As usual the exaggerations are flying. Or maybe it's just misunderstanding. While I did say that there were no hits pre or post Perry, I NEVER said that nobody else in the band had nothing to do with it.

Perry, Schon and Cain became a songwriting machine for a while. It was certainly a combination. However, if Neal had stayed in charge of the musical direction of the band, they would have continued to be a "going off at the instruments" boring, nobody but some other musicians give a darn band. When Steve Perry came in, he explained to Neal that they needed to build an AUDIENCE in order to make a great living. Herbie Herbert brought Steve in to straighten out the band and that is what Steve did.

Cain was the final piece of the magical puzzle and he also was commercially driven. Neal wrote some great commercial riffs but it seems like they had to drag him force feed him into doing it at least until he started seeing how much more successful melodic, commercial material helped his bank account! LOL After that, I think he finally figured out that 5 minute long guitar solo's is not what the masses want to hear!