Oh, Oh, Oh, Wolfie’s Tapping

[Seshmeister]

Shit, I have a bootleg of The Cult singer Ian Astbury being booed by a large UK crowd chanting "you fat bastard!" over an over...

Astbury has a habit of annoying crowds though, I've been in a UK audience that turned on him too.

Also in 1983 Ozzy was chanted at with 'You fat bastard' at the end of a show here in 1983 Brad Gillis era but I think that was more about only playing an hour as a headliner rather than him being a bit chubby at the time.

I guess the psychology is maybe if you show up looking like shit you better bring your A game.

[ZahZoo]

Clearly Wolfgang has musical gifts and talents that clock in above your average person... But you look at his compositions and lyrical content/messaging within his material and he's:

1. A product of his time... late 90's/early 2000's hard rock influences within a fairly small scope box musically...

2. Artistically... his sheltered, wealthy, socially limited life experiences being a son of parents of fame, both with major substance abuse and relationship issues limit his lyrical expression/story telling to his teen angst coupled with childhood alcoholic/drug codependency syndrome and contrasted with his major joys in life mastering level 269 playing Sonic the Hedgehog III and dry humping his stuffed Barney.

It is unfair and unqualified to compare him to his Pop and Uncle Dave musically... they grew up with 50's, 60's, 70's, Pop, all flavors of Rock, R&B, Blues, Jazz and even classical musical influences... socially they were a product of the streets and beaches of Southern California party life in the 70's growing up... Completely different universes that shaped their artistic expressions. Plus they learned their trade the hard way living it in person rather than in seclusion through the internet.

PS... knock off the fat guy crap... none of you are fucking super models... well, with the exception of Von as a former poster boy for prophylactics back in his prime.

[Nickdfresh]

I am certainly no super model, but I ain't getting up onstage expecting fans to respect my legacy which he had little to do with...

[Rikk]

Musical talent, it seems, is passed down genetically. NOT always...but very often.

BUT...
THAT'S JUST A SMALL PART OF WHAT MAKES SOMEONE A BRILLIANT MUSICIAN.

1) Ed played for scraps for years. He had hunger and drive. He had a drive to be great partly because he had NOTHING.

2) Ed's push for greatness was helped BIG-TIME by the drive of Dave & Alex. Dave, especially, was a hard-worker and pushed for the band's chemistry and the music to be better.

3) Ed lived with his guitar. He played it constantly and was obsessed with what it could already do and what he could innovate with it.

4) Ed was born with a talent to write songs...NOT lyrics and vocal melodies, necessarily...but writing melodic music, arranging, harmonies... I've been in a band for many years with many different musicians...and I can say that MOST musicians cannot write good songs and never will. It's a rare talent. It takes years to develop. It's hard to reach the point of writing innovative songs with your own style that also have a mass appeal. Wolfgang's songs prove that he has not been honing a top-level songwriting craft. He plays lot of instruments and figures he's an artist and records whatever is good to him.

5) The reason VH albums 1 through 6 sound so brilliant is because they were made with push and pull between two very talented individuals. The best came to the top. Wolfgang doesn't just have "yes men" (like Van Halen eventually did after Dave left)...he has ONLY HIMSELF...no one to argue with...thus, ANYTHING he thinks about is good in his eyes.

6) Ed and Dave's music was a melting pot of so many different styles they absorbed during great years of music history (not just 50s, 60s & 70s rock but also big band/swing, old-school blues, Al Jolson, doo-wop, classical, etc.). THAT is the biggest factor in writing good music.
My grandfather used to always tell me: "If you want to write a book, you need to read a thousand books."
Music is the same. If you want to become a good songwriter, you need to absorb TONS of different styles of music and make your own sound.

Wolfgang spent many of his formative years as a member of fucking Alter Bridge. It doesn't remotely surprise me that his solo music is blander than hell.

The logic some sheep use amazes me:
"He's Eddie's son...so he's going to either sound just like Eddie or be a genius too!"

History is full of relatives of accomplished people who are not geniuses:
. Billy Carter (I DO wish I had a can of Billy Beer I could keep somewhere in the mancave, just because the idea is so ridiculous)
. Charlie Murphy (he was funny...but I don't remember him in 48 HOURS)
. any of the "other" Baldwin brothers
. Jimmy Vaughan

FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, if Van Halen could make bad music while Eddie was still in the band, why should anyone assume that Wolfgang can't make bad music when he isn't in the band?

[twonabomber]

PS... knock off the fat guy crap... none of you are fucking super models... well, with the exception of Von as a former poster boy for prophylactics back in his prime.

I lost 35 pounds and have kept it off. I can call fat people fat

[ZahZoo]

I lost 35 pounds and have kept it off. I can call fat people fat

I've also lost 23 pounds over the last 4 months and still chipping away at it... still another 7-10 pounds to hit my goal. I guess I haven't reached my entitled to critique zone yet... stay tuned! Ha!