EEAS 30th Anniversary Retrospective by Greg Renoff preview on VHND

[twonabomber]

Read the preview at VHND and the full article in this month's Guitar World

http://www.vhnd.com/2016/04/28/eat-em-and-smile-retrospective/

[Seshmeister]

'He's going to pull an Ozzy Osbourne on us'

It's an odd thing to say since Ozzy was sacked and despite some poor references still out there it's pretty clear that Dave left Van Halen.

I think maybe the real fear behind those words is that Ozzy solo became more successful than Black Sabbath.

All that said it's worth treating with some doubt Billy's(or anyone's) memory of 30 year old telephone conversation. Greg's research is great but every study on human memory is terrifying on how bad we all are.

[Terry]

What I remember most about EEAS when it was released is where I was at as a guitar player back then.

I had been playing for about 5 years at that point. And the first 5 years of picking up the instrument, I was heavy into Eddie Van Halen's style in terms of listening to it and trying to figure out from a technical standpoint how Eddie was doing what he was doing, because I totally dug what he was doing and how it sounded. Keeping in mind back in the early 1980s that there weren't many instructional videos available, you couldn't go online and see someone playing a Van Halen song, there weren't a bunch of Van Halen tribute bands around where you could go watch someone playing Eddie's stuff note-for-note and tab wasn't widely published. Shit, back then most guitar players were still trying to figure out how Eddie did the things he did. You'd run into other guitar players each of whom could do a certain lick, listen to the records and try to figure out bits and pieces here and there. It wasn't until the US Festival that you had an entire gig shot and broadcast from start to end, and even then most people only got to see the Showtime network edited version of the entire Heavy Metal Day. You'd be able to see brief glimpses of Eddie's fretwork in videos.

The only tab I saw dealing with Eddie's stuff prior to 1984 was when Guitar Player magazine published a special Van Halen issue (in, I think, 1983) and Steve Vai tabbed out Eruption and a couple of other licks.

When 5150 was released a few months prior to EEAS, I remember that outside of the title track I didn't have the slightest interest in trying to figure out any of the tunes on the album, which was the exact opposite of my reaction to every VH album up to that point. Prior to EEAS being released, I had heard a few things Vai had done with Zappa...I don't think I had seen his appearance in Crossroads until after EEAS was released. So basically I had little idea of who Vai was before EEAS came out other than the guy who had tabbed Eruption for Guitar Player magazine.

Jesus, when I first heard EEAS, my reaction was that THIS was the type of stuff Van Halen SHOULD have followed up 1984 with...much more so than what they did on 5150. Between 1984 being released and 5150/EEAS being released, I had gotten into Yngwie Malmsteen, and he was jaw-droppingly good...and I had the same reaction with Steve Vai. While listening to CVH/Eddie inspired me to want to learn the tunes and learn how to play better, hearing first Yngwie then Vai on EEAS made me think that it'd take forever to reach that level of proficiency. Malmsteen and Vai were intimidating in a way that Eddie, as great as he was, never was. I'd listen to Eddie and Randy Rhoads and get inspired to play and practice because the stuff they were doing was stuff I could eventually play reasonably well with a lot of practice. Listening to Malmsteen and Vai made me want to throw my hands up in defeat and say "fuck it" because I couldn't imagine anybody being that good.

Nowadays, I don't feel the same way about all of it, but back in the mid 1980s when speed and flash were the currency for hard rock guitar players, listening to EEAS for the first time was an awe-inspiring and humbling experience for me. And I also remember being just as amazed that Billy Sheehan was matching Vai note-for-note on the solo passages to Elephant Gun and ShyBoy. These days, it comes across as technical wankery to my ears, but back then I was fucking floored. No two ways about it.

[Terry]

'He's going to pull an Ozzy Osbourne on us'

It's an odd thing to say since Ozzy was sacked and despite some poor references still out there it's pretty clear that Dave left Van Halen.

I think maybe the real fear behind those words is that Ozzy solo became more successful than Black Sabbath.

All that said it's worth treating with some doubt Billy's(or anyone's) memory of 30 year old telephone conversation. Greg's research is great but every study on human memory is terrifying on how bad we all are.

Agreed on the memory aspect of it.

Plus, chronologically, I seem to remember (memory being what it is) that by the time April 1985 rolled around news of the Roth/Halen split had already been leaked to the media (I can't remember when the Rolling Stone blurb with Eddie confirming the split appeared...wasn't that also in April?)...so it makes less sense for Sheehan to now say the conversation in June/July of 1985 was where Eddie hinted to Sheehan that Roth might be quitting the band since it had already been announced or leaked 2 months prior.

[chuckjitsu]

Does Roth still leave if his movie had been shit canned in say spring of '85 instead of fall? Tough to say, I guess. I will say this though. I found the script for Dave's movie online a year or two ago and it was not good, assuming that was actually the script they'd planned on using. That had dud written all over it.

