Not As Good < > Not Good

 

Oftentimes people sometimes confuse the two.  I suppose many of us who are married, and had several different romantic partners over the ages, might acknowledge that the person they settled down with was not their optimal sexual partner – but the person who was, had other issues (e.g. infidelity or general personal incompatibility) which made the current partner the overall optimal one.

 Moving away from relationships, this features for several musical groups.

 GRATEFUL DEAD.  The band began in San Francisco in 1965 and remained active until Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995.  After that time, the surviving band members reformed for several tours, playing the classic material with no new material recorded or released after Jerry died.  Veteran Deadheads will tell you that Jerry’s health issues in 1986 mean that the ’86-’95 version was never quite as good as the ’65-’86 version. 

 A colleague of mine had seen them multiple times before 1986 and never after that.  I invited him to join me for the 2020 show of Dead & Company – Jerry’s place taken by John Mayer, and original members Bobby Weir, Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart still on stage, bassist Phil Lesh still alive but too old to tour anymore – at Jiffy Lube Live.  Initially he dismissed this out of hand, but after listening to official recording of the 2019 show, he changed his mind.  [Update 2021: While the 2020 show was canceled due to COVID, we managed to see the show in August 2021, and both enjoyed it immensely, Jerry Garcia's absence notwithstanding.] 

 I’m not in a position to compare Dead & Company with pre-86 Grateful Dead.  My sole experience with Jerry-era Dead was two shows at RFK, 1992 and 1995.  I would say the subsequent shows I saw were comparable enough in quality to make the shows worth attending.

 AC/DC.  Bon Scott died in February 1980, soon replaced by Brian Johnson.   The first two Brian Johnson albums, Back in Black and For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) were top quality and just about as good – in my opinion – as the Bon Scott albums.  After that, the quality dropped dramatically.   Listening to the current album, Power Up, it’s occurred to me that musically, the band is still OK.  The “weakest link” is Johnson’s vocals, accurately described as “Marge Simpson”.  Of all the available singers, Brian Johnson is the best they can find?  Fortunately the band plays Bon Scott material and plenty of songs from Back in Black.  But later material from Blow Up Your Video through Stiff Upper Lip seriously straddle the distinction between “not as good” and “not good”. 

 Black Sabbath.  For their part, Sabbath have their classic Ozzy Osbourne era, followed by two excellent albums with Ronnie James Dio, then a slew of albums which aren’t nearly as impressive.  However, I listened to Eternal Idol and Headless Cross, both with singer Tony Martin, and found them enjoyable enough.  Not quite up to Heaven & Hell or Vol 4, but enjoyable enough.  I’m revisiting TYR right now, and will tackle Cross Purposes, Forbidden, and 13 in the coming weeks.  I can’t say there’s any Black Sabbath album, with any singer, I’d describe as “not good”.  Moreover, on the Cross Purposes tour, they pulled out “Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath”, “The Wizad”, “Into the Void”, and the full “Symptom of the Universe”, including the second acoustic part.  I’ve heard bootlegs from the ‘70s with Ozzy, and even then they weren’t playing the full song.  So give them some credit for putting on an awesome show, even if it wasn’t even Martin’s own material.

 Van Halen.  I haven’t heard the Gary Cherone album (Van Halen III), nor the fourth Sammy Hagar album (Balance), and of course I have heard all the David Lee Roth albums – offhand, I don’t recall much about A Different Kind of Truth, the only post-Hagar DLR album.  I prefer the DLR material, but Hagar’s stuff is good enough to qualify as “not as good” instead of “not good”.  Having said that, also prefer Hagar on his own and with The Circle (with Vic Johnson and Jason Bonham) or Chickenfoot (with Joe Satriani and Chad Smith).  I can’t say I’ve heard anything by Hagar I could call “not good”. 

Wishbone Ash.  Here's a band that's been around since the early 70s.  The classic lineup, for the first four albums, S/T, Pilgrimage, Argus, and Wishbone IV, was Andy Powell (guitar/vocals), Ted Turner (guitar/vocals), Martin Turner (actually not related to Ted) (bass/vocals), and Steve Upton (drums).  After IV the various band members left, leaving Andy Powell the only original member.  The classic lineup reunited in the late 80s for Nouveau Calls, but soon Powell was left by himself again, at this point I don't know why.  By the time I got into them and was looking to see them live, (2000), Powell remained the only original member of the band.  I chose to see the band anyway, and lo and behold, it was a worthwhile experience.  Of course, Powell's lineup plays plenty of classic tunes, and the current group puts out new material of competitive quality.  Maybe not as good as the first four, but certainly "good enough". 

