Another Rock n Roll Train is Comin'

I know this is rather off-topic, but does anybody else see some AC/DC inspiration in this, too?

[img]http://image.email.interscope.com/lib/fed11671756d047f/m/1/Van+Halen-+The+Future.jpg[/img]

(New VH album with DLR should be released on 7th February)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2012 05:11PM by gretsch.

Angus had stated long ago (Donington '84 to be precise) that VH were more of a "what would you say, POP BAND I suppose". True (hard) rock'n'roll is AC/DC's domain.

http://www.myspace.com/music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=KJBI6R84JLQ



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2011 06:59PM by Tom B..

Tom B. Wrote:
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> Angus had stated long ago (Donington '84 to be
> precise) that VH were more of a "what would you
> say, POP BAND I suppose". True (hard) rock'n'roll
> is AC/DC's domain.

Well, VH always had that pop element in their music (backup vocal harmonies, etc.), but they are great band in their own way.

And after all, Angus admitted that Eddie revolutionized guitar playing in similar way like Hendrix before him.

Read here: [url=http://www.vhnd.com/2011/08/31/angus-young-on-eddie-van-halen/]AC/DC’s Angus Young: “I’d Put Eddie Van Halen in That Category of Being an Innovator Like Hendrix”[/url]

I am really interested what will they come up with after all those years (especially now, reunited with DLR).

Poop train is the title according to reliable sources.

Lets see if they cant top AC/DC. Number one in 29 countries, and 784k in the US the first week. I somehow doupt it even though VH only real huge market is the US. They could never match AC/DC on a world tour since is much bigger globally.

FOR what it's worth I appreciate VH and some of their stuff. 'Panama' in particular is a great rock song with a killer riff.

It's just that AC/DC are much more 'my cup of tea'. Angus's also, obviously, ha ha.

http://www.myspace.com/music#!/tombdisdain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=KJBI6R84JLQ



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2011 07:17PM by Tom B..

WholelottaTobe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Poop train is the title according to reliable
> sources.
>
> Lets see if they cant top AC/DC. Number one in 29
> countries, and 784k in the US the first week. I
> somehow doupt it even though VH only real huge
> market is the US. They could never match AC/DC on
> a world tour since is much bigger globally.

Well, they never did a proper WORLD tour as far as I know - only some big festivals (like Monsters of Rock in Europe) and it really amazes me.
I think they got big fanbase worldwide - so if they would go on world tour (especially after all these years with DLR back onboard) they got potential to have it sold out.

Maybe now is the right time

Or they will again have that "World Tour" of US&CAN (reminds me that joke told by Brian Johnson regarding the baseball & World Series - its US&CAN teams only so WTF? WORLD? )

Tom B. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What what it's worth I appreciate VH and some of
> their stuff. 'Panama' in particular is a great
> rock song with a killer riff.
>
> It's just that AC/DC are much more 'my cup of
> tea'. Angus's also, obviously, ha ha.

Interesting you said Panama, because they (VH band) admitted that Panama riff is Dog Eat Dog riff played backwards.

They had tape machine that played stuff backwards, back in the old days and I think they got inspired couple of times while "songwriting".

You see, even AC/DC riff played backwards can be a hit

gretsch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WholelottaTobe Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Poop train is the title according to reliable
> > sources.
> >
> > Lets see if they cant top AC/DC. Number one in
> 29
> > countries, and 784k in the US the first week. I
> > somehow doupt it even though VH only real huge
> > market is the US. They could never match AC/DC
> on
> > a world tour since is much bigger globally.
>
> Well, they never did a proper WORLD tour as far as
> I know - only some big festivals (like Monsters of
> Rock in Europe) and it really amazes me.
> I think they got big fanbase worldwide - so if
> they would go on world tour (especially after all
> these years with DLR back onboard) they got
> potential to have it sold out.
>
> Maybe now is the right time
>
> Or they will again have that "World Tour" of
> US&CAN (reminds me that joke told by Brian Johnson
> regarding the baseball & World Series - its US&CAN
> teams only so WTF? WORLD? )

Every desent sized rockband can sell out indoor arenas in Europe. They will never manage to sell out the biggest stadiums in Europe, or even airfields like AC/DC. AC/DC, Metallica, Maiden, Springsteen, Stones and U2 are the few chosen ones in rock or hardrock. VH will go for festivals or indoors in Europe.
The fact is that they have sold around 80 million albums worldwide and almost 60 of them are sold in the US alone. Thats the reason why they always have focused on that market. Quite a different story with AC/DC with more sales outside the US even though they have sold more than VH in the US. Just look how many more spectators AC/DC draw to their European gigs than the ones in the US on BI tour.

Agree with Gretsch, a lot of songs are made that way, riffs played backwards or different variations of the same, although I didn't know that 'Dog Eat Dog' inspired the 'Panama' riff - that's interesting and there are obvious silimilarities between the two if you compare them. Honest of VH to have admitted to that.

Keith Richards said in his book 'Life' - which I had the honour of translating to Croatian - that the riff to 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' is merely the 'Satisfaction' riff in reverse.

AC/DC - Angus & Malcolm that is - experiment a lot in that sense too - if you analyse riffs of 'Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be' and 'Highway To Hell', for instance, it's the same chords played in a bit different order, almost in reverse - HAABPTB riff combines G and D and ends in A, while HTH starts in A, but also combines D and G chords.

