Tapes that kill

[Nitro Express]

That was part of the CVH legend, though: a record setting one-off appearance in terms of the concert fee garnered, yet Van Halen shows up a bit more than half in the bag anyway.

For years, all I'd seen of that performance was the edited version that aired on Showtime (or Cinemax, or whichever channel aired it). Probably wasn't until the mid-1990s when I stumbled across a VHS bootleg of the entire show for sale in a Mom n' Pop record store that I saw and heard the entire set unedited. A bit rough with some mistakes to be sure (not just Dave, either; Ed and Al played some bum notes here and there), but I'd wager had I been there drunk and stoned none of that would have bothered me in the least.

I was at that US Festival show. Dave was pretty fucked up at the start but he started to recover a few songs into it.

[Nitro Express]

I liked 'em when they first broke big in 1984.

Then again, I was 13/14 years old. Back then, as you say, a lot of us thought they were ripping KISS off a bit.

They got lame quick, though. Going 'glam' with that Theater Of Pain record and that lame Home Sweet Home tune...I mean, their image prior was a bit of a joke but at least the music was a bit tougher on the first two records. Ironically, while they got bigger post-Shout, overall I liked their music less and less the longer they stuck around.

I did think the SOLA track was a good return to form, or at least the Motley sound I had liked circa 1984.

They were ok. I remember them doing Take Me to the Top. Other than that I don’t remember much.

[Nitro Express]

You were at the US Festival??

I know people love to talk about sloppy VH were at the US Festival...but I have a pretty decent Blu-Ray of it that I put together. It's not polished...but it's still a fun VH gig...even if Dave (and I suspect one or two of the other guys) is totally drunk.

Yup. Three of us piled into my friend’s Porsche Targa and drove from Ketchum, Idaho to San Bernardino. I can remember being crammed into that little back seat and everone’s luggage is on the other side. Hey it’s California. You don’t need too many clothes. But we hauled ass all the way down I-15. It was great. School ended and off we go to the US Festival over Memoral Day Weekend.

I forgot sunscreen so I got sun burned and when Van Halen came on I had the chills.

[Nitro Express]

The US Festival was huge and tovSteve Wozniak’s credit he spent the money to make it run as good as possible. That being said it’s just a shit load of people and you are out in the elements a long time.

It was just another big Southern California outdoor rock festival. Another Cal-Jam. We had no idea it would be this big thing

[Terry]

I was at that US Festival show. Dave was pretty fucked up at the start but he started to recover a few songs into it.

The band pulled it off. A bit drunk and wild in spots, but what the fuck...it's rock 'n roll, right? Or, it WAS rock 'n roll.

[Von Halen]

The band pulled it off. A bit drunk and wild in spots, but what the fuck...it's rock 'n roll, right? Or, it WAS rock 'n roll.

It was rock and roll. Raw. Not with fucked up backing tapes like they are ALL doing today.

[Rikk]

Well with this trans thing being the latest fad, females with manly voices is currently in style.

Uh, ok.

[Rikk]

Yup. Three of us piled into my friend’s Porsche Targa and drove from Ketchum, Idaho to San Bernardino. I can remember being crammed into that little back seat and everone’s luggage is on the other side. Hey it’s California. You don’t need too many clothes. But we hauled ass all the way down I-15. It was great. School ended and off we go to the US Festival over Memoral Day Weekend.

I forgot sunscreen so I got sun burned and when Van Halen came on I had the chills.

That's pretty fucking awesome (being there, not the sunburn & chills part). When Dave left VH, I was 9.

[Rikk]

It was just another big Southern California outdoor rock festival. Another Cal-Jam. We had no idea it would be this big thing

I imagine you were just there "Heavy Metal Day"? I'm not remotely criticizing you for NOT going the other days...just curious.

I haven't seen too many lists of who played the other days...but I DO wish I saw Bowie when he was still alive. Always meant to go. Never thought he would have a mild heart attack and just STOP touring in the mid-2000s. His last two albums that came out in the 3 years before his death were both very, very good.

[Nitro Express]

That's pretty fucking awesome (being there, not the sunburn & chills part). When Dave left VH, I was 9.

