Extreme - He-Man Woman Hater
Added 2025-02-09 16:00:13 +0000 UTCHOW IS NUNO NOT HAVE MORE NOTARIETY?!?
Look...I had no idea that the "Extreme" that I knew of (which I the only song I knew was "More Than Words") could do this kind of music.
The intro guitar with our "wounded bumblebee" has obvious notes of the "flight of the bumblebee" with a mix of "tocca and fugue" by Bach. I hope you can hear it!
...anyway, there is SO MUCH technique happening in the solo guitar part that if you really listen carefully you can hear the "wounded" bee continuously flying around in the background.
Comments
In terms of the soloing, Nuno has a very percussive left fretting hand which is accentuated further by the aggressive trebly sounding Bill Lawrence XL500 bridge pickup, so his fretting hand legato techniques have a lot of initial attack in terms of the note envelopes, making is more difficult to distinguish what is picked until you get used to his sound. For tapping he'll usually switch to the neck pickup which is quite a lot smoother sounding. His guitar actually has very similar electronics & hardware to that of Dimebag Darrell of Pantera, just utilised in a different context. IIRC he's also double jointed which contributes to some of his technical facility on the instrument. Nuno's band Dramagods was the reason I rediscovered melodic lead guitar playing at university, after getting burnt out on the more instrumental virtuosic guitarists. It's a different style to Extreme with Nuno on lead vocals, but I'll save them for another time. For other songs to recommend checking out, P&D has already mentioned 'Cupid's Dead' and 'Get The Funk Out' so I'll go in a different direction and suggest either 'Cynical', 'Hip Today' or 'Midnight Extreme' off of their 4th album 'Waiting For The Punchline' aka. their 'grunge' era reactionary album. In order, the first is properly heavy in Drop C# tuning (perhaps the heaviest they've ever sounded), the second a commentary on the nature of the music industry (with funky time signature changes in the solo section) and the third is Nuno's twiddly acoustic showcase of an instrumental (picked a live version of this): https://youtu.be/U8ydPGrVb00?si=DzfBJgtnj8WsJspN https://youtu.be/tFaP_n3-ApA?si=PUTRxgY4YmPcs9ln https://youtu.be/s9InxRyRKhU?si=OlABz5BuDf9zvzJV
Andrew Hellebrand
2025-02-10 01:15:39 +0000 UTCMore Than Words & the following single Hole Hearted being acoustic ballads were largely exceptions to the norm within their catalogue back then, though they still had plenty of variety within their sound. Their biggest collective influences at that time were Aerosmith, Queen and Van Halen so you get a blend of that in combination with the late 80s style hard rock scene production, this all led to the band switching songwriting styles frequently almost to their own detriment at times. For the three part harmonies Nuno provides the low parts and bassist Pat Badger will do the high parts, until recent years they still did these spot on live (lead singer Gary Cherone has lost some power of late, but then he is the oldest member of the band at 63). This is pre-Pro Tools, they're still working on tape, though they did make a use of a very early version of quantization on Paul Geary's acoustic drums on some tracks (after hearing about it from Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top). The drums on the Bumblebee intro is a drum machine. Also the guitar isn't quite as complicated as it sounds to play, it's still far from easy but Nuno uses a digital delay time synced to the drum machine. It means he's picking less notes than you hear, but has to be very precise as if he flubs a note it'll repeat and throw a whole chunk of the performance off. Here's a live clip taken from their 'Take Us Alive' 2009 tour DVD: https://youtu.be/mJvG1i79CPc?si=8oUdfmqLbZvOoCsp Aside from the more obvious rock guitar hero type influences, early Nuno was also heavily influenced by jazz-fusion guitarists Al DiMeola from Return To Forever and John McLaughlin of Mahavishnu Orchestra. He's often said his biggest influence though is his older brother, Luís Gil Bettencourt, who also initially taught him how to play (Nuno & Luís are two of ten siblings in a very musical family and there's a decade between them in age). Like Eddie Van Halen, Nuno started on drums before switching to guitar. Nuno is highly rated within the guitarist community, but is less widely known in terms of notoriety because of mostly poor timing commercially on the band's part. They formed in 1985 with their first self titled album not being released until '89 (including 'Play With Me' of Bill & Ted mall chase sequence/soundtrack fame). Their breakthrough album 'Pornograffiti' came out in '90 and was a big hit off the back of 3rd single More Than Words & its follow up Hole Hearted (though the 2nd single 'Get The Funk Out' did chart at number 19 in the UK). But then grunge hit the mainstream, with Pearl Jam's 'Ten', Soundgarden's 'Badmotorfinger' and Nirvana's 'Nevermind' all being released in '91 (Alice In Chains actually opened for Extreme, Poison and Van Halen that same year). So it was somewhat out of sync with the music press & trends when their follow up 3rd album 'III Sides to Every Story' was released in Sept '92 as a multi section concept album, with the final section 'The Truth' being a three movement nearly 22min composition 'Everything Under the Sun' featuring a 70 piece orchestra and several time signature changes. Debated various Extreme details with P&D previously when he first recommended this track on the Discord, so we'd largely ironed out of differences of opinion back then. But the one correction I would add is in regards to his main signature Washburn guitar, the N4. Whilst in most production model variations I'd agree it has been plain with an unfinished alder or ash body (there was also a padauk variant that came later); when used by Nuno it has had a tremolo arm fitted to its Floyd Rose bridge for significant chunks of his career, particularly including the 'Pornograffiti' era (you can hear it being used during the background lead part overdub in the intro to the main song). He just wouldn't rely as heavily on the pitch effects it could be used to create as some of his contemporaries.
