Topic: Van Halen Releases First New David Lee Roth Single

[trapeze]

LINK

Song is called, "Tattoo." I have listened to the clip at iTunes and it doesn't impress me enough to buy it. The album is supposed to be released in early February.

Ticket sales for the tour are said to be selling at a brisk pace. Nostalgia, I suppose.

In the linked article Sammy Hagar (predictably) trashes them.

[ToddF]

I've heard it, and what I've always said still stands.  I don't know if it's the booze, I don't know if it's the cocaine.  I don't know if it's just the muse disappearing, but Eddie Van Halen can't write a riff anymore if he life depended on it.  Van Halen III was awful because of Eddie Van Halen, not Gary Cherone.  This new stuff is drek not because of David Lee Roth, but because of Eddie Van Halen.

Sammy and Michael rock in Chickenfoot.  Eddie and that vastly overrated drummer don't.  And $110 for nose bleed seats?  Um, no.

[ToddF]

And to clarify, I slammed. 

'it should be better than it is'

That's not slamming.  Slamming is what I do to JournoTards for trying to create controversy for the purpose of getting off on creating controversy.

[IronDioPriest]

I've heard it, and what I've always said still stands.  I don't know if it's the booze, I don't know if it's the cocaine.  I don't know if it's just the muse disappearing, but Eddie Van Halen can't write a riff anymore if he life depended on it.  Van Halen III was awful because of Eddie Van Halen, not Gary Cherone.  This new stuff is drek not because of David Lee Roth, but because of Eddie Van Halen.

Sammy and Michael rock in Chickenfoot.  Eddie and that vastly overrated drummer don't.  And $110 for nose bleed seats?  Um, no.

That about sums it up, although I would serve a helping of derision on Roth's head too. He was never anything more than a flamboyant front man. The guy could never sing his way out of a paper bag. He unleashed it well enough in the studio, but he could never pull it off live. In those days, he was carried by Eddie. It was a case of a garage band built around the talent of a genius, and Roth was the least musically talented of them all. Once he left Van Halen, his stint with Vai kept the illusion going, but then came the "Hollywood Dave" period, and he devolved into the talentless joke he always really was from the beginning, and the illusion of him being a "singer" has never returned.

I think you're right about Eddie. He's lost it. But I cringe at Roth on this song as much or more than I cringe at Eddie.

Chickenfoot rocks.

[trapeze]

I disagree about DLR. It's true that he became crap but he most certainly could deliver when the band was in its infancy.

I had fourth or fifth row seats on their first national tour and they played through almost the entire first album. I saw them in Houston. They were third billed behind second billed Montrose (without Sammy Hagar) and headliner Journey. Journey had just released Infinity and was doing their first tour with Steve Perry on lead vocal and as good as they were (and they really were good) Van Halen stole the show. Anyway...DLR sounded every bit as good live as he did on the studio recording. The whole band was excellent. Lots of energy. No stupid ass guitar or drum solos. Just played the music which was more than enough.

This current reunion is too little, way too late. This should have happened ten years ago. There might have been something salvageable at that point. Don't get me wrong, though...I would be delighted if the soon to be released album turned out to be good. But I'm not holding my breath.

As an aside, I also remember the first time that I ever saw (and heard) Sammy Hagar performing with Van Halen. Does anyone else remember it? It was live television...the Country Music Channel (or whatever they called it) was airing the Farm Aid concert. The performance list was a rather fluid thing and artists and groups were being added on the fly. Van Halen ended up on stage sometime toward the end of the day and they performed one or two songs (I don't remember which ones). What was memorable about the performance, though, was the completely over the top profanity laced talk by Hagar between songs. It went something like, "Hey, we sure are glad to be here doing our thing for all the f**king farmers out there! This is the best f**king thing ever! f**k all those banks and corporations that are f**king the farmers! Yeah!" The very red faced Country Music Channel hosts cut in not too long into that and made some kind of lame remarks about Van Halen's colorful performance and then talked as long as they needed to until Hagar left the stage. I remember thinking it was funny at the time.

1985 Sammy Hagar & Eddie Van Halen "Rock and Roll"(Farm Aid)

1985 Sammy Hagar "I Can't Drive 55" (Farm Aid)

[trapeze]

Oh yeah...I got the first album by Chickenfoot and was not all that impressed despite the fact that I have almost everything else by Joe Satriani.  Is the second album better? And why is it named Chickenfoot 3 instead of 2? Anyone?

