1984 by Malcolm Dome

[ELVIS]

Originally posted by Hardrock69
At least Uncle Dave can walk the walk, and can hold his head high, knowing that his career was one of integrity, doing things on his own terms.

Like walking right out of Van Halen ??

[Matt White]

What was the alternative? Take a year or three to write "Why Can't This Be Love"?!?

Everything he's ever said about those clowns has panned out....

Lazy, greedy, Petty, Substance abusers.....................

I'm surprised it took him until '85 to walk..........

[ELVIS]

Oh, c'mon now Matt...

[Matt White]

The writing was on the wall, King...........

How good do those keyboard tunes sound now? 15-20 years down the road......

DAVE was right...NOBODY wanted to see EVH's "Dead-ass behind a synth"...........

DEAD NUTS RIGHT ON THE MONEY

[rustoffa]

Interesting stuff Matt! In the end, it was like one giant crock pot that slow-cooked too long?

Like, the perfect recipe that just sucks when one of the main ingredients decides to jump outta the pot. Maybe the pot-jumper didn't like the aforementioned recipe changes? Maybe the pot jumper had been stewing a little too long, and finally had enough of weak motherfucking ingredients bringing the recipe down?

One things for sure, it kept cooking and got weaker. They tried fatback, rosemary, then fatback again......wot a crock of shit.

[audiospectrum]

hmmm, the frailty of every human being in that band is exposed! Even Roth has his problems, but fuck he is the most honest guy out there. Everything he has ever said has pretty much turned out to be true. I salute that, he never duped me and I'll always be a fan because of this. Ed and Al can go fuck themselves, I hate the fact that they were always negative, always telling lie after lie. What a mess, the Van Halen Saga!

[DrMaddVibe]

Originally posted by rustoffa
Interesting stuff Matt! In the end, it was like one giant crock pot that slow-cooked too long?

Like, the perfect recipe that just sucks when one of the main ingredients decides to jump outta the pot. Maybe the pot-jumper didn't like the aforementioned recipe changes? Maybe the pot jumper had been stewing a little too long, and finally had enough of weak motherfucking ingredients bringing the recipe down?

One things for sure, it kept cooking and got weaker. They tried fatback, rosemary, then fatback again......wot a crock of shit.

Fatback and rosemary!

[Dirty Duck]

Good read! It just goes to show that the Band couldnt handle Roth's popularity and that was sad. Here is a band that ruled the world and airwaves and because the FRONTMAN was getting more attention then the guitarist...the falling out had begun. The truth is the FRONTMAN usually gets the most attention....and If you're anything like Dave the attention is going to be HUGE. You had a bunch of ego's..NOT just Dave. C'mon...like Eddie didnt think he was the shit? It's always been Roth this and Roth that..when the truth is he gave that band more then they could've done on their own. Ego or no ego the band was at it's best with Roth cause chemestry is hard thing to come by in a band. But what the fuck do I know...I'm a Duck...

[skins]

Keeper of the Brand

Matt, actually your recap is not all that profound or insightful. Much of this occured behind the scences from '80 on, but your summary thoughts are accurate. DLR was the "brand" director, The look, the sound, the back stage antics, all carfully executed and integrated by Dave. He is a brilliant marketer. A formula that would be copied by everyone from the Crue to Guns and Roses. Clearly Dave was the leader.

Now lets be honest here, Dave had his own disfuntions that contributed to the dimise including his own major coke habit. I am sure you saw some of that in Vancouver. His greatest detriment was as a leader you have to be willing to comprimise with the rest of the team. As the three amigos lives began to change ...marrige, mid life ...Dave needed to recognize that some of the objectives might begin to change to. His incredible drive here did not allow him to see the forest through the trees as a leader. A repeat would occur in '96 at MTV. Bottom line sometimes he can be a jerk not a leader. I do believe that Ed recognized the marketing prowess Dave brought to the band and that is why he cried the day Dave came to his house to tell him he was leaving the band. Ed knew that even if he replaced the singer there was much more to replace.

