Sammy Hagar

The other night I watched – for the “umpteenth time”, Heavy Metal, the animated motion picture.  Aside from a few misses, the soundtrack is fantastic. In particular, I love the two Don Felder songs, one of which he played last summer at Jones Beach Arena.  And it was from that soundtrack, the title track, that I learned about Sammy Hagar.

Montrose.   This was his start, the singer for guitarist Ronnie Montrose (RIP).  He’s on two albums, Montrose and Paper Money.  Top songs are “Rock Candy” and “I’ve Got The Fire”, the latter which Iron Maiden covered, and the former he still plays on solo tours.

Solo.  Lots of albums by himself: Nine on a Ten Scale, Sammy Hagar, Musical Chairs, Street Machine, Danger Zone, Standing Hampton, Three Lock Box, VOA, I Never Said Goodbye, Marching To Mars, Cosmic Universal Fashion, Sammy Hagar & Friends, and Life Roast, plus 4 with the Waboritas [his solo backing band] Red Voodoo, Ten 13, Not 4 Sale, and Livin’ It Up. 

            We liked VOA, particularly “Dick in the Dirt” and “I Can’t Drive 55”.  Street Machine features “Highway Wonderland”, a tribute to the late 70s Trans Am and its “6.6 liter”.  Three Lock Box and Standing Hampton were the only others we bothered to get. 

I never did get the only Hagar-Schon-Aaronson (the Dust bassist) -Shreve (HSAS) album, Through The Fire, which is half live.  Neal Schon went back to Journey, and Hagar continued his solo career. 

Van Hagar.   Apparently Eddie Van Halen and Sammy Hagar shared the same mechanic, which is how they claim Hagar joined Van Halen.  By that time, I already knew who he was.  He survived for four albums, 5150, OU812, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, and Balance, before leaving.  OU812 was one of the first albums I bought on CD, and we saw that tour in summer 1988, followed by the For Unlawful tour in October 1991, at which Alice in Chains (with Layne Staley) opened up.

            I can’t say I prefer this to Roth-era VH, but I do like it.  My favorite song is “Black & Blue”.  It’s funny that even Hagar now refers to this as “Van Hagar”, even though he knows most VH fans don’t mean it as a compliment.  You can call it commercial, but only if you ignore how commercial all those David Lee Roth albums were. 

Chickenfoot.  This was his “supergroup” with Joe Satriani (guitar), Michael Anthony (bass), and Chad Smith (Will Ferrell’s doppleganger, on drums).   The name is a slang term – which I’d never heard before – for the peace symbol.  They have two albums, self-titled and III, the latter being a joke on albums with numbered names.  The material is not bad; I think it sounds more heavy like AC/DC than the commercial crap you might otherwise expect.

The Circle.  I suppose Chad Smith went back to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, so Hagar got Drum Slut Supremo, Jason Bonham, to fill in.  Old friend Michael Anthony – out of his main job ever since Wolfgang Van Halen learned to play bass – is on bass, and some guy I’ve never heard of, who looks like Tom Morello, Vic Johnson, is doing a great EVH imitation.  They have a live album which is actually pretty good.  Because of Bonham, they do a few Zed Leppelin covers, but they also do some Van Hagar and some solo material, like “Heavy Metal” and “I Can’t Drive 55”. 

Red Rocker.  Hagar obviously likes the color red, but clearly has no leftist tendencies.  He also likes fast cars, which hardly distinguishes him from anyone else who likes Ferraris and Trans Ams.  As I mentioned earlier on my blog about Van Halen, Hagar strikes me as a regular guy who would join you for a beer and hang out, whereas David Lee Roth would probably screen you with a David Spade “and you are…” handler and bask in his phony persona.  Nowadays Hagar seems to prefer t-shirts than those goofy jumpsuits he wore in the early 80s.

Supergroups

These are groups comprised of members who are already well-known from other bands.  I’ll start with the most recent and work backwards.

 Them Crooked Vultures.  Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) (guitar, vocals), Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and briefly in QOTSA), and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) (bass/keyboards).  To be honest, I can’t tell JPJ’s bass playing from anyone else’s.  To my ears – and I’m a big QOTSA fan – this sounds 80% like QOTSA and not at all like Led Zeppelin.  To me, though, that’s a good thing, although I do like Led Zeppelin as much as I like QOTSA.

