Billy Sheehan Interview: Talks DLR

[Southpaw]

I was 19-20 when Skyscraper came out, I played the shit out of that CD in my 83 Pontiac Grand Prix with my Alpine Stereo blaring through those Cerwin Vega speakers. Even though most my buddies didnt dig the album, and my girlfriend at the time would rather listen to the Cure or Depeche Mode, that album did some permanent damage to my eardrums. I will say I dont think Skyscraper has aged well. Even though I liked ALAE, Daves pony tail look and scaled down tour was a sign of things to come for him. My buddy actually tried to jump on the microphone that he rode at Jones Beach Theartre with disasterous results...

[Terry]

Sheehan's biggest asset, like Vai's, is also to my ears his biggest liability: his excellent technical prowess. It's obviously an asset in that the guy is a phenominal technician. The liability is that Sheehan (again, like Vai) has a tendency to want to display the full range of his chops on every song. When Sheehan and Vai were paired together for the first time on EEAS, the PLAYING was astounding in terms of technique execution. I'd be dishonest in saying that there weren't more than a few times where some of the tunes and song structures seemed not as fleshed out as they could have been, and were little more than excuses for those two to solo over. This was a trap that Eddie Van Halen was always able to avoid - as bitchin' a soloist as Eddie was, what makes CVH resonate is the SONGS. When Sheehan left Roth and formed Mr.Big, as cheesy as To Be With You was, there's a reason it resonates with audiences that aren't made up of guitar players - it's a song. The other single off of Mr.Big's debut album, Addicted To That Rush, is a wankfest.

I enjoy the bulk of the material on Skyscraper, but the album sounded a bit flat in terms of the production - not enough bass and not enough depth. I mean, Fair Warning has fucking DEPTH to the sound...depth and space. Skyscraper is so cluttered and mid-range that when you crank it up, it turns to mush at times. It's a bit similar to what I experienced when listening to ADKOT in my car for the first time re: the sonics. While ADKOT isn't as cluttered, it's a very flat sounding, mid-range eq that doesn't boom as the volume increases, but rather bleeds.

I dunno if I quite buy the notion that ALAE was killed off by grunge, since ALAE had a good 6 months in the record stores before anyone even heard of who Nirvana was. Maybe that impacted the longer term sales. Perhaps the Gulf War 1 had something to do with blunting the initial commercial reception, but possibly a broader reason is that Roth solo by the time 1991 rolled around just wasn't anything new or fresh anymore to a large swath of record buyers. Put it down to a chunk of the fan base getting older and moving onto other things (which might explain some of the stylistic changes that began to bubble up around the ALAE album and REALLY surfaced in a big way with YFLM).

None of this saying that I dislike any of the albums I mentioned above (although I'd be hard-pressed to recall the last time I actually had a desire to give Skyscraper a spin from start-to-finish). There are precious few bands/artists who stay hot forever, at least in a commerical sense.

[Zing!]

I dunno if I quite buy the notion that ALAE was killed off by grunge, since ALAE had a good 6 months in the record stores before anyone even heard of who Nirvana was. Maybe that impacted the longer term sales.

Sales weren't helped by the fact that WB let it go out of print for over a decade.

[SunisinuS]

I just wish we had video of those early jam sessions at Dave's house. I can just see Dave explaining to the guys how they're gonna take over the world, laying out the vision...and the blow

Lol the Archer Avatar D. Sealab 2021's legitimate heir.....

[ELVIS]

I dunno if I quite buy the notion that ALAE was killed off by grunge, since ALAE had a good 6 months in the record stores before anyone even heard of who Nirvana was.

ALAE was killed off because it was generally lackluster, and also by that point nobody cared about solo Roth after hearing Skyscraper...

[sonrisa salvaje]

Nah. Change was due. Lots of weak bands riding the coat tails of bands that were already riding coat tails. Watered down hair bands had to die when they did.

A more true statement has never been said.

[DLR Bridge]

A more true statement has never been said.

I try to save all of my false statements for the kids!

[ThrillsNSpills]

ALAE would have been much better if Jason
Becker co-wrote all of the songs with Dave instead of just Showtime and Drop in the Bucket. Those tunes were blasters and almost sound out of place. I think that album lacks character and having different writers makes it sound less cohesive.
And Shoot it to me sounds like a more calculated (begging for a radio hit) than Stand Up.

I'm amazed that Skyscraper sounded as good as it did sonically since Vai did the guitars on a Fostex R-8 in his home studio. (great machine, just not studio quality).
Vai played some amazing stuff on Skyscraper, but he definately does not have Ed's feel.

[ELVIS]

No, he has Vai's feel...

[Zing!]

He had Ed's feel on EEAS. He and Ted T. came closer than anyone of capturing EVH's elusive brown sound on that album. I've always thought Vai's solo on Big Trouble was one of the best EVH solos ever.

[VHscraps]

Did the 25th anniversary of Skyscraper just pass?

Shit. 25 years. I saw six shows on that tour in Europe. It was widely acclaimed at the time, and I still have clippings from all the UK press, a few of the reviews hailing it as 'The Greatest Show on Earth'.

We're talking people who probably hadn't seen Dave put on a show writing those kind of reviews, but that was one well-rehearsed and well-drilled show.

What was the song where Dave went behind Vai, put his arms through Vai's (okay I'm not describing this very well) and played the last notes of a solo - like two notes over and over as fast as he could?

There were moments like that, then the kinda rockabilly mini-set (upright bass, acoustic guitars, and Everly Brothers and Beatles tunes for ten minutes).

Some reviews mentioned that the roadies even seemed to be doing scripted comedy routines as they were changing the set around.

I'm amazed that with such a production DLR never filmed a bunch of shows.

[Zing!]

Some of those shows were almost certainly filmed for posterity.

Not sure if Dave has a beef with WB that would prevent them from seeing the light of day, but if so - I would be on board with VH doing a Wha? one-off show of only ADKOT tunes and maybe a few non-WB covers - yes, that would mean a live VH show with no Jump... gasp! - if that's what it took to get an official live VH release. Dave would have to sing better than he did on the Downtown Sessions, though.

[Terry]

ALAE was killed off because it was generally lackluster, and also by that point nobody cared about solo Roth after hearing Skyscraper...

It's difficult for me to say ALAE is lackluster because I still enjoy the album, but in a broad sense...yes, I think so...in that for casual fans of Roth solo I could see where ALAE represented just more of the same.
If I'm being honest I would say that ALAE isn't necessarily an album that stands out as among my favorites of Dave post-VH in terms of start-to-finish.

[wolfsbane]

You are all M-Fers. Everyone has a different opinion. Everyone likes different tracks off of different albums. BTW, 40 below is awesome. As well as Drop in the bucket and Its Showtime.


IMO, YFLM is the only weak spot to the entire DLR catalog. Mostly because of the production and the attitude of the performances. The songs are not bad. F that Nile Rodges dude.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

mutha-fos