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Thunderbird Club

#188,001
Larry V said:
That's just awesome.

I really do absolutely love Van Halen when they were young rockers with very raw energy... the pre 1984 albums. I also love their post 1984 music but it got waaaayyy more produced and made for MTV which to me lost that edge it had. I blame DLR and later Sammy. :laugh:
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Interesting point of view. I read a biography of VH (the band):
Van Halen Rising: How a Southern California Backyard Party Band Saved Heavy Metal: Renoff, Greg, Runnette, Sean: 9781515904410: Books - Amazon.ca
There are others, and I don't take it as gospel. Nothing in it made me think that it was written to bias any particular side, and the stories told don't raise red flags as being unlikely. It had a fairly matter of fact presentation.

After reading that, I reached the conclusion that, although Eddie was a virtuoso, he and Alex did not have a good sense of how to succeed in the music business. It appears that DLR brought that. He was responsible for putting Motown songs on the early albums, and putting Motown on the early set lists rather than Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. The thought being, play songs to which the girls can dance and they will bring guys with them.

I think it was a formula that worked for them.
 
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#188,002
PillO said:
Interesting point of view. I read a biography of VH (the band):
Van Halen Rising: How a Southern California Backyard Party Band Saved Heavy Metal: Renoff, Greg, Runnette, Sean: 9781515904410: Books - Amazon.ca
There are others, and I don't take it as gospel. Nothing in it made me think that it was written to bias any particular side, and the stories told don't raise red flags as being unlikely. It had a fairly matter of fact presentation.

After reading that, I reached the conclusion that, although Eddie was a virtuoso, he and Alex did not have a good sense of how to succeed in the music business. It appears that DLR brought that. He was responsible for putting Motown songs on the early albums, and putting Motown on the early set lists rather than Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. The thought being, play songs to which the girls can dance and they will bring guys with them.

I think it was a formula that worked for them.
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Absolutely true in that DLR was a showman throughout his career but Eddie definitely was too with his scissor kicks and rock star poses when he ripped his solos. As for saving heavy metal??? Er... what? o_Oo_Oo_O

Van Halen was a hard rock band at the time when prototypical metal looked and sounded like anything from Black Sabbath to Judas Priest and Van Halen never fell anywhere in between.

I have never heard of a metal band saying they were inspired by VH, have you?
 
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#188,005
Larry V said:
Absolutely true in that DLR was a showman throughout his career but Eddie definitely was too with his scissor kicks and rock star poses when he ripped his solos. As for saving heavy metal??? Er... what? o_Oo_Oo_O

Van Halen was a hard rock band at the time when prototypical metal looked and sounded like anything from Black Sabbath to Judas Priest and Van Halen never fell anywhere in between.
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Yeah, an extraordinary claim in the title, but (weakly) supported in the text. The premise is that the popularity of proto-metal (is that a thing?) was waning in favour of funk evolving into disco. Had VH not come along metal would have faded into obscurity. Although I agree that VH dragged metal into a more modern context (not alone, there were others), had VH not been there, others would have done it. Further, I would argue that had EVH not come along, tapping would still have become something for guitar players to do. Hair-metal would probably have looked only a little different had VH not come along.

I have never heard of a metal band saying they were inspired by VH, have you?
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I am at a loss to think of a band that has claimed that VH was an inspiration (doesn't mean that there aren't any) but there are plenty of guitar players that cite EVH as an influence.
 
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#188,006
Larry V said:
That's just awesome.

I really do absolutely love Van Halen when they were young rockers with very raw energy... the pre 1984 albums. I also love their post 1984 music but it got waaaayyy more produced and made for MTV which to me lost that edge it had. I blame DLR and later Sammy. :laugh:
Click to expand...
I agree. Never had any VH records, but did love some of their songs. Great players. I would not have gone to a concert as time went on because you would be seeing way too much David Lee Roth, if you know what I mean!:wideyed:
 
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#188,011
PillO said:
Yeah, an extraordinary claim in the title, but (weakly) supported in the text. The premise is that the popularity of proto-metal (is that a thing?) was waning in favour of funk evolving into disco. Had VH not come along metal would have faded into obscurity. Although I agree that VH dragged metal into a more modern context (not alone, there were others), had VH not been there, others would have done it. Further, I would argue that had EVH not come along, tapping would still have become something for guitar players to do. Hair-metal would probably have looked only a little different had VH not come along.
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Over the years I recall seeing several players on film, some or one in the 50s maybe earlier doing some of the things EVH became famous for. I was shocked how far back hammer-ons and the like went back. Not many did it by any means and EVH took it to a new level.
 
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#188,012
dagrev said:
Over the years I recall seeing several players on film, some or one in the 50s maybe earlier doing some of the things EVH became famous for. I was shocked how far back hammer-ons and the like went back. Not many did it by any means and EVH took it to a new level.
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Yeah, it had been a jazz thing for quite some time. EVH found a novel* use for it (Eruption). But had he not done that, someone else would have gotten there.

* not previously done within the genre
 
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#188,014
BklynKen said:
'60s Thunderbird very high in the mix here.

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upload_2021-10-18_9-15-12.png


Poor bastard... 8 minutes, over and over and over...
 
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#188,016
PillO said:
Yeah, it had been a jazz thing for quite some time. EVH found a novel* use for it (Eruption). But had he not done that, someone else would have gotten there.

* not previously done within the genre
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Definitely. No doubt there was some unheard of guy doing before EVH--we just don't know his name. I've on occasion seen an unknown band/artist at a small festival setting or the like and and saw players who were easily equal to or would surpass those who got the right beaks at that right time. Whenever I see a known killer player I always wonder how many like him/her are playing in some joint and will never be known beyond the local setting.
 
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#188,018
Larry V said:
View attachment 4442280

Poor bastard... 8 minutes, over and over and over...
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Larry V said:
View attachment 4442280

Poor bastard... 8 minutes, over and over and over...
Click to expand...
I don't have to pretend to be Geddy Lee, but this kind of thing was why we never played but one AC/DC song. Seemed most just had that 8th note driving thing going one. Fine once in a while. But not as the bass part in half the songs (that heard). //// //// //// //// //// / / //// //// //// Not something I'd want to do a lot of. And people made fun of Dusty Hill. Not bashing and it clearly worked for them.
 
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