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.  

Sammy Hagar

I was sick recently, and having already blogged about being sick – in addition to being generally uninspired – I waited until now to post.   Especially since I finished reading Hagar’s autobiography.

Montrose.   He started out in this band and is on the first two albums.  Highlights are “Rock Candy” and “I’ve Got The Fire”.  According to Hagar, this was his first major break.  But Ronnie Montrose was insecure and couldn’t handle a singer getting more attention and credit than him, so he had to leave the band and go solo.

Solo.  He went solo fairly early and amassed an impressive volume of material.  We purchased Street Machine, Three Lock Box, and VOA, the latter having “I Can’t Drive 55”.   Our first ever exposure was “Heavy Metal”, from the soundtrack album, which occurs on Standing Hampton.  Nine on the Ten Scale, the first solo album, has a strange vibe to it, but I enjoyed listening to it.

HSAS.  Hagar, Neil Schon (Journey & Santana), Kenny Aaronson and Michael Shreve.   Only one album, plus a cover of “A Whiter Shade of Pale" that I’d like to hear. 

Van Halen.   Here’s the only times I’ve seen SH live:  on the OU812 and F.U.C.K. tours with Van Halen.  Total of four albums:  5150, OU812, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, and Balance.  Of this material my favorite is “Black & Blue”. 

Chickenfoot.   A supergroup with Chad Smith (RHCP), Michael Anthony, and Joe Satriani.  It refers to the peace symbol and is neither sex, drug, nor car related.  Actually damn heavy and well worth listening to.  The second album is deliberately misleadingly titled III. 

The Circle.  Vic Johnson on guitar, Michael Anthony on bass, Jason Bonham on drums.  Another excellent collaboration.  I’d never heard of Vic Johnson before, but he gets the job done well.  The album has an impressive array of covers and his own material, including “Rock Candy”. 

Cars.   He loves cars, especially Ferraris and late 70s Trans Ams.  The car he bought with his first advance from Montrose was a Citroen 2CV.   “I Can’t Drive 55” is one of my favorite songs.  I’m not aware that he actually knows how to work on them, he sings about going fast but nothing more detailed than that.  He shared Eddie Van Halen's mechanic, which is how he got into that band.    

Mexico.  Give him credit – he went down to Cabo Wabo when there was nothing there, and put something there.  Is his tequila any good?  Who knows.  He smoked weed, did acid, but never cared for heroin or beer.  He also admits not being faithful on the road.   What can he say?  He knows he's human.   All too human.

If I have a problem with Hagar it’s his narrow range of topics.  Moreover, much of his material can’t figure out it it’s meant to rock or be commercial.  I suppose you could say he successfully straddles both, but I’d say only a few songs like “Heavy Metal” truly hit the sweet spot. 

The autobiography is actually intriguing.  By nature these things are self-serving, and too many are full of insincere crap, like blaming all mistakes on someone else.   Brian Johnson’s book makes him look like a buffoon – his OWN BOOK – and Ritchie Blackmore’s documentary also makes him look like an arrogant asshole.  Too many oddball stories about Ian Gillan.  But Hagar seems willing to own up to his own mistakes and take responsibility, presumably because he knows that when it comes time to blame someone else – like Eddie Van Halen – it will sound more sincere.  By now we’ve heard about the meltdown, and I suppose some of us may have heard Eddie’s side.  Without having been there in person, I can’t say I can really say for sure, but Hagar puts his case convincingly.  

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.

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!

Guitar Hero/Rockband

Some time ago my brother got a Nintendo Wii, and soon thereafter was playing Guitar Hero with a Gibson Les Paul controller (considerably lighter and smaller than his actual Les Paul Custom).  He played it for some time and enjoyed it, then we forgot about it for the time being.

 Guitar Hero/Rockband 101.  You pretend to be a guitar band, with onscreen avatars: with cute chick bass player (sometimes the virtual camera goes up her skirt, which distracts me), scruffy heroin-skinny male lead singer (looks like one of the Gorillaz), and some typical drummer; and your choice of different guitarist avatars.  The overweight punk is hilarious, but I prefer Axel Steel (my favorite), who looks like Bruce Dickinson on steroids.  On GH Legends of Rock you can pick Slash as an avatar – and the choice is nonexclusive, so the bassist can also pick him.  Dueling Slashes?  You bet!