I had lunch with Gene Simmons in and around the MTV fiasco and I thought he said something interesting but obvious. None of them are clean. He went down the list....Arowsmith, Kiss, The Stones, Clapton Bon Jovi all went clean before the comebacks. His prediction back then was no reunion until that happens. There definetly is something there. Although I am not so sure that Dave would be any fun sober.

Anyway, now that the sisters have been running the brand for the last 20 years ...can you believe that...they are unwilling to let the brand king come back and run it. It's ashame because American culture loves a good brand that tastes the same each time you open the bottle. Like everyone on this site, I sure would love to taste that drink one more time.

[Matt White]

Interesting........

Discuss

[Vinnie Velvet]

I still take Dave's side in the split.

While everyone had their vices, it wasn't Dave who was slacking, drunken every day, so pissed that you would miss phonecalls and can't get your ass going.

When it was time to work, for Dave, it was time to work.

Look, even when DLR had already worked on half of 5150 with Ed, Van Hagar still needed 9 months to release the damn thing.

Dave may have been a jerk at times, only because he wanted VH to be at the top of its game--it was Dave who helped craft the image and even musical direction.

Granted, Jump was released at the right time. Timing is everything. Dave never liked it and was right to discard the song when first introduced to Dave back in 1980.

That wasn't the right time for VH to release a song like Jump---too much of a turn.

1984 was the perfect year--with synth tunes and Miami Vice soundtracks selling millions of albums.

But where Ed was going with 5150 (the results were obvious) was just too much for Dave. I firmly believe that if they did the amount of synth tunes with Dave on 5150, that album would've tanked.

Now with a new singer, the possibilities were endless and less of a risk because it was a different band.

[rustoffa]

Re: Keeper of the Brand

Originally posted by skins
I had lunch with Gene Simmons in and around the MTV fiasco and I thought he said something interesting but obvious.

That fucking Gene....he's a walking, talking, lunch-scarfin' soothsayer!

[Crops]

Hey guys

I was at that Vancouver show. I was 14 years old and went with my Dad - also a VH fan. It was also my very first concert.

It was an amazing (and I've seen them 5 times since) show. Never to be duplicated in my mind. The crowd did go crazy -- almost a semi-riot. The opening act was some no-name band and they got booed off the stage. (my friend had such bad seats that he thought they were the Stray Cats because the bass player had an upright! lol.)

Of the 5 other times I've seen VH -- eddie (who was my hero) was so fucked up that he could hardly play. I've only seen one good VH show since -- and it was one of two shows on the 5150 tour I caught.

That said I missed the ETAS tour with Dave, but did catch another amazing Vancouver show on the Skyscraper tour. It fucking rocked -- Dave rocked. The whole band centre stage playing kettle drums! Good stuff.

Then years later I caught Dave in Bristol, England in a very sad display -- I called it "Jim Dandy on Coke" tour (circa 94).

What can you say other than our heroes have all fallen. Dave WAS amazing but the coke --- he should have just said no at one point.

They will never be again --- for Dave, if I had a chance to produce him, I'd have him doing acoustic blues and Jazz standards. There's a radio gig MP3 around the net with Dave singing Mercy Mercy Mercy that suggests he could still be vital.

As for Sammy --- I've actually flown with him down to Cabo a couple of times and he seems to be a nice enough guy (you never know who you'll sit next to in Alaska first class) --- but damn --- he can only sing Tuti-fruiti and sometimes I want to hear (sub)lime green --- And Dave sure could sing green when he wanted to.

Anyway --- just thought I'd share. Krokus always were wankers BTW.....

[Matt White]

Uhhhhhhh.....

I saw DAVE this summer.....

he was INCREDIBLE.........

Better than when I saw him in 1991........

Spammy has always SUCKED.........

Thanks for stopping by....................

[Big Fat Sammy]

Thanks for posting that...

I like how Dave didn't care and kept partying even though the others could be plotting against him.