On a somewhat related note, VHND recently ran a little piece with Pete Angelus where he talks about Roth's split from his/Roth's perspective. I don't remember seeing that discussed around these parts. From what I recall, he said that the band agreed to a hiatus after the record-tour-record-tour treadmill they'd been on for all those years, but the brothers changed their tune once they got wind of Dave using the hiatus to do his film ("we're not sittin' around waiting for Dave to make his movie"). The hiatus went from something that everybody agreed upon to merely something that had been discussed but not finalized. Is that how it really played out? Who knows. I'm sure there are elements of the truth there, but is that how it actually went down? I don't think we'll ever know what really happened.

[THEDOCTOR]

I can remember vivdly sitting and listening to EEAS for the first time. One of the few albums that I simply loved every song. Later that year I saw the show live.To this day and many many concerts/bands, it is still the number one show ever for me. Superstars in every slot and a fabulous show , it had it all, including the most women I have ever seen at a show! Bra's and panties were flying onstage, I was next to the right side so when they came over we were 10 feet from them. That band was like a Superhero group onstage. As much of a fantastic reaction that I got to EEAS I remember being extremely deflated about Skyscraper listening to it. EEAS was simply stellar, both album and live

[DLR Bridge]

Does Roth still leave if his movie had been shit canned in say spring of '85 instead of fall? Tough to say, I guess. I will say this though. I found the script for Dave's movie online a year or two ago and it was not good, assuming that was actually the script they'd planned on using. That had dud written all over it.

On a somewhat related note, VHND recently ran a little piece with Pete Angelus where he talks about Roth's split from his/Roth's perspective. I don't remember seeing that discussed around these parts. From what I recall, he said that the band agreed to a hiatus after the record-tour-record-tour treadmill they'd been on for all those years, but the brothers changed their tune once they got wind of Dave using the hiatus to do his film ("we're not sittin' around waiting for Dave to make his movie"). The hiatus went from something that everybody agreed upon to merely something that had been discussed but not finalized. Is that how it really played out? Who knows. I'm sure there are elements of the truth there, but is that how it actually went down? I don't think we'll ever know what really happened.

Agreed about that script. Looked like a stinker John Cusack would have passed on.

Regarding the words of Angelus; I believe him.

[chuckjitsu]

Agreed about that script. Looked like a stinker John Cusack would have passed on.

Regarding the words of Angelus; I believe him.

Here's the article if you want to check it out:

http://www.vhnd.com/2016/04/07/did-roth-quit-van-halen-in-1985/

I've read multiple accounts of Sam's exit from VH and ironically enough, there are similarities between his VH exit and Dave's. But those two were just assholes right? Couldn't have had anything to do with Al and Ed...

[Kristy]

The Roth MTV album.


Ho hum.

[DONNIEP]

I wonder if Dave still has the hair piece he wore in the promo pics and videos?

[Terry]

Oh, I'm sure he saved it

[twonabomber]

Does Roth still leave if his movie had been shit canned in say spring of '85 instead of fall? Tough to say, I guess. I will say this though. I found the script for Dave's movie online a year or two ago and it was not good, assuming that was actually the script they'd planned on using. That had dud written all over it.

I read the script a couple years ago and thought "there is no way this would get made today."

[Seshmeister]

Surely that wasn't the shooting script though, they would have to have some people come in to add some jokes and so on.

[DONNIEP]

The script is...it's really bad. Dave is better in small doses. Like 5 minute music videos. Turn him loose for an hour and a half and you wind up with the No Holds Barred BQ video. Which is cool the first time you watch it. But you gotta be drunk or high.

[Terry]

Roth has always had ambitions to venture into areas not usually pursued by conventional hard rock singers. Roth has also had the fortitude to follow through on those pursuits, regardless of the potential downsides or results.

I mean, shit, he decided to bail from Van Halen when it wasn't working in terms of chemistry anymore. How many other singers would have hung in there regardless and kept making records with the band, simply because that level of commercial success isn't easily replicated? He decided to take his act to Vegas in the mid-1990s, and the general public just laughed it off as 'Dave is washed up." Now, look at how many acts take up residency in Vegas? How many other hard rock singers would have the balls to try and follow Howard Stern with a morning radio show? When taking all of that into context, Roth's attempt to make a Crazy From The Heat movie wasn't out of character. Especially after the massive success of 1984 followed by the success of his Crazy From The Heat ep.

However, like DONNIE said, Roth far as non-musical settings go is generally better in small doses. Least as far as the general public is concerned. Although I'm not too sure how valid the comparison between the Bar-B-Que vid in the early 2000s and the aborted Crazy From The Heat movie in the mid 1980s is: in 1986, Roth was at the apex of his career in commercial terms vs. 2000 when Roth was at his nadir.