Do Roth-era VH purists like solo DLR?

[Hair I Go Again]

Forgive my ignorance, but after watching the "remastered in HD" video of "Just Like Paradise" today (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_HTfGSz4fk), I wondered what Roth-era Van Halen fans thought of DLR's solo stuff. Does the love extend only to "1984"? Or was it more about hating on Hagar than liking what DLR was doing at the time?

[rubysdad]

Kind off.
1984 is my favourite Van Halen album.
Dave brought the Skyscraper tour down here.
The show was magic.
It’s been a while since I listened but I think the Skyscraper album has aged better than Eat’em, to my ear anyhoo.

[LitaStrauss]

"Eat 'Em And Smile" almost felt like a Van Halen album to me. It was great. I loved the first 3 solo records. He still sounded like DLR. When "Your Filthy Little Mouth" came out in 1994, that's when he started to sing and sound differently and I remember thinking that album sucked. I just listened to the remastered version and it's not as bad as I remembered, only because DLR's voice got much worse as time went on, so now he doesn't sound as horrible in hindsight.

I think most Van Halen fans liked "Eat 'Em And Smile" as that sounded more like Van Halen than "5150" did, at least at the time. "Skyscraper" might have run a few people off but I still loved it, and "A Little Ain't Enough" I think is underrated and the last thing he did where he sounded like classic Dave. I still listen to EEAS and ALAE a few times a year.

If I had to compare albums between both bands, it would look like this:
Eat Em And Smile > 5150
Skyscraper > 0U812
F.U.C.K > A Little Ain't Enough (both are great though)
Balance > Your Filthy Little Mouth

[Anthrax442]

Diamond Dave is a weird covers album that shouldn’t exist.

Disagree. I love it. It's not very "Van Halen", so yeah, if that's what you're looking for, it's not going to be for you, but I vastly prefer it to Your Filthy Little Mouth as far as his attempt to do something different.

For me, his solo stuff probably goes:

1) Eat Em and Smile
2) DLR Band
3) Diamond Dave
4) Skyscraper
5) A Little Ain't Enough
6) Your Filthy Little Mouth

And if you wanted to include Crazy from the Heat, I'd probably put that right between 1 and 2.

I ordered the Vinyl boxed set today, even though I already had Crazy from the Heat, EEAS and Skyscraper, because ALAE and YFLM would have probably cost twice what the boxed set is going for separately.

Now I just need them to issue DLR Band on Vinyl and reissue Different Kind of Truth.

[Psychobolia.com]

DLR with EVH was magic. EEAS isn't bad, but I don't enjoy it nearly as much as those first 6 VH albums.

Maybe Steve Vai wasn't the best pick, maybe Steve Stevens (for example) would have yielded better songs. Pairing is everything, drunk Ozzy found Randy Rhoades and went on to put out 2 amazing albums, and kept the momentum going after Rhoades died... DLR picked a very technically proficient nerd but it fizzled out (I don't know the story about why Vai left, but I'm guessing their albums/tours weren't doing great business...

[Chip Z'Hoy]

FORMER purist here. Currently identify as "Hagar tolerant."

To answer your question: Not really! I love shit like "Yankee Rose" and "A Lil Ain't Enough" but a lot of his stuff was just corny.

While Van Halen was absolutely worse in the absence of Roth, Roth kinda sucked without Ed.

"Greater than the sum of the parts" was never truer than with Van Halen.

[Hatchets Molly]

Not a purist but loved the EEAS album and tour. After that, it got more hit and miss for me. Loved his two songs on the VH hits disc, Me Wise Magic and Can’t Get This Stuff No More.

[Ozzy Stradlin]

Eat ‘Em & Smile is excellent. My first concert was that tour. It was fantastic,

After that, he had his moments, but they were few & far between.

Had he stayed true to the sound of EEAS, & kept that lineup together, it might have turned out better for his solo career.

[Hair I Go Again]

To answer your question: Not really! I love shit like "Yankee Rose" and "A Lil Ain't Enough" but a lot of his stuff was just corny.

Thank you! This is the kind of answer I was hoping to get to validate my suspicions.