Well I didn’t think it was the big deal it became. It was not the best Van Halen show I ever saw. It was something to do to celebrate school being out and the beginning of summer. We did the US Festival and then stayed at my parent’s place in Newport Beach and did the beach thing for a week.

I spent most my summers in SoCal growing up and they had these big multi-band stadium shows and the occasional big festival. The US Festival was just another one of those as far as I was concerned at the time.

Not a lot of live footage of classic VH. I think the US Festival show is legendary just because it was filmed. Not that it was all that great. Roth being so fucked up in the beginning is funny.

[Nitro Express]

I imagine you were just there "Heavy Metal Day"? I'm not remotely criticizing you for NOT going the other days...just curious.

I haven't seen too many lists of who played the other days...but I DO wish I saw Bowie when he was still alive. Always meant to go. Never thought he would have a mild heart attack and just STOP touring in the mid-2000s. His last two albums that came out in the 3 years before his death were both very, very good.

Just went to Heavy Metal Day. The tickets were expensive. I think they were $35 which was a sizable sum in 1983. I think they said there were 400,000 there. It was huge. So there were logistical problems. You just didn’t pop in or out of the US Festival. One day was enough.

[Nitro Express]

I just looked at the 83 US Festival roster. Some great acts were booked. All days would be good but we were VH fanatics so Sunday was the day.

[Nitro Express]

The band pulled it off. A bit drunk and wild in spots, but what the fuck...it's rock 'n roll, right? Or, it WAS rock 'n roll.

Exactly. After the guitar solo Roth came out wearing a frock type thing, shed that and showed us his bare ass and kicked into gear. I think they did Ain’t Talking About Love. But the band was hitting on all cylinders the last half of the show. The encore was kick ass. The crowd noise was unbelievable. Imagine so many people screaming it’s as loud as a PA and it shakes the ground. You could feel the masses.

[Nitro Express]

When I lived in Utah I ran into Alan Osmond at some function. Nice guy. I was shooting the shit with him and he said The Osmonds had the loudest PA in the world in the 70’s. He said Led Zeppelin rented it from them. He said the girls would scream so loud you couldn’t hear the music, so they had this big ass PA built and the rock bands loved to rent it when the Osmonds weren’t using it.

The US Festival had crowd noise that would match or even overpower the PA system. The power of a big crowd is what was most impressive.

[twonabomber]

[Rikk]

I just looked at the 83 US Festival roster. Some great acts were booked. All days would be good but we were VH fanatics so Sunday was the day.

OK...you just made me look. Sunday was definitely the best day. But there are other bands throughout the weekend I might have enjoyed sitting through (make fun of me all you want for some of these thumb's ups...in fact, I encourage it):
SATURDAY, MAY 28 (NEW WAVE DAY)
INXS - That would have been fun. Hey, they were a good band.
MEN AT WORK - OK, I had the first two (U.S.) albums back when I was a little kid.
THE CLASH - That would have been cool. Dave sure didn't agree. Incidentally, this was Mick Jones' last-ever gig with the band (and many people say the last REAL Clash gig ever.)

SUNDAY, MAY 29 (HEAVY METAL DAY)
MOTLEY CRUE - Back then, touring SHOUT AT THE DEVIL...would've been fun. I've heard it was actually a pretty bad gig for them. It is on YouTube but I've not watched it.
OZZY OSBOURNE - Post-Rhoads, but I would've enjoyed it. I think touring BARK AT THE MOON by this point.
JUDAS PRIEST - Hell yes...they were amazing.
VAN HALEN - Duh. (By the way, I skipped Scorpions, Triumph and a few others...just never fans of those.)

MONDAY, MAY 30 (ROCK DAY)
LOS LOBOS - Actually, a very good bank.
U2 - Touring WAR, a great album for them.
JOE WALSH - Not a huge fan of his solo...but I love his 1978 LP ...BUT SERIOUSLY.
DAVID BOWIE - The number one act I would have loved seeing outside VH...and yes, I skipped Stevie Nicks. I hate her. I like Fleetwood Mac, but I think Nicks is a piece of crap as a human being and I don't care about her solo music.

