There was a dip in energy.
They had all aged a bit and got over that youthful desire to shove what they had in your face and basically explode in sound. Listen to especially the first three albums - they are explosive. They are made of pure energy.
But eventually EVH wanted to play keyboards. He wanted to opt out of the gunslinger guitar thing that was just hotting up in the early to mid 80s and would signal this in interviews by saying things like his favourite guitarist was ... they guy who played guitar with Bryan Adams, etc.
Then there was Hagar, who was even older and you could say, set in his ways. He was almost 40 by then, which at the time seemed quite old. The peak of his energy on record was 'Good Rockin' Tonight' with Montrose, recorded in '73. Twelve years later he had been through a whole MOR career, half a dozen albums or so, on Capitol Records.
Then there was the songs. The combination of DLR and EVH worked because they came from different places in terms of what they listened to. DLR used to say that the way he sang - and more important the kind of vocal melodies he came up with - was not like what someone who listened to the same stuff as Ed listened to would come up with. So there was a particular blend of influences that went into the songs.
With Hagar, it was a different blend and he was already pretty middle of the road, so ... bring on the fucking ballads. No surprise there.
It pales cos as an entity it is older and staler and has basically been neutered. So, as much as I can say it is all down to Hagar, it is also just that real vital rock 'n' roll is mostly a young person's game. Young and hungry. And for VH type of high enery music that matters.
By 85-86 that was all in the past.
They had all aged a bit and got over that youthful desire to shove what they had in your face and basically explode in sound. Listen to especially the first three albums - they are explosive. They are made of pure energy.
But eventually EVH wanted to play keyboards. He wanted to opt out of the gunslinger guitar thing that was just hotting up in the early to mid 80s and would signal this in interviews by saying things like his favourite guitarist was ... they guy who played guitar with Bryan Adams, etc.
Then there was Hagar, who was even older and you could say, set in his ways. He was almost 40 by then, which at the time seemed quite old. The peak of his energy on record was 'Good Rockin' Tonight' with Montrose, recorded in '73. Twelve years later he had been through a whole MOR career, half a dozen albums or so, on Capitol Records.
Then there was the songs. The combination of DLR and EVH worked because they came from different places in terms of what they listened to. DLR used to say that the way he sang - and more important the kind of vocal melodies he came up with - was not like what someone who listened to the same stuff as Ed listened to would come up with. So there was a particular blend of influences that went into the songs.
With Hagar, it was a different blend and he was already pretty middle of the road, so ... bring on the fucking ballads. No surprise there.
It pales cos as an entity it is older and staler and has basically been neutered. So, as much as I can say it is all down to Hagar, it is also just that real vital rock 'n' roll is mostly a young person's game. Young and hungry. And for VH type of high enery music that matters.
By 85-86 that was all in the past.
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