Dave on WTF

[Baby's On Fire]

This is true and I've said it before. But remember, Diver Down was an unplanned pregnancy. The band and their management never meant to make a record and wanted to go on an extended vacation/break from each other after four grueling album tours and the preceding constant playing on their rise to get noticed. The "(Oh) Pretty Woman" cover was meant to be a one-off place holder single to keep the public attention until they reconvened some months later after the Fair Warning Tour.

But out of Warner Bros.' (and probably their) greed, they were marched back into the studio as the song became a hit and pushed to do another album and subsequent tour instead of some time off. I think this pressure cooker environment and everyone's basic greed to capitalize on everything now had as much to do with the band's downfall as anything. At the very least it exacerbated the conflicts and the addictions that spiraled into bad decision-making...

The band did not want to do the album at that time at all. They were forced by WB and given 2 weeks.

Eddie is as usual a liar. When you listen to the old 1982 interviews, he was proud of the album. It was only after Dave quit that they (Ed, Al and Mike) tried to blame Dave and Ted for Diver Down.

It was not Dave's idea to do a lot of covers. It was only his idea to do a one-off cover, and it was actually Edweird that chose Pretty Woman (easily the worst song in the entire VH catalogue. It's a total piece of shit of a song).

Go back and listen to the 1982 interviews.

[Terry]

This is true and I've said it before. But remember, Diver Down was an unplanned pregnancy. The band and their management never meant to make a record and wanted to go on an extended vacation/break from each other after four grueling album tours and the preceding constant playing on their rise to get noticed. The "(Oh) Pretty Woman" cover was meant to be a one-off place holder single to keep the public attention until they reconvened some months later after the Fair Warning Tour.

But out of Warner Bros.' (and probably their) greed, they were marched back into the studio as the song became a hit and pushed to do another album and subsequent tour instead of some time off. I think this pressure cooker environment and everyone's basic greed to capitalize on everything now had as much to do with the band's downfall as anything. At the very least it exacerbated the conflicts and the addictions that spiraled into bad decision-making...

I never thought at the time that Diver Down was as terrible as Ed claims he thought.

Cathedral/Secrets is great.

Little Guitars (intro)/ Little Guitars is great.

Hang 'Em High rocks.

The Full Bug rocks.

The rest are either novelties or sort of non-essential Van Halenized covers, and the album is in those spots a bit weaker than the albums that came before, but the best stuff I mentioned cooks right up there with the albums that came before.

[Nickdfresh]

I never thought at the time that Diver Down was as terrible as Ed claims he thought.

Cathedral/Secrets is great.

Little Guitars (intro)/ Little Guitars is great.

Hang 'Em High rocks.

The Full Bug rocks.

The rest are either novelties or sort of non-essential Van Halenized covers, and the album is in those spots a bit weaker than the albums that came before, but the best stuff I mentioned cooks right up there with the albums that came before.

Well, Ed came out with VHIII, so who the fuck really cares what this autistic cunt really deems artistically worthy?

How many bags of fuck say aye?

[Nitro Express]

Getting ready for a tour doesn't take the same efforts for Dave as it does for Ed and Al. Given what he (Dave) delivered in 2015, vocally, compared with how they played...
Just a thought.

Ed and Al play everyday together. They are studio rats. So yeah unless Ed is fucked up on drugs like he was in 2004 he still can play. You can still rock and be an old fuck. Kieth Richards has proven this.

The problem with Dave is he was a very high energy frontman. He’s old with some back problems and he’s smoked too many cigarettes and joints. He can’t do it anymore. Granted he”s in great shape for what he is but Mick Jager can pull it off still and with Dave something is just amiss. I think if you saw VH in the old days we still expect that and seeing Dave tying real hard but it ain’t there is a bit disappointing.

[Nitro Express]

The band did not want to do the album at that time at all. They were forced by WB and given 2 weeks.

Eddie is as usual a liar. When you listen to the old 1982 interviews, he was proud of the album. It was only after Dave quit that they (Ed, Al and Mike) tried to blame Dave and Ted for

It was not Dave's idea to do a lot of covers. It was only his idea to do a one-off cover, and it was actually Edweird that chose Pretty Woman (easily the worst song in the entire VH catalogue. It's a total piece of shit of a song).

