Dave Smokes Sam 2002

[Nitro Express]

I think it may have been somewhere in the mid-1990's after the explosion of the Seattle-based bands died down that rock and roll just stopped growing or developing or pushing the envelope. I dunno if it was a combination of reunion tours like The Eagles and KISS making massive amounts of money that made nostalgia the easy path to take, or fewer young people being interested in the music form, or the proliferation of home computers/internet/pirated music (because why would an established rock act want to bother putting their heart and soul into new music only to have it downloaded for free: musicians doubtless want to get paid).

Radio played such a huge part of the former music industry. I used to hang at the local country club in the summer. There were speakers all over constantly playing the local Top 40 radio station. You had the local DJ and it was like American Graffiti. The Wolfman was everywhere. He was at the grocery store. He was at the clubhouse. He was in your car. Multiply him by thousands.

That's gone now. Yeah there's the internet but everyone is listening to different stuff. It's become so diluted how do you become famous? Who's going to be interested in putting the promotion money behind you to get you recognized? Everyone is listening to different stuff. You no longer have the Wolfman to promote the new act with the new hit single.

So now it's perform and hope you can get enough scratch from the door and out of your trunk to make the time and effort worth it.

[Nitro Express]

Alice Cooper did a good job of explaining what rock and roll was. You had guys like him that were a bit screwball and they liked to perform for people. If you were interesting enough someone would back your act. You recorded music, the radio played it and you went on the road performing. The best cities were the manufacturing cities in the Great Lake regions. Why? They had people working in factories and they loved rock and roll music, they had money to buy tickets and in places like Detroit and Cleveland you had factories close to the venue. People would come to the concert right off their work shift and it was happy hour. The place went wild.

What's missing now? Radio and manufacturing. Detroit ain't what it was and Cleveland has this bland rock and roll museum showing people what used to exist. It's gone other than a few acts hanging on and some talented kids with no way to get to the big time because that road is gone. The big break ain't going to happen and you can't support yourself streaming.

[Nitro Express]

Grunge to me was just punk rock. Nothing really new there but Cobain was the anti-spandex counter punch and him and his band wrote some catchy music and best of all he died a tragic death before he could ruin his legacy. The whole Seattle thing was short-lived. But the reason why is the internet came along and so did Napster. That was the end of the traditional music industry. It's never recovered from that and by death I mean what the artist can make. Sure you can stream but there's no money there.

Rock and roll now is an old fuck like Gene Simmons selling vodka in bottles that look like a money bag or an aging fuck like Hagar selling you a spiritual experience in a bottle. They all are selling hot sauce, booze and that kind of shit. They all are merchandisers because there is no money in the music anymore.

[Nitro Express]

So you have Dave Grohl who to his credit was able to ride his Nirvana fame to something else and that is to be theban of the dregs of Rock and Roll. He's a professional fan. He gathers what's left of the aging rock and roll industry and promotes it and then of course he does his song and dance. He will do a bunch of tribute shows as aging rock legends die off and then Dave will die.

[MasonL]

That tour showed just how much better VH was than its follow-up. The tone is right, the drive, the fire and fury with a smile, is all there. You get strong glimpses of it from Dave's 2002 gig. There's a real urgency, a kaboom. What the fuck happened to it? Where's the defiant, "don't piss me off" sneering attitude anymore? Sam is hack businessman posing as an artist. He's not a real artist. Incredible how much Sam cooled down the crowd at those shows.

[Nitro Express]

The original VH lineup was lightning in a bottle.

[Nitro Express]

Some of the best things in life just happen. Only fools think they can replicate the random happy accidents.

[Terry]

Nitro, you always make good sense to me.

[Terry]

Fuck it.

Maybe I'll go catch a Gladys Night and the Pips show.

[Nickdfresh]

... I mean, Sammy's set was what I assume he does, which is his Cabo Wabo Tequila Party - his half-baked version of Margaritaville - and Dave was trying to pretend it was 1986. I'd prefer a washed-up Roth over Hagar at his best, for whatever that is worth.

Yeah, one of the biggest things I hate about Hagar, he just copycats other more innovative musicians because at the end of the day he is a boring and dumb guy...

[Nitro Express]

Yup. Name one trend Sammy Hagar started. That whole 80's spandex big hair thing was started by David Lee Roth. All those front guys in those bands were TRYING to be Dave. Most looked ridiculous attempting the impossible but it was a fad and quite a big one.

[Nickdfresh]

There's that terrifyingly awful ballad Sam did in the 70's that is nothing more than a cop of REO Speedwagon/Journey/Peter Frampton but ends up making Wham's "Never Gonna Dance Again" look like a soulful melody. Such a pandering piece of shitstool..

[FORD]

You mean this one? I always thought it looked like Sammy was auditioning for the BeeGees....

[Nickdfresh]

[Terry]

Oh boy.

You Make Me Crazy.

Hadn't heard that one before.

It just chugs along to no particular effect, comes across as devoid of any inspiration either musically or lyrically.

Not gonna say that was "the worst shit ever" because it doesn't even sink to a memorable level of shitty.

Sort of sums up basically how I felt about what stuff of Hagar's I had heard prior to him joining Van Halen. I don't think I had even heard either of the Montrose albums Hagar had sang on prior to him joining Van Halen; probably didn't listen to the Montrose stuff until 2010 or whenever someone had uploaded it on Youtube for free. Really, about the only thing he did prior to joining Van Halen that sort of stood out to me was the track Heavy Metal, and I recall hearing that one from watching the Heavy Metal movie when it was played on premium cable movie channels in the early 1980's. That track and the Three Lock Box track I remember watching the music video of back in the early days of MTV and thinking the song was decent.

I don't remember really hearing the guy getting much of any play on FM radio in the early 1980's. I don't remember any of my friends in my age group in the early 1980's who were getting into rock and roll even so much as mentioning Sammy Hagar until the Can't Drive 55 video came out, and even then the comments were more along the lines of how goofy the video was than the tune itself, which we kinda considered a novelty tune. Oh, and that Hagar said the word "ass" in the tune, which was kind of cool for a 14-year-old back then in a PG-13 sort of way.

He had a couple of good albums with Montrose. When I listened to the Montrose stuff, the guitar and the production stood out more to me than the vocals, but he sang well enough on those. His pre-Van Halen solo career had some commercial success. Not even close to the level of commercial success Hagar later boasted he had, but he squeaked out a couple of Gold albums and a Platinum album in the 1980's. Not bad for what overall has pretty much always come across as average rock music to my ears, I guess.

I can't imagine who would listen to the stuff he has done - particularly the stuff as a solo act - and think it was great or good enough to the point where they wanted to go out and buy it, but I suppose enough did for him to parlay it into a career.