DLR After Van Halen:

[kcmusician]

I've been listening to a lot of DLR music without Van Halen, and I've just noticed something.... His style kind of shifted a little bit, but not like the Van Hagar shift.... It sounds a bit more pollished unlike the old VH stuff.... Just what I've noticed.... Have you all noticed that? Or is it just me? It's not a bad thing, just saying.

Shaun

[bueno bob]

You're right, although I still think it was more traditional Van Halen than what Hagar offered. It was a bit polished, a bit heavier on the keyboard side of things, true, but considering the music market at the time...shit, if you didn't have a keyboard player, you may as well not have bothered...Dave's solo career has offered a lot of different facets, everybody knows that, but I wonder how much of the studio polish was actually his doing and how much of it belonged to studio and record execs and management and so on and so forth...

[Coyote]

Originally posted by kcmusician
I've been listening to a lot of DLR music without Van Halen, and I've just noticed something.... His style kind of shifted a little bit, but not like the Van Hagar shift.... It sounds a bit more pollished unlike the old VH stuff.... Just what I've noticed.... Have you all noticed that? Or is it just me? It's not a bad thing, just saying.

Shaun

You're right.

After 1985, there were two kinds of polished rock: DLR and DLR-ultralite (Read: Van Hagar). Everyone else just kind of fell in between.

[MUSICMANN]

very true, But remember that after 1985, The three remaining VH and Dave it seemed, wanted to totally shift away from their origional sound. Ed had started to use more keyboards and Dave's solo stuff was also filled with them too. I also believe that no matter how much creative control a band thinks it has, most of the time it will back down under the pressure of the label execs. Now i'm not standing up for Van Hagar or Dave on this issue, but they both seemed to try and put out what they thought was tunes that could stand up to what they did togeither. I truly think now they realize to some degree, that nothing could and compare to what they were doing back then. Above all the bickering about who's singing and all the other nasty jabs these guys took at each other, it is us the real fans that has lost in the end. I see it as, i really didn't care if Ed wanted to use more keyboards in the music and Dave wanted to sing whatever, all i wanted was for those guys to had stayed togeither and we would have gotten five more studio albums and more live stuff from them. We also could be having discussion's about how our fav band has been intact for 30 yrs now. We would not have to sit here and talk about what could have been. LONG LIVE CLASSIC VAN HALEN!!

[Panamark]

More polished than 1984 ?

[DlocRoth]

Originally posted by Panamark
More polished than 1984 ?

Thats what Im screamin. Skyscraper, yes, very polished. EEAS? Hell no. Big Trouble, Thats Life and Bump n Grind all sound like soundboard recordings. That is to say, live with little to no overdubs. Especially on Dave's vocals. Big Trouble being the pinnacle. Dave sounds amazing on that track. And if you turn it up a bit, it sounds like you're standing next to him in the booth.

[Matt White]

John (5) Lowery said in a recent interview that "SLAMDUNK" was the FIRST take. Not very polished. DAVE records ALL kinds of music. It's that love of varied musical styles that made the 6-pack so BRILLIANT and lack of love of different styles that make Van Hagar so FUCKING BORING!!!!


That and Spammy blows goats!!!!


DAVE OR THE GRAVE BABY!!!

[Thetruthbaby]

Another thing to remember is that DLR never did a silly power ballad like SOOOOO many of the 80's heavy rock bands and VHagar---who came to RELY on them. And although I do think the labels have influence you CAN do an album without totaly following the trends of the time. For instance look at Ratt. I was never crazy about MCrue or QRiot or most of the sunset strip bands of the 80's. One thing I'll give Ratt is that of the 4 albums they did in the 80's they NEVER released a power ballad as a single. Not once. And they never made a video for one either. They did record 2 of them, one on the 2nd album and one on the 4th album but they never released them. I always thought (in comparison with other heavy rock bands of the 80's) this was very admirable. I'm sure their label was pushing to have those 2 songs from those albums released but they didn't do it. DLR could have recorded a sappy ballad and released it but he didn't. I'm sure the idea was at least brought up by his label. Also when Dave changed things up a little he always had the attitude behind it. VHagar didn't. When I heard the power balllads VHagar were doing it sounded like they were trying to make teenage girls cry. I never once got that feeling listening to DLR solo. And I'm glad I didn't.

[Bill Lumbergh]

Dave succeeded even though he played by his own set of rules. Even when his solo career started going downhill(sales wise), he kept doing just what he wanted. And STILL does to this day, which is why he'll always have my respect and admiration.

[Panamark]

Originally posted by Thetruthbaby
When I heard the power balllads VHagar were doing it sounded like they were trying to make teenage girls cry.

Yeah, and now they just make overweight, bald, middleaged men cry their eyes out.

[Thetruthbaby]

GOOD POST BL. I've said myself numerous times that Dave seems to always just do whatever he wants to do. And he doesn't seem to be very affected at all by trends. When I first heard the new VHagar trax on KLOS in L.A. I immediately noticed that the guitar sounded very similar to nu metal bands. NOT GOOD. DLR always seems to do what he feels like doing and not what the industry expects of him which is cool. Plus although VHALEN was BIGGER with DLR at the the helm I get the feeling that numbers don't mean much to him which is cool also. He's one of the few wealthy people who seem to get it. Money gives you the opportunity to forget about money and just do whatever you want.

[spmusicplyr]

i admire daves work for his love of horns and women singers.

I love tuggle on skyscraper and ALAE, i like , "a little bit of luck" on YFLM.

I think bad habits on diamond dave is good too.

One thing i cant come to like is daves new sounding voice.
This "new octave"thing is nothing more than a head voice pushed into overdrive. i'll take his old screams any day...i know he can still do them. somebody get me a doctor in nagoya japan '04 has some of the cleanest ones i've heard since a little aint enough (maybe thats because he really hasn't done them since)

You can tell just by the sound that he strains heavily to reach what was once easy, and in video you can see his head veins go crazy, his eyes bulge and him clench his head at times. he's probably on the verge of fainting.

but dave is dave. current voice issues aside, i think the horns and big band sound is the shit.

[spmusicplyr]

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