I have no problem with corny stuff - “Just Like Paradise” is a great pop song, but the video makes DLR look like a clown (aside from the climbing stuff, which is kinda cool). I was too young when it came out to remember hearing any backlash that he’d gone soft, etc. I realize the silly videos for the cover songs and “Yankee Rose” - as well as the synth-pop of “Jump” - set the table, so it’s not like he went straight from the ballsiness of “Unchained” or the attitude of “Hot For Teacher” to whatever the hell he’s doing in the “Paradise” video, but still, I can’t imagine a hardcore Roth-era fan seeing that clip and thinking it was cool.

[LitaStrauss]

To answer your question: Not really! I love shit like "Yankee Rose" and "A Lil Ain't Enough" but a lot of his stuff was just corny.

Thank you! This is the kind of answer I was hoping to get to validate my suspicions.

I have no problem with corny stuff - “Just Like Paradise” is a great pop song, but the video makes DLR look like a clown (aside from the climbing stuff, which is kinda cool). I was too young when it came out to remember hearing any backlash that he’d gone soft, etc. I realize the silly videos for the cover songs and “Yankee Rose” - as well as the synth-pop of “Jump” - set the table, so it’s not like he went straight from the ballsiness of “Unchained” or the attitude of “Hot For Teacher” to whatever the hell he’s doing in the “Paradise” video, but still, I can’t imagine a hardcore Roth-era fan seeing that clip and thinking it was cool.

I was a hardcore Roth era fan and I thought it was awesome at the time. It was the 80s! He was climbing a mountain and then flying across the crowd on a giant surfboard. You can't get more 80s than that. If you didn't experience it then and look back on it now, I guess you could think it's goofy, but DLR was always over the top in one way or the other. But in 1988, DLR didn't stand out anymore than any of the other crazy shit and looks that were going on in the 80s.

[El Vampiro Blanco]

Nah, I like some of Dave solo stuff, but I don't love it.
Same with van Hagar, but to an even lesser degree because I can't stand the retardness of Sammy.

To me Dave was a great editor of which of Ed's stuff should become a song and Dave could not get these otherworldly songs either with another guitar player.

[demolition23]

I may be in the minority, but I’ll take Skyscraper over any other DLR album, any Van Hagar album, and even a couple of original lineup albums.

And for context, I like Van Hagar.

[kanister]

EEAS is as good as any VH album and better than a bunch of them.

Skyscraper has its moments but has too much filler (Stand Up, Hot Dog and a Shake, Two Fools) and not enough rock stuff. Still good.

Never got into A Little Ain’t Enough much but I know plenty of people who say it’s his best album. I hate the Bob Rock production with the Aerosmith keyboards, and Becker was a good player but not a songwriter. Wrong guy for Roth. Few ok songs on the album. Tell The Truth, Sensible Shoes. Mostly filler though. It’s also too long, 50 min. EEAS is only 30.

After that it’s pretty forgettable. If you’re leaving three or four or five years in between albums there’s no excuse for them to be shitty. Sunburn from Your Filthy Little Mouth is really good. Black Sand from DLR Band is really good.

Diamond Dave is a weird covers album that shouldn’t exist.

His “recent” stuff recorded with John5 after the first VH reunion tour (he wanted to do a VH album but Ed was too busy sitting on his hands) is mostly excellent. He’s too fucked in the head to properly release it though.

… Jesus, that VH reunion tour was almost twenty years ago now. 2007.

Good points but I partly disagree on ALAE. I think some of the deep cuts on that one are excellent: Last Call and Dogtwon Shuffle have a bit darker almost Fair Warning kind of vibe. Hammerhead Shark, Lady Luck and Baby's on Fire
are all good. At time I even like Shoot It. And Tell the Truth is a great lyrically. The filler for me is the dumb title trick and Jason Beckers finger exercise It's Showtime. Drop in a Bucket is decent.

But important guitarist on the album is Steve Hunter, Not Becker. His work is very cool. Wish Dave had brought Dick Wagner in too instead of Becker.

I also dig Dave`s stuff with John 5. It's the best songs anyone Van Halen related has released in the last 25 years. Yes, including ADKOT.

[pieceofme]

DLR with EVH was magic. EEAS isn't bad, but I don't enjoy it nearly as much as those first 6 VH albums.