I didn't bother going through COUNTRY DAY. Johnny Cash wasn't playing and he is the only one from then I might have enjoyed. I like classic Nashville country from the 50s and 60s...but not a fan of modern country at all.

Yes, NITRO...you went the right day.

[Nickdfresh]

Well with this trans thing being the latest fad, females with manly voices is currently in style.

FFS the whole trans thing has been around since at least the 1960's. Fucking Klinger on M*A*S*H dressed in drag in the 70's. Why do a-holes wanna act like this is some new threat to their manhood?

[Von Halen]

FFS the whole trans thing has been around since at least the 1960's. Fucking Klinger on M*A*S*H dressed in drag in the 70's. Why do a-holes wanna act like this is some new threat to their manhood?

We know this. We just don’t want you Libtards pushing their agenda on us. They bring enough attention to themselves, they don’t need you dopes shining a spotlight on them too. Next thing you fuckheads will be seeking reparations for them.

[Kristy]

I didn't bother going through COUNTRY DAY. Johnny Cash wasn't playing and he is the only one from then I might have enjoyed. I like classic Nashville country from the 50s and 60s...but not a fan of modern country at all.

Not a fan of the F A T boy stoner?

[Seshmeister]

SUNDAY, MAY 29 (HEAVY METAL DAY)
OZZY OSBOURNE - Post-Rhoads, but I would've enjoyed it. I think touring BARK AT THE MOON by this point.

Jake E Lee's first gig.

To expect someone to go directly from playing in bars to this is nuts, spoiler alert he nails it. Ozzy a little less so...

I'm surprised Judas Priest were above Ozzy on the bill.

[So this is love]

Jake E Lee's first gig.

To expect someone to go directly from playing in bars to this is nuts, spoiler alert he nails it. Ozzy a little less so...

I'm surprised Judas Priest were above Ozzy on the bill.

I liked Jake E. Lee, never understood what the conflict was with Sharon for him to leave... as for Ozzy, he sounds the same on this song as he would now lol.

[Rikk]

Jake E Lee's first gig.

To expect someone to go directly from playing in bars to this is nuts, spoiler alert he nails it. Ozzy a little less so...

I'm surprised Judas Priest were above Ozzy on the bill.

OK...I need to watch this.

What's sad, though, is with SPEAK OF THE DEVIL and US FESTIVAL and all that, they JUST missed the boat on filming one entire gig professionally with Randy in the band. A real loss.

[Rikk]

Not a fan of the F A T boy stoner?

Can't say I am.

When it comes to country, I do truly love Johnny Cash. Early Merle Haggard. I even like Patsy Cline.

But the shit today, just does nothing for me. Just a bunch of idiots preaching about how great it is to not be educated and shoot their guns at gay people...all to music that sounds like bad rock/pop from the late 80s/90s.

I think my peak level of music industry disgust was when Steven Tyler made a country album or something. I can't believe this is the same guy who recorded TOYS IN THE ATTIC and ROCKS.

There's a well-known story that Aerosmith's management looked at the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane before Skynyrd did...but turned it down. Considering what happened to Aerosmith after the 70s, it's almost too bad they didn't take Lynyrd Skynyrd's bullet for them. (That said, do I think Lynyrd Skynyrd would be making albums as great as SECOND HELPING or STREET SURVIVORS by 1985? Hell, no.)

[Seshmeister]

OK...I need to watch this.

What's sad, though, is with SPEAK OF THE DEVIL and US FESTIVAL and all that, they JUST missed the boat on filming one entire gig professionally with Randy in the band. A real loss.

It's not the full set it's missing a couple more Sabbath songs and Suicide Solution,Revelation (Mother Earth) and Steal Away (The Night).

Why do people think anyone wants to see drum solos rather than songs?

[Seshmeister]

Can't say I am.

When it comes to country, I do truly love Johnny Cash. Early Merle Haggard. I even like Patsy Cline.

I hate all country apart from Johnny Cash.

The only thing I would give them is that many seem to still live the rockstar lifestyle a lot more than people in rock these days.

[Seshmeister]

I liked Jake E. Lee, never understood what the conflict was with Sharon for him to leave...

It will be, as it always is with that woman, that she was stealing money from him.