 You can either pick and choose individual songs to play, or you can choose “career mode”, in which you start off playing your back yard, then small clubs, then more respected clubs, larger venues, etc.  The game makes various comic remarks about “setting cars on fire” and other rock excesses which reduce the amount your band gets paid for gigs, but anything like groupies or drugs are strictly off-“camera” as numbers, statistics, and purely abstract elements, and not part of the game experience: no “sex” or “drugs”, just rock’n’roll.

 The controller looks like a much smaller, plastic version of a famous guitar: Gibson SG, Les Paul, Explorer, Fender Stratocaster, Fender Precision Bass (no Rickenbackers), plus some Jacksons, Paul Reed Smiths, and other models.  For Rockband Beatles you can get Lennon’s Rickenbacker, Harrison’s Gretsch, McCartney’s Hofner bass, and Ringo’s Ludwig drums.  I haven’t seen any left handed controllers, though – including the McCartney bass, which is right handed.  And the guitar controllers have whammy bars, even on Gibsons which typically don’t have them on the real guitars.  I purchased a Stratocaster controller for Wii, which I was lucky to find at this late stage in the game’s life cycle.  There are also “skins” (overlays) you can put on the plastic guitars – dragons, CSA flags, Union Jacks, the usual subjects which are available for guitar pickguards.

 As the song progresses, notes come down the screen across a virtual fretboard.   You have to push the correct colored button(s) – out of five – on the fretboard along with the “strum” bar on the guitar body, just as the note hits the line.  There is a whammy bar which fortunately does not cause tuning problems, but I’m unclear if there are any score bonuses to using it.   More crucial is a “meter” which varies from green (doing well!), yellow (caution), or red – at risk for being booed off the stage in contempt and dishonor.  The more accurate your playing, the higher on the meter you stay.  Missing notes results not only in the meter dropping, but an audible gap in the music which is itself fairly annoying.  Although Rockband adds in bass and drums, from a guitar perspective I find Guitar Hero and Rockband to be almost indistinguishable.

 At the higher difficulty levels, the blue and orange buttons (#4 and #5) are combined in awkward and implausible ways, Z# chords only Alex Lifeson knows.  Note: skill at a real guitar – even if you actually do know how to play the song being played – has zero relevance to playing this game.  And Mastery of the Five Buttons will not help you on a real guitar with 6 strings and 22 frets (plus open strings).  It was this disconnect between the game and reality which damped our ardor for the game.

 More recently, Rockband Beatles came out.  We got it and tried it out.  WOW.  Instead of a fake band, RBB has the real Beatles: John, Paul, George and Ringo.  No sign of Pete Best, Stuart Sutcliffe, Jimmy Nicol, George Martin, or Billy Preston; nor any sign of Yoko Ono, although the liner notes imply that she participated to some extent in the game development (perhaps to veto any disruptive on-screen presence).  Moreover, you can progress from The Cavern, to the Ed Sullivan Show, Shea Stadium (’65), Budokan, Tokyo (’66), then Abbey Road studios for the “studio” era, finishing up with the famous January 1969 rooftop concert.  The Shea Stadium and Budokan scenes feature the 60’s era screaming female audiences (black hair in Japan), while the otherwise sterile studio sessions at Abbey Road are enhanced with dazzling psychedelic visuals.  Despite not having any potentially hostile audience members in the studio (perhaps Yoko Ono, off camera) the game still pulls the plug on you mid-train wreck if you drop too low into the red zone.  And on the rooftop, you can see various confused people down on the street looking up – bankers and barristers going about their business on the streets of London.   No screaming teenage girls in this part of the game.  Amazing!  In fact, the graphics are so good on this, that I find them a bit distracting and I enjoy watching others play the game so I can simply watch the extra stuff.  It’s that good. 

 Impressed with that, I decided to check out the other band-oriented varieties. There are, by now, several non-band collective additions, including, but not limited to, GH 3, World Tour, Smash Hits, and GH5, the most recent, and several similar Rockband collections, all of which feature the “house band” playing covers.  Among the band-specific games, although none are nearly as impressive as the Beatles game, they vary in execution.

 Rockband AC/DC.  No sign of the real band, so far as I can see.  It’s a fake cover band playing AC/DC songs, half Bon Scott era and half Brian Johnson era.  At the end of each song you “widdly widdly” at random to mimic Angus Young’s tiresome song-enders which add musically meaningless minutes to each song (which combined could be at least another whole song).  Likewise, “Let There Be Rock” features 2 minutes of “da DAH DAH” riffing until closing it up. 

