Another Observation on Diver Down

[Pappy P]

Let's rattle some cages.

 

Some of the songs on Diver Down remind me of Rush, and EVH's playing on those songs sis reminescient of Alex Leifson.

 

Does anyone agree or dis-agree.

 

Please talk amoung your selves while I Kcvetch (whatever that means).

[Gifthorse]

I think it sounds 100% VH. It isn't Eddie, it is the whole band together. The harmonies, songs, drums combine to sound unique.

 

I don't see any resemblance to Rush, sorry.

[Gifthorse]

I do think a couple songs Rush did sounded Police influenced though.

 

I think one of them was New World Man. The drums kind of sound a bit copelandy.

[Hairfarmer]

I could see the comparison being made in the sound of New World Man, and everything the Police ever did. Stewart Copeland's playing style in almost every one of the early Police recordings was a raggae shuffle, or, some other hint of a Caribbean/ska beat. Even Stewarts solo projects were heavily raggae.

 

For New World Man, Peart chose a raggae shuffle as the verse beat, and Alex chose a heavy phase shifter/chrous mix for his guitar (much like Summers often used), but IMHO, that's where the similarity ends. I can't think of another Rush song that I personally would equate to the Police's trademark sound.

 

Pappy made me get Diver Down out and dust it off. I really enjoyed listening to it again today, but, sorry bro...I didn't make the "Rush" connection. I do consider Diver Down to be VH's weakest album artistically.

 

Give me a song that you hear it on, Pappy. (<~ Guess I'm a poet and didn't know it.)

[Gifthorse]

Hair, I agree about the Rush song. I don't think the bass, or geddy's vocals sound like the police. You nailed it, drums and guitar tone.

 

But it is the only song I have ever heard by Rush where I noticed an influence, besides earlier stuff on thier first album that had Zeppelin tinges.

 

I don't thnk it is VH weakest work. I mean it had Roth in it at least. Plus Secrets, Hang em High, Full Bug, and Big Bad Bill all rock. I still love the Dancin in the Streets solo (amazing) and the overall style of the song. For mix and guitar tone the album sux bad compared to everything else they did.

[LPCustom]

The only similarities I see between Alex Lifeson and Eddie Van Halen is that they both play in a band with only one guitar. They both have had to play a rhythmic lead style that fills more than your typical lead player.

 

But I think any player in that position would probably play much the same way. I'm not talking style here. I'm talking just mechanics of the lines played. In a band that only has one guitar and no keyboards to fill in for the rhythm/melody guitar, the lead guitar player has to fill up the gaps.

 

Now, over the years, Rush has added a lot of technology that plays keyboard patch sequences into their songs by pressing pedals and keys. So they had moved away from the framework that Eddie Van Halen (and ZZ Top) still plays in. That might be why EVH's and Alex Lifeson's earlier work had a similar presence.

 

I don't think their playing styles are at all similar (except that both are very good guitarists). They just worked in the same framework in the their respective bands (drums, bass guitar).

 

In that respect, Billy Gibbons was playing in the same framework, too. Listen to his work, Alex Lifeson's and EVH's. There's a commonality in all of them because they flipped back and forth between rhythm/melody/lead-fill until it was time for a lead break. Their playing just seems "thicker" to me for want of a better word.

 

Now that's just my opinion and it's worth what you paid for it. Anyone wants to disagree, fine. I've been wrong before and I dare say I'll be wrong again.

[Big Red 67]

I see it. Maybe it comes from years of listening to both, or maybe from learning the history of music and the way that one thing comes comes from anouther. I noticed this in the Rush in Rio video. Alex plays allot of different guitars and some of the tones that he had reminded me of many different famed guitarist. It was one of the things I liked about that DVD.

[Gifthorse]

In a 1 guitar band the guitar tone sound bigger because it has more room in the mix because it has to in order to fill up the space.

 

Another example is King's X. Ty's tone is one of the bigges7t tones out there.