As far as I can make out judging by Rudy Sarzo and Bob Daisley she basically gave them their per diem, i.e. touring pocket money and little else.

[FORD]

Not a fan of the F A T boy stoner?

Stapleton is pretty good, compared to most of the so-called "country" acts churned out by the Nashville corporate establishment in recent years. I like what I've heard of his music so far. He does a lot of songs about being drunk & stoned though, so if he actually "lives" those lyrics, he might not live long enough to be a "household name"

Is he a "legend" on the level of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard or Hank Williams (Sr, not his idiot fucking racist son, for fucks sake). Nah, it would be way too early to say that. But he's damn sure better than any of the Toby Keith/George Strait/Billy Ray Mullet/Florida Georgia Line bullshit of the last few decades.

[Terry]

I liked Jake E. Lee, never understood what the conflict was with Sharon for him to leave... as for Ozzy, he sounds the same on this song as he would now lol.

From what Jake E. Lee said, he didn't get what he was verbally promised on the Bark At The Moon album re: songwriting credits and royalties.

Lee's story is that he recorded all his parts for Bark At The Moon and THEN was presented with a contract which was basically an NDA that stated Ozzy wrote all the songs, therefore Lee has no claims to publishing and Lee was forbidden to speak about any of it publicly. Lee was free to walk away, but then the Osbournes would just hire another guitarist to re-record Lee's parts and Lee could then sue the Osbournes for his compensation.

Lee admitted that when he was doing the BATM album he had no personal management/representation nor a lawyer, so he was ripe for a screwing.

He said he learned from the incident and refused to write or record anything for The Ultimate Sin prior to having a signed contract promising him writing credits and royalties.

[FORD]

I don't know who actually wrote the songs on the Bark of the Moon album, but I do know that Ozzy claimed in a Circus Magazine interview published in March 1982 that his next two albums had already been written and would be titled "Bark at the Moon" and "Killer of Giants". He also claimed that he "couldn't wait" to get back into the studio and put these songs on record, since the band he was then touring with (Rhoads/Sarzo/Aldridge/Airey) hadn't actually recorded together yet.

Of course that didn't happen, because the plane crash that killed Randy happened the same week that magazine went on sale - so presumably the interview had taken place a month or two before, being that this was in the pre-internet era and it took a while to put a magazine together. Taking Ozzy at his word though, wouldn't that mean that Randy Rhoads was involved in writing those records?

It would be just like Sharon to steal royalties from a dead man though.

[Seshmeister]

We can be pretty much sure that all the music and lyrics on the Ozzy albums that made Ozzy's post Sabbath career i.e. the first 3 or 4 albums were all written by Bob Daisley and Randy Rhodes/Jake E Lee.

The maximum that Ozzy contributed would be some of the vocal melodies. Vocal melodies are often very important and if the music is written first difficult to do but moneywise 1/3rd of the royalties and there was no way Sharon was going to sit there and only take that. For those of us that have followed his career closer than he ever did I'm pretty sure Ozzy contributed almost nothing to the song writing on stuff like The Ultimate Sin when at that time he was in some of the deepest of his fucked up times. There is literally footage of him watching the video to The Ultimate Sin single and he says he has no memory of it at all.

Ozzy had a unique voice back in the day and I think wrote maybe half or a third of some good vocal melodies. He contributed way way less to his canon than someone like Dave Lee Roth who was writing lyrics and vocal melodies but his crook wife managed to steal it for him.

[Nickdfresh]

We know this. We just don’t want you Libtards pushing their agenda on us. They bring enough attention to themselves, they don’t need you dopes shining a spotlight on them too. Next thing you fuckheads will be seeking reparations for them.

Well I have a feeling a lot of cuntservatives have repped drag queens....

I mean Travista Trittens looks like a fucking tranny who doth protest too much...

Oh HYYYIIII fellahs! Why won't Bud Light put my picture on a promotional only can not for sale. Tho bummed!

[Nickdfresh]

Jake E Lee's first gig.

To expect someone to go directly from playing in bars to this is nuts, spoiler alert he nails it. Ozzy a little less so...

I'm surprised Judas Priest were above Ozzy on the bill.

