Diamond Dave

David Lee Roth was of course the original front man for Van Halen (originally called Mammoth). Roth was fired from the band in 1986. He released two solo albums (that I know of) Eat ‘Em And Smile and Skyscraper with the excellent guitarist Steve Vai (Vai appears in the film Crossroads as the Devil’s guitarist), bassist Billy Sheehan -also an excellent musician – and drummer Gregg Bissonette. He also released one or two EP’s with tracks like “California Girls”, the Beach Boys cover.

It’s easy to dismiss Roth as a cliché…the long blonde hair, spandex, notorious womanizing, drugs and alcohol and trashing of hotel rooms. But his charisma is astonishing; like Jagger, Townsend, Hendrix, Angus Young, Chuck Berry, Eminem, and that dude from The Hives, he invented a whole genre/style of performer. Van Halen’s first 5-6 albums with Roth had their share of stadium-rock classics like “Jump!” and “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love”, but were also peppered with Negro spirituals, early blues, and old standards. “Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)” from the Diver Down album features Eddie and Alex Van Halen’s father, Jan Van Halen, on clarinet. Roth also brought some Spanish influence to the band.

The first of the solo albums, Eat ‘Em And Smile, has a couple of radio-friendly tracks (“Yankee Rose”) but it also veers off into stuff like Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life”, a sort of early rap-fusion track “Big Trouble”, and the cool and smoky “Lady’s Night In Buffalo”. I recently discovered the Spanish version of the album, and it’s actually very good, perhaps better.

Roth seems to have dropped out, and Van Halen continues to go through singers, becoming ever more main stream and irrelevant. There were rumors of reunions a few times, but nothing ever came of it. Far too late now. When people look back they will only remember Roth as part of Van Halen, and Van Halen will always be remembered for Roth, as much as for Eddie or Alex Van Halen.

And that’s all I know about that.