Maybe Steve Vai wasn't the best pick, maybe Steve Stevens (for example) would have yielded better songs. Pairing is everything, DLR picked a very technically proficient nerd but it fizzled out (I don't know the story about why Vai left, but I'm guessing their albums/tours weren't doing great business...

This. And I actually prefer 5150 more than EEAS.

And when it comes to solo adventures I actually prefer Vince Neil more than DLR. So maybe someone like Steve stevens would have been better with DLR as well.

[tooth]

Roth post VH is good for a 12 or so song greatest hits record.

[Anthrax442]

I may be in the minority, but I’ll take Skyscraper over any other DLR album, any Van Hagar album, and even a couple of original lineup albums.

And for context, I like Van Hagar.

Skyscraper is great, I just happen to like those others I put above it a bit more, but it's not because I dislike the album. I'd put Knucklebones and Damn Good up with anything else he's released just about.

[FreddyFender]

Eh.

I love Crazy From The Heat. "Just Like Paradise" is a good song. Those songs he's released here and there the past decade are great.

but I fucking HATE the DLR band. I have no interest in hearing a shitty Van Halen imitation featuring a bunch of music school dorks. Roth deserved to lose every bit of his fame for putting together that godawful band and making those shitty records. And that album he did in the 90s that people really like absolutely sucks.

Give me the original Van Halen. I'm not team Dave or team Sammy solo - you can mostly keep both.

[Anthrax442]

Eh.

I love Crazy From The Heat. "Just Like Paradise" is a good song. Those songs he's released here and there the past decade are great.

but I fucking HATE the DLR band. I have no interest in hearing a shitty Van Halen imitation featuring a bunch of music school dorks. Roth deserved to lose every bit of his fame for putting together that godawful band and making those shitty records. And that album he did in the 90s that people really like absolutely sucks.

Give me the original Van Halen. I'm not team Dave or team Sammy solo - you can mostly keep both.

You realize half of DLR Band was done with John 5, which is who he did the songs he's released "the last decade" with, right?

[Love_Industry]

Yes. EEAS and Skyscraper are to me the continuation of the original six, loved them when they came out and still do. The tours were great too, looking back there were some signs on the Skyscraper tour and the Stand Up single was the worst possible choice, didn't work with VH/Roth fans and certainly not with some kind of crossover audience.
Then ALAE was a step down but still a good album and I saw the good part of the tour where he played most of ALAE and packed a 5k capacity arena in a small town in the middle of Sweden (Karlskoga, pop. just over 30k in 1991). His later work is unspectacular, I like Roth's voice and lyrics so there's that, and there are good songs here and there on every album, even the much maligned Diamond Dave.

I don't hate Van Hagar though, OU812 blows but the other three albums they did are good, if not as good as any of the original six. Yes, I started playing Diver Down a lot when I got a remastered box set and like it a lot more than in the 80s.

[Anthrax442]

Why is that relevant? I like the “recent” stuff and think DLR Band is mostly horrible. He’s also yelping his way through DLR Band it sounds painful. Counterblast springs to mind. The acoustic John5 stuff he did was age appropriate and he wasn’t pretending he could sing like 1980 anymore.

DLR Band was an attempt to out-VH VH, same tactic Halford used for Resurrection and Dickinson for Accident of Birth. The songs just weren’t there though.

He specifically was complaining about Roth playing with a "bunch of music school dorks", and I was simply pointing out that at least one of those same "dorks" was instrumental in putting together those other songs he liked. That's how it's relevant.

[HueyRamone]

whatever the hell he’s doing in the “Paradise” video, but still, I can’t imagine a hardcore Roth-era fan seeing that clip and thinking it was cool.

I wasnt a hardcore Roth VH fan, but I liked Yankee Rose a lot and bought the album and went to the tour.
When I saw that Just Like paradise video, i was permanently out.

Others seem to feel differently. But unlike them, I dont like pussy shit.

[HueyRamone]

He specifically was complaining about Roth playing with a "bunch of music school dorks", and I was simply pointing out that at least one of those same "dorks" was instrumental in putting together those other songs he liked. That's how it's relevant.

