The VHS fever dream of early 2000s David Lee Roth [SLYT]
July 6, 2016 7:08 AM   Subscribe

David Lee Roth's No Holds Bar-B-Que, long only available in bootleg form was released on Roth's youtube channel recently. Featuring surreal covers, low rent effects work, Benny Hill-esque skits, and Japanese sword arts. Dive in and get a taste.
posted by Ferreous (38 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
I was hoping this was about sauce.
posted by jonmc at 7:13 AM on July 6, 2016 [2 favorites]


Holy Fuck. Cocaine!
posted by Nanukthedog at 7:13 AM on July 6, 2016 [3 favorites]


The opening shot is in downtown Seattle. I find that odd.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 7:16 AM on July 6, 2016


An hour of Star Wars Kid, only louder.
posted by klarck at 7:27 AM on July 6, 2016 [4 favorites]


Holy smokes, I had to doublecheck and verify... the opening track is a very compressed and lyrics-rewritten cover of the Lords of Acid classic 'The Crablouse'.
posted by FatherDagon at 7:28 AM on July 6, 2016 [2 favorites]


I can't watch this at work. Not because they frown on watching hour-long YouTube videos. I mean, they do, but the real reason I can't watch it is because they no longer provide free cocaine in the break room.

But when I get home, if I can find an eight ball and a naked thigh on which to snort it*, I will enjoy this.

*I will not actually do that. I haven't snorted anything since 1989. Do eight balls even get snorted? I don't know. Don't do drugs, kids. Stay in school.
posted by bondcliff at 7:29 AM on July 6, 2016 [5 favorites]


Do eight balls even get snorted?

Sure, but if you snort them before the rest of the balls in the game, you lose at pool.
posted by xingcat at 7:38 AM on July 6, 2016 [8 favorites]


The YouTube description:

For the first time the complete version performed in tact from beginning to end.

I'd like to believe that there are no typos in this sentence and Diamond Dave is receiving transmissions from a higher plane where 'tact' is defined... differently.
posted by Shepherd at 8:01 AM on July 6, 2016 [2 favorites]


Sit down, Waldo.
posted by stevil at 8:05 AM on July 6, 2016 [2 favorites]


Still would rather go to Dave's BBQ than to Sammy's.
posted by Room 641-A at 8:12 AM on July 6, 2016 [12 favorites]


This ridiculous shit here is why Van Halen became so bland after Roth quit (or was fired). He was the fun energy in the band, whereas Eddie Van Halen is too serious. Roth's departure took Van Halen from "Hot for Teacher" to generic love ballads.

The two had different mentalities about their roles. Eddie worked hard to become a great guitar player. But Roth understood he didn't need to be a great singer, he just needed to be a great frontman.
posted by riruro at 8:17 AM on July 6, 2016 [9 favorites]


This ridiculous shit here is why Van Halen became so bland after Roth quit (or was fired). He was the fun energy in the band, whereas Eddie Van Halen is too serious.

We used to refer to Professor Hagar during his tenure because his lyrics were such pronouncements of middle-brow idealism.

That said, I probably won't watch this -- the 80's were a painful time for me.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:34 AM on July 6, 2016 [2 favorites]


Still would rather go to Dave's BBQ than to Sammy's.

Gary Cherone is currently dipping a Chicken McNugget into a container of barbecue sauce, crying to himself.
posted by bondcliff at 8:40 AM on July 6, 2016 [5 favorites]


No Wall Helmets and Glove Shoes?
posted by humboldt32 at 8:42 AM on July 6, 2016


The opening shot is in downtown Seattle. I find that odd.

Frizzy white-haired white dude in the middle of the street, waving swords around and doing kung-fu like he's just snorted a couple bags of meth? Just another day in Seattle.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 8:47 AM on July 6, 2016 [3 favorites]


Roth understood he didn't need to be a great singer, he just needed to be a great frontman.

Except that he wasn't. Stack up his solo work next to Van Hagar and there's no comparison, even though he had Steve Vai and some other great musicians. The sort of frenetic mugging that he's doing here--which can only be compared to some little kid in his PJs who's putting on an act for the guests of a party that his parents are hosting, to avoid having to go to bed early--is exactly why I was glad to see him leave the band.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:33 AM on July 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


I see no fundamental difference between this video and things Wayne Coyne has done.

I generally approve and wish for a universe where Van Halen stayed together, cared less for generating money for the record industry, grew a little less juvenile but continued to indulge their inner freak. If being a rock star makes you crazy, I'll take David Lee Roth over Michael Jackson or Ted Nugent any day.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:51 AM on July 6, 2016 [5 favorites]


yessssss, this is going straight into my folder of things to watch the next time i partake in some mj consumption. future Fig says "Thanks Ferreous! You're the best!"
posted by Fig at 9:51 AM on July 6, 2016


Stack up his solo work next to Van Hagar and there's no comparison

DISAGREE they both suck
posted by Hoopo at 9:53 AM on July 6, 2016 [3 favorites]


"The sort of frenetic mugging that he's doing here--which can only be compared to some little kid in his PJs who's putting on an act for the guests of a party that his parents are hosting, to avoid having to go to bed early--is exactly why I was glad to see him leave the band."