            I’ve read several interviews with Jimmy Page, and to hear him talk, I get the impression that Page and Plant were not really good friends with Jones, although they liked Bonham.  Also reading Hammer of the Gods, Jones seems like the odd one out.  There seems to be a disconnect, like Jones’ competence and skill were beyond dispute, but he was simply “that guy” who played bass and keyboards for them, punching a clock.  Yet Homme and Grohl seem to have genuine affection for him, like they realize “this guy is very underrated and gets a raw deal.”  Given that Plant nixed a Zep reunion to tour with Alison Krause – Page and Jones were willing – I’d say Plant is very full of himself.  Anyhow, good to see that Jones’ skills are not going to waste simply due to Plant’s misguided ego.

 Chickenfoot.  Sammy Hagar (solo, Montrose and Van Halen) (vocals), Joe Satriani (solo)(guitar), Michael Anthony (Van Halen)(bass), and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers)(drums).  I was surprised, this wasn’t an AOR wuss-out effort, but is actually pretty damn hard, even sounding somewhat like AC/DC.  The name is a takeoff on the logo, which is the peace symbol, a rare departure from the usual sexual innuendo names.

 The Company Band.  Neil Fallon (Clutch)(vocals), James Rota (Fireball Ministry)(vocals), Dave Bone (guitar), Brad Davis (Fu Manchu)(bass), and Jess Margera (CKY)(drums).  They have an EP, Sign Here, Here and Here, and a self-titled full-length album.  The cover of the EP looks like a corporate report, while the album cover looks like an old-fashioned stock certificate.  It mostly sounds like Clutch but a bit weirder and funkier.

 Down.  Phil Anselmo (Pantera)(vocals), Pepper Keenan (Corrosion of Conformity)(guitar), Kirk Windstein (Crowbar)(guitar), originally Todd Strange (Crowbar)(bass), now Rex Brown (Pantera)(bass), and Jimmy Bower (Eyehategod)(drums).  They have several albums, NOLA (as in, New Orleans & L.A.), Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow, and Down III: Over the Under.  I think of them as a merger of Pantera and COC, and in this case Anselmo tones down his vocals to something closer to James Hetfield than Tom Araya.  It’s like nasty, gritty, rusty, swampy rock, like Lynyrd Skynyrd on bad acid.   

 Damn Yankees.  Ted Nugent (solo), Jack Blades (Night Ranger)(bass), Tommy Shaw (Styx)(vocals, rhythm guitar), and Michael Cartellone.  This was fairly AOR commercial rock, not too bad.  Some of the material on Nugent’s Craveman album had credits to Blades & Shaw, as it came from the never-released second DY album.  Nugent joked that it had been produced by a “gay bandito, and I promised to kill him and his whole family if that turd saw the light of day.” 

 Mr. Big.  Eric Martin (vocals), Paul Gilbert (guitar), Billy Sheehan (bass), and Pat Torpey (drums).  To me, Sheehan’s major contribution was to David Lee Roth’s solo album Eat ‘Em and Smile (remember “Yankee Rose”?), and Paul Gilbert was another popular shredder (Racer X).  I have no idea where Martin and Torpey came from.  This was very much like Damn Yankees, fairly light and fluffy AOR material.  I got this album at the same time as King’s X, Gretchen Goes To Nebraska, expecting to feel blah about King’s X and love Mr. Big, but it was the other way around.

 Asia.  John Wetton (King Crimson, Wishbone Ash, Family)(bass), Steve Howe (Yes)(guitar), Geoff Dowenes (Keyboard), and Carl Palmer (ELP)(drummer).  They were big when I was in high school (80s) but I never cared for them.  By this point I think of Wetton as part of King Crimson’s best lineup, which recorded Larks Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Red.  Bill Bruford, as equally part of Yes as Crimson, recently retired, and remarked that if he really wanted to make some cash, he’d call up Robert Fripp to do a tour playing Larks Tongues and Red in their entirety.

 Blind Faith.  Steve Winwood (Traffic, Spencer Davis Group)(vocals, keyboards), Eric Clapton (Yardbirds, Cream, solo)(guitar), Rich Graech (Family)(bass) and Ginger Baker (Cream, drums).  They have one album, with two major songs, “Can’t Find My Way Home” and “In the Presence of the Lord”.  I’m not a big fan of Clapton or Winwood, so this combo hardly lights my fire.  Nor does the famous album cover with the naked underage chick and the toy plane.  I prefer Roxy Music…

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (+ CSN).  Each member was already famous from previous bands when they joined forces, so this qualifies, but I never liked them very much.