Nope.David Lee Roth was a clown and the music suffered. With Roth on the mic, the band had no ROCK credibility, just some ham clowning around the stage telling everyone to "Jump," while running through awful covers of Roy Orbison and the Kinks. The only good thing Roth ever did was his brief cameo on The Sopranos - and the joke was on him. No, my Van Halen allegiance lies elsewhere...
Are you kidding me?Like I bought Sammy Hagar as the lead singer - please. Whatever rock credibility they had, Hagar sought to destroy with power ballads. When I was in fifth grade, a woman came to our class to teach poetry. She had the lyrics to "Right Now" printed on her shirt. That basically sums up my feelings towards Hagar-era Halen. No, I am 100% loyal to one phase of Van Halen history...
That's right ... 19-fucking-98 when Gary Cherone was doing the singing. If you do not remember this phase of Van Halen history, that's because Roth and Hagar supporters have done their best to shove it under the radar given its absolute fucking awesomeness. Cherone, who had previously sung "More Than Words" with Extreme, was the only man rock enough to front Van Halen. Sadly, their glorious sessions were only enough for one album - Van Halen III - but that just may be the greatest rock album ever made. In 1999, a press release from the band tragically stated, "The members of Van Halen have announced that singer Gary Cherone is leaving the band. The band stressed that the departure was both mutual and amicable and they remain good friends. The band is currently working on its next LP and Cherone is pursuing new musical ventures." The remaining members - distraught no doubt from Cherone's departure - have not made another album of new material. In 2004, they released the collection The Best of Both Worlds, featuring no Cherone songs. I'm guessing that was the only way they could get Hagar to come back and sing.::3 Related Links::
1:Universities Need To Introduce Aerosmith Studies
2:Has Bush 'Gary Cheroned' This Presidency? (MTV, 2004)
3:Big Trouble with Van Halen on Election Night (The Rock and Roll Report, 2004)
4 comments:
I once read a funny slam about "Page and Plant" doing Led Zeppelin covers on stage. Even if they wrote it and it was their song, it was a cover without the original band. By that logic it's been VH covers for a long time.
That right now song/ pepsi commercial needs to burn in hell.
Great post Will. I've never heard any of the VH stuff with Cherone.
Ben - it's best to be avoided - though you could probably find it cheap in a used bin.
Jacquie - right on, they've kind of been their own tribute band, or at least a sad reflection of their former selves.
Will, you crack me up with that poetry teacher. I think I remember some sort of elementary school assembly that utilized "Right Now" as well.
Also, I remember a diversity assembly that had a lot of visual aids an overreliance on Depeche Mode's "People Are People". I wasn't sure if it sent the right message. If we should get along so awefully, doesn't that normalize racism as somehow inborn? Overthinking it, I know...
Then there was the overdoing Sarah McLaughlan phase where they played "I will remember you" on a loop throughout the whole drunk driving ("every 15 minutes") assembly.
The most awesome public school use of music, though, was this traveling musical twins duo- Candy and Cindy or something like that- they came and sang songs about the 50 states and presidents and stuff. They were so 80's. I used to have their tape but of course I am sure it is long gone... The kids were really duped because they tried to make us believe that these twins were really famous and that we were so lucky to have them come to our little suburban school. I totally bought it.
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