Originally posted by squib
well sorry about the spelling error -
what I found interesting was that Vai who as far as I know,has no reason to hold anything back had no complaints about his time with Dave. Just more evididance to me on who is the hard one to get along with.
well sorry about the spelling error -
what I found interesting was that Vai who as far as I know,has no reason to hold anything back had no complaints about his time with Dave. Just more evididance to me on who is the hard one to get along with.
Actually, Steve Vai is far too much of a gentleman (and far too much of a professional session musician) to say outloud (and endanger his income) all of the frustrations he had in his time with Dave.
Do those frustrations include eat em and Smile? NO. But subsequently, instead of following the thread created with the hard rocking EEAS (which, I agree, is far and away Dave's best solo work)(and even outranks some of the VH material), Dave decided to create the material for Skyscraper and its subsequent tour.
That meant bringing in a full-time keyboard player who wrote pop tunes - not Vai's taste (and not in keeping with the tradition of EEAS), marginalizing Billy Sheehan to the point of obsolesence (remember the guitar and bass duel in Shyboy? Incredible, right? Remember the guitar and bass duel in The Bottom Line? Me neither.)(Billy also said in interviews during EEAS that he was looking forward to writing more material for the next album. Skyscraper had no Billy tunes), and , during the tour, Dave removing Steve's solo entitled "Sunspots" (a fave moment for the fans, why it was removed remains a mystery.
Steve has also alluded to his frustration with how Dave rushed his guitar parts for Skyscraper. The guitar parts and solo we all know from "Just Like Paradise" was actually Steve's demo for the song. Dave believed they were good enough as they were, aand refused to let Steve record and realize the parts as he had originally intended.
Was Dave in the wrong? No. It's ultimately his product and Steve and Billy were his hired hands to realize not their but HIS visions and goals for the album. Dave has gone onto say - as someone alluded to here - that Steve was moving further and further into a completely different musical zone (Dave's background was playing bars for years. Steve went to Berklee College of Music and was on big stages with avant-gardist Frank Zappa before he was out of his twenties. Totally different mindsets and approaches to music).
But Steve and Billy leaving in the wake of dave's choice to change direction should surprise and disappoint no one.
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