This week we present you with the 5th installment of our Vinnie Vincent Special. Joining us for this discussion is drummer Andre Labelle of The Sky. Andre was tapped by Vinnie to drum on the still-not-officially released album Guitars from Hell that was recorded over a period of 1989 through 1992. In this discussion you'll hear the whole story of how the project was started, the interesting ways that Vinnie would decide on equipment,recording techniques, and the circumstances that led to the album being shelved.
Had a listen tonight, cool !
You guys are great, no stone un turned huh?
Roger Hutchinson next (REH) ? Don't know how much he would have, probably all positive though which would be nice
birnie wrote:Had a listen tonight, cool !
You guys are great, no stone un turned huh?
Roger Hutchinson next (REH) ? Don't know how much he would have, probably all positive though which would be nice
Thanks Birnie! We're already talking about part 6 and have someone in mind......
birnie wrote:Had a listen tonight, cool !
You guys are great, no stone un turned huh?
Roger Hutchinson next (REH) ? Don't know how much he would have, probably all positive though which would be nice
Thanks Birnie! We're already talking about part 6 and have someone in mind......
Wow, part 6 sounds super!
Thanks a million for doing this!
Since we don't get any new music from Vinnie, this is the next best thing.
And I didn't know Vinnie actually had invited music buddies (Bobby Rock, Andre Labelle, etc.) to holiday dinner up to 2000.
Sounds like that real recluse/hermit lifestyle had begun only after 2000.
I wonder what triggered that total seclusion.
GREAT WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i spoke to the engineer and the guy who reccomended Andre to Vinnie before. Both had some stories. Very interesting Nelson and Bobby went to VV's for easter. I know that Nelson did mention VV hooked them up with Bobby. Bobby for the most part said good things about VV.
seems like a lot of questions came from members here. hehe
Wonder if I will ever be interviewed on db geek??
i have a slight problem with dissing VV about playing fast. no one says Jascha Heifetz playing Paganini is too fast and over the top but its as fast as VV and if Jascha Heifetz started playing Hendrix or Beck stuff he would get some stick. I think its too easy to blast VV for not playing his 70s style. Yes he may have had a gig with Rod Stewart and got more credit in serious rock circles but classically speaking the way he plays is more serious in my opinion. obvioulsly the teenage song titles are what went against him but still we all know how awesome he was.
i think vv recorded so little he didn't get a chance to show his full spectrum. its such a shame he never worked things out with Shrapnel records. a shrapnel release would have showed everyone what he could do. I love his classical and gypsy jazz cross overs. I swear he also must have liked Astor Piazzolla as well.
sorry db geek. i am rambling off topic. I just can imagine a vv shrapnel records release and vv comes in with a home run shredding on lap pedal steel on one or two songs. I still think the 'Over You' lap steel is genius and would have been an amazing addition to a heavy metal band. Wish VV could have continued. Feeling a little sad actually.
if he wanted that huge bonham sound those telefunken 251 mics that they used on creatures plus ACRYLIC DRUMS would have been like thunder or recorded in an elevator shaft like God of thunder was. 26 inch bass drums ok. I have a 28 inch double bass set which is crazy. Elvis's drummer in 70s used two 28 inch bass drums for some reason.
doublev2 wrote:i think vv recorded so little he didn't get a chance to show his full spectrum. its such a shame he never worked things out with Shrapnel records. a shrapnel release would have showed everyone what he could do. I love his classical and gypsy jazz cross overs. I swear he also must have liked Astor Piazzolla as well.
It is just sad that Vinnie didn't work with Shrapnel records.
I bought many albums from Shrapnel and many of them were far beneath the level of Vinnie in terms of guitar playing skills.
He could have conquered that niche market once he entered.
I just don't understand how he did not see such an obvious market for him, all ripe and ready for him.
It's sad and tragic.
doublev2 wrote:i have a slight problem with dissing VV about playing fast. no one says Jascha Heifetz playing Paganini is too fast and over the top but its as fast as VV and if Jascha Heifetz started playing Hendrix or Beck stuff he would get some stick. I think its too easy to blast VV for not playing his 70s style. Yes he may have had a gig with Rod Stewart and got more credit in serious rock circles but classically speaking the way he plays is more serious in my opinion. obvioulsly the teenage song titles are what went against him but still we all know how awesome he was.
I think those people are just jealous.
When double bass drumming first came out, many people talked down on it and whenever some monster players come out, many of rivals talk all kind of things.