            I was not impressed.  Since this is a band with unique stage presence, Angus Young in his schoolboy outfit, Bon Scott and Brian Johnson as lively, charismatic singers, and various props such as the inflatable Rosie, the Hell’s Bell, and the FTATR cannon, relying simply on a generic cover band is a particular disappointment.

 Guitar Hero Van Halen.  Eddie’s here in his late model short haircut and Peavey-style guitar.  The drummer bears a passing resemblance to brother Alex. I don’t recognize the bassist, but it’s clearly not Michael Anthony; apparently they subbed in Wolfgang Van Halen whose only claim to fame is being Eddie’s son.  The avatar singer is supposed to be David Lee Roth, but in short hair and a shirt and jeans, he bears absolutely no resemblance to any DLR we might recognize from the classic DLR era.  This is despite the fact that all the songs come from his time, i.e. Van Halen through 1984; none of the songs are from the Sammy Hagar albums or later.  Boo hoo – although I like Sammy Hagar, both as a rock celebrity (that is, he seems like a regular guy with no ego problems) and a musician, count me in the multitude of VH fans who prefer Roth.  My biggest problem with GHVH is not the absence of Hagar – or even Anthony – but that the singer doesn’t resemble the long-haired Crazy Dave we’re familiar with.  

            Having ripped them on the presentation, I’ll give them huge credit on the song selection, though; not only the DLR focus, but they picked the very best ones: “Mean Street”, “Unchained”, “Hear About It Later”, “And the Cradle Will Rock”, “Cathedral” and “Intruder>>Pretty Woman” and even “Eruption”, which can be played without the double-tapping.

 Guitar Hero Aerosmith.  Too bad I’m not a big Aerosmith fan, as this was very well done.  On the career mode, you play two non-Aerosmith cover songs (e.g. “Dream Police” or “I Hate Myself For Loving You”) as the stock Guitar Hero house band (including Axel Steel!) then play as Aerosmith themselves for two songs and an encore.  You progress from Nipmuc high school, their first gig, to Mike’s Kansas City (in NYC), to the Orpheum, all venues with special significance in the band’s history.  In between songs the band members talk about their memories of that show or time; they are remarkably articulate and charming.  Unlike the Van Halen game and its curious lineup deficiencies, this features the full band we know and like: Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton, and Joey Kramer.  I’m glad they include my favorite song, “Uncle Salty”.

 Guitar Hero Metallica.  Also well done, also the full band, though with Robert Trujillo on bass – I don’t see any career mode with Cliff Burton, Dave Mustaine or Jason Newsted as alternate members.  Unfortunately the Load/Re-Load/St Anger/Death Man-getic era is heavily represented, about 40% of the material.  I do recall seeing the band on the Load tour, and Hetfield made some remark like, “you people [audience] like the old shit, don’t you?”  Perhaps I’m not the only one who isn’t that impressed with the later material.  Anyhow, this was well done and recommendable to anyone who likes Metallica.

 I’d love to see GH/RB Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, or King Crimson, but some of these bands would need a keyboard controller which I’ve yet to see; though seeing how the guitar controller works, a keyboard controller would be closer to how the real instrument works than the guitar controller is.  Rockband added in bass and drums.  I have no interest in DJ Hero. 

 No one’s asked me, but here are some ideas I have:

Guitar Hero WHO:  You can throw your guitar up in the air for extra points, demolish your drum set, or forfeit your hotel security deposit.

Guitar Hero Pink Floyd: Start off with Syd, strum the same chord throughout the whole song; have a whole middle era segment in Pompeii; late 70s (Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, Animals) with inflatable pig; then play The Wall show.

Rockband Deep Purple: The band members change DURING the set.  Wait? Is this Rockband Rainbow or Whitesnake?

Rockband Beach Boys: Unlock the bonus level in which Charles Manson joins the band – whether they like it or not. 

Rockband Black Sabbath: Ozzy doesn’t lose points for mumbling lyrics, forgetting them, or singing them in the wrong order. 

Guitar Hero Led Zeppelin: between phases in career mode, as a bonus you can unlock the fantasy sequences from “The Song Remains the Same”;

Guitar Hero Grateful Dead: Be ready for songs that go on for hours.  Remember that “South Park” Warcraft episode? 

Finally, Rocksmith.  Someone actually bothered to rig a game which can be used with an actual guitar, and I've played it.  Unfortunately I don't have an xBox360, and the selection of songs was very weak.