Hero worship: Diamond David Lee Roth
Why a Stockport lad loved this larger than life superstar
Perfect for a fourteen year old…
I bumped into Van Halen at both the ideal and the wrong time. A committed rock fan, I was 14 when I discovered this quartet of perfect musical machines: Alex Van Halen’s thunderous drums and Michael Anthony’s thudding bass and sonorous harmonies set the band apart from many other rock bands I was listening to. And, of course, the twin engine of Eddie Van Halen’s revolutionary guitar playing and David Lee Roth’s spellbinding showmanship ensured they really were like no other band.
The age of 14 was the ideal time to find them - pure entertainment, humour and remarkable musicianship. They took over my life for a short while. I listened to them and to no one else. I didn’t mind if they were pushing the guitar to its extremes (Eruption), drenching their music with synths (Jump), or bringing in acoustic country folk (Could This Be Magic?). They could do no wrong for me.
However, the timing of my discover was also the wrong time, as I was 14 in 1985, and that was the year that David Lee Roth left Van Halen. I’d discovered them just as they parted company.
I have pleasant feelings towards the period that followed for VH, with Sammy Hagar on lead vocals, but my loyalties lay with the carnival barker from Bloomington, Indiana, Diamond David Lee Roth. And thankfully, he kept me captivated for a few more years with some amazing solo releases.
The Van Halen years
I can’t quite imagine what it must have been like hearing Van Halen for the first time in 1978. The debut album is remarkable, and swept away the sound of hard rock before it, imbibing it with style, pop sheen, and a cockiness that comes across as joyous. From the concert of car horns at the start of Runnin’ With The Devil through to the buzzing riff of On Fire the album is wall to wall brilliance. It was the way the precise sound of Eddie’s guitars melded with the carefree and charismatic vocals of Roth that created an almost new sound. One that bands would be (badly) copying for years.
I owned (and sold) all the albums on vinyl. When we entered the CD era I, like many people, began the process of replacing my vinyl collection with CD versions1. The very first CD I bought was Van Halen II. This second album is one of my favourite albums of all time. There isn’t a sense of importance running through it, but a sense of wild abandonment. It was recorded in a week, and that energy permeates the record. Diamond Dave, jumping spread-eagled on the back cover, runs the show as a master of ceremonies, and the band chuckle through tracks like Bottoms Up, party together on Beautiful Girls and play absolute perfect riffs on things like D.O.A. and Outta Love Again.
The next two albums, Women and Children First and Fair Warning are just as good as the first two. They continue the VH style, with tracks like Everybody Wants Some!! a drunken party and with Eddie as his imperious best on Mean Streets. Throughout, David Lee Roth is infectious, an arch smile on face on each song, as he continues to joke. When producer Ted Templeman comes over the system to say “C’mon Dave, gimme a break,” Roth laughs as he yells, “One break….comin’ up” before the band burst back in.
I actually struggled a little with the next album, Diver Down, as it was full of covers that I didn’t fully get (I’m still not a fan of their strange version of Dancin’ in the Street) but I have over the years warmed to the many more experimental instrumental sounds and the beauty of Little Guitars2 and Secrets. Roth tells a great tale with his words on these.
Their final album together (before a reunion) was released early 1984, and took its names from the year in question. It was a massive hit, selling 10 million copies, and lead single Jump is one of the most famous pop-rock tracks of all time. It was this album that I first discovered, loving the energy of Panama and Top Jimmy and the dirty riff of House of Pain. I didn’t know at the time that the band were falling apart, but I also didn’t know Roth would continue releasing great work for a few more years.
The Solo work
David Lee Roth’s solo EP, Crazy from the Heat, was released whilst still officially a member of Van Halen.
I bought it at the time, not knowing what to expect, and got a collection of four brilliant covers that sounded nothing like what a rock star should be producing, including the R&B swing of Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody.
Each track featured a self-deprecating video showing that Roth had the confidence to make fun of himself and others (stars of the time, Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper are amongst the targets in one video). I spent months afterwards saying, “David! You got charasma!” to people.
Of course, the teenage me was amazed at the beautiful women in the video to California Girls, giving me a reason to dream of being a rock star myself3.
Roth quit Van Halen later that year and 1986 saw a real “battle of the bands” as Van Halen (with Sammy Hagar now as vocalist)4 and Diamond Dave and his new band (with Billy Sheehan on bass, Gregg Bissonette on drums and the brilliant guitarist Steve Vai) both released new albums.
The VH album, 5150, was the commercial winner, selling something like 6,000,000 copies in the US alone, but for me, Roth’s Eat ‘Em and Smile was the victor: one of the most enjoyable, delightful and exciting records of the 1980s.
It was just fun from the minute Roth and Vai’s guitar started talking to each other on opening track Yankee Rose. Not a moment is wasted on this superb rock record, from blistering hard rock like Shyboy, through bluesy lounge song I’m Easy, shuffling funk-rock of Big Trouble and the joyous pop-rock of Goin’ Crazy!5 Clearly, Roth was enjoying himself massively here, and the accompanying videos on Dave TV just added to the fun. I watched and re-watched the VHS of songs from this and the EP.6
5150 is a great rock album, but it is nothing compared to Roth’s solo album.
I mentioned earlier in the article how I’d sold my vinyl. This included Roth’s second album Skyscraper, so I was delighted to find a copy in my local record shop Tasty Records, so it could re-join my collection.
The album, which came out in 1988, is another brilliant collection, featuring the additional sounds of keyboard player Brett Tuggle. I read a review from ten years ago that I think fundamentally misunderstands the value of the album, saying “Drenched in keyboards, vocal effects, and studio gimmickry, Skyscraper is a marked departure in style and sound that will have listeners asking, “Dave, if it ain’t broke – why fix it?”” That reviewer, Ben McVicker, is wrong in my view. Skyscraper points to where Diamond Dave could have been going. It still rocks hard (Knucklebones), soars with melodic pop-rock (Just Like Paradise, Perfect Timing), and plays folky melancholia (Damn Good) but most importantly it pushes forwards.
The title track is, certainly for Diamond David Lee Roth at least, an experiment, playing with stereo and sounds, and Hina is an atmospheric ballad of yearning. This was Roth at the very top of his game. I saw him live in 1988 and we got the full works: surfboarding over the crowd, a boxing ring dropping from the sky, an acoustic blues section. It was a brilliant, eclectic, entertaining concert. But I wonder if Roth struggled with some of the less favourable reviews of the album because he never got this brave again.
It was a case of diminishing returns after this. After Vai and Sheehan left we got a series of disappointing albums and he rejoined Van Halen in 2007, but they couldn’t rekindle the magic (he’d recorded two tracks with them in 1996 too). But I regularly listen to the first six Van Halen albums and his early solo work and, more than just nostalgia, they fill me with joy.
Actually features a little guitar as Eddie VH plays a mini Les Paul
(This dream has not yet come to fruition).
And often called Van Hagar!
“I’m going coco-nuts but at least I’m going my way!”
The cover says it all:
I never liked the music, but always liked Dave Lee Roth. A proper character! Another good article Kalowski
I can totally understand! I would have done the same. The good thing about the current era is that we can enjoy music in multiple formats, and there’s less of a need (or pressure) to replace. Great article, by the way!