings,” and “Giza” display the prog-meets-hard-rock style Schon was aiming for, while “Top Of The Rock” and “Missing You” preview Hagar’s later work with Van Halen. And unlike “live” albums with replacement tracks and overdubs, it doesn’t pretend to be live. In fact, Schon deleted the crowd noise from all but the last two tracks, “He Will Understand” and “My Home Town.”
In his 2011 autobiography, Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock, Hagar admitted to not fully understanding Schon’s concept.
“Shrieve [is] a great, rhythmical guy, [but] wasn’t a rock drummer at all – we were a rock band,” Hagar wrote. “But he made the band kind of cool and fusion-y.”
“I usually don’t play that kind of harder rock,” Shrieve recently told VG. “It’s not like heavy metal or anything. I had a big laugh when I read Sam’s book, and he said, ‘Yeah, we had Michael Shrieve playing drums – I don’t know why (laughs).’ I think Neal wanted the respect of rock players because they were always out there with Van Halen, but Journey hits were very pop. Neal was always looking for situations to bring out another side of himself. We had a different kind of singer, and the music was heavier all around.”
Aaronson’s thunderous bass and Shrieve’s polydexterous drumming helped make Through the Fire a master class in interaction.
“We did some pretty experimental things,” recalled Schon. “It was out there. The stuff we didn’t put on the record was even more out there. We wrote about 20 songs, and those that didn’t make the record were a lot more intricate than the things that did; they didn’t make it because everyone screwed them up (laughs).” Tracks that didn’t make the album but were included in the professionally produced live video (and can be seen on Youtube) include “Movin’ In for the Kill,” “Tough Enough,” “Through the Eyes of Love,” “Hope and Fear,” “What Will Never Be,” and “Since You Came.”
Among those that did make it, their cover of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” went to #94 on Billboard’s Hot 100, while “Top of the Rock” peaked at #15. The third single, “Missing You,” hit #37 on Top Rock Tracks. All told, they were enough to garner a decent following.
“We did 12 shows… around the Bay Area,” Hagar wrote in 2011. “We sold out all the shows and gave the money to music programs in public schools. The album never sold more than 150,000 copies, even though I was selling more than a million as a solo artist, and Journey was selling more than a million. It never caught on. ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ didn’t really work – it never hit. We played an MTV show called ‘The Concert.’ Neal and I went to New York and did press for days… It might have been better if we’d gone in the studio, made the record, and then done the shows, but the way we did it was unique.”
One of those shows aired on Westwood One radio.
Ultimately, Schon’s schedule with Journey put the kibosh on a more-robust album and/or tour, but his visceral, full-throttle playing still resonates 41 years later.
This article originally appeared in VG’s June 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
