Van Halen Diver Down Song by Song Thread

Cathedral/Secrets:

We come to Tracks Three and Four, the instrumental being something Eddie had been working on for a while, and the song proper was inspired by the band's stay in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the gift cards inspired the lyrics, with Dave trying to write in the style of American Indian poetry.
Cathedral is a neat little instrumental, and has kind of a classical sound and vibe, guitarists, could someone explain what Eddie is doing on here? Anyway, we move into Secrets, which Eddie goes dun-dun-dun before the song begins proper, and it has this very relaxed, low key vibe that is so cool, and I love Dave's relaxed vocal on here, he nails the vibe and the attitude so well, and Mike does some nice harmony vocals as well on the chorus. And Eddie launches into a solo at 2:18, it's so Eddie, but so restrained and tasteful, and before I forget, he's playing on a Gibson EDS-1275 (double neck).
This song is pure awesomeness, shows the mightiness of the Mighty Van Halen in a different way, and is my second favorite song on here!

 

Live in 1983:

 

Chiming in late... a sentimental fave since I bought it brand new and only VH tour I saw... in reality, probably only rate 84 lower of DLR LPs but for aforementioned reasons I spin it more than anything except for debut and W&CF...

 

"Hang Em High" is a great Van Halen track; melodic, great bridge, stellar riffing, exciting guitar soloing, with a tremendous lead vocal. A song that probably gets overlooked in the VH canon because of the understated, eclectic album it comes from.

 

Great Opener. The perfect cover for VH. I played this track over and over. Love it.

 

Agreed. "Secrets" is a very unique VH song containing a beautiful, atmospheric melody. A very soulful track, perhaps the closest thing VH came to a ballad during their original years.

 

CATHEDRAL/SECRETS

Nice little change of pace VH style

The song reminds you of a beautiful woman who's free & out of reach but loves the human touch.

Dave sings this in a way that he's had had his fair share of theses type of girls

 

Normally “Secrets” would not be a song I would like, but, hey, this is Van Halen. “Cathedral” is the perfect intro for “Secrets” and the easy going vibe of the tune is perfection. Great backing vocals on this and I love Edward’s short, tasteful solo. “Secrets” is one of the better songs on DD as far as I’m concerned.

As much as people bitch about DD, I think it has some of Edward’s most adventuresome pieces on it. They’re very creative and definitely outside the box of most VH material.

 

I don’t have anything to add. “Catherdral/Secrets” is pure Van Halen greatness. Looking forward to a Rose River Bear breakdown

 

Not a guitarist, BUT, I've seen Eddie play this and it partly involves Eddie twisting one of the knobs on his guitar back and forth to get that modulating effect.

Better yet, any guitar players?

"Cathedral" sounds exactly like one, doesn't it? As if you walked into a grand old church, looked upward to the sky-high ceiling and saw the sunlight beaming and dancing through multi-colored stained glass.

"Secrets" is probably the "softest" song of the Roth era, and demonstrates the incredible range the band had, whether or not they put it on display so often. Back on July 9, 2015, I wrote on this forum that "'Secrets' is arguably the best song they ever wrote." I still stand by that statement. It is serious, it is relaxed, and it is tuneful. It is an incredible snapshot in time of its subject matter, whoever that woman is, maybe a girl you had a crush on in grade school walking on a winter's day. Eddie and Dave together at their peak were capable of anything good you can do in rock 'n' roll.

And of course, I have to mention MA so incredibly filling out the backing vocal with his golden pipes.

Anyway, "Cathedral/Secrets" is a killer combo.

 

Great thread!

Cathedral is a singular EVH expression, virtuoso. So perfect--technical mastery, yet I hear his heart. This song gets me emotional, obviously.

Secrets has a great laid back, driving in LA vibe. It has a total "chill effect" on my mood. I always perk up at the dun-dun-dun opening. Such a cool transition.

And a perfect setup to what comes next...Intruder--my favorite EVH piece!

 

"Secrets" is awesome. Sounds like nothing else they ever did.

 

One of the many great songs off the Diver Down LP. Cathedral is a great way to open Secrets as stated earlier

 

Secrets is amazing. Some of Dave's best ever singing and lyrics, and one of Eddie's greatest solos. And Cathedral is beautiful.

 

Cathedral/Secrets: Both of these songs, I enjoy much more as an adult than I did a teenager. As a teenager, these songs weren't 120 beats a minute with blazing electric guitar so I dismissed them. Now I appreciate them much more.

Cathedral is just beautiful. Love how it builds up, climaxes and then brings you softly back to earth. It's really a unique piece of work. I enjoy it as much as Eruption now. The title is perfect. I totally picture the guitar echoing back and forth in some gigantic medieval cathedral when hearing it.

Secrets is "Dance the Night Away's" cool, laid back cousin. Eddie's solo is a good one and gives the song a nice kick in the pants. I wouldn't call this an album highlight but it's a nice change of pace.

 

The single remix of Secrets is worth mentioning, some extra keyboards & the background vox come in early. How this song was not a smash hit for the band, I’ll never know.

 

Something sounds ‘off’ on that version. Sounds wonky.

 

Not sure if this was discussed in that thread, but Eddie supposedly wanted "Secrets" on Fair Warning, but the rest of the band didn't care for the song at the time:

http://www.vhnd.com/diver-down/secrets/

 

-cathedral-i really like the instrumentals on this album. each is very different from previous albums and different from eachother on here.

-secrets- guess its just me. this song seems like the band was out of ideas and to me cathedral doesn't fit as an intro

 

Secrets is one of my favorites from the band. Eddies chord work is brilliant and really showcases his his genius in using suspensions. Little bit of Cream influence in the chorus with the descending chromatic line.

 

Hang 'em High is a superb VH original that I wish they'd play more. Pretty melodic despite its pace, and the solo section takes it to a whole other level. This was the kind of tune that only VH was pulling off in the early 80s. Other hard rock bands could do mid-tempo rockers and ballads or even really fast tunes. This was something special.

 

Cathedral, with all the coordinated volume knob/delay work, is a standard technique now, but it was amazing when done here. Volume knob stuff had been done before, of course, but they key to this little tune was how well-composed it was. You could transcribe to piano, and it would sound good.

Secrets was a very nice use of Dave's voice. I was surprised that there wasn't a 2nd successful single from this album. Was a huge mistake to go with Dancing In the Street second. Little Guitars should have been second. I think a big success with Little Guitars might have created a space for Secrets to have been a bigger radio tune. Of course, in 1982, what was driving a lot of national hits was video presence, and Van Halen didn't really adapt to that until the 1984 album.

Secrets was the first appearance (that I can think of) of Dave's vocal style later done really well on songs like Damn Good, Ladies Night In Buffalo, Sunburn, and One Piece Thermo-molded Country Plastic Chair. Really like how he sounds doing that kind of stuff.

 

No, not just you. Yes, unlike what will happen after Secrets, on this lp, I just don't hear the 'connection' - maybe there isn't one...?

Anyway, with Secrets I think Roth does some effective vocal Plantisms at the start of the she got rhythm, she get crazy couplet. DLR sounds really good on this track. The short intro 'reminds' me a little of Hot for Teacher. Guitar solo seems like it comes from out of nowhere, love how it starts, how it sounds, and where it goes and ends up.

Cathedral makes me think of the kinds of 'compositonal patterns' EVH would do more of in the future (and on this album) that makes me think somewhat of what Townshend did with BOR, WGFA, Relay, Join Together, etc.

 

Wow, have I missed all the other albums between VH and DD?

Last time I checked in, we were just finishing up the first album (and there was a 5150 thread, too).

 

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