I love this track (especially the back half ). It's like an all you can eat buffet of Vai shredding. The build up prior to Vai letting fly is great, and I could listen to the last three minutes over and over. I used to wonder (and fantasise) about whether the solo went on for even longer than was used on the track. That probably seems a bit breathless, but for me this is up there with the best tracks Vai has been involved with.
I've known for a really long time that Steve did play on a PiL record, but never researched which one. I ended up listening to these songs a lot yesterday and ordered a copy of the CD today for my collection.
Steve Vai - a rough history The JEM guitar Interview Talking about Zappa Some guitar techniques Stevie's Spanking with Zappa 1981 May 1981 Zappa Tinseltown Rebellion Fine Girl Easy Meat For The Young Sophisticate Love Of My Life Ain't Got No Heart Panty rap, Tell me you love me, Now You See it now You don't, Dance Contest, Blue Light, Tinseltown Rebellion, Pick Me I'm clean Bamboozeld By Love, Brown Shoes Don't Make It, Peaches 3 1981 - Shut Up And Play Yer guitar - Frank Zappa Guitar Book sept 1981 Zappa You Are What You Is Teenage Wind Harder Than Your Husband Doreen, Goblin Girl, Theme From the 3rd movement of sinister footwear Society Pages, I'm A beautiful Guy, Beauty Knows No Pain Charlies enormous mouth, Any Downers, Conehead, You Are What You Is You Are What You Is - video Mudd Club, The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing, Dumb All Over Heavenly Bank Account, Suicide Chump, Jumbo Go Away, If Only She Woulda, Drafted Again NYC Palladium 1981 - with Zappa May 1982 Zappa Ship Arriving Too Late to Save A Drowning Witch No Not Now Valley Girl I Come From Nowhere Drowning Witch Envelopes Teenage Prostitute Mar 1983 Zappa Man From Utopia Cocaine Decisions The Dangerous Kitchen Tink Walks Amok The Radio Is Broken Moggio The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou Stick Together Sex Jazz Discharge Party Hats We Are Not Alone Jan 1984 Zappa Flex-able + leftovers Little Green Men Viv Woman Lovers Are Crazy Salamanders In The Sun Boy/Girl Song The Attitude Song Call It Sleep Junkie Bill's Private Parts Next Stop Earth There's Something Dead In Here Flex-able Leftovers You Didn't Break it Bledsoe Blvd The Beast Of Love Burnin' Down The Mountain So Happy Details At 10 Little Pieces Of Seaweed Chronic Insomnia Oct 1984 Alcatrazz - Power Live dvd Oct 1984 Zappa - Them Or Us The Closer You Are In France Ya Hozna Sharleena Sinister Footwear II Truck Driver Divorce Stevie's Spanking - live Vai and Zappa jam Baby Take Your Teeth Out Marque-son's Chicken Planet Of My Dreams Be In My Video Them Or Us Frogs With Dirty Little Lips Whipping Post March 1985 Alcatrazz Disturbing The Peace God Blessed Video Mercy - actual song Will You Be Home Tonight Wire And Wood Desert Diamond Stripper Painted Lover A Lighter Shade Of Green Sons And Lovers Skyfire Breaking The Heart Of The City - live Vai Live at the Spirit Club 1985 Nov 1985 Frank Zappa - Meets The Mothers Of Prevention We're Turning Again Alien Orifice Yo Cats What's New In Baltimore Little Beige Samb Porn Wars Aerobics In Bondage I Don't Even Care One Man One Vote HR2911 Jan 1986 Public Image Limited (PIL) - Album FFF Rise Fishing Round Bags Home Ease with David Lee Roth - Big Trouble The Crossroads dual For The Love Of God -live with the Metropole Orchestra
I asked Steve about ‘Ease’ at a Vai ‘Experience’ in 2013. If I remember correctly, it was pretty much his last work on the ’album’. Laswell put him in a room and gave him two takes to nail it, (and, unbelievably) without letting him hear the accompaniment first. What you hear is, therefore, pretty spontaneous, improvised magic. I agree that it’s pretty much unequalled, not just as a guitar solo, but as a moment of expression. It covers so many different fancy techniques, but they’re absorbed into something that is whizzing by so quickly...Steve was channelling something very special that day. Jaw-dropping. And what makes it so special is that, first time listening to it, it was so unexpected. Let’s face it, the rest of the album is nothing special. For that statement to close it out speaks volumes about how JL and Laswell must have felt about Steve’s contribution. The ultimate compliment.