[IronDioPriest]

Oh yeah...I got the first album by Chickenfoot and was not all that impressed despite the fact that I have almost everything else by Joe Satriani.  Is the second album better? And why is it named Chickenfoot 3 instead of 2? Anyone?

I've only heard the first one by osmosis through my sons.

[Magnum]

I've heard it, and what I've always said still stands.  I don't know if it's the booze, I don't know if it's the cocaine.  I don't know if it's just the muse disappearing, but Eddie Van Halen can't write a riff anymore if he life depended on it.  Van Halen III was awful because of Eddie Van Halen, not Gary Cherone.  This new stuff is drek not because of David Lee Roth, but because of Eddie Van Halen.

Sammy and Michael rock in Chickenfoot.  Eddie and that vastly overrated drummer don't.  And $110 for nose bleed seats?  Um, no.

That about sums it up, although I would serve a helping of derision on Roth's head too. He was never anything more than a flamboyant front man. The guy could never sing his way out of a paper bag. He unleashed it well enough in the studio, but he could never pull it off live. In those days, he was carried by Eddie. It was a case of a garage band built around the talent of a genius, and Roth was the least musically talented of them all. Once he left Van Halen, his stint with Vai kept the illusion going, but then came the "Hollywood Dave" period, and he devolved into the talentless joke he always really was from the beginning, and the illusion of him being a "singer" has never returned.

I think you're right about Eddie. He's lost it. But I cringe at Roth on this song as much or more than I cringe at Eddie.

Chickenfoot rocks.

I know what you are sayin' IDP

But for awhile I liked VanHalen. In the late 70's music was changing, disco was at its peak, punk was on the raise and my all time favorite band Led Zeppelin was soon to be disbanded due to the death of John Bonham. Also Robert Plant's once incredible vocal virtuoso was long gone and heavy metal was at its infinity.

I thought David Lee was a o.k. singer I liked some of their early stuff ( ice cream man was very good) and thought he really was a good and entertaining front man. Eddie Van Halen had a sound I never heard before and found it for a time intriguing.

So I thank them for a time, to keep the late 70's rockin' until the Metal groups took over.  

[IronDioPriest]

Don't get me wrong, I LOVED Van Halen at the time. Roth was a great rock star, and Van Halen's playing just blew me away for years until other guys surpassed his finger-acrobatics. I wasn't one who despised the change to Sammy either. I was a long time fan of Hagar from the Montrose album and some of his solo stuff, so I found the collaboration interesting, and I thought Hagar's talent came closer to moving the band from a glorified garage band to a more musical band.

I just always felt that Roth's strengths were just about everywhere but his voice. He was appealing, flamboyant, and he sang with abandon. But once a singer has been around for a while, his audience matures and demands something more. It either has to come from raw musical talent, or from an ability to bring the audience along for the ride for reasons other than musical talent. Roth never had the former, and lost the latter, IMHO.

[Pandora]

He looked great in tights, though.   

[Libertas]

DLR was a good front man when VH started, the lyrics were inconsequential, he was there to merely prance around while Eddie performed his pyrotechnics.

And as we see above, girls dug it!

 

[ToddF]

I think DLR was/still is a good singer.  I think Hagar was/still is a good singer.  Eddie Van Halen has written some of the most memorable guitar riffs of all time.  DLR can still sing, if he has good material.  He's not getting good material from Eddie, anymore.  That's the missing piece of the equation for Van Halen.

Sammy is still getting good riffs/material from Satrioni.  And never underestimate the value of the best falsetto harmony singer in the business, Michael Anthony.  He is so missed by Van Halen, they have to play tapes of his voice, during performances of their songs, now.

[ToddF]

And as far as pure talent, DLR's first solo band wins.  Vai/Bissonnette/Sheehan had as much talent as anybody.  Too bad Roth's ego ran them all away.

[IronDioPriest]

...And never underestimate the value of the best falsetto harmony singer in the business, Michael Anthony.  He is so missed by Van Halen, they have to play tapes of his voice, during performances of their songs, now.

No doubt. And he avoids the trap of so many other backup singers. His falsetto voice is unique and identifiable, and he doesn't sound like a pussy. It doesn't need to be blended and covered by 3 or 4 other harmonies to sound good. It can be front and center, right along with the lead - even just two part - and he sounds great.

[ToddF]

You know, it's actually a pretty good CD.  Yes, I broke down and finally bought this

A Different Kind of Truth

Tattoo is still probably the worst song on the CD, but I can forgive it for being filler on a CD with some pretty good songs.  Darn if I can't keep Stay Frosty out of my mind...

A solid 3 out of 5...maybe 3 1/2.