Quote Originally Posted by Nitro Express View Post
Van Halen’s manager and others who knew Dave said Dave is a song and dance guy. The guy liked disco. Dave had a bit of Danny Kay in him. If he was born a bit earlier he would be the guy tap dancing. Dave was that. The Van Halen’s were the real rockers. They had no interest in song and dance shit. But that contrast of Dave being song and dance and the Van Halen’s wanting rock hard made Van Halen interesting. Dave brought the swagger and the rap. The Van Halen’s brought the thunder.
Agreed, 100%.

The thing with that is, on record all you got is the vocals, the instruments and the tunes. So, if the tunes themselves aren't quite there - as was the case for about half the Skyscraper album - Dave's patter and Vai's guitar wizardry were only gonna go so far in terms of covering up deficiencies in the songwriting far as the studio stuff went. Live, different story.