I'm not surprised at all. Ozzy was a solo act and yes an accomplished one, but JP had been around for a while...

Rob Halford walkin' in like a boss...

[Seshmeister]

Rob Halford walkin' in like a boss...

And 250 000 people have a complete gaydar failure...

[FORD]

We can be pretty much sure that all the music and lyrics on the Ozzy albums that made Ozzy's post Sabbath career i.e. the first 3 or 4 albums were all written by Bob Daisley and Randy Rhodes/Jake E Lee.

The maximum that Ozzy contributed would be some of the vocal melodies. Vocal melodies are often very important and if the music is written first difficult to do but moneywise 1/3rd of the royalties and there was no way Sharon was going to sit there and only take that. For those of us that have followed his career closer than he ever did I'm pretty sure Ozzy contributed almost nothing to the song writing on stuff like The Ultimate Sin when at that time he was in some of the deepest of his fucked up times. There is literally footage of him watching the video to The Ultimate Sin single and he says he has no memory of it at all.

Ozzy had a unique voice back in the day and I think wrote maybe half or a third of some good vocal melodies. He contributed way way less to his canon than someone like Dave Lee Roth who was writing lyrics and vocal melodies but his crook wife managed to steal it for him.

It's true that Ozzy seemed to be at his best when he had a bass player who could write lyrics. Specifically Geezer Butler or Bob Daisley. In the Sabbath days, it seems to me that Ozzy might have attempted some early lyrics... maybe just singing whatever popped into his head, in order to get the vocal melodies down, and then Geezer would "fix" the lyrics after that. Or at least that's how I interpret this....

[Terry]

We can be pretty much sure that all the music and lyrics on the Ozzy albums that made Ozzy's post Sabbath career i.e. the first 3 or 4 albums were all written by Bob Daisley and Randy Rhodes/Jake E Lee.

The maximum that Ozzy contributed would be some of the vocal melodies. Vocal melodies are often very important and if the music is written first difficult to do but moneywise 1/3rd of the royalties and there was no way Sharon was going to sit there and only take that. For those of us that have followed his career closer than he ever did I'm pretty sure Ozzy contributed almost nothing to the song writing on stuff like The Ultimate Sin when at that time he was in some of the deepest of his fucked up times. There is literally footage of him watching the video to The Ultimate Sin single and he says he has no memory of it at all.

Ozzy had a unique voice back in the day and I think wrote maybe half or a third of some good vocal melodies. He contributed way way less to his canon than someone like Dave Lee Roth who was writing lyrics and vocal melodies but his crook wife managed to steal it for him.

Which, if you look at the musical and lyrical content post-No More Tears - which I think was the last album Daisley was involved with - none of Ozzy's lyrics going forward from that album were in the same vein as the first 6 Ozzy solo albums. Bolsters the generally accepted notion that the music and lyrics of Ozzy's earliest/definitive solo albums had little to nothing to do with Ozzy.

Granted, it was Ozzy's name established during the Black Sabbath years that gave the first solo record publicity prior to the album's release - when virtually nobody knew who Daisley, Rhoads or Kerslake were - but it was the music (including, obviously, the lyrics and vocal melodies/delivery) that carried it through. Pissing on the Alamo and biting the dead bat onstage were part of the media blitz, but it's the tunes that resonate.

I seem to recall at one point during the 1990s, perhaps when the Ozzy catalog was being reissued on CD during the period when Daisley's and Kerslake's performance contributions were being recorded over by other musicians, that the credits on the Bark At The Moon CD said all music and lyrics by Ozzy Osbourne...as if Ozzy could even play the most rudimentary stuff on a guitar (much less 'write' a tune like Bark At The Moon).

[Terry]

And 250 000 people have a complete gaydar failure...

Look, Halford kept it so well hidden back in those days one could hardly be blamed for not picking up on it.

I mean, a guy wearing a Village People biker costume (complete with riding crop) and singing songs such as Hell Bent For Leather on albums such as Point Of Entry and Ram It Down...it all screamed masculine and butch.

[Terry]

I'm not surprised at all. Ozzy was a solo act and yes an accomplished one, but JP had been around for a while...

Rob Halford walkin' in like a boss...

