Van Halen 2020

 The news on October 6 gave me this weekend’s blog topic.  Within minutes on Facebook, it seemed that literally everyone had heard of, and acknowledged, the untimely death of Eddie Van Halen, the famous guitarist for the band of his name.  I’m ill-inclined to simply tell everyone what they already know, so I’ll try to address the issue in a way that gives some form of personal perspective.

Those who know me personally know I grew up in Paris, France, attending high school at the American School of Paris, from 1982-1986.  These were the tail end years of the classic David Lee Roth era for Van Halen, though the first Sammy Hagar album 5150, came out when I was still at ASP.  As 1984 was the first VH album that came out after I got into the band, Diver Down must have been the most recent when I did, and my recollection is that it was Diver Down which was my introduction to the band.  I was shocked to read EVH saying he didn’t like the album, mainly because about half of it is covers long after the band learned how to write its own material – for which he blamed that singer guy, David what’s-his-name.

Of course I got the first album, and VH II.  At some later point I got Women & Children First and Fair Warning, but could never keep straight which was #3 and which was #4.  1984 and the later albums we got when they came out, except for anything after For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.

Live-wise, I didn’t get to see them in concert until Hagar was singing:  1988 (OU812 tour, Van Halen’s Monsters of Rock at RFK Stadium in DC) and 1991 (For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge Tour, November 1991, for which Layne Staley era Alice in Chains were the opening act).  Much later, in 2012, my brother and I caught a DLR-fronted lineup, with Wolfgang on bass, at the Verizon Center in DC (reviewed in more detail in my prior blog, “Van Halen 2012”, which was mostly about that show in particular rather than the band in general).  So no, I never saw the DLR & Michael Anthony lineup live.  And of course I didn’t see them open for Black Sabbath on the Never Say Die tour.

Roth vs. Hagar.   I have a slight preference for Roth, but Hagar certainly gets the job done on his own merits.  Each is so different as to be different to make a fair comparison.  The singer I completely zoned out on was Gary Cherone of Extreme. 

Influence?  Actually, slim to none.  My favorite two bands are Black Sabbath and AC/DC, thus Tony Iommi and Angus Young are my primary influences.  Sometime in college I discovered The Heavy Guitar Bible and blues/pentatonic scales, and once I learned those, all those Iommi and Angus solos suddenly came into focus – including “The Warning” and “Overdose”.   EVH is all over the place.  Here’s a guy with such an immense intuitive knowledge and natural talent that he essentially writes all his own rules for guitar.  I think I learned “Eruption” – all that double-tapping – and “Black & Blue”, and that was about it for learning anything by Van Halen on guitar.    

I read Hagar’s autobiography, and naturally Eddie figures in it.  Unfortunately, he had all sorts of issues which interfered with simply being a guitar player and keeping a band together consistently.   However, he didn’t die from a heroin overdose, or from alcohol-related issues, or even COVID19; it was garden variety cancer which punched his clock.  Whether we had V H tattooed on us and listened to the material every day, or were – as I was – shocked into reminiscing by his death and only now pulling out our Van Halen albums again to listen to in his honor, we all will be in mourning for awhile.  

Black Oak Arkansas

Inspired by a recent article in Classic Rock magazine – those guys should get kickbacks from bands! – I delved into this until-now neglected-by-me band.  As the name implies, they are from Black Oak, Arkansas – probably the only major band from that state.  According to singer Jim “Dandy” Mangrum, the band has finally sorted out its myriad issues and is back in business.  In fact, they have a new album out.

I purchased “the Original Album Series”, as I did with Argent, a collection of the first five albums in mini-sleeves and nothing in the way of liner notes:  Black Oak Arkansas (self-titled), Keep The Faith, If An Angel Came To See You, Would You Make Her Feel At Home, High on the Hog, and Street Party.   Of these, the first three are poorly produced and not overly impressive.  High is their most famous album, and the production takes a huge step up to mainstream 70’s rock, with Street Party following closely behind.

