Al, they really were just a great garage rock band. Maybe the greatest!

bluesypicky

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Strictly personal opinion: EVH has wasted most of his professional life playing mostly surface, little depth music when he has (or at least had) the chops, and likely compositional talent too, for making much deeper music. I really liked VH & VHII when those albums came out and I was 18 & 19. Then I got older.
-Dave-

Dave, could you elaborate on your definition of surface and depth music? (not a jab, just interested here...)
 

Westerly Wood

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Dave, could you elaborate on your definition of surface and depth music? (not a jab, just interested here...)

To me, Eruption is super deep.
https://youtu.be/sI7XiJgt0vY

No one was writing this stuff then. Not like this. It is timeless 90 + seconds of sheer genius. Depth requirement to me speaks of elitism but I get what you are saying. But EVH grew poppy but he didn't start that way. Les Paul thought highly of him too, while he thought Slash was crap.

Anyway...
 
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adorshki

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To me, Eruption is super deep.
https://youtu.be/sI7XiJgt0vY

No one was writing this stuff then. Not like this. It is timeless 90 + seconds of sheer genius. Depth requirement to me speaks of elitism but I get what you are saying. But EVH grew poppy but he didn't start that way. Les Paul thought highly of him too, while he thought Slash was crap.

Anyway...

I dunno, when I first heard Eddie (first album, first month) I just heard an extension of all the stuff Beck had already done.
Even some traces of "Astronomy Domine" from Ummagumma
A lot of technique but not so much "music", so I kinda get what Quantum was thinking.
His tapping technique was pretty innovative for hard rock but he wasn't the first to use it:
(From the usual source:)
The technique began to be taken up by rock and blues players in the late 1960s. One of the earliest of such players was Canned Heat guitarist Harvey Mandel, whom Ritchie Blackmore claims to have seen using the technique onstage as early as 1968 at the Whisky a Go Go.[5] George Lynch has corroborated this, mentioning that both he and Edward Van Halen saw Mandel employ "a neo-classic tapping thing" at the Starwood in West Hollywood during the 1970s.[3] Mandel would utilize extensive two-handed tapping techniques on his 1973 album Shangrenade.
And I'll freely confess to being a little snobbish at the time as well, having started my exploration of European progressive rock, (Van Der Graaf, Crimson, Ange) and jazz ala Weather Report and Oregon.
And I was already a staunch Mandel fan as well.
In a time of limited funds for record acquisition, VanHalen wasn't even on the list, and Beck had found his way back to my favorite spot after not being real thrilled with Blow by Blow, with Wired and Live With Jan Hammer.
Then a funny thing happened, I saw the video for "Panama" and finally had to give 'im grudging respect for musical compositional ability.
It was the beginning of the abandonment of musical snobbery for me.
But DLR still makes me gag.
And when I see those bikini babes dipping and wiggling and holding their noses in the "California Girls" video, I only hear "Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in....wait! My nose is locked!"
:friendly_wink:
 
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walrus

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I saw them live in 1982. The guy can play. If you define "deep" as talented and innovative, then Eddie is it. Is Hendrix "deep"? He is for me!

I enjoy King Crimson, John McLaughlin, etc. Can't get much "deeper" than McLaughlin. But sometimes it's nice to just rock out and have fun - and Van Halen sure does that. I would agree he could play pretty much anything he wants to, but he chooses to do what he does, and when I want that kind of music, I'm happy he's around!

walrus
 

bluesypicky

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Beck had found his way back to my favorite spot after not being real thrilled with Blow by Blow, with Wired and Live With Jan Hammer.
Eh eh eh.... funny because I put "Blow by blow" & "Wired" at the peak of Jeff's career.

Re:EVH, I am well aware of (some) jazz people's snobbery, consisting in tagging any kind of music where 9th's, 11th's and 13th's intervals are not a part of every chord played, of "shallow" and without merit, but what prompted my question is the fact that EVH is associated with the hard rock style, and so far I always understood that shallow or surface music (if that's what Dave meant), applied to the soupy, commercial stuff a la Rod Stewart with his "do you think I'm sexy" and all the money making crap of the same vein, but if there is one thing IMO that hard rock is not, is commercial or soupy, hence my question about the above comment.
But hey, no sweat.... anyone is allowed to consider any music shallow. Outside of "do you think I'm sexy" that is. :playful:
 

Quantum Strummer

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Dave, could you elaborate on your definition of surface and depth music? (not a jab, just interested here...)

No point really because it's just a personal take I chose to state rather than a "position" I want/need to defend. I do feel Chuck Berry's You Never Can Tell is an example of "more depth" music, though. :)

-Dave-
 

walrus

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QS, I just listened to that song - love it! But clearly my post above is totally misinterpreting your concept of "depth"! My bad!

walrus
 

rampside

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.....and then in the eighties, along came Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble to spearhead the revival of the blues. Thank Goodness for that!

"Pride and Joy"

No one else could come close to what what Hendrix could do, without imitating him, 'cept SRV.
 
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Quantum Strummer

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QS, I just listened to that song - love it! But clearly my post above is totally misinterpreting your concept of "depth"! My bad!

Cool! And…no problem. You Never Can Tell and No Particular Place To Go are among the songs I remember hearing on the radio as a pre-schooler. Along with lotsa Motown & Beatles, of course! My mom had the radio on (CKLW, out of Windsor, Ontario) all the time as she went about her work…she ran her own dress-making business out of our basement. I think my love of language comes in part from hearing Chuck Berry lyrics at the same time I was figuring out what language was. :)

Oh, also: I just saw that Beatles clip from Australia last week or so. Love it that stuff like this is still being "unearthed."

-Dave-
 
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