A Brief History of the “Parodying a Bunch of Recent Videos” Music Video

Diamond Dean says:
“Visually Dave was VAN HALEN fullstop.”

Do you mean it was Dave who was mostly behind Van Halen’s visual impact? He certainly was the one who drove most of that due to his interest in visual art, but they all played a part. Alex was interested in much of the artwork associated with them, Eddie gave his guitar that crazy look, Mike with his JD bass…

I love this video – it makes me smile – classic Diamond Dave. Got our tickets for Sydney show and can’t wait … may even wear my original ‘Dave TV’ t-shirt.

I’m going to get flayed alive for saying this, I imagine, but I don’t think that video aged very well. The music is good, but the video, while cool at the time, doesn’t do much for me these days. Gotta give the guy credit for lampooning music’s biggest (at the time) stars, though. To me this is kind of like the Pretty Woman video… kinda hard to look at now.

This thread is in desperate need of one of Dave’s favorite lines.

Not to needle the moderator, but it ends with “…if they can’t take a joke!”

Halen High: I’m just about done with this site mate. But, that’s only because I want to anticipate the upcoming Van Halen album. The extremeist anti-Hagar crowd in here, like I’ve said, has me wanting those people to be disappointed….

Anyhow, regarding your comment about ‘read the book’…from where I sit, there wasn’t anything in the book that we didn’t already know about Van Halen. The ONLY piece of discrepancy lies in the rhetoric revolving around album sales of Van Hagar, and where Hagar sat as a solo artist before he joined. All of which is debatable, but none of which is reason for hatred.

They WERE the top selling rock n roll band at the time of Van Hagar. Sammy Hagar WAS selling out arenas before he joined Halen. And, Halen WASN’T that big in the world of radio play as Hagar suggests. Now, none of this really defines anything, even though true. But, it’s what he said, and it’s, again, not reason for hatred.

Again, from where I sit, the hatred should lie on Eddie or Dave. Sammy had zero to do with those guys’ problems.

If the video had name brand products floating around while the song played, then I’d call it a sell out. Everyone on here who has alluded to Dave being a “sell out” because of this video clearly doesn’t know what the term means. Was (is) Wierd Al Yankovic one? No. His videos were spoofs as was Gigolo. As for Dave being arrogant self centered vaudville douchebag, I certainly disagree. The guy was singing a fun song, wearing some crazy clothes and dancing around with look a likes and a few honeys. I really think the people who have trashed him for this particular venture have no concept of what means to evolve and keep things fresh. The success rate of charting a change in course with your musical direction is most often poor. If Dave’s EP sounded like a watered down 1984 part II, then we’d be justified in calling him a bust on his own. He proved he wasn’t quite well I think.

And for those interested in hearing things from the horses mouth, do a YT search for a Charlie Rose interview with Dave circa the split. Charlie asks if creative differences were the reason for the split and Dave says not at all. His reason for leaving was that he didn’t want to sit around on his butt. Charlie also asked him what the new project was called and he said just his name as he made the mistake of naming his last band after someone else! He said with his classic laugh at his own joke chuckle.

I’m also surprised how some people say Sammy kept VH relevant longer than they would have been had Dave stayed. How on Earth does one prove that? Hypothetically, if Bono came close to leaving U2 after the Unforgettable Fire in ’85 but stayed instead, it sure seems as though remaining relevant has never been a concern for them. The team of Ed and Dave could have rocked out their classics and reinvent themselves 20 times over if Dave had stayed put. Just wasn’t to be. Thank God they’re alive and well AND TOGETHER gearing up to reinvent once again. It’s going to great. I can just feel it.

Carnal Knowledge says:
“Halen High: I’m just about done with this site mate. But, that’s only because I want to anticipate the upcoming Van Halen album. The extremeist anti-Hagar crowd in here, like I’ve said, has me wanting those people to be disappointed….”

CK – just don’t read their posts and definately don’t allow a few people on the internet to ruin your fun with a new VH album (if you want a new Dave-VH album).

Carnal Knowledge says:
“Anyhow, regarding your comment about ‘read the book’…from where I sit, there wasn’t anything in the book that we didn’t already know about Van Halen. The ONLY piece of discrepancy lies in the rhetoric revolving around album sales of Van Hagar, and where Hagar sat as a solo artist before he joined. All of which is debatable, but none of which is reason for hatred.”

CK – if you read Adam’s review of the book in the other thread, or find some of Sammy’s interviews from the early 90s, or check some of his recent interviews to promote his book, you will see why so many Van Halen fans were happy to see the back of him. He did what no substitute member should ever do – disrespect the legacy of the original legendary band. It’s almost as if from very early on, he was a ‘man on a mission’ to turn VH fans against him

Carnal Knowledge says:
“They WERE the top selling rock n roll band at the time of Van Hagar.”

I’m not sure where you are getting your figures for this? You will find that a lot of other rock bands were easily outselling them during the Van Hagar era.

Carnal Knowledge says:
“Rock n Roll Videos were supposed to be filmed live performances, or actual live performances.”

That is such a narrow view. Why only live performances? Why can’t artists express themselves in video storylines, as another interesting representation of their music? Particularly if they have the imagination and creativity to do so.

The difference though, Sam was being serious.

anythingleftinthatbottle, you nailed it. Don’t hate Sam at all, but VH w/ Dave changed it all when they broke out in 1976. The look, the sound, the show, the attitude was nothing like anyone had ever seen before. Daves ego was f’n hilarious to me, and he backed it up by going out every night and blow’in every band they opened for off the stage. Classic VH wasn’t just a band, they were a life style.

Jeff: Dave Lee Roth wasn’t the reason Van Halen was blowing people off the stage. Just like Sammy wasn’t the reason for Van Halen’s demise.

Eddie Van Halen was and always will be Van Halen. If he’s on…..it’s on. If he’s not. It’s not

@ Roth_Leaps_83 – I’m not a “diehard Sammy sheep” whatever the hell that is. I’m a Van Halen fan who loves both eras of VH and who is also a fan of some of DLR and Hagar’s solo stuff. There are millions of VH fans, and I’m just one of ‘em. We all have are likes / dislikes and personal preferences when it comes to music. I’m not sure why that is so difficult for you to accept. Even when you agree with someone’s post, you have to throw in one of your attempts at labeling certain people with an oddball insult. Why can’t you just be cool and say – Hey man, good post, I agree with what you said about Dave. Dave is the best front man in rock and roll, etc. etc. (or something to that effect.) It doesn’t have to be that unoriginal, I’m just trying to make a small point about posting a comment in agreement w/ someone and leaving out the absurdities.

There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing with someone and still being cool. NO ONE changes their mind about a topic anyway from someone else insulting them or talking down to them. You would reach more people and get your attempted messages across more effectively about how great Dave is if you showed a little humility and mutual respect to your fellow VH fans.

If you’d pay attention to my posts you would know I’m just as big of a fan of David Lee Roth era Van Halen as I am Hagar era Van Halen.

When you say: “I might have hope for some of you diehard Sammy sheep yet! Now got to work on Carnal Knowledge and make grow a few brain cells LOL.”
It’s like you have this deluded sense that your are converting people to like Dave who previously only liked Hagar. Do you really think you had something to do with me becoming a fan of CVH or DLR and now you’re going to go convert another Hagar fan over to Dave/CVH?!
I’ve been a fan of DLR’s for about 20 years. You seem to have an assumption that a fan of Sammy Hagar’s couldn’t have been a fan of Roth’s too.
You’re always trying to marginalize VH fans who appreciate more