David Lee Roth Solo Work. Thoughts?

The Diamond Dave album is out in left field compared to the rest of his catalog...made up of mostly covers, the VH sound is far behind in the rearview mirror. Still plenty of good stuff if you don't mind jumping off the deep end...

Shoo Bop was the "single"...

http://youtu.be/19QCzwafsm8

 

I don't think that's worse than "Stand up / Stand up / The more you do it / The less you fall down".

 

You are right of course, I tend to mix up Masterdisk with Sterling Sound ....... luckily both have been producing great sounding LPs .....

 

What's the issue with those lyrics?

 

You mean aside from being a logical fallacy?

 

It's easy to take 1 line out of context from a song (by Dave or Sammy) and make it look questionable.

Having said that, I will say that although Hagar might be the better "technical" singer, he is pretty generic, whereas Dave is very unique and his wit and lyrical skills tower above Hagar's.

I remember when I heard the first track on 5150, "Good Enough". I was only 16 at the time, I guess Sammy was around 40. I thought they were among the stupidist, most cringe-inducing lyrics I had ever heard. I thought to myself, "We should be studying Roth's lyrics as poetry compared to this crap." Sammy is capable of writing some good tunes, but I thought he totally dumbed down Van Halen for the most part....or at least he was a major step down from Dave.

 

While many of the lyrics on the ALBUM 5150 are a bit simplistic, the lyrics in the SONG 5150 are striking! Awesome track!

 

The first two albums are great (Crazy from the Heat + Eat 'Em and Smile). I also like Sonrisa Salvaje (used to own the LP).

 

Crazy from the Heat is just a bit of fun. No more, no less.

I still think Eat 'Em And Smile is a great album! Saw him twice on that tour, and both times he and the and were great. The way that gener8tr feels about Skyscraper is how I feel about this record. Just lot's of good memories from the time of it's release. I give it a solid A+.

Skyscraper was good, but not nearly as good as EEAS. It very much suffered from too much Brett Tuggle keyboards and not enough Billy Sheehan. B-

A Little Ain't Enough, to me, was a step back in the right direction. Via may have been gone, but Roth had the good sense to bring in guitarists Steve Hunter (for feel) and Jason Becker (for flash) as replacements. A-

Your Filthy Little Mouth - I didn't care about when it first came out, and didn't even acquire it until many years after it's release. In hindsight, a better album than it's often given credit for, but not awesome, either. C

DLR Band was kind of he same. I was also quite surprised, when I did get it, to find out that one of the guitarists on the album was a then relatively unknown named John Lowery - who these days goes by the name of John 5 (Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie).

Diamond Dave Ive heard, but never bothered to own. I'll say it's an interesting listen and leave it at that.

 

I'll very much agree with that assessment.

And on a Van Halen aspect, as far as both singers are concerned - with Roth I feel the band had far more swing, swagger and groove. And they rocked far harder, and with more conviction. Sammy bought the pop and commercialism, but with him they also tended to plod far more.

Thing is, I do like Hagar. It's just that I prefer him as a solo artist over most anything he did with Van Halen. With Dave, the ratio of solo to VH is a bit more even.

 

What do you guys think about the two tunes he sang on the VH Bluegrass tribute album Strummin' With The Devil? I think it's classic DLR fun!

 

Agree!!! Some of those Sammy lyrics are silly - and he's not trying to be silly.

After Daves 3rd LP his career went down hill, but he always had gems on those three records he released. All well worth owning for any VH fan.

All VH fans/DLR fans need to hear Hina from the 2nd LP. It's awesome - VH quality tune and IMHO the best track David ever did with the VH bros.

I saw David on nearly all his solo tours and the only one that disappointed - the Sammy and Dave Show. I HATE to say it, but Sam just had a more powerful performance the night I saw the show.

Oh well, alls well that ends well.

 

cool tune!

 

That's a pretty fair assessment.

I actually own 2 tracks from DD. "Thug Pop", which he wrote with John 5 and his cover of "Soul Kitchen". Both worthy tracks if you like Dave. The rest of the album I didn't really care for. Does anybody know if that is Ray Manzarek on keys on "Soul Kitchen"? It sure sounds like him...or a good clone.

DLR Band is actually a pretty good facsimile of what a DLR led VH might have sounded like in 1998....well, without the rest of the band. But it is his rawest album I would think. And probably his best since EE&S IMO.

 

It's weird... Sammy's way better solo than he was with VH and DLR is way better with VH than he was solo.

 

I was spinning Your Filthy Little Mouth today and I think it's actually a very underrated DLR album. There's a lot of variety on that album.

 

He was only there at the insistence of Warners, and he was busy with Foreigner's plans, so everyone just pretended he was there. His most significant contribution to the album was suggesting that Eddie swap around sections of what would become "Dreams".

 

And they're still pitiful. If I'd been a Van Halen fan in '86 and heard this as the transition from Dave to Sammy, I may never have made it to "Why Can't This Be Love"!

 

For what it's worth, I strongly prefer Skyscraper to Eat 'Em and Smile. The song-writing is more adventurous and it feels like a better album to me. Yankee Rose remains a fun listen.

I still enjoy A Little Ain't Enough, but anything solo after that, I just can't listen to. To me, it took years for Dave to let his personality mature in front of the camera (or microphone). He's obviously struggling live with Van Halen right now, but his work on the album is stellar as a whole.

 

DLR Band is a really an underrated, unknown gem. Sadly, Roth's vocal takes aren't great and the one reason you would buy the record - to hear Roth sing - is it's weakest point though. The tracks with John 5 fit in great with the material he did with Vai in his early solo career. The challenge with this record, as well as Your Filthy Little Mouth, is that with different guitar players, it's kind of all over the map. Definitely worth checking out if you stumble across a used copy. You may not notice it immediately as it's billed under the "DLR Band" instead of David Lee Roth.

Despite anxiously anticipating the Diamond Dave record at the time, I found it very spotty. My guess is that the drum loop vibe he was going for was what he was pushing VH into during the rumored failed reunion attempts in the early 00s.

A friend of mine constantly quotes the "time will tell if we stand the test of time" line as VH's version of Spinal Tap's "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight"

I think YFLM is a really good album overlooked mainly because it doesn't sound like VH....tracks like She's My Machine and Big Train have the old vibe, but the rest is a big departure from the VH style hard rock. Still plenty of good stuff and well worth checking out as I'm sure you can get it dirt cheap...[/quote]

I actually really appreciate YFLM simply because it doesn't sound like Dave is trying to replicate VH. Granted, he developed his solo sound after Eat Em And Smile, but this record gets unfairly maligned. Outside of a few dogs in my opinion, like "No Big Ting" and "Cheatin' Heart Cafe," songs like "She's My Machine," "Big Train," "You Never Know," and "Breathin It" are actually good tracks. If they came out in a different time other than 1994, when most 80s rock bands couldn't get arrested (aside from Roth actually getting arrested for buying pot in Washington Sq. Park), they would be much more appreciated. With the advent of MP3 players, it's easy to focus on the best tracks and leave the rest behind.

 

Eat 'em and Smile stomped all over 5150. Too bad that band didn't last.

 

I heard he worked with Sammy on vocals as well including those "Dreams" vocals.

 

Just doing some Roth searching and came across this old thread.

I am surprised nobody mentions the song "Big Trouble", one of his best.

 

Got this one on vinyl and cherish it; have not listened to the rest of his solo work.