2013-04-20 Sydney

wjamflan: Sorry Vain. Dave sounds just like he did in 2012 – awful. Embarassingly awful. His voice was on the decline in 2007, but not anywhere near as bad as it is now. I don’t think it was/is sickness. I think his voice is just gone from abuse over the years. It lasted longer than Robert Plant’s did – for what it’s worth – but it’s gone. Now he has to figure out how to make it sound ok with what he’s working with, like Plant eventually did. He can’t keep going this way b/c it is painful to hear.

As far as Aerosmith goes, I wasn’t defending the last 20 years of music. I was just pointing out that he can still do pretty much what he did in the 70′s, which is true. Unfortunately Dave can’t. It has nothing to do with liking Hagar either. I’m a Dave guy, but I don’t think we can ignore the obvious anymore….

Plant, IMO, had more to work with than Dave did and has more control over his voice now than he did in the 70s. Granted the range is not what it once was. In one of those recent Dave interviews he boasted that they used to have to tune down a full step and now he can sing anything, so apparently he thinks this high voice of his sounds good. It does not. Of course, Dave could still sound like Dave if he wanted to (See Blood and Fire for an example). The high voice started creeping in around Your Filthy Little Mouth (along with an overall change in his schtick imo – the DLR of 1994-present is NOT the DLR of 1978-1993) and is, sadly it seems, here to stay.

Some more

Ice Cream Man.from Simon Phillips

Unchained

Warning: Not that I give a fuck – but I’m going to sound like a DLR apologist to many people in this post.

I won’t argue with anyone who says Dave’s voice isn’t what it used to be and I know it really bugs a lot of people – especially casual fans who expect him to sound like he did on VH1. But it’s not something that bothers me personally. To me, Dave is first and foremost a showman. And he still performs in that capacity just fine. My gut instinct tells me that the VH bros aren’t worried about his voice either. He brings a unique element to a Van Halen show that makes it a Van Halen show. The swagger, attitude, sense of humor, etc. that Dave brings to the band is uniquely him, and by extension, uniquely Van Halen. For one dimensional lead singers who rely only on their voices to entertain a crowd are in a serious pinch if their singing skills diminish. But it’s only one piece of the pie for Dave.

Dave’s voice is not gone, for some insane reason he refuses to sing in his vocal range??????? I can’t figure it out!

redozzman:
Dave’s voice is not gone, for some insane reason he refuses to sing in his vocal range???????I can’t figure it out!

Maybe this is a better way to put it, although he seems to have at least lost the ability to scream like he did back in the 70′s and 80′s. That wouldn’t bother me as much if he wasn’t trying to sing harmony lines above what he originally sang – see Dance The Night Away etc. The higher register of his voice is not pleasant, and he lacks control.

Be that as it may, I agree that you couldn’t replace what Dave brought to the band. They already tried that. It’s just that he isn’t bringing that anymore either IMHO. Not that that isn’t to be expected from an almost 60 year old man. It would be pretty creepy to hear him saying “I’m gonna fuck your girlfriend pal” or “Don’t stick your tongue out at me unless you intend to use it”.

I also agree with this statement from jabbo:

The high voice started creeping in around Your Filthy Little Mouth (along with an overall change in his schtick imo – the DLR of 1994-present is NOT the DLR of 1978-1993) and is, sadly it seems, here to stay.

I think it sums up nicely what I was trying to say. In the end though, I think I just miss the old days and it’s tough to swallow that they’re never coming back….