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No cymbal crashes


Prague

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In Van Halen's "Finish what ya Started" there are no cymbal crashes. Good.

 

A player doesn't always have to be hitting everything in sight.

 

Just an observation. Clean playing is every bit as good (and at times, better) as constant playing.

 

I'm not a big VH fan, either.

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hey check out Peter Gabriel's 1980 album (it's untitled, it has a melted face graphic on it) it's all drums. no cymbals at all! there is light flourishes of tamborine and cowbell but that's it. and it's not "solo" stuff either, there's lots of grooves going on.

 

ps. alex van halen can grrove with the best of them!

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Right. The whole (albiet subtl) point to my post was this:

 

I would bet money that 99 drummers out of 100, if playing the VH song in a cover band, would play the crash at all the standard locations (bridge/chorus lead-ins) and think they knew the song well.

 

It's all in the details. Sometimes the simplest things are overlooked by the "best" players.

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That song features Alex Van Halen on a bass drum, snare, and hi-hat, and Eddie on a 1954 Strat plugged directly into the board. Simple. Delicious.

"I had to have something, and it wasn't there. I couldn't go down the street and buy it, so I built it."

 

Les Paul

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Originally posted by Prague:

In Van Halen's "Finish what ya Started" there are no cymbal crashes. Good.

You should qualify that - the studio version may not but the live version has all the crashes going into and out of verses and all the obvious punches.

 

--

Rob

I have the mind of a criminal genius.....I keep it in the freezer next to mother.
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Originally posted by Dwarf:

- the studio version may not but the live version has all the crashes going into and out of verses and all the obvious punches.

--

Rob

I haven't heard any live version, but that's a poor judgement call for a pro. It gives the song a unique edge. But, he plays it live like any other rock tune? Too bad.
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Originally posted by Prague:

Originally posted by Dwarf:

- the studio version may not but the live version has all the crashes going into and out of verses and all the obvious punches.

--

Rob

I haven't heard any live version, but that's a poor judgement call for a pro. It gives the song a unique edge. But, he plays it live like any other rock tune? Too bad.
I'd have to respectfully disagree. This song is really good, but I'm guessing it doesn't translate very well in an arena without some serious reorchestration. The recording sounds so intimate...guitar straight to the board, some direct acoustic gtr, really ringy snare, and dry as a bone. It would sound really weak live in a huge venue without some additions.

"For instance" is not proof.

 

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Originally posted by Prague:

Perhaps. A good sound crew/engineer could pull it off, though.

It's very hard to create a dry sound in a venue that is the very definition of boomy. And the need to rework all of the drum eq's and stuff would be difficult.

 

The Stones and Peter Gabriel get around it by creating two completely separate stages one for the anthemic stuff, and one for the more intimate stuff.

"For instance" is not proof.

 

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Try listening to Mickey Curry on Hall & Oates album Private Eyes - the title track has no crashes in it. On their later album H2O, also check out Family Man and Maneater (that only has one crash throughout the whole song).

 

Or, Terry Chambers on XTC's album English Settlement, on a track called English Roundabout.

 

Or Charlie Watts on The Stone's Jumping Jack Flash.

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Originally posted by crujones:

hey check out Peter Gabriel's 1980 album (it's untitled, it has a melted face graphic on it) it's all drums. no cymbals at all!

IIRC, there are no cymbals anywhere on King Crimson's "Discipline". Then again, when you're Bill Bruford, you can be very clever without cymbals.

 

"No cymbals" was a signature element of Robert Fripp's production at that time. It wouldn't surprise me if there were no cymbals on the second Peter Gabriel album, produced by Fripp (or his own "Exposure" and Daryl Hall's excellent "Sacred Songs", which Fripp conceived as a trilogy). It's been years since I listened to those albums.

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