Not to mention an obvious similarity between 'Gimme A Bullet' and HTH riffs. It sounds like two variations of the same riff or pattern.

This could go on forever, so I'll sign off for now...

Here's my own 'variation' on LTBR (far left, on bass):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=KJBI6R84JLQ



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2011 10:40PM by Tom B..

gretsch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Or they will again have that "World Tour" of
> US&CAN (reminds me that joke told by Brian Johnson
> regarding the baseball & World Series - its US&CAN
> teams only so WTF? WORLD? )

Lol. Baseball teams are filled with foreign players, and the Van Halen brothers are Dutch, so you could say that the world is touring America... XD

--------------------------------
Stick this in your fuse box!

WholelottaTobe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Every desent sized rockband can sell out indoor
> arenas in Europe. They will never manage to sell
> out the biggest stadiums in Europe, or even
> airfields like AC/DC. AC/DC, Metallica, Maiden,
> Springsteen, Stones and U2 are the few chosen ones
> in rock or hardrock. VH will go for festivals or
> indoors in Europe.
> The fact is that they have sold around 80 million
> albums worldwide and almost 60 of them are sold in
> the US alone. Thats the reason why they always
> have focused on that market. Quite a different
> story with AC/DC with more sales outside the US
> even though they have sold more than VH in the US.
> Just look how many more spectators AC/DC draw to
> their European gigs than the ones in the US on BI
> tour.

Could be, but don't forget that those bands/artists tour quite regularly worldwide (outside US&CAN).

VH never properly toured outside US&CAN on markets like UK/Europe/Japan etc. and therefore I think your statement regarding the sales as the reason to focus on American market is wrong.
Maybe they were always focused just on US and never interested that much in others, only they know the real reason.
After all, in those times, every band wanted to make it big in America, that was every band's target. And being American band, they could care less about touring outside N. America.

But I think, that if they did proper (heavy) touring of UK/Europe - the album sales would be somewhere else.

The Farsight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lol. Baseball teams are filled with foreign
> players, and the Van Halen brothers are Dutch, so
> you could say that the world is touring America...
> XD

That's another perspective.

You can take the USA as a big pot wherein the whole world's nationalities and cultures are put and mixed together.

gretsch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WholelottaTobe Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Every desent sized rockband can sell out indoor
> > arenas in Europe. They will never manage to
> sell
> > out the biggest stadiums in Europe, or even
> > airfields like AC/DC. AC/DC, Metallica, Maiden,
> > Springsteen, Stones and U2 are the few chosen
> ones
> > in rock or hardrock. VH will go for festivals
> or
> > indoors in Europe.
> > The fact is that they have sold around 80
> million
> > albums worldwide and almost 60 of them are sold
> in
> > the US alone. Thats the reason why they always
> > have focused on that market. Quite a different
> > story with AC/DC with more sales outside the US
> > even though they have sold more than VH in the
> US.
> > Just look how many more spectators AC/DC draw
> to
> > their European gigs than the ones in the US on
> BI
> > tour.
>
> Could be, but don't forget that those
> bands/artists tour quite regularly worldwide
> (outside US&CAN).
>
> VH never properly toured outside US&CAN on markets
> like UK/Europe/Japan etc. and therefore I think
> your statement regarding the sales as the reason
> to focus on American market is wrong.
> Maybe they were always focused just on US and
> never interested that much in others, only they
> know the real reason.
> After all, in those times, every band wanted to
> make it big in America, that was every band's
> target. And being American band, they could care
> less about touring outside N. America.
>
> But I think, that if they did proper (heavy)
> touring of UK/Europe - the album sales would be
> somewhere else.


They were just plain stupid then.

OK, I did some deeper research reagarding the touring (outside US/CAN):

1978 - UK+Europe (opened for Black Sabbath - and didn't get booted )
1979 - UK+Europe+Japan (from now on as headliner)
1980 - UK+Europe
1981 - US/CAN only
1982/1983 - South America
1984 - Europe (Monsters of Rock Tour - AC/DC as a headliner; VH played only 5 of 7 shows)
1986 - US/CAN only
1988/1989 - Japan
1991/1992 - Mexico (2 Mexico City dates)
1993 - UK+Europe
1995 - UK+Europe (both opening for Bon Jovi) +Japan
1998 - Europe (after 4 dates cancelled due to injury) +Japan+Australia+NZ
2004 - US/CAN only
2007/2008 - US/CAN only

I should correct my statement before a bit, they did a few tours of Europe, but had ignored it for almost all 80's, when they were at the peak of popularity.
Secondly, they only did one leg of Europe if they did at all and number of dates can't compare with heavy AC/DC touring at all.

And to stay on the topic (of this mostly off-topic post, sorry for that, just wanted to clarify facts) - regarding the train cover:

"Regarding the train graphic, we asked the VH camp if that image was the album cover. They said it is indeed “based on” the album cover." (source: vhnd.com)

So, we will see how much steam VH train got

im surprised Eddie didnt claim DLR of giving him mouth cancer

I will post their European tourdates here later. Than we can compare and see if VH is Rock or Poop.