Eat Us And Smile
Cenk For America 2024!!
Justice Democrats
"If the American people had ever known the truth about what we (the BCE) have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched." - Poppy Bush, 1992
Well, Satriani isn't much of a songwriter. Certainly not in terms of writing tunes that involve a vocalist. That was the case before he hooked up with Hagar. Thus, stands to reason Chickenfoot wasn't going to produce any "new classics" or "instant classics" or whatever you want to call it. Satriani's forte has always been in the instrumental milieu.
Scramby eggs and bacon.
I mean, G3-type tours and settings would be the types of things that I tend to think would showcase Satriani's style the best, much in the way instrumental music where Satriani's guitar is the focal point would suit his style best in terms of studio work.
All of that isn't necessarily minimizing Satriani's technical ability, or musicianship, but the choice of Satriani for Chickenfoot just felt wrong from the get-go, even strictly on paper. Like, I can't imagine a longtime fan of Satriani's being happy Satriani was writing music with Sammy Hagar. As you said, that arrangement cheapens Satriani in terms of him wasting his talent...or putting what he is best at to one side in order to step into a traditional rock combo lineup and try and fill a role/style that isn't what he is best known for (and hasn't exactly raised a lot of enthusiasm for with either of the Chickenfoot releases).
I mean, Satriani's good, but he isn't Chuck Berry
My eyes are hurting from rolling upward!
Fuckin' Hagar. Hard rock's half-assed answer to Jimmy Buffett, although at least Buffett has penned some music I actually like.
Let's see, it's 1985, so I guess I'll join David Lee Roth's old band and start acting like Roth while simultaneously razzing Roth's contributions to the band a la 'Van Halen weren't REALLY successful until I hooked up with them.'
Oh! Now it's 1991. I guess I'll open a cantina in Mexico, take a page (or ten) out of Jimmy Buffett's book and reinvent myself as another 'Mayor Of Vacation Town'...just like Buffett did!
Such an average talent with delusions of grandeur, actually comparing what he has done to Zeppelin and The Stones ("look at me! I'm in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame!).
I don't even think Satriani is with the group anymore, or at least he isn't currently touring with them.
Whatever. The Red Rocker has made some dough over the years. Doubtless the guy doesn't give two shits what people who aren't buying his products think about him. However, he so obviously wants to have his tenure in Van Halen equal to Roth's in the public mind, and it just hasn't gotten there. He clearly wants one more tour with Van Halen to rectify the 2004 debacle ("hey, man, I couldn't bail even though I knew Eddie was fucked up because I had signed a contract and the promoters would have sued me!" all of which is true enough, but the fact remains he went ahead and did the tour anyway).
Fuckin' nut wrangler.
Fuck Berry...
Like every time a rock legend kicks it, my band will play one of his songs. So last Monday night after rehearsing our own stuff we went playing Johnny B. Goode 6 times in a row - the last two linked directly. Our drummer, who is an excellent one but 15 years younger and drumming for other (electro...) bands, quit yesterday... Doesn't like rock, though he can play it damn well and did for the last 18 months. Another drummer was waiting to step in and we've already hired him, but hey! Fuck Berry, really...
Or maybe it will prove to be no worse.
Buffet is the last, and one of a series of "musicians" that Clichagar mimicked in his career. He coped Buffet's aging white guy on terminal vacation shtick, but before that he did the same thing to others. You can see vids of him copying different styles from AM lovey-dovey ballads to rockers that coped the likes of Ted Nugent and Peter Frampton as he vacillated between subpar pop and rock standards that defined his career prior to his unholy union with the Van Halen brothers...
Last edited by Nickdfresh; 03-22-2017 at 07:49 AM.
Hey, man, you take that shit back!
Ted Nugent and Peter Frampton could only DREAM of writing something as good as Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy...
...or Three Lock Box
...of I've Done Everything For You
...or Give To Live
...or any set of lyrics that uses the word 'jive' multiple times
Woo!
Hey now!
All right!
Writing In All Proper Case Takes Extra Time, Is Confusing To Read, And Is Completely Pointless.
Sammy on the surface seems like the happy go lucky hippie but the guy's dad was a boxer and Sam grew up with that mindset. The guy wants to win and he's got a huge ego. Sam is a type A personality in a type B container. Sam does not like Dave. Same does not care about Dave. Sam wants to mop the floor with Dave. Sam can sing and Dave can't. Dave is old, and his voice is gone. Sam can still sing. Sam wants to kick Dave's ass and go out on top. Sure Sam is rich. Sure Sam shouldn't even care but Sam has that boxer ego. He wants blood and it's Dave's blood he wants.
Yeah, but from where I sit, it's all moot on the part of what Hagar wants now.
"Sam is a type A personality in a type B container"?! Abso-fucking-LOOTley!!!
Sam had virtually just as many tours and albums with Van Halen as Dave did to get that floor-mopping job done. Far as album sales between the two eras, it's not even remotely close. Not that sales are indicative of quality (not to me, anyway) but if that's the metric Hagar is going by...sorry.
Doubtless Hagar these days can still sing in a manner that isn't nearly as cringe-worthy when comparing it to 20-30 years ago as it is when Dave does. Dave's just...done. Can't jump. Can't scream. Can't sing in key. Dave got old. What Dave did back in the late 1970s and 1980s really wasn't DESIGNED to age gracefully...or intact...and it hasn't. He passed that final endpoint for me 9 years ago, and it's been a slow walk downhill far as his abilities go ever since.
Even if Sam cobbles together another tour with the brothers and drags Mike along, it's not going to matter. Because as long as all four of them are still drawing breath and still able to get vertical, the CVH lineup is what people want to see. They'll take Sam Halen if that's the only option available, but they'd prefer CVH. Even with a greatly diminished Roth at the helm.
CVH is bulletproof. The 6-pack and the standards of excellence CVH set during their touring years...that legend just gets stronger, even as the band itself gets older, slower and weaker.
CVH = Timeless
Sam Halen/Van Hagar = commercially timely in the 1980s, but has dated about as well as Aqua Net, Capri pants and synth-heavy, electronic drum-driven tunes about love with lyrics from Hallmark
It just is, you know.
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