Random DLR thoughts and stuff

[Leadsinger777]

I've been a member for a little while now. I don't see anything different since I signed up. The same discussion about who is the better front man, or who is the biggest fag.
Quite honestly, I could care less who sucks dick and who doesn't.

This post is going to get kind of random. I've been meaning to post for a while now, so I'm just going to shoot my load all over. Sorry if I hit yah.
I'm really unhappy that I've never seen Dave live.
I live in NYC, and I should have been at the AC show, but I had a gig of my own to perform. Hopefully he'll be in NYC one of these days.

So, I still don't know... does Dave still have it? Can Dave still "rock"? I understand he's much older now, and the vocals are a lot more forced and scratchy. That's to be expected... but, if he can still rock, why isn't he putting out another "rock" album?
DLR band was the closest thing he's done to "Rock" in a long time. Some of the songs seemed more like a caricature of the old Dave though.
Back in 85 he never would have sang, "this band is tight, and we can rock all night". A 7 year old in a rock band could have said that rhyme. So, what happened?
Slam Dunk, that's what we all wanted! More Slam Dunks, more Counter-Blast even. .. no more Right Tool For The Job (bad version of Genesis I can't Dance). No more Shoo Bops...
If he can't rock anymore, how about more SkyScraperesque "Black Sand". There's one of the Dave's I loved!

Look, Dave's always been his own strange entity. He's even got a bit of a Michael Jackson complex in a way. It's the strangest God complex version of LSD (Lead Singer Disease) I've ever seen. Still, that's the cockiness that I love about him too. That's not in the music anymore either.
He's full of anecdotes and phrases. A lot of them really have no place in a song though. I mean, "I've been places with my face you wouldn't go without a pistol" sounds like a comeback to something some other guy said to him at a bar." (Either that ,or it's a reference to some really nasty pussy, in which case I wouldn't put my face near it even with a bottle of Drano)
Dave, ... Lose the dress and the shoes, lose the glam. Evolve... but evolve with dignity. I guess that's all I want.
It's really hard to deal with your childhood star losing his touch. He's a believer that it's better to burn out than fade away. I'm a believer that if you don't have anything to add to the conversation, then shut up. Quitewhile you're ahead. I'm rambling...
I find myself looking for old Dave and VH tracks that I don't own so I can have some new Rock'n Dave to listen too.
I saw Tribute band 'Unchained' a few weeks ago in Queens. I really enjoyed the show. That's the closest thing to Dave I've ever seen.
In my fantasy world I was hoping Dave would have been at one of my shows and offered to work with my band, similar to what Kiss did to VH. Again, fantasy... not gonna happen, I know.
Maybe that's the direction Dave should go. He can stay in the music scene by signing other top acts.
If you found out I was in bed with your mother what would you do?.. random again...

How come we keep living in the past? Perhaps just like us, Dave doesn't realize he's older. Perhaps no one has leveled with him and said... Dave, this isn't what your fans want. The same old jokes... weren't funny the first time around when Buddy Hackett said 'em.
Hell, if you're gonna live in the past Dave, might as well Rock like the past too. C'mon, we're begging yah! Keep the jokes, and bring back the music.

Still a Dave fan... just not a fan of the newest...

Any of you listen to the new System of a Down CD? IT'S AMAZING!

[Big Fat Sammy]

Re: Random DLR thoughts and stuff

Originally posted by Leadsinger777
Slam Dunk, that's what we all wanted! More Slam Dunks, more Counter-Blast even. .. no more Right Tool For The Job (bad version of Genesis I can't Dance). No more Shoo Bops...

That combined with this....

Originally posted by Leadsinger777
Dave, ... Lose the dress and the shoes, lose the glam. Evolve... but evolve with dignity. I guess that's all I want.

...would be impossible.

[Terry]

Well, as far as DLR Band being a caricature of what he did with CVH, think Dave was definitely and consciously glancing in the rearview mirror when he made that disc, and for a reason; in 1998, people were still pissed over what had happened in 1996. The DLR Band CD was a perfect counter-punch to Van Halen 3. As rough as Dave's vocals may have been in spots, the DLR Band release, to me, was far more representative of the energy, spirit and sound of CVH than anything Ed and Gary Cherone came up with.