Everyone needs an editor. Everyone producing anything needs someone who can step in and say "No. Nope, that's too much." Everyone. In Van Halen it seems to me that Eddie and David fulfilled that role for each other. Without this necessary counterweight the two were worse individually than together.
posted by oddman at 9:56 AM on July 6, 2016 [11 favorites]


Except that he wasn't. Stack up his solo work next to Van Hagar and there's no comparison, even though he had Steve Vai and some other great musicians.

I saw DLR on one of his earlier solo tours. He had Vai but I think Billy Sheehan wasn't with him any longer. It was a motherfucking show. I was not disciplined enough at the time, and I was also probably really high, so I cannot speak to the musicianship other than the fact that Vai was being Vai (with the Heart guitar and the tapping and the long hair and whatnot) but it was a really, really fun show and similar to what I imagine it was like seeing old Van Halen.

Hagar always just seemed so watered down and boring. Like he was Jay Leno and DLR was Letterman. VH without Roth did evolve musically, which I'm lead to understand Dave frowned upon a bit, but as a rock and roll band, as entertainment, I think they suffered.
posted by bondcliff at 10:13 AM on July 6, 2016 [3 favorites]


David Lee Roth without EVH is an all frosting/no cake dessert, and that frosting seems oddly glazed around DLR's nostrils.

In their prime, Van Halen 1.0 with DLR + EVH together brought an almost impossible level of swagger to the stage. The mix of personalities was waaaaay too volatile to last, but it was an awesome spectacle to take in while it was up and running.
posted by mosk at 10:21 AM on July 6, 2016 [5 favorites]


One wonders what drugs DLR was on when he green lighted this idea.

My best guess is all of them.
posted by COD at 11:00 AM on July 6, 2016 [4 favorites]


"Sammy Hagar throws a party, I am a party." is right up there with Dali's "I don't do drugs, I am drugs."
posted by ian1977 at 11:07 AM on July 6, 2016 [2 favorites]


Stack up his solo work next to Van Hagar and there's no comparison,

Eat 'Em and Smile and Skyscraper are entertaining. 5150 and OU812 (I haven't listened to the other stuff) are pure dreck. Schmaltzy dreck.
posted by My Dad at 11:15 AM on July 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


but schmaltzy dreck is best dreck
posted by ostranenie at 12:00 PM on July 6, 2016 [2 favorites]


Camp analysis aside, it's still dreck.
posted by rhizome at 12:14 PM on July 6, 2016


I wouldn't turn down Sammy's tequila, however.
posted by jonmc at 12:14 PM on July 6, 2016


I was okay until I learned that I exist in a world where David Lee Roth covered Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street".

We inherit the world we deserve.
posted by donquixote at 12:16 PM on July 6, 2016 [3 favorites]


For a long time my lizard brain has been conducting Marxist comparative ethnomusicology studies on post-Declaration of Independence Western music, and so I am always driven to wonder about questions like "who is this generation's Foghat?" Is Green Day Boston?

In all of this reductive appreciation, VH(Mk 1) seems to exist without precursor nor successor. There is simply no comparison to make. Even The Beatles took 5 albums before "Help" came out with "Ticket to Ride," signaling their legacy. VH, on the other hand, arrived fully-formed (show is 4mos before Van Halen I was released) and blew the shit out of AOR's colon from their first recorded note.

Not saying VH is better than the Beatles, because they weren't able to muster longevity (nor breadth), but you have to give credit where due, and Diamond Dave is a force of nature.
posted by rhizome at 12:32 PM on July 6, 2016 [8 favorites]


When you look at the hair metal era, there's a lot of silly makeup and posturing, but no one else seems to have the surreal showmanship of David Lee Roth. He's the guy who decided to bring one of those spinning siren whistles into the recording session of running with the devil. Even post VH he made great stuff like the video for just a gigolo. It's utterly stupid and goofy, but it's also something that's hard to watch without smiling.

In an era rife with camp, he was the guy who metaphorically winked at the camera every single time he could.
posted by Ferreous at 1:10 PM on July 6, 2016 [3 favorites]


"Sammy Hagar throws a party, I am a party." is right up there with Dali's "I don't do drugs, I am drugs."
Sounds more like an act of semi-plagiarism. (But he chose a good source to steal from... that time)
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:59 PM on July 6, 2016


This is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen.

And I'm ostranenie.
posted by ostranenie at 5:16 PM on July 6, 2016 [2 favorites]


Dive in and get a taste.

No.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 5:39 PM on July 6, 2016


Roth makes me really uncomfortable, but that first VH album is high art.
posted by davebush at 7:07 PM on July 6, 2016


The first four albums are a hockey-stick moment of growth for the vocabulary of rock music. Undeniable.
posted by rhizome at 7:24 PM on July 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


Boy can he kick. Can't ever say the guy was phoning it in.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:01 PM on July 6, 2016


And I luv ya Dave, but I think it's finally time to get your thyroid level checked.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:05 PM on July 6, 2016


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