Andrew Hellebrand
2025-02-10 00:40:16 +0000 UTCFor your friend who also hates More Than Words … The full title of the album actually is: Extreme II : Pornograffitti (A Funked Up Fairytale) There are a few ballads on this album like More Than Words, Hole Hearted, When I First Kissed You, and Song For Love … Tell him to leave all that BS alone :p and listen to Decadence Dance, Li'l Jack Horny, When I'm President, Get The Funk Out, Money (In God We Trust), It ('s A Monster), Pornograffitti, Suzi (Wants Her All Day What?), and of course He-Man Woman Hater. I actually took a rock History class in Community College … many people took it because they thought it would be a blow off class … but as a music lover I took it because I thought it would be interesting. About half the class dropped … it was lecture and listening and you better take copious notes. The instructor spent only one class on rap … but we actually had guest speakers that were performers with Motown Records (remember I am in Detroit). Sorry lazy layabouts who dropped, it was one of the best classes I ever took and I had a blast (you already know I am a music nerd). I’ll just share one tidbit. If you want an interesting read, Google Maxine Powell. She taught etiquette, grooming, poise, and social graces to many recording artists at Motown in the 1960s. An amazing story. She sadly passed in 2013. It was a difficult class … I got an A 😉 . Your class could be called from Bach to Rock ;) . Video provided :) . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua40UOR2MOw
PANIC
2025-02-09 23:03:32 +0000 UTCOk, so now you know Nuno Bettencourt. I was happy to see an extended reaction to this. There are not really any on YouTube and I suspect that has to do with copyright, so it was great to see a nice breakdown of this song done here … even if it is 35 years later :p . More than Words (and other ballad-y crap :p ) made them a commercial success and it is what the recording industry wanted and pushed … but they were always a hard rock band at heart … everything in the intro is picked (as is most of the song as you guessed) except for the final few bars of the intro where he is tapping, and you can tell. The arpeggios in the solo are hammered on as well but the lead in is picked. Yes … THIS is typical Extreme and pretty much every song on the album is known to rock fans … the only “filler” is the ballads :p . Before you ask, yes, he plays this live always changing up a little (and there are several examples on YouTube). His playing style is with a very flat left hand not raising up far from the strings. He plays a plain looking Washburn guitar that even lacks a tremolo bar. When you watch him play it makes a little more sense. Nuno is still active :) . I can’t words … you actually words’ed very well 😉 Nuno is constantly tracking over himself in this song, but unlike just about anyone else who does that with one “lazy rhythm” track and one lead … they are both lead tracks somehow put together and it works … just one of the things that has always fascinated me about this song. You almost have to really try to listen to each track independently to even begin to understand what he is playing. I would have to say all the songs on this album are pretty sophomoric lyrically, but it was their most successful mostly due to the state of the overall industry at the time. If anything the songwriting held it back but Nuno’s virtuoso guitar pushed through to make it successful. Musical themes about things like school and your parents will only get you so far. The next album, 3 sides to every story (a 3 sided concept album describing the 3 sides – yours, mine, and the truth) was much more lyrically mature, but a lesser commercial success due to lack of industry support. For rock fans, while this song may be the most well known, the song CUPID’S DEAD from 3 sides has to be the second most well known and I’d urge NittPicc to give it a listen … it’s another shred-fest with multiple solo sections and a slightly more mature Nuno (and thematically improved 😉 ) . It has been covered by just about every guitar player with an advanced skill set 😊 . The album cover here is a pictorial representation of every song on the album and if you want to see all the characters come to life look no further than the official MV for GET THE FUNK OUT. I suppose we should mention the lead singer Gary Cherone did a short stint singing for Van Halen … ok, enough of that :p . There are not many who can compare with Nuno from any era really. Go into nearly any EXTREME comment section and you will read in the first couple of comments how underrated he is. The band just had bad timing and rose to their pinnacle as the recording industry turned their back on rock in favor of grunge and rap … thinking it was cheaper to produce and easier to package to the masses. Now we have what we have with the American recording industry in decline. I think NittPicc owes some atonement now for mentioning Nuno and the Beebs in the same sentence :p . I do have one other American Guitar Great for you … I may put up my suggestion soon 😉.
PANIC
2025-02-09 17:36:22 +0000 UTC