Far as living in the past goes, think Dave has realized that to the public at large, he's always gonna be known as the former lead singer for Van Halen. Might explain why his setlists are so CVH-heavy - the man figures he's giving the people what they want to see. Also, the dudes last two studio releases haven't sold well. Doesn't take a genius to deduce from this that the public really isn't interested in what he's currently doing anymore. In a lot of ways, his image WAS frozen in the 1980s. But that's ok. If Dave wants to continue to go out on the road playing CVH tunes, and there's an audience that wants to see it, then so be it. The kind of blinding fame Roth generated in the 1980s doesn't last forever. Me, I never saw the need to stop listening to someone I dig just because they aren't on the cover of every magazine or aren't what's popular now. I stop when the music no longer interests me. DLR Band was a great CD IMO, regardless of how many people bought it. Diamond Dave, not so much IMO.

[Leadsinger777]

Good stuff. I'm glad there were a couple of replies. Thanks for taking the time to read my babble.

I guess I never quite lookd at it that way, but perhaps Dave's album sales have dropped because his songs aren't as good. I guess that argument can go back and forth, so I'll agree to disagree and move on.

I'm not expecting Dave to grow up either. I guess I just want the old Dave back. Not the old Dave look, which is still in effect, but the sound. Nothing stays the same forever, but I wouldn't mind a relapse.

You can't say 80's fame doesn't last though... Aerosmith is a great role model! Granted, most bands don't stay in the public eye for very long these days. I blame that on the industry. Nowadays so many bands come out sounding the same... whatever the hot sound is.
No one ever sounded like Van Halen.

"where have all the good time's gone"?

[Vinnie Velvet]

You have to remember though, Dave always tried to do different stuff and reinvent himself many times.

But he can't win with some fans and the media.

When Dave cut his hair short, stopped dressing like a rock and roll singer and wore the vest and black slacks in '94, people hated it and started saying 'Dave has lost it'.

Then when he stopped dying his hair the dirty blonde look and kept his original dark brown and cut it even shorter for the Vegas thing in '95, people hated that too.

Then Dave decides to 'go back' to flamboyant and crazy looking Dave of the 80s by 1999. But then the media started to say he was stuck in the 80s, dying his hair blonde, wearing spandex, etc.

Now, he's back to the short dark brown hair look again.

So, to us fans, whatever Dave looks like, whatever he dresses like and even whatever songs he sings, the fact of the matter is, Dave is Dave and he does what he wants.

I'm sure he had people telling him that an album like YFLM wouldn't sell, but Dave wanted to do it anyway.

Kudos to the Diamond one.

[Big Fat Sammy]

At the point of YFLM, NOTHING Dave would do would sell...no matter how great.

DLR Album was as close to CVH as possible....and didn't sell.

You gotta have mainstream industry ad money to sell records...and Dave doesn't have that...and I'm sure he's delt with that shit long enought to not even care.

[mewisemagic]

Originally posted by Big Fat Sammy
At the point of YFLM, NOTHING Dave would do would sell...no matter how great.

DLR Album was as close to CVH as possible....and didn't sell.

You gotta have mainstream industry ad money to sell records...and Dave doesn't have that...and I'm sure he's delt with that shit long enought to not even care.

Agreed..100%

[Carmine]

Originally posted by Big Fat Sammy
At the point of YFLM, NOTHING Dave would do would sell...no matter how great.

DLR Album was as close to CVH as possible....and didn't sell.

You gotta have mainstream industry ad money to sell records...and Dave doesn't have that...and I'm sure he's delt with that shit long enought to not even care.

Correct. This is also the point where Daves says he lost the energy and desire to try and keep up. He was going through band members every other day. He spoke about musicians that didnt own their own drum kit, guitar, etc.

Unless, Dave goes the way of Santana and does a "SUPER" album designed for radio airplay, anything he does from this point, short of a Reunion VH record ,will most likely only be purchased by all of us.

[hollywood5150]

DLR is no fool.................he is perfectly aware of what is going on...

he knows the recording industry well............VERY WELL, need proof...

Boston radio show..........he knows all of the above stated...... and in stead of staying home counting grey hairs and bitching about his aching back...........

so what does he do.............as the DIAMOND one does.........go on stage and kick some ass..............again..............and again......and
AGAIN..............AND AGAIN.................



heroes come and go.............but LEGENDS are FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!

[Leadsinger777]

Great points fellas.
You're right. I guess I'm just a little too late yah know?
I missed the VH days... I barely got into 1984 when it came out. I was a kid.

