'Van Halen Rising' Book Chat with Greg Renoff - Oct. 17th, 9pm ET

[PETE'S BROTHER]

Duh - Hysteria

It was kinda boring. Except for the part where the drummer is dreaming he's in the studio and Mutt is pushing him harder and harder to play and his arm starts bleeding like its about to fly off. That was pretty cool. Oh and the scene of him standing there in some English field with his arm ripped off was cool too.

goddam it! now i won't watch it. thanks for ruinin' the surprise

[Von Halen]

How did I miss this movie?

Did our own "Rick Allen's Left Arm" make an appearance?

[Seshmeister]

They just stepped you through the story of the band which was tiresome.

The Doors movie could have been boring self obsessed addict writes some high school level poetry does some gigs and then dies so it's all in constructing a narrative around events. I suspect the best biographical movies are the ones that concentrate on the story rather than the facts which annoys me as well so I'm not a big fan of them all though there are some exceptions. I was actually pretty annoyed with American Sniper after reading up on the real story afterwards...

[PETE'S BROTHER]

How did I miss this movie?

Did our own "Rick Allen's Left Arm" make an appearance?

he was a stunt arm

[Seshmeister]

It's on YouTube...

[Von Halen]

What's with that foreign subtitle shit?

[PETE'S BROTHER]

it's for the portuguese

[Seshmeister]

What's with that foreign subtitle shit?

You'll be speaking it soon enough unless you get your giant wall built.

[twonabomber]

You'll be speaking it soon enough unless you get your giant wall built.

Oh no you din't!

[Anonymous]

You'll be speaking it soon enough unless you get your giant wall built.

[beavrtek]

Greg has the degree in history to actually pull off the fact-checking and unearthing of witnesses and facts that he did. The reason why the book didn't exist before is no one could get the facts straight; even within the band itself. He also has the writing ability to present everything he discovered. Passion is great, but execution is just as important.

I'm glad Greg did it, because he was one of the best people TO do it.

TAG

I'm not so sure that Greg had any more of an ability to get the "facts". If you look at the list of credits at the end, a good portion of the book is comprised of previously published material... from a relatively recent period. A majority of the people that interacted with VH back in that era are still breathing and will likely talk your ear off if given the opportunity.

However, I suppose the bottom line is this:
GR actually did it. He did an admirable job... and talk is cheap.

Which reminds me. How many guitarists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

[DONNIEP]

You'll be speaking it soon enough unless you get your giant wall built.

We're gonna shoot plane tickets to Scotland over our wall once it's completed, send all them Mexicanos your way!

[vandeleur]

We're gonna shoot plane tickets to Scotland over our wall once it's completed, send all them Mexicanos your way!

We built a wall to keep the scots out, they were stealing our jobs and making us eat haggis

[PETE'S BROTHER]

We built a wall to keep the scots out, they were stealing our jobs and making us eat haggis

well, build one they can't step over...

[Anonymous]

We built a wall to keep the scots out, they were stealing our jobs and making us eat haggis

I like Haggis! Love it, in fact.

Never thought Irish cuisine could be so good.