darthvedder81 wrote:I've always appreciated Dave A's contribution to the band. His work on Vs. is incredible—Vitalogy less so but that was a pretty fraught record obviously. I feel like he went from kind of under appreciated in PJ history to now being annoyingly over appreciated. Every other damn comment on YouTube now is about how "they never recovered after Dave A." which is of course bullshit. They evolved but so does any band that is going to survive for 3+ decades. He didn't even play on Ten but people act like he was this integral force from the beginning. It's a dumb narrative.
I love Dave A's contributions too. But it's a matter of context and reality. There is nothing so mind-blowing about his drumming that makes him a huge loss and worthy of returning under tense circumstances. As a matter of fact, there are amusing annoyances in his drumming style that even Jeff was irritated with. And they did their best work after he left - in my opinion, because I chose to actually listen and internalize.
I've been reading amusing discussion where some fans thought/still think that Led Zeppelin "sold out" with Houses Of The Holy and what a piece of shit it is and how they never recovered, for whatever reason. And of course you have the Radiohead thing. No guitars, bleeps and bloops and so forth. But I like everything both bands did, and I find those notions preposterous, however common or uncommon, or how influenced my opinion is by having been alive at the time or not.
To continue under restrictive/destructive circumstances is a certain death. But give the people what they want, or they'll never let go.
God bless Uncle Neil.