Their 70s live album, The Complete Raunch’N’Roll Live [“Complete” being a recent re-issue which restored the collection to two full shows] showcases their live talent, mainly Jim Dandy’s tendency to talk between songs and ramble on.  He’s not as entertaining in that regard as Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) or Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), but somewhat more coherent than Ian Gillan (Deep Purple).  For some reason he’s into getting the audience into deep breathing exercises.

The new album is Back Thar N’ Over Yonder, which includes 5 new songs – of comparable quality to High, and 10 previously unreleased tracks.  They can join Blue Cheer as yet another band covering the Stones’ “Satisfaction.”

Finally I had to top this off with the live DVD, Live at the Royal Albert Hall, filmed in London at their peak in the 1970s.   Dandy slithers across the stage with lusto and gusto, and even pulls out his washboard prop (with practically no musical contribution therefrom) amidst a set that even includes a cover of the Beatles’ “Taxman”.  The overall impression is “Lynyrd Skynyrd fronted by David Lee Roth…hold on, is that Ozzy’s drummer?”

David Lee Roth.  When Gene Simmons tried to get Van Halen a record deal, he noted that one problem the band had was being confused with Black Oak Arkansas due to Roth’s resemblance to Jim Dandy.  Listening to  studio albums and a live album, I hear ZERO resemblance, vocally, between the two.   Jim Dandy has an exaggerated backwoods growl he uses for most every song – sorta like Billy Gibbons’ sing-talk at the beginning of “La Grange”.  It’s also reminiscent of Doug “The Greaseman” Tracht’s way of talking.  Like Geddy Lee and Burke Shelley, it’s a unique and distinctive vocal style that definitely has to be an acquired taste.  By comparison, both David Lee Roth and Ronnie Van Zant have far more accessible and mainstream vocal styles.

But visually?  This is where the DVD comes “to the rescue” indeed.  Long, straight, blonde hair?  Check.  Bared hairy chest?  Check.  Flashy bell bottoms?  Check.  Sorry, but style-wise, David Lee Roth owes Mr. Dandy some serious royalties, if a singer’s image could be copyrighted.   Then again, on “Dancin’ In the Streets”, which both bands covered, the difference in their vocal styles can be directly compared.  So long as we keep our eyes closed and ears open, listening but not seeing, Roth is in the clear. 

Notable songs.  “Lord Have Mercy On My Soul”, “Fever in My Mind”, “Jim Dandy” (obviously the inspiration for the Greaseman’s “Redneck” song), “Moonshine Sonata” (an excellent instrumental), and “Dixie” (yes, the theme song of the CSA).  Dandy’s style is half “I’m a hopeless, horny loser, always on the prowl for pussy” and half, “God, Jesus, please forgive me” overtly religious praying and/or sermonizing, e.g. “Everybody Wants To See Heaven, Nobody Wants to Die”. 

Miscellaneous.  Tommy Aldridge, the drummer for Ozzy between Lee Kerslake and Randy Castillo (Diary of a Madman era) was the drummer for BOA at their peak and shows up in the RAH DVD.   Also, “You’re Crazy”, from G’N’R’s Appetite For Destruction, shows that Axl Rose can do a de facto BOA tribute song.  As the most famous band from Arkansas in the 1970s, BOA was friends with the governor, Bill Clinton.  On the new album, Dandy even remarks that, “me and a President, we didn’t inhale.”  Finally, BOA was on the bill at the famous California Jam in 1974 which featured Black Sabbath (Tony sans mustache), Deep Purple (Mark III) (Blackmore kills the TV camera with his Strat), and ELP, the headliner.

Van Halen 2012

Last week my as-cool-as-can-be brother (the only one I have) invited me to see Van Halen in concert at the Verizon Center in Washington DC.  Needless to say, I accepted – and enjoyed it.  I had seen Van Halen before, but those shows were with Sammy Hagar:  OU812 tour in 1988 at RFK (Van Halen’s Monsters of Rock, with Kingdom Come, Metallica, Dokken, and the Scorpions opening) and the F.U.C.K. tour in 1991 at the now-gone Cap Center with Alice in Chains (R.I.P. Layne Staley) opening.

