Adrian Vandenberg and Randy

[electricmombie]

Wow... That poor bastard: inadvertent wrist injury and a car accident, too.

Hope he's doing well...

[tedeeoo]

Last info I saw said he was fully healed and ready to rock!!! He is a great painter to by the way, very creative person, he always struck me as being very intelligent also.

[The Flying Dutchman]

Wow... That poor bastard: inadvertent wrist injury and a car accident, too.

Hope he's doing well...

Feel free to correct me if I give false information here. But what I remember from a (very old) interview back in the days is that Ad said he started to develop some sort of RSI already in the final year with Vandenberg. He tended to hold his breath when playing fast licks causing tension in his arm/shoulder. Because of that his playing wasn't already that fluid anymore in the final Vandenberg days. But that he only noticed when it really went wrong in Whitesnake. I also remember he got wrist problems because of a certain exercise he did to improve his technique. It was in the days when the "gripmaster" became hot to build finger muscles......

btw. check out the documentary "the making of the slip of the tongue" on the new Whitesnake Donnington DVD, there is an amazing lick he is playing for a song they never finished. It's right after a scene where David Coverdale is playing some blues on one of Ad's guitars as it seems. It shows what Ad was capable of as a 'shredder'! No coincidence David put that in the doc I guess, thnx to David for that little treasure! The simulary Ad has with Randy is that they both really composed their solos. Adrian's solos are lots of times little compositions in a song. Altough his playing was/is very different than Steve Vai's he easily could compete with him live on stage. I like Adrian's solospot in Whitesnake even better than the solo Steve Vai did.

[tedeeoo]

I think the lick you are speaking of is the intro to the song "Sweet Lady Luck" (I could be wrong) which did not make SOTT but was included on their greatest hits cd a few years back (with Steve Vai playing it). When I watched it I thought Adrian played it better than Steve did, really a shame he's had so much trouble through the years and I believe you are correct about the breathing thing, I'm sure that made rehabbing from the wreck that much harder. I read an interview with Adrian during the 87 tour where he said for his entire career he never felt like he had played to more than about 40 percent of his abilities due to his various difficulties. The SOTT dvd is a great watch by the way, really cool seeing that version of the band onstage. His guitar designs with both Fernandes and Peavey were just genius, there are a lot of design features (esp. on the Peavey) to enhance tone and playability that, even today are still impressive. I know quite a few people at Peavey who spent alot of time with Adrian back "in the day" and every one of them will tell you he is one of the classiest people you will ever meet, to me thats just as important as anything he's ever played on, maybe even moreso. Cool thread about a cool guy

[Axian]

It sounds very 80's to me and in my opinion Randy was more advanced and more ahead of his time with his playing than this track showcases. The Ozzy stuff is timeless and his quiet riot stuff obviously was very limiting for him.

[Cpt Matt Sparrow]

I have to agree with you there Axian whole heartedly. Randy's playing and the quality of song writing on the two Ozzy albums were remarkable; i.e ahead of their time, but most importantly (like all great works of art) timeless. Apples and dinosaurs and also oranges aside - Randy may have worn clobber that made him superficially appear similar to many 80's cock rockers, but his mentality was on a whole different musical level IMHO.

By the way, back to Adrian and Slip Of The Tonge, this isn't my territory as such, but at the time when that came out and I heard Steve Vai's playing, I thought it was completely inappropriate for that style of music. Adrian's sound was quite monsterous and huge, like an animal - and suited the macho sound of the band. Steve sounded interesting and hugely creative , like you'd expect, but too flowery IMHO.

Matt

[Cpt Matt Sparrow]

P.S

I saw (and loved) The Wrestler earlier in the week and the whole soundtrack is all 80's hair metal! Ratt's 'Round and Round 'bought back some memories! that was one of my first metal albums I had taped when I was about 12/13.

Also there is a funny bit when Mickey Rourke called Cobain a pussy for putting the 80's to sleep LOL!

Matt

[tedeeoo]

Steve Vai is a great player but not for Whitesnake, I remember being disappointed when I heard that record, there are some great moments on there but as a whole it just wasn't what I expected and Matt your description is perfect. Even Coverdale has said that he thought he was getting the Steve Vai he heard in the movie "Crossroads", thing is, Steve can really pull the bluesy stuff off when he wants to and to me the live dvd is much better than the album (other than they don't play the Sykes stuff right). I really think it wouldn't have mattered who played on SOTT because it wasn't John Sykes and up until Coverdale got Doug Aldrich in WS, nobody has really been able to fill those shoes.

As far as Adrian and Randy, Adrian has never had that fire and life in his playing that Randy had, I've always thought of him as a "methodical" player almost stiff sounding, Randy's playing was alive. I think as a songwriter on the first 2 Vandenberg records Adrian was somewhat unique but you just can't compare him to Randy in that regard. Blizzard and DOAM had a completely new sound and to me the thing that maybe gets the most overlooked about Randy (except maybe by Matt ) are his compositional skills. To me when you think about how those 2 records sounded, especially at the time of their release, the only player you can compare Randy to is Eddie Van Halen. They both came out with something that we all had not heard before, with Vandenberg and most of the other groups of that era you can't say that.

