Coincidence???

[efraser68]

Horns on VH1...same pitch and intervals as backing vocals to YRGM....think Rob Galpin brought this up before:
https://soundcloud.com/efraser68/horns

[JimiJames]

As coincidental as Mean Street's tapping intro to ZZ Top's Manic Mechanic drum beat. (That rhythm pattern is soo unique)

...Didn't Gene mention something about that train sound in an interview ?

[Strat78]

I love how this band took from here and there for their sounds, even pulling apart their own cars to cobble a noise machine together to get peoples attention. Roth and Ed were both guilty of directly taking from others to feather their nests. I've always know the Jim Dandy connection with Roth, but I had no idea just how much of Roth's schtick came from Dandy, check out the beginning this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niinwPKcnr4

[chrisom]

The 'She's the Woman' chorus melody originated around the same time as the backdrop theme, 'Wonder Woman...' was accompanying Lynda Carter's tits bouncing around on TV...

lynda-carter-as-wonder-woman.jpg (34.47 KiB) Viewed 3053 times

[Strat78]

...On Fire seems to have the TV show "Emergency" vibe from the harmonics immolating the station 51's ring tone to the chaotic theme song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGLKXAJeASs
We were all watching too much TV back then.

[Sean_McFly]

The 'She's the Woman' chorus melody originated around the same time as the backdrop theme, 'Wonder Woman...' was accompanying Linda Carter's tit's bouncing around on TV...

Lol that's fantastic! Still, it's pretty cool and refreshing to see the crazy places they found inspiration from

[efraser68]

...guess the question is was it intentional from a production or arrangement standpoint, or just a happy accident that they align so closely??

[Strat78]

...guess the question is was it intentional from a production or arrangement standpoint, or just a happy accident that they align so closely??

That would have been a good question for Greg Renoff to ask TD for his book. You can definitely tune those old horns so I'm sure they dialed them in somewhat so they wouldn't be totally dissident to the music. I made one of those horns sound effects back in 79 but quickly found out that it wasn't worth carrying around to gigs just to use in one or two places during gigs. Still, it would be cool if VH dragged them out of storage and fired them up.

[wjamflan]

...guess the question is was it intentional from a production or arrangement standpoint, or just a happy accident that they align so closely??

Eric,

The band was using the horns in clubs as noisemakers. When you hear them on the boots, they naturally sound a G#, the third in an E chord. Gene Simmons gradually slowed the horn tone down. As he did so the the note was lowered chromatically until he stopped it at the B note, the fifth in an E chord. Gene then sequenced RWTD right after House of Pain so Mike's open E note would line up perfectly in tune. Ted Templeman copied this. RWTD is in E so it fits perfectly. I don't think it had anything to do with YRGM. If Ted and Gene did anything, they might have had to start and end the recording of it so it matched Ed's quarter step down tuning. Hope that helps.

Bill

[efraser68]

Or is it possible that the horns are a track under the backing vocals in YRGM to fill them out...or are they pure vocals?
They just sound way too similar IMHO.

[Strat78]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bliNA_cCrqM
Okay, I'm hearing the horns (or a horn) or perhaps something that is not vocals, keys maybe. But listen to the raw Destroyer tone here, this seems like it was taken from the masters and not Guitar Hero. Maybe Brian Kehew knows something about the people behind these videos. These are definitely from the masters.

[JimiJames]

"...The ominous noise at the beginning of this song is a chorus of car horns. The horns were taken from the band’s own cars, including Alex’s Opel, Eddie’s Volvo, a Mercedes Benz and a Volkswagen. The horns were mounted in a box and powered by two car batteries, with a foot switch to turn them on and off. Producer Ted Templeman slowed the horns down before adding them to the track. This same idea was first used during the band’s club sets and appeared on the Gene Simmons Demo on House of Pain, sounding after each verse. On the demo the horns also acted as a segue to Runnin’ with the Devil. Eddie recalled that the horns were detrimental to the songs on the demo and may have been partly responsible for its failure.
The lyrics were inspired by the Ohio Players song “Runnin’ From The Devil”.

There was a mixing error when this song appeared on Best of Volume 1. The error was corrected in later pressings of the album.

The video for the song (filmed at the Whisky A GoGo in 1977) starts off in much the same way as the song had been performed live: Mike seemingly plucking the strings with his teeth. Dave provides one of his more glaring lip-sync errors in the first few seconds by missing half a scream. Eddie and Mike launch into what would later be called a Kiss impersonation, rocking back and forth perfectly choreographed twice. Near the end of the video a crew member accidentally shares the stage during a shot; he flees, realizing his mistake.

From Guitar World:
On the two occasions that Van Halen recorded this song as a demo – first with Gene Simmons producing in 1976 and again in 1977 with Ted Templeman and Moe Austin as producers – it came directly after “House of Pain.” The intro’s unique dissonant, descending sound effect, created using a collection of car horns and tape manipulation, was actually the ending of “House of Pain,” and the car horns appeared briefly throughout that song. While the effect was somewhat distracting between songs, Templeman realized it would make a brilliant attention-getting intro, so he decided to sequence “Runnin with the Devil” as the first song on Van Halen’s debut album.

[fperron_kt88]

Sorry to derail just a bit... but...

I love how this band took from here and there for their sounds, even pulling apart their own cars to cobble a noise machine together to get peoples attention. Roth and Ed were both guilty of directly taking from others to feather their nests. I've always know the Jim Dandy connection with Roth, but I had no idea just how much of Roth's schtick came from Dandy, check out the beginning this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niinwPKcnr4

Am I the only one who sees Derek Smalls at 1:43 in (tambourine man in the back...) ???