Musician Frank Meyer On Hangin’ With David Lee Roth, Hearing Secret DLR/Van Halen 200

[Nickdfresh]

[Seshmeister]

In a 2021 appearance on the DLR Cast, writer, musician and frequent Roth interviewer Frank Meyer said that in 2004 the singer's manager played him four songs from the 2000 sessions, all of which wound up on A Different Kind of Truth. About half of that album was comprised of reworked versions of unreleased songs from early in Van Halen's career, but the tracks Meyer said he heard were new.

"It wasn't the remake songs, so it wasn't 'Tattoo,' because that's 'Down in Flames,' and it wasn't 'She's the Woman,'" he explained. "It was the rest of them. It was 'As Is,' and it was 'Honeybabysweetiedoll,' and it was 'Trouble With Never,' and it was 'Blood and Fire.' Presumably, it was [with] Michael Anthony, though I don't recall if I asked that question."

Meyer called the songs as "awesome," but he also noted that all the demos he heard "stopped dead in the middle." Roth manager Matt Sencio explained why: "Dave knew that he was in Eddie's studio on Eddie's tapes and that once he walked out the door who knew what was gonna happen to that stuff? ... So, he told Eddie the only way he'd go in and do these sort of live demos if they didn't have full recordings of them until they cut the deal to put it out as an album as Van Halen, which didn't happen for another several years."


Read More: Did Van Halen Almost Finish a David Lee Roth Reunion LP in 2000? | https://ultimateclassicrock.com/van-...edium=referral

I've thought that for some years and that people were being too optimistic that there were some unused amazing songs in the vault from 2000 that would be released eventually. Given they were reworking so many old songs why wouldn't they use them on ADKOT plus the clue was there with the similarity between Honeybabysweetiedoll and the BBQ video stuff.

[FORD]

I always figured that the songs we didn't recognize on ADKOT (as old demos from the 70s) were probably from the 2000 sessions. And I definitely remember a report from way back in those days that "China Town" was the title of one of the songs they were recording back then. Eddie pretty much confirmed this in an interview where he said he hadn't written an album with Dave in decades... which wouldn't seem to make much sense, since the interview wasn't all that long after ADKOT. Unless no new songs were actually written for that record.

So it really was Van Halen's version of the Stones "Tatoo You". Maybe the title of the lead off single was an inside joke all along?

As for Blood & Fire, we all know that was a holdover from the mid 80s. Some reports have it as a 1984 outtake. Others say it was written for the next record.... which of course didn't happen. The instrumental version came out on some soundtrack or whatever it was. Thankfully, Hagar never got a chance to desecrate it.

[Seshmeister]

I think Blood & Fire is some of Roth's best work ever of his career as a vocal melody writer.

To listen to that instrumentally and come up with those vocal melodies is really fucking clever stuff. Taking music and putting great vocal melodies over the top is really difficult, it's easier to do it the other way around but then you don't usually get the interesting music.

[FORD]

Definitely one of my favorite songs on ADKOT. Should have been the first single. Tattoo was kind of a flop, really (should have left it as "Down in Flames")

[Nitro Express]

Blood and Fire is the best song on the album. I like Tattoo as much as I like Jump. Probably my least favorite VH songs. Only the dregs from VH3 are worse.

[paltrowitz]

Thanks for sharing/posting the episodes of "The DLR Cast." Glad you enjoyed it.

-Darren