Journey

Schon and Rolie didn't pick up Santana's sound secondhand — they helped build it, playing in Carlos Santana's band before striking out on their own in 1973 under the same manager, Herbie Herbert, who assembled Journey specifically out of that Bay Area scene. Schon has separately named Santana among the guitarists who shaped his own playing.

listen: upstream & hereshare

1970

Black Magic WomanCarlos Santana

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1975

Of a LifetimeJourney

listen forThe extended, Latin-tinged instrumental jamming and long, singing guitar tone Santana rides through 'Black Magic Woman' carries straight into early, pre-Perry Journey's fusion-heavy debut — listen for that same loose, exploratory interplay between guitar and organ on 'Of a Lifetime.'

Steve Perry has said hearing Sam Cooke's 'Cupid' on his mother's car radio as a child was the moment he decided to become a singer — the root of the smooth, melismatic tenor he'd bring to Journey's biggest ballads once he joined in 1977.

listen: upstream & heresource: Rolling Stone — Steve Perry on the five songs that inspired him, incl. Sam Cooke's ‘Cupid’ ↗share

1961

CupidSam Cooke

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1982

Open ArmsJourney

listen forCooke's easy, gospel-rooted melisma and held notes on 'Cupid' are the clear ancestor of Perry's phrasing on 'Open Arms' — listen for the same unhurried vibrato and vocal runs riding over a simple, steady arrangement.

Schon has repeatedly listed Jimmy Page among the guitarists of his own era who shaped him most, alongside Hendrix, Beck, and Clapton — the generation that turned the electric guitar solo into a dramatic set piece, a habit Journey's arena-rock years leaned on hard.

listen: upstream & hereshare

1971

Stairway to HeavenLed Zeppelin

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1981

Stone in LoveJourney

listen forPage's long-form solo on 'Stairway to Heaven' builds from spare picking into a sustained, vocal-toned climax; Schon's solo on 'Stone in Love' works the same trick — patient build, then a sustained, singing release — compressed to pop-song length.