Re: Time for my yearly AVH post.....

He got slayed with the downfall of VH itself. The image problems
with hiring/firing singers, Eddie's spoiled brat image, drug problems,
divorce from one of America's sweethearts, etc just destroyed the
band's legacy from the pop culture perspective. They were destined to
be back with DLR and blew it. I don't care that DLR is an idiot...that
is part of the VH legacy and something they needed to just accept and
just move on. I have bigger idiots sitting right next to me at work
and I have to deal with them. Chemistry is never the same when you
take out ingredients.

The cool thing about Alex was that he always had this cool sound.
I dug the Early Ludwigs, then the roto toms, then the electronics, and
then the stuff he did back on acoustics later. I saw the Gary Cherone
show with VH also and it was not as bad as you guys make it out to be.
I saw them with DLR and Red Rocker also... I preferred the show they
did with Sammy the best. It seemed more real. The 1986 tour seemed to
me like I was watching Motley Crue or something. It was too over the
top. The Gary Cherone show seemed like a Nostalgia tour rather than a
concert. It was too stereotyped. I would have liked to have seen them
earlier with DLR...maybe during Fair Warning or Diver Down.

To me, VH is bigger than Eddie or the problems they deal with for
DLR. They owe it to the music and fans that gave them their existence
to do it. The same with The Police. Sting, Stewart, and Andy who need
to get over themselves and do it for the fans and for music as a whole.
The jazz stuff was whatever it was for Sting, the musicals and
soundtracks are interesting I guess, but cmon. Celebrate your
differences and do what was really special for music. I cannot see any
of those guys on TV without thinking it.

Joby





Pat McDonald wrote:
Seems like about once a year I give a stretch of my listening time to my old
Van Halen CDs and I've said it before and will say it again......


Alex Van Halen is just a bad muthafucka.


Just listening to the Hagar era CD "Balance".......



What a TREMENDOUS sounding record. Just frigging HUGE production.
Alex is just flat out killin it. One of my favorite VH CD's. Say what
you want, but he is one of the most underrated drummers ever. He has a
TOTALLY indentifiable sound and feel and plays some of the most MUSICAL stuff
for a rock guy. And has just right amount of "slop" in all of it to make it
sound REAL and ORGANIC. Nothing he does is anywhere NEAR that whole "make
it sound like a drum machine"/perfect time/sterile thing so prevalent back in
those days. God I miss the days when bands had a SOUND and just fucking
ROCKED because that's what they loved.....VH was one of the best at it and
Alex drove them HARD. What a fucking monster drummer that guy is.......


Pat

.

Loading