Old Guy Drama - VH Style

Van Halen has been all over the news lately. I'm actually surprised on how behind I was on all if it.

Let's start from where it started:

Sammy Hagar told Edde Trunk (on the Trunk Report) a few weeks ago that the VH camp blocked him from playing any Sammy era songs on a recent episode of Live at Darryl's House.

As a Sammy era VH fan, this makes me scratch my big head (takes a while) and ask "Why?" My era of VH should be heard. I would love to see Darryl Hall bust out a drill and shred the intro to Poundcake.

It dosent stop there. Eddie told Rolling Stone Magazine last month that he and David Lee Roth aren't friends and don't communicate outside business. He also said that Dave is picking set lists, essentially insinuating that DRL is pulling the strings these days.

Huh? Really? Seriously?

To know that Rolling Stone still exists is shocking enough, but EVH saying all of that is mind numbing.

For Eddie to give up the reigns to anyone is just plain weird. His legendary ego has lead him to soaring heights and gutteral lows, but he was always convinced he was right, therefor keeping his dignity somewhat intact (save the jesters hat during the VH3 era).

The logic dosent make sense to me. If he is doing what he thinks "the Fans" want, which is really only half of the fans respectively, why not bring back Michael Anthony? Both camps of Fans can agree on that.

Speaking of Michael, Eddie dissed his musicianship in the same interview, saying he taught him everything he knows.

Last but not least: Billy Sheenan stated (again, on a recent episode of Trunk Report) that he was being heavily considered to replace Michael in VH back in 1980. He made it sound as though he actually jammed with Eddie, Alex and Dave behind Michael's back. My favorite part of that interview was the "but Michael is great" bullshit backpedal. 

Headlines aplenty. Does anyone besides me and 45 other nerdy people really give a rats ass? Probably not. 

I want to write a message to all of them as a fan even though it will never be read:

Eddie: go on a G3 tour or something. Be humble in a good way.

David: retire and open a DoJo. Call it the Face Plant.

Alex: quit VH, join The Circle.

Sammy: keep on keeping on.

Michael: same as above.

Wolfie: start a Death Core band.

And Billy: let sleeping dogs lie. 

Nago.

Kiss the Beatles

While listening to Chris Jericho's podcast interview with Gene Simmons, something came up that I never realized before.

Gene was discussing songwriting, and the Beatles easily became the topic (the way they always do).

Gene shined a light on how the Beatles, in a very classy way, often used the first line of the song as a title, and sometimes didn't even repeat the title in the same way throughout the song.

Examples:

Hey Jude

Eleanor Rigby

Blackbird 

The Long and Winding Road

Something

Dear Prudence

Help

I've just seen a Face

Lady Madonna

And the list goes on!

Why, as big as a fan as I am, did I never realize this? It's crazy that I didn't notice the pattern.

Let me explain why I love the Beatles. They wrote amazing songs first, they had image second, and they were innovators. They set the trends, transcended their roots, and were amazingly prolific over such a short period of time. Starting with the Rubber Soul era, the best band of the day became the greatest R&R band of all time. How they could reinvent themselves every 6 months or so and put out epics like Revolver, Sgt Pepper, The Beatles, Abby Road and Let it Be in such a short period still blows my old mind.

John appeals to me spiritually, Paul as the best songwriter of all time, George as the underdog who achieved perfect moments despite his peers, and Ringo, well, cause he's Ringo.

I've been writing and playing music for 25 years, and I have always tried to do my own thing. I've ripped off artists inadvertently, but never even remotely tried to sound or write like the Beatles. Iadmire  them as a fan.

But, with this new revelation (#9), I'm looking at my own songwriting differently.

I grew up in an era of: Intro, Verse, Chorus, 2nd Verse, Chorus, Solo, Bridge, Chorus, end. The chorus typically contained the repetitive title.

I'm guilty of writing that way. I've always been guilty of it and I will probably always lean that way. It will be hard to erase 25 years of that thought process. 

The Beatles wrote this way also, but to start off a song with the the climax as the first line is a different thought process for me.

And now, I have to start to challenge myself and look at songwriting in another light. That's pretty flipping awesome if you ask me. I'm never going to have a #1 single, so why should I write like I will? Besides that, as far as #1 singles go, the Beatles set that bar pretty high, so maybe I've just had it wrong all these years.

I should have been eating lunch, but instead I'm writing about the stupid Beatles.

Nago.