Plus I think in 1983 circa US Fest time JP was riding high off of Screaming For Vengeance, whereas Ozzy's last studio album was already...what...nearly two years old? Plus, after the completion of the Diary dates that Brad Gillis played in 1982, Ozzy released the Speak Of The Devil live album - an album of Sabbath oldies - and Bark At The Moon hadn't been released yet; it wasn't a given in the summer of 1983 that Ozzy was going to continue to have a successful solo career.

But, yeah, Jake E. Lee acquitted himself well at the US Fest. Hell of a first gig with Ozzy in terms of a debut, eh?

[Rikk]

Look, Halford kept it so well hidden back in those days one could hardly be blamed for not picking up on it.

I mean, a guy wearing a Village People biker costume (complete with riding crop) and singing songs such as Hell Bent For Leather on albums such as Point Of Entry and Ram It Down...it all screamed masculine and butch.

It did give me a lot of faith in humanity that when Halford finally officially came out in the late 90s, the metal community didn't attempt to cancel him. People generally didn't care and supported him for it. I think it made a lot of homophobic people think twice and go, "Wait a minute, why should I care? Good for him."

Society and people progress when it comes to acceptance. When I was a teenager in the early 90s, I was an idiot. I would make stupid homophobic jokes and go on about how disgusting it was. Then, one late night on Canadian T.V., I was switching around and started watching a documentary that the Dead Kennedys singer, Jello Biafra, had recommended...called THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK. I watched the whole film, found it fascinating and very tragic. And I thought, "Who gives a damn if someone is gay? Why treat people remotely differently just because they're gay?" Since then, it's been a non-issue for me.

The sad thing is, with the far-right push, homophobia seems to have gotten WORSE the last handful of years.

[Terry]

It did give me a lot of faith in humanity that when Halford finally officially came out in the late 90s, the metal community didn't attempt to cancel him. People generally didn't care and supported him for it. I think it made a lot of homophobic people think twice and go, "Wait a minute, why should I care? Good for him."

Society and people progress when it comes to acceptance. When I was a teenager in the early 90s, I was an idiot. I would make stupid homophobic jokes and go on about how disgusting it was. Then, one late night on Canadian T.V., I was switching around and started watching a documentary that the Dead Kennedys singer, Jello Biafra, had recommended...called THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK. I watched the whole film, found it fascinating and very tragic. And I thought, "Who gives a damn if someone is gay? Why treat people remotely differently just because they're gay?" Since then, it's been a non-issue for me.

The sad thing is, with the far-right push, homophobia seems to have gotten WORSE the last handful of years.

My reaction when Halford came out in the late 90s was "he's gay? well, I suppose that explains why he was never publicly in a relationship with a woman"...then shrugged and went about my biz, and Halford's disclosure didn't diminish my liking for JP music one iota.

I recall making jokes about "queers/gays/homos" with my school chums in the 70s/80s when I was in grade school through high school. It was just what we did. The worst insult you could call a boy back then was "fag/faggot/queerbait"...by the 1990s, seemingly fewer and fewer people gave a shit. But back when I was a kid in the 1970s, the conventional wisdom about gay men was they were all pedophiles looking to abduct little boys and molest them, and if by the 8th grade as a young man you hadn't "gotten laid" yet with a girl (or at least lied about it) there was something wrong with you and you might as well suck a cock because you were doomed to be a queer forever. Oh, and back then every female gym teacher was obviously a "dyke"...

But hopefully one eventually grows up and stops getting bothered about what other people do sexually, because who gives a shit?

[Nickdfresh]

Look, Halford kept it so well hidden back in those days one could hardly be blamed for not picking up on it.

I mean, a guy wearing a Village People biker costume (complete with riding crop) and singing songs such as Hell Bent For Leather on albums such as Point Of Entry and Ram It Down...it all screamed masculine and butch.

Halford has said since that the leather thing was never his bag and KK Downing claimed it was mostly his idea. And most of the supposed gay-themes like "Hell Bent For Leather" weren't as Halford only wrote two songs about his sexual orientation and none of them are major songs you think....

But yeah I wasn't shocked when he came out, I don't think most were...