Those who have to talk negative things about Vinnie's fast playing is the people who would never achieve that level of speed so in order to protect their ego, they have to talk negative things about it.
i understand that the guys who heard him before kiss were blown away and were dissapointed he went into a more metal style and i would love to hear the vinnie before kiss or the other sides of him but i think its too easy to write off what he did and say what hendrix or beck (who i love both) did was more what he should have been doing. I don't mean to pounce on db geek and andre because i totally understand it, just saying listen to pagganni or some great classical players or pieces and its every bit as over the top as vinnie but because the setting is a classical theater and the clothing is traditional they get respect and vv doesn't. its kind of like the buddhist in monk outfit will get more respect in general than the buddhist in a t shirt and shorts but it doesn't mean that the monk is more or less buddhist or devoted.
As for drumming, yes double bass drum even today gets laughed off but some of the great jazz drummers and big band guys in the 50s and 60s used them with no problems. A famous drummer came to my house when I lived in New York City when he saw my bebop set with a double bass drum but to be honest what i like in drummers and music is originalliy. people not scared to break from the norm. Thats why I hate most modern jazz as the drummers are too clinical and copy the greats. the greats didn't copy, maybe influenced but not copy and not afraid. just like vinnie.
andre said some great things about drum machines and i thought the presenters as always were excellent and colorfull. I really think they are on course for syndicated radio show.
Promises made, crying in vain, all empty. Never accepting the blame and not letting go of the shame. A river of tears, as months turn to years, all wasted. On someone not willing to change.Now only a shadow remains!
That was Brilliant. I know a lot of you will disagree with me with what I'm about to say, but I'm on VV side as far as 'Micro Managing' the Recording of VV's Revenge/Guitars from Hell/Guitarmageddon. The thing is it wasn't going to be a soda pop album like a Slaughter release or a KISS', Crazy, Crazy, Crazy Nights. It was from what we have all heard, an album that could have easily come across, sound wise as Vinnie's Revenge. There was not going to be any woodwind instruments and brushes on drums. There was going to be no pussy footing around this project. I was going to be a take no prisoners approach to recording. Which bringsme to the who thing of people saying the whole, 'Vinnie can play like Jeff Beck....why doesn't be play like that' My answer to it is, not one would be better at playing Jeff Beck than Jeff Beck. And if I want o hear Jeff Beck, I'll buy a Jeff beck album. Same as no one can play Vinnie Vincent, like Vinnie Vincent and for me I want to hear the over the top laser guided pyrotechnics Wiz shred fest. I wanted to hear every fucken free gap, every empty space fist fucked (NO! LUBE USED ANYWHERE ON THIS ALBUM!!!) with a
barrage of spasticardo chicken picking, a harmonic heard of screaming wild horses and topped with whammy damaging WWII drive bombing. I wanted to hear Andre's zombie Frankenstein mutated assembly of multiple drum kits. I wanted to hear Robert screaming at the top of his voice till he spat blood. I wanted to and was ready to hear an XXXtreme '2 be played a Maxium Volume' Vinnie Vincent album. From the demo's we almost got there.
I got Jesus in my fax machine. I saw Ho Chi Minh down @ Burger King. I dated Vinnie Vincent as a Drag Queen. I still don't understand a f**kin' thing. I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass and I'm all out of bubble gum.
i agree. vv is all about too much. its not vinnie if its not overboard and crazy. like all the stories that he would turn up guitar in mix when engineer left room. Thats vinnie and thats what makes him great (or what made him great i should say). What makes Vinnie great is also what makes him a screw up. I suppose Mike Tyson maybe the same kind of guy in a way.
As for drum machine though that was way too far and ruined the music. I agree totally with Andre on that. I would hate to hear GFH released with a drum machine and I guess thats how it will be released if it ever comes out.
i praise vinnie for what he did and all the enjoyment he gave us but also just such a tragedy how he is but like i said maybe thats vinnie and you don't get good music without the insanity.
Great interview, .. I think the micromanaging is fine its his album, but the obsessing over a song and making hundreds of cut ins on a solo and retake after retake can actually become counter productive. You burn the engineer out he stops listening after the 10th take. They don't care because your spending cash in the studio so the more you do the more they make but you turn your second pair of ears against you. The inability for Vinnie to let the song go bit him in the ass on that record. If he could have stepped back and said its done for now we would have had a album to listen to. Its kinda like if a painter kept painting the same painting over and over because he felt he could improve his last brush stroke and never finishing it.
As far as other musicians not understanding him not moving on from his fast style of playing, I say pasha to them Vinnie's lightning fast licks were what made people go ""WHOAA" . But he really really needed to establish his style in the hearts and minds of the "masses" That last album needed to happen and with out hitch to give him industry legs..
Guitars good, drugs booze.. bad
The worldsbest qoute ever "take your Massengill-soaked vibrator from your wretched gutter clam"
good points. he really needed to put more out and for a not so commercial product like gfh he needed to think about budget and time, i know people think gfh could have been a hit but with robert singing on top of voice like that it wasn't so commercial in my opinon. i love it but not a sure fire money maker like ASG should have been. Even first VVI album Robert is more controlled at times but on GFH its getting into another stratosphere.