Also in 1986 Vai performed these tracks on these albums. Bob Harris The Great Nostalgia Vai performs on "Autumn in Nepal" and "There's Still Hope" Randy Coven Funk Me Tender Vai performs on "Funk Me Tender" Western Vacation Western Vacation Vai performs on "Western Vacation" under the name "Reckless Fable" I seem to remember The Western Vacation track
Eat 'Em and Smile Studio album by David Lee Roth Released July 7, 1986 Studio The Power Station, New York City, Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California, Can-Am Recorders, Tarzana, California Genre Hard rock, glam metal Length 30:39 Label Warner Bros. Producer Ted Templeman Eat 'Em and Smile is the debut full-length solo album by original Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth, released on July 7, 1986. David Lee Roth – vocals, backing vocals Steve Vai – guitars, horn arrangement on 3 Billy Sheehan – bass, backing vocals on 2, 3, 5, and 6 Gregg Bissonette – drums, backing vocals on 3 Additional personnel[edit] Jeff Bova – keyboards on 1 Jesse Harms – keyboards on 5 Sammy Figueroa – percussion on 5 The Waters Family – backing vocals on 10 The Sidney Sharp Strings – strings on 10 Jimmie Haskell – horn and string arrangement on 10 1. "Yankee Rose" David Lee Roth, Steve Vai "Yankee Rose" 3:55 2. "Shyboy" Billy Sheehan "Tímido" 3:24 3. "I'm Easy" Billy Field, Tom Price "Soy Fácil" 2:11 4. "Ladies' Nite In Buffalo?" Roth, Vai "Noche de Ronda en la Ciudad" 4:08 5. "Goin' Crazy!" Roth, Vai "¡Loco del calor!" 3:10 6. "Tobacco Road" John D. Loudermilk "La Calle del Tobaco" 2:29 7. "Elephant Gun" Roth, Vai "Arma de Caza Mayor" 2:26 8. "Big Trouble" Roth, Vai "En busca de pleito" 3:59 9. "Bump And Grind" Roth, Vai "Cuánto Frenesí" 2:32 10. "That's Life" Dean Kay, Kelly Gordon "Así es la Vida" 2:45 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This was a fantastic album, and a bit of a statement from Lee Roth after leaving Van Halen. The band he got together is a rather amazing bunch of musicians and Vai and Billy Sheehan being in the same band is a match made in heaven for this kind of music. The first time I heard Shy Boy, my jaw dropped. This album was a bit more raw than the more recent Van Halen albums, but certainly not rough. This band was just too good to make a rough album, but the rawness of it helped sell the overall idea that Lee Roth was back in the saddle. I think this is possibly where a lot of folks finally touched base with Vai, and could go a long way to explaining why a lot of them really didn't get into the solo stuff, being generally instrumental and not really based in this sort of rock music. On its own regardless of anything else, this is a strong album, and set Lee Roth on his way. I'm looking forward to revisiting this album, as it has been a while, but I know these songs pretty well, because this got played a fair bit back in the eighties. So please let us know your thoughts and feelings on this album, and we'll hit the first couple of songs in the morning.
The Wester Vacation track is nice enough. It's got a very 80's Zappa feel about it, and Steve does a nice solo trade with the sax, with a few classic 80's 'Vai-isms', including a really dense harmonised run, possibly doubled with the keys. The album's not bad, but I only tune in for this track really.