Go back and listen to the 1982 interviews.

A drug addict a liar? Come on. Say it ain’t so!

[Nitro Express]

Thing of it is...for me, yes, to be sure Dave always gave witty interviews. Spectacular frontman in terms of the onstage karate moves and being "the toastmaster of the immoral majority" and a colorful personality.

Ultimately, though, while all of those aspects mentioned above were part of the package, the essence of it for me as a fan has always been the music.

And the last twenty years haven't seen much by way of actual music from Dave. What have we got since 1999? Bar-B-Que, which had some odd images, also had some good musical stuff on it. Diamond Dave CD...mmm, not so much on it that I connected with (really only one or two tracks to be honest). Van Strumming? Pass. ADKOT was fair to good. Tokyo Dome isn't something I'm ever going to want to hear again.

This is probably why the recent tattoo wax interview series just isn't much of interest to me: let's hear some music from Dave. Even if it's just old unreleased solo material.

Ha! Ha! Without a record label to keep a leash on Dave I don’t think the man can stay focused on anything for very long. Dave lives like a rich trust fund kid. Doesn’t have to mak a living so he dabbles in weirdness to cure his boredom.

[Vinnie Velvet]

Ed and Al play everyday together. They are studio rats. So yeah unless Ed is fucked up on drugs like he was in 2004 he still can play. You can still rock and be an old fuck. Kieth Richards has proven this.

The problem with Dave is he was a very high energy frontman. He’s old with some back problems and he’s smoked too many cigarettes and joints. He can’t do it anymore. Granted he”s in great shape for what he is but Mick Jager can pull it off still and with Dave something is just amiss. I think if you saw VH in the old days we still expect that and seeing Dave tying real hard but it ain’t there is a bit disappointing.

I think folks are a little too hard on Dave to expect to have him sing like he did in 1984 or even 1991.

He can still pull off a good performance like was doing in 2007. I believe he can - as long as he stays within his normal range/register. The problems occur when he wants to hit those higher screams or notes - and it doesn't sound right. And comes across as yelling.

As evidenced from the recent song sample of the unreleased John 5 album, Dave can truly still sing very well. Again, unlike his contemporaries like Ozzy or Paul Stanley - the latter who's voice is truly shot.

[silverfish]

[QUOTE=Nitro Express;1940239]
The problem with Dave is he was a very high energy frontman. He’s old with some back problems and he’s smoked too many cigarettes and joints. He can’t do it anymore. Granted he”s in great shape for what he is but Mick Jager can pull it off still and with Dave something is just amiss. /QUOTE]

You might be onto something here. Mick today is the same as Mick 10/20/30 years ago.
He's doing his twitchy little scarecrow thing and it works cause that's all he's got (besides
his voice) and he's perfected it. Go with what you know & keep it simple.

Dave on the other hand was the ultimate frontman and perhaps that kinda stuff doesn't
translate well when he's/you're into your 50/60s. The crowd might want/expect his old
rap/stories but that shit is so dated and there is really nothing "new" he could replace
it with to satisfy the masses.

[Terry]

The problem with Dave is he was a very high energy frontman. He’s old with some back problems and he’s smoked too many cigarettes and joints. He can’t do it anymore. Granted he”s in great shape for what he is but Mick Jager can pull it off still and with Dave something is just amiss. I think if you saw VH in the old days we still expect that and seeing Dave tying real hard but it ain’t there is a bit disappointing.

I agree with much of this, and that ties into what silverfish was saying in that the stuff Roth was doing while he was in his 20s and 30s onstage just isn't translating well now that he is in his 60s. Probably in no small part because Dave just can't execute the physicality of his heyday live anymore: Dave just got old. Although having seen Roth semi-frequently live including and since 1999, that decrease of mobility has been gradual enough to where I was able to accept it. I'd be fine with him jettisoning his onstage patter/raps inbetween tunes. He basically did that in 2007/2008, saving it all up for Dave's Storytime during the Ice Cream Man intro and it was much more effective than had he been doing it all night long prior.

