Eddie Van Halen to speak at Smithsonian Instituion on February 12.

[chuckjitsu]

Writing a good vocal melody over music without being able to change the music is really difficult.
When Ed claims he did all the work by delivering the music completed he misses the point entirely. Most guitarists could sit there coming up with riffs all day the genius is turning them into songs.
The perfect recent demonstration of this is Blood and Fire.

I remember reading an interview with Ed where he said he could basically give Dave anything music wise and Dave would always be able to come up with lyrics and vocal melodies for whatever Ed gave him. That's not always easy to do. I also remember reading an interview with Sam where he said one of the songs on Balance ended up being an instrumental because he couldn't figure what to do with the music. I think Dave's work with VH has been underrated to a degree in terms of what he contributes to the songwriting process relative to lyrics/vocal melodies.

[DLR Bridge]

I remember that interview Chuck. Was in this mag...image.jpg

[clarathecarrot]

You know in 9 short years or long depending on how it rolled ED has made me feel so good despite the awesome music and the tours that entertained me something I thought would happen but never knew, when it might (DLR back and so forth).

Where this site was, where ED was, what we were watching as ED lost it for years, wondering if one day Ed would be under the 12th street bridge more concerned with the cup than where he was.

Idol worship has never figured into my listening pleasures, there must be some of it involved in moments in time frozen yet living on a disc of music. I have more often than not embraced some kind of brotherhood thru who I listened to and thus have always looked upon rock stars as a brother.

Ed has really done a 180 degree turn around..

2006 to 2015 Ed, Nice Job.


Thanks VA great Vid Post

[Seshmeister]

From 6 time Grammy nominated producer John Shanks who has written and/or produced over 100 top 5 singles.

http://www.guitarworld.com/interview-john-shanks-discusses-producing-van-halens-new-album-different-kind-truth

As a musician, producer and songwriter, can you share some observations about their writing and recording processes?

I’ll use “Hot For Teacher” as an example of why Dave is great, because until people really get to know the new album, it’s hard to explain his magic. Think about “Hot For Teacher.” You have the big hammer-on intro, then you have the guitar part, then down to the John Lee Hooker kind of guitar part. Now, I’m guessing here that when Eddie came up with that, he probably assumed that’s where the verse would start. Most singers, when they hear that, would have started singing right there. Not Dave. What Dave does is, “What do you think the teacher’s going to look like this year,” and then it goes into another section and he starts the vocal. Again, most writers would have written that as the B section. Dave sees that as the verse. Dave goes over barre lines and looks at things completely originally, more than most songwriters.

The way I correlate Dave — there’s a similarity almost to the way Stevie Nicks writes. Stevie writes over barre lines and her verses continue over where you think they would go to this section, but they don’t. She’s like a poet. Stevie writes poems, and Dave writes in a very similar way, where he’s going over sections of songs so it’s not cookie-cutter. Analytically, when you break it down as a songwriter, the way Dave writes sometimes is outside the box, or as he says, it’s “off book.” He has these parameters, and he bends and morphs them to accommodate his ideas, not only melodically but lyrically as well. That’s hard to do, especially in a context of the material he’s working off of. It’s more beat poetry or jazz; it’s more that kind of thing. It’s more R&B.

Dave thinks outside of the box. To see that process was to see what he goes through to create that. He goes through his process trying to find melodies and counterpoints. What I came away with was the brilliance of Dave, which is like the brilliance of Eddie, but in a completely different way, but they complement each other.

[DaveTheScott]

A few good moments during this thing - hell, just glad to see Ed out and about. There's two takeaways I care about here...

(1) Pretty much confirms there ain't any upcoming tour being planned...
(2) Pretty much confirms Dave is not in regular contact with the band and he damn sure hasn't been visiting Howdy Doody Mountain to work on a new album.

[ZahZoo]

I wouldn't go so far as to say no tour "planned"... something was or is in the planning phase. Just no ink to paper has been committed, yet.

Regular contact between Dave and the VH Clan™... When rehearsals, recordings or formal business meetings with management etc. occur, yeah, Dave is in the loop. In between those times when there's nothing on the table... I doubt Dave and someone with the last name Van Halen talk more than periodically and can go a few months without touching base.

I would be really surprised if Dave has been up to Howdy Doody Mountain™ even a half dozen times since their 2006 reconciliation...

[Va Beach VH Fan]

I wouldn't go so far as to say no tour "planned"... something was or is in the planning phase. Just no ink to paper has been committed, yet.

This.

I've lost exact count, but I believe it's up to seven or eight venues around North America that are reportedly in discussions about booking Van Halen in the summer/fall timeframe.

And, as I mentioned previously, it's important to remember that these negotiations between the band's management and the venue are commenced via notification from the band, and not vice versa.

Now, could something have changed recently in that regard? Sure, especially since those venue reports are at least a month old but the "DDE Media" (as Shelly put it) only went dark about a week ago.

So while I would definitely say that there is no new VH album in our future any time soon, unless something changed in that regard, there is/was definitely a summer/fall tour in the planning stages.....

[Never was]

To me it smells like a contract a dispute/negotiation behind the scenes rather than some great rift in the band or drama. Plain and simple till contracts are done and ink dry not a lot of incentive to hype future endeavors till then. Result is still consistent with my view the next 2 years are either the most productive in decades or implosion.

That being said in regard to the band, it is great to see Eddie removed from his self induced fog. His pride and joy of Wolf is pretty cool to see.