EEAS is off the scale. Absolutely off the charts. So much to love. That it's got THE greatest frontman running the show is brilliant. The accompanying visuals (I got the VHS) cemented this in my brain FOR EVER!
Just took the opportunity to listen to this again. It was another of the albums that I went back to once I heard Skyscraper and got hooked on Vai. The whole band are top drawer. It's a really good album with loads of Vai, but I can't help feeling it tails off slightly in the last three tracks (I'm probably a bit hard on it as I rate Skyscraper so highly, but more on that when we get there !).
Skyscraper is an excellent album, and sometimes it seems like it is too good to be a David Lee Roth album lol It is very different, in a lot of ways, to anything else I heard him do.
"Yankee Rose" Single by David Lee Roth from the album Eat 'Em and Smile Released June 18, 1986[1] Format 7" Vinyl record Recorded 1986 Genre Hard rock, glam metal Length 3:55 Label Warner Bros. Songwriter(s) David Lee Roth, Steve Vai Producer(s) Ted Templeman "Yankee Rose" is a hard rock song recorded by David Lee Roth. It was written by Roth and Steve Vai and was Roth's first single on his 1986 first full-length album Eat 'Em and Smile. It was recorded as a tribute to the Statue of Liberty in New York City,[2] as the statue was completing a major renovation for the 100th anniversary of its dedication in 1886. -------------------------------------------------------------- So Steve and David wrote this together. We get Vai doing his first proper sort of talking guitar routine, and it introduces the song really well. This is a really good mid eighties rock song. We get all the really cool stuff we expect from Steve, and Lee Roth manages to put enough personality into the song to sell it. It is interesting to me that Ted Templeman is still producing, so I guess Lee Roth hadn't argued with him. A great album opener.
In the vid I love the high-kickin ‘when she walks’ KICK ‘watch, the sparks will fly!’ at 3:10. Always makes me chuckle. Steve plays around with a few of his pre-JEM axes. Very cool. The actual playing...well, it’s tremendous. They’re setting out their stall in the most over the top way possible. A lot of fun.
Shyboy When I first heard this track I was instantly sold. The drummer goes off, Vai rips off a great explosion of guitar and then we burst into a nice fast dirty groove. This is a great fast rock song, and although maybe not a single, probably the song that grabbed me most initially. This is a Billy Sheehan penned track. We get great guitar all through, and when we get to the lead break we get some awesome stuff, including a kind of fake modulation of key through Vai's wonderfully thought out lead break. When we get to the next break we get what was for me a jaw dropper with the harmonised bass and guitar double tapping run. I had never heard anything like that before when I first heard this track.
Funnily, where ‘Shy Boy’ is such a shred-fest, it’s one of the lesser tracks on the album for me. Yes, the playing is stupendous, but the song itself is mediocre. Harsh? Maybe. It’s just that there are real diamonds in them thar hills, and we haven’t got to the best yet.
A few scattered random thoughts about Eat 'Em And Smile: - What a band!! Whoever had the idea of putting these guys together hit it out of the park. And they worked just right, didn't they? They didn't prog-out or indulge much - they'd go nuts when it was solo time, but the rest of the time it was all about the songs and, for all the flash, they made it work when it counted. - Someone really believed in this project. The DLR enterprise had serious financial backing from the start as we can see from the videos and stage show. - Listening to this David Lee Roth album along with the contemporaneous effort by his former band, it's always sounded to me like it was David who was keeping the Van Halen mood and character (for lack of a better description) alive. Eat 'Em And Smile says "this party's only started!", whereas 5150 says "sorry, mate, I gotta go, my girlfriend's waiting for me at home."
My thoughts exactly. I don't hate Hagar era Van Halen, but Lee Roth's first two solo albums blow the Van Halen stuff out of the park ... and knowing Diamond Dave, that was the plan
