Before I get to today's ramblings I would like to wish a belated happy birthday to Roger Daltrey, lead singer of the Who, who turned 68 yesterday. Here's a clip of the Who at Woodstock, busy becoming legends. In this video they perform a selection from their rock opera "Tommy." Legend has it that the band was tripping during their performance and at one point in the clip Roger is taken aback when he sees the sun rising during the epic "see me, feel me" lyrical refrain. Apparently he was caught up in the epic nature of the moment. You couldn't have planned that better right?
"NEW" Van Halen?
While driving to meet a friend for a drink last Thursday I was flipping through the usual fare of oldies and classic rock radio (that more often than not I'm bored with due to lack of variety) when I happened to come across Van Halen's latest single "Tattoo." I had heard snippets of it over the past 2 months but not the song in its entirety.
Like some, when I first heard Van Halen was FINALLY releasing an album with original singer David Lee Roth I was quite excited. Like others, upon learning the initial single was a recycled demo that was over THIRTY years old, I couldn't help but feel disappointed. I wanted to say "Come on guys, you can't write anything new?" My buddy John put it in perspective by saying it's cool they're using an older song, because their songs were better back then. Good point.
The song ended up growing on me, which happens sometimes when you have high expectations that receive a dose of reality. A few days after hearing it I couldn't help but repeat the chorus in my head, which is the sure sign of a catchy tune. The one flaw I would find in it would be that the chorus lacked a certain punch, and sounded somewhat weak. I attributed this to the loss of Michael Anthony on backing vocals. There is another guy whom we all didn't realize was as important as he was to a band until he was gone. But Van Halen's loss is Sammy Hagar and Chickenfoot's gain I guess.
David Lee Roth is such a cheeseball now.
ReplyDeleteBut is he any worse than before? Maybe it's just more apparent now because he is older.
ReplyDeleteBack in the day he was a wild, insane cheeseball. Then he was a diluted, ridiculous cheeseball. Now...he's just an old cheeseball. but that didn't stop me from snagging their first album on vinyl over the weekend. :)
ReplyDeleteI never had interest in this "new" Van Halen shit. If it wasn't good enough to release back in the day, what makes it so awesome now? Just because Roth is back? Pffft. Look at the faces of everyone else in the band....they STILL hate his guts!!! You can see it!