 VH have reformed with David Lee Roth on vocals and Wolfgang Van Halen (Eddie’s son) on bass.  I still do not understand why Michael Anthony is persona non grata, whether it’s due to some deliberate attempt to avoid splitting money with him, excessive monetary demands on his part, or just Eddie’s preference to allow his son to play.  Having said that, WVH did a competent job on bass, and absent the zzz bass solo which Anthony could have expected to inflict upon us, was indistinguishable to my ears.

 David Lee Roth, on the other hand, is inimitable.  Now his hair is cut short.  Sammy Hagar, for all his down-to-earth, likeable amiability, is actually a victim of his good nature.  He is actually TOO nice.  You can honestly imagine him having a beer or tequila with literally any member of the audience, male or female, with zero arrogance or pretension.  Roth strikes me as the kind of guy you need to pass through a David Spade-type “and you are….” handler to approach.  But lo and behold, that phony show-biz persona actually works for him.  Go figure.  Is it a “true reunion” without Anthony on bass?  No.  But in between this version with Roth, and “Van Hagar” with Hagar and Anthony (not that Roth and Anthony are mutually exclusive) I think I speak for most, if not all, VH fans when I say I’ll take the Roth w/o Anthony VH bastard over the Hagar w/Anthony VH bitch any day.

 By the way, I wouldn’t mind seeing Chickenfoot (the Hagar w/Anthony “supergroup” also featuring Joe Satriani and Chad Smith/Aronoff), but they’ve yet to realize that DC is on the map, and I don’t like them enough to drive to Atlantic City or NYC to see them. 

 For his part, Roth did not disappoint.  He was on his game and enjoying himself immensely: 100% showman, vaudeville huckster, even a bit… swishy (even swishier than Rob Halford!).  But he hit the notes, kicked around a bit, and kept us entertained with banter (though to me, both Bruce Dickinson and Ian Anderson are still tied for top).  Very few frontmen can match DLR for style.  As I said, he is irreplaceable in Van Halen.

 Set list:  heavy on VH1 (Running With the Devil, Eruption, Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love, You Really Got Me, Jamie’s Cryin’, Ice Cream Man), VH2 (Dance the Night Away, Beautiful Girls, Somebody Get Me A Doctor), Diver Down (Pretty Woman, The Full Bug, Hang ‘Em High); 4 songs from the new album, A Different Kind of Truth (Tattoo, She’s The Woman, China Town, Blood And Fire) a few from 1984 (I’ll Wait, Hot For Teacher, Panama, and Jump) and just one each from Women and Children First (Everybody Wants Some) and Fair Warning (Unchained – not Mean Street, the song I most wanted to hear). 

 Alex’s drum solo was mercifully short, and Eddie’s extended guitar solo featured “Cathedral” and “Eruption”, as could be expected (as I recalled from the prior shows – one aspect in which “Van Hagar” was no worse than this current version).  I had forgotten how good he really is.  Dweezil Zappa joked that when he first heard the Kinks play “You Really Got Me”, his reaction was, “these guys really butchered that Van Halen song”.  Eddie played through his signature Peavey amps (5 full stacks), and had at least two of the older-style Strat-types with the distinctive red/white/black stripes, though not the classic original Kramer with the humbucker falling out.  Mostly he used his Peavey signature model, which I find rather dull considering his flamboyant style.

 Bottom line: make no mistake, this band rocks, and will keep you entertained for the duration of the festivities, all 2 hours.  I’m getting older, so many concerts veer towards tedium for me – particularly if I’ve seen the band before.  But here I was wide awake from start to finish.  Bravo!

 I even got an excellent tour shirt, but here’s a question:  why not sell brown M&Ms with the VH logo?  Missed the boat on that one.  Get on it, people!