Ex-Pantera Bassist Recalls Dimebag Darrell's 'Perfect' Performance Of Black Sabbath's 'Planet Caravan'
Elif Ozden
Former bassist of Pantera, Rex Brown, recently joined Tone Talk for an interview during which he revealed his thoughts on Dimebag Darrell's version of the Black Sabbath song 'Planet Caravan.'
On March 22, 1994, Pantera released their seventh studio album 'Far Beyond Driven.' With the album, the band took a more extreme direction in terms of their musical style. Besides, it was the first album to credit Darrell Abbott as Dimebag Darrell and became Pantera's fastest-selling album.
The album 'Far Beyond Driven' also contained the first cover song of Pantera's major-label releases: Black Sabbath's 'Planet Caravan.' The song appeared as the album's closing track and achieved chart success. Sabbath is one of the favorite bands of Pantera members, and they have covered other songs from the band as well throughout their career.
In an interview with Tone Talk, former Pantera bassist Rex Brown recalled recording 'Planet Caravan.' He said they learned the song in around 15 minutes, and he had to leave the room when Dime started playing the lead guitar of the song as he was playing great.
Moreover, Brown stated that Dimebag Darrell's solo in 'Planet Caravan' is not his favorite one by the guitarist but is definitely in the top two. He then praised Darrell's guitar playing and added that it came from his heart, and the song had the perfect chording for him to play over.
During the conversation, Rex Brown said the following:
"We actually learned the song in about 15 minutes – I played fretless bass on it and played synthesizer on it, it's got the little synth thing, and we had this little Casio, I think, whatever it was… we put a tail echo on it. Vinnie played the bongos, and Dime went – okay, now this is very, very important. Dime, when he went to play that lead, the first one, I had to leave the room because it was so f*cking good.
Dime always wanted to play two more, you know, he thought that he would get – this one came, this solo from him is, not my favorite solo from Dime, but in the top two. He looked at me; he goes 'Man, sit down, it's always the first one because it comes from your heart, you know?; And that's exactly what it was."
He then continued:
"I mean, 'Planet Caravan,' it's like an E9 kind of a chord, and just the way that Dime played, it was the perfect chording for him to play over. And the way he put those notes together, just off the fly. You know, he always came in with something, but we cut this so quick that, I think we'd gone out to dinner, and he just came back and let it let that one have it, man.
And to me, it was like I won't say 'Eruption' because that changed f*cking everything for everyone. But I will say that it was in there with the 'Dee's, you know the Randy Rhoades, one of those moments for me – of listening to that and being right next to my best friend who just played it. So I keep that in my heart."
You can watch the rest of the interview and listen to Pantera's cover of 'Planet Caravan' below.
Dimebag Darrell
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