In the end, it comes down to what Vinnie Velvet said (and is a point I'm probably guilty of repeating too often), in that all Dave really needs to do is approach the vocals the way he did on the 2007/2008 tour and it'll sound good. Just sing the tunes rather than yelling them (which is a habit he lapses into along the lines of what Nitro was saying in that he mixes shit up because he's possibly bored singing the stuff).

[Nickdfresh]

...in that all Dave really needs to do is approach the vocals the way he did on the 2007/2008 tour and it'll sound good. Just sing the tunes rather than yelling them (which is a habit he lapses into along the lines of what Nitro was saying in that he mixes shit up because he's possibly bored singing the stuff).

I wonder if this has something to do with Dave's hearing maybe going, and not reading the monitors well?

[Phil theStalker]

Originally fucking posted by, Seshmeister
Dave is on the latest Marc Maron WTF Podcast...

sPrEAd diS aLL OVA da taBLE../!

[Terry]

I wonder if this has something to do with Dave's hearing maybe going, and not reading the monitors well?

Maybe, but that doesn't seem like it explains his choice to yell rather than sing.

[Nitro Express]

I think folks are a little too hard on Dave to expect to have him sing like he did in 1984 or even 1991.

He can still pull off a good performance like was doing in 2007. I believe he can - as long as he stays within his normal range/register. The problems occur when he wants to hit those higher screams or notes - and it doesn't sound right. And comes across as yelling.

As evidenced from the recent song sample of the unreleased John 5 album, Dave can truly still sing very well. Again, unlike his contemporaries like Ozzy or Paul Stanley - the latter who's voice is truly shot.

The problem is Dave did an extremely high energy show in his prime. The band's manager even said if anyone else tried to jump around like Dave they would end up in the hospital. So yeah Dave has tried to tone it down but keep things interesting. Instead of Spiderman going all over in spandex tights, Dave wears a suit and does more of a Vaudeville meets Kung Fu thing. Hey it takes talent to do that and Dave does it well but it just comes off as a toned down inferior version of what we grew up on.

I just accept Dave Roth got old. He can't do it anymore. Hey he's in great shape and he's putting the effort in but there will come a day when youth will fade away. It has.

[Nitro Express]

[QUOTE=silverfish;1940243]

The problem with Dave is he was a very high energy frontman. He’s old with some back problems and he’s smoked too many cigarettes and joints. He can’t do it anymore. Granted he”s in great shape for what he is but Mick Jager can pull it off still and with Dave something is just amiss. /QUOTE]

You might be onto something here. Mick today is the same as Mick 10/20/30 years ago.
He's doing his twitchy little scarecrow thing and it works cause that's all he's got (besides
his voice) and he's perfected it. Go with what you know & keep it simple.

Dave on the other hand was the ultimate frontman and perhaps that kinda stuff doesn't
translate well when he's/you're into your 50/60s. The crowd might want/expect his old
rap/stories but that shit is so dated and there is really nothing "new" he could replace
it with to satisfy the masses.

The problem is the Van Halen's still can play high energy music. Hey those guys could write an album of different songs where Dave could sing them at a lower range with some swagger. Kind of like Can't Get This Stuff No More. They still could do that kind of stuff.

[Vinnie Velvet]

The problem is Dave did an extremely high energy show in his prime. The band's manager even said if anyone else tried to jump around like Dave they would end up in the hospital. So yeah Dave has tried to tone it down but keep things interesting. Instead of Spiderman going all over in spandex tights, Dave wears a suit and does more of a Vaudeville meets Kung Fu thing. Hey it takes talent to do that and Dave does it well but it just comes off as a toned down inferior version of what we grew up on.

I just accept Dave Roth got old. He can't do it anymore. Hey he's in great shape and he's putting the effort in but there will come a day when youth will fade away. It has.

All true yes.

There was no one - NO ONE - who was doing what Dave was doing night after night and still being able to sing through all of it. Yeah yeah, people talk about the US Festival but there are so many boots out there of Dave killin' it vocally along with the showmanship.

He set the bar up way high. It was impossible for anyone to live up to.