And I honestly thought Tattoo was a new song

[DLR Bridge]

Yeah, I was completely on board with using old riffs. It definitely worked better on some songs than others though.

[ZahZoo]

I know many don't think the ADKOT material is all that stellar due to it mostly being comprised of old songs that didn't make the cut back when the band was in it's prime or even before they went big. But hell it's the last new release from my favorite band and even their killing floor cuts were better than a lot of popular bands.

We ain't gettin no more...

[DLR Bridge]

There was lyrical brilliance all across the album. In some cases though, I think a bit too brilliant. A song like Outta Space, originally Let’s Get Rockin’, is the perfect example of retro-fitting a dumb-rocker with wisdomatic truth bombs.

Need no polar bear to scare me
No Eskimo to share with me his fate
Woo, we outta space
No blog-o-sphere to sell me
No dolphin needs to tell me
No starving kid
To make the case

As opposed to some drivel about jumping in the streets, kicking off our shoes and letting loose.

This is where the experiment of reworking old tunes hit a snag for me. I know Dave probably has journals of great lyrical ideas, but even if he can artfully fit the stanzas in over the hooks, if it’s not what the song calls for, things get a little weird.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the wit and intellect more often than not, but do you know what most of the songs from the first two, three albums were particularly light on? Wit and intellect.

Imagine Feel Your Love Tonight or Dance The Night Away being fit with notions like:

Eighty acres of one stop shopping
Has somewhat changed the place
Woo, we outta space
I do not refuse it
I am guilty, I do use it
I am the reason
We outta space

Ya gotta give a song what it calls for, and in tunes like this or Beats Workin’ (Put Out The Lights) or Big River (Big Trouble) the simplistic fun rock gets a little less fun with the less-than-accessible themes. These are clever lyrics in their own right, but I rarely feel compelled to sing along with them in the context of these songs.

Of course, jus’ my two cents.

[ZahZoo]

Dave's lyrical work on Tattoo was great... really showcases his song writing skills over Edward's rhythmic timing signatures for just a simple chugging rock composition.

[Terry]

Meh...I'm not sure it would have made an appreciable amount of difference ultimately in terms of album sales re: Tattoo vs. Blood and Fire for the first single.

On a personal level, I don't much care for Tattoo. Not in the original demo form OR as a reworked track for ADKOT. In point of fact, Tattoo, You and Your Blues and The Trouble With Never come off to me as lesser (lesser, mind you, as opposed to exceptional) DLR solo tracks than they do good Van Halen tracks.

But I think with ADKOT probably (and am pulling this number from my gut/out of my ass in terms of scientific method) at least 95% - if not more - of the album sales were a done deal before a single note of the album was heard just by word alone that Roth was recording an album with Van Halen.

Having said that, Tattoo WAS a baffling lead single considering there were MUCH stronger tracks on the record.

[Seshmeister]

Just another reason that Blood and Fire should have been the first single with a bunch of 'old' new material in the video.

Not fucking rocket science but these people make a lot of mistakes...

[Terry]

I had heard Tattoo was reworked from an old demo when ADKOT was first released, but I hadn't heard the demo until after ADKOT came out.

I'd heard the demos for what ended up being She's The Woman, Blood And Fire, Outta Space and Big River prior to ADKOT coming out.

[Fairwrning]

I did not realize it was an older song re-written..I know AC/DC put out Highway to Hell in 79,,,complete with a song called shot down in flames..I wonder if that had something to do with changing it to a Ronstadt cover..

[DLR Bridge]

I would’ve rather this be on VH II than Your No Good, which is a switcheroo that I think happened. Ted made them use the bass line and groove for Your No Good. The version of Down In Flames from the Whiskey in ‘77 was better.

[Fairwrning]