One thing, isn't the diamond one worthy of a "Super" album, as mentioned above?
I think if anyone is, it would be the greatest frontman that ever lived.

Today's rock stars need to get together and put a DIAMOND tribute together.

Not that I want to hear Aaron Lewis sniveling and wining over ladies night in buffalo....

Thanks for the new outlook!

Rick

[Terry]

Originally posted by Leadsinger777
Good stuff. I'm glad there were a couple of replies. Thanks for taking the time to read my babble.

I guess I never quite lookd at it that way, but perhaps Dave's album sales have dropped because his songs aren't as good. I guess that argument can go back and forth, so I'll agree to disagree and move on.

I'm not expecting Dave to grow up either. I guess I just want the old Dave back. Not the old Dave look, which is still in effect, but the sound. Nothing stays the same forever, but I wouldn't mind a relapse.

You can't say 80's fame doesn't last though... Aerosmith is a great role model! Granted, most bands don't stay in the public eye for very long these days. I blame that on the industry. Nowadays so many bands come out sounding the same... whatever the hot sound is.
No one ever sounded like Van Halen.

"where have all the good time's gone"?

Not so sure Aerosmith is an example I'd wanna use in terms of 1980s bands. They spent the first half of the 1980s trying to get their shit together, then managed to get clean and go onto a career of.....power ballads. Plus, fame and levels of popularity don't automatically correspond with quality.

Some of it has to do with what others on this thread have said, agreed. How many people on a grand scale even know Dave is still RELEASING solo albums. He's not getting a push because he's not on any major labels, but the fact that he's not on a major label doesn't mean his music is subpar. YFLM was a stylistic shift that threw a lot of people for a loop who tended to categorize Roth as a hard rock singer, including his fans.

I mean, doesn't really matter to me that Dave solo these days isn't selling millions, or even hundreds of thousands. Think Dave is just looked on as the singer of Van Halen, and many just won't accept him as anything else. The DLR Band CD, to me, sounded more like CVH than ANYTHING that's come out of 5150 since Dave left. Yet that didn't sell squat.

Bottom line is a lot of people who listen to rock music have adopted an attitude toward Dave that seems to say, "Let us know when you're back in Van Halen. Otherwise, we're not interested."

[BenJammin]

We can't let go.

If possible, I'm sure a lot of us would have Dave and Ed cloned, raised as brothers (so hopefully they would get along better) and trained as musicians in the style of the originals, just so we could experience them in their youth and relive ours.

Ahhh, technology.

[Keeyth]

Ah well, it sounds like this thread could use a little trip down memory lane... ...I posted this in another thread, but after reading this one I thought maybe it might be a nice piece of nostalgia for some of you. Especially if you missed the early Van Halen:


May 10th 1984 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco.

My first real concert. In all my life so far, I have not seen one better. It was the standard to which I held all future concerts, and while many have been great, there has been none greater.

Drove up with a bunch of buddies and some chicks in about four cars doing speeds of up to 100 mph on 280 just to get to the parking lot and tailgate party for 4 or 5 hours before the show. Talk about an off the hook party!

When we finally went to get in line, the line going into the Palace went in a big square about 100ft x 100ft with a single garbage can sitting in the middle. People were hurling glass bottles as high into the air as they could trying to make a basket in the can. Meanwhile, drunk as f**k morons were making the dash right across the middle of the square amidst all the broken glass in a mindless streak of glory I guess.

I remember a big drama between two of my buds about this chick, and she didn't go home with the one she came with, and all this transpired while waiting in the drunken, stoned line...

Inside the show, they had this band called The Velcros I think, playing and they were the worst thing I had ever heard. People were throwing everything they could throw at them. VH had a reputation back in the day for hiring lame openers so as not to detract from their show. Well, they needn't have worried.

All of the sudden, the lights go down...

There is an explosion of light, and I see this blonde, long haired wild man jump 20 feet into the air and do the splits, touching both his feet with his hands and arms outstretched... ...an onslaught of music and sound as his background... ...and I have never been the same person since.

And from then on it has been Dave or the Grave, baby!!

Rock on Classic Van Halen!! May you again rise from the ashes one day!!

[Big Fat Sammy]

Wow! cool story! Too bad I was only 8 :D

[Keeyth]

Thanks, it was a great time! :D