I think homeboy is referring to Bissonette/Vai/Sheehan as the "music school dorks" and erroneously referring to them as DLR Band.

[whoami]

EEAS was fantastic, Skyscraper has some moments, the rest was hit or miss. More miss than hit.

[FreddyFender]

Why is that relevant? I like the “recent” stuff and think DLR Band is mostly horrible. He’s also yelping his way through DLR Band it sounds painful. Counterblast springs to mind. The acoustic John5 stuff he did was age appropriate and he wasn’t pretending he could sing like 1980 anymore.

DLR Band was an attempt to out-VH VH, same tactic Halford used for Resurrection and Dickinson for Accident of Birth. The songs just weren’t there though.

He specifically was complaining about Roth playing with a "bunch of music school dorks", and I was simply pointing out that at least one of those same "dorks" was instrumental in putting together those other songs he liked. That's how it's relevant.

I misspoke - I hate the EEAS band. His solo stuff where he's trying to do Van Halen is just terrible.

The stuff he did later with John 5 doesn't have a lame Van Halen-wannabe sound. Much better.

[HoldenSSV]

California Girls
Yankee Rose
Goin' Crazy
Tobacco Road
Just Like Paradise
Damn Good
A Lil Ain’t Enough
Sensible Shoes

[Bono Nettencourt]

He specifically was complaining about Roth playing with a "bunch of music school dorks", and I was simply pointing out that at least one of those same "dorks" was instrumental in putting together those other songs he liked. That's how it's relevant.

I think homeboy is referring to Bissonette/Vai/Sheehan as the "music school dorks" and erroneously referring to them as DLR Band.

You're good.

And this is the 1st time I've heard anyone slag EEAS here. It's awesomeness one of the few things Sludgers agree on. Dave knew after his movie crashed that he needed to one-up Van Halen and he damn near succeeded.

[tooth]

Roth post VH is good for a 12 or so song greatest hits record.

California Girls
Gigalo
Coconut Grove
Yankee
Shy Boy
Ladies Nite in Buffalo!
Goin Crazy
Tobacco
Big Trouble
That’s Life
Paradise
Skyscraper
Damn Good
Hina maybe
A Lil Ain’t Enough
Sensible Shoes
Tell The Truth
A Little Luck
Sunburn
Black Sand
You Got The Blues Not Me
Baker Street
One Piece Thermo-Molded Country Plastic Chair
Somewhere Over The Rainbow Bar & Grill
Giddy Up
Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then Anyway

I count 10 songs people "might" know, so those along with 2 album tracks, 12 songs.

[FreddyFender]

Steve Vai somehow managed to make both David Coverdale and Roth incredibly lame - at the peak of their careers, no less.

EEAS band was the equivalent of Phil Anselmo being backed by Dream Theater - coolest rockstar around backed by absolute dorks. Roth's career nosedived because people the general public did not think his band was awesome - Roth sold peanuts compared to Van Hagar. But that's another discussion.

Ed, Alex, Dave, Mikey. Accept no imitations or substitutes.

[HueyRamone]

Steve Vai somehow managed to make both David Coverdale and Roth incredibly lame - at the peak of their careers, no less.

EEAS band was the equivalent of Phil Anselmo being backed by Dream Theater - coolest rockstar around backed by absolute dorks. Roth's career nosedived because people the general public did not think his band was awesome - Roth sold peanuts compared to Van Hagar. But that's another discussion.

Ed, Alex, Dave, Mikey. Accept no imitations or substitutes.

Odd take. Not sure what you mean by "dorks". Musically? or looks wise?

Michael Anthony was a short, chubby, balding little nerd. People like him because he has a cool personality, but he doesnt have a cool rock star look.

Vai was tall, lanky with cool stage presence and cool hair and look. If you put the two together and asked 100 people who didnt know who they were and said "Who's the rockstar?" 100/100 would pick Vai.

If you're talking about musically, not exactly sure how Vai dorked out Yankee Rose or Goin Crazy and made them too musical to be pop hits.

I have heard people say he wasnt right for Whitesnake, but I never listened to that album./

[DangerZone]

I’d never noticed it before, but “yankee rose” & “Good Enough” are very similar