[Cpt Matt Sparrow]

...

even more off topic, but what I think is missing in a lot of newer rock players is making the distorted guitar growl and scream like a wild animal! Hendrix did, Randy did and of the more recent players to me John 5 does and while he is not my style Ted, the clips I have heard of Doug from you , makes me happy the spirit isn't dead! I don't know,to me rock/metal guitar should be blatantly sensual and when necessarily animalistic. It shouldn't be so civilised and clean to the point of sounding doctor's surgery sterile.

It is great that the technical bar has been raised, but not at the expense of losing the 'screw it' attitude that rock n roll is about IMHO. That level of details and precision is completely in place in the world of classical music but not in the world of rock.

Matt

[tedeeoo]

I agree 100 percent with what you're saying Matt, my best friend James (who is also a guitar player) and I call it "grease", you know you can cook all healthy and that's okay but if you really want it to taste good you gotta add some "grease" to it, lol!!!! (Hey I grew up in the Southern United States where everyone's mom knows how to cook really good, ) alot of players now just do not have that. That's why I like Doug's playing so much, he has killer chops but its the way he hits a string that gives it all that attitude and you can hear his heart (so to speak) in his playing. Randy had it, EVH had it, so did Jake, even a guy like Paco de Lucia has it. Great statement there Matt.

Right there with you on John 5, great player who is alot more diverse than people realize.

In addition to grease, throw a little "karo" syrup in there on a biscuit and you're really cookin'!!!!

[shred1]

A couple others that fit into that category of 'emotional benders' for lack of a better term was Jason Becker. His story, to me, is just as tragic as RR's.

Also, check out Vivian Campbell's spotlight solos from the Dio era. Quite raw, but kinda Rhoadsesque.

John 5 is awesome.

I have always thought Vai had a weak tone, but crazy technical skills.

[Axian]

A couple others that fit into that category of 'emotional benders' for lack of a better term was Jason Becker. His story, to me, is just as tragic as RR's.

Also, check out Vivian Campbell's spotlight solos from the Dio era. Quite raw, but kinda Rhoadsesque.

John 5 is awesome.

I have always thought Vai had a weak tone, but crazy technical skills.

I dont know how vivian can be second best with his talent in def leppard. He said some bad things about dio aswell before he died.

[tedeeoo]

Its almost like Vivian just quit playing, I saw him on the 87 Whitesnake tour and he just annihilated Adrian, I mean just mopped the floor with him, and then I saw him with the Lep's on the Euphoria tour and I couldn't believe the change in him. He was the only reason I went to that show and it was such a let down, he doesn't seem very likable either but who knows.

I know alot of people think of Jason Becker as a "shredder" but let me tell you he had a PILE of grease all over him. I saw the un-editted video from his seminar at AIM that became his instructional dvd and he was just NASTY (in a good way), all the technique you could want with just tons of r&r swagger. And the guy didn't give up either, most people who have ALS are dead within 5 years and he's still finding ways to put out music, its sad but inspirational at the same time. Jason was part of the reason I started playing seriously again after 8 years of not playing, when I saw that footage I remember thinking, "you know there's a guy that would give his left arm to be playing and here I am sitting on my ass".

It's hard to dis Steve Vai (and not saying anyone is), he really didn't fit WS, and sometimes he's a little "quirky" for my taste, but you can't question his dedication to the instrument. He has just mind-blowing touch on the guitar, super intonation, never get the feeling that he's ever anyplace uncomfortable on the fretboard. Sometimes I love his tone and sometimes not, I remember seeing him on the "Eat Em and Smile" tour and just being in awe of him and Billy Sheehan, they just killed.

[electricmombie]

I wish I saw that tour for 'Eat 'Em And Smile'...

This is a good thread.
I'm enjoying what you all have to say.

Interesting thing you mentioned about David Coverdale expecting the Steve Vai playing in 'Crossroads' to be the style he'd play with Whitesnake.. Steve's playing is insane in that movie, the licks he plays: Mr. Jack Butler!

I agree that his tone and style wasn't thick enough or really suitable for Whitesnake, especially coming off of how John Sykes played on the self-titled '87 album.

Randy's playing somehow covered it all: thick and substantial for playing the more rhythmic stuff, but also his lead stuff sang, screamed and had presence that fit the song.

With "more dirt and grit", as Randy himself would say on those 2/2/82 guitar seminar mp3s circulating out there..

That additional dirt and grit is usually the stuff that gets the goosebumps going when you hear guitarists move you through their sound..

As someone said, Randy's sound is alive: it sounds as good as ever, as those two Ozzy records are as timeless as ever.

If you feel it and see it through to capture it on record...

Randy and the band did just that.
Hence why those 2 albums are and always will be timeless.

[shred1]

Yup, that Eat'em & Smile tour/band/album was the bomb! Awesome. The coolest lighting rig I have ever seen in my life.... all the trussing and par cans (about 1000 of'em) painted white.

Witnessed Dio just before Viv got canned. Actually, it was the day Phil Lynott died, as RJD dedicated the evening to him. The tension between Ronnie and Viv could be felt from the 40th row. I am talking pure hatred. You could feel it. Some people can really play when they are pissed off. Viv was digging in. Big time.

Jason Becker, in my opinion, is just plain brilliant.

Another player who I thought was covered in grease was Mick Sweda from the Bulletboys. He wasn't a groundbreaker or anything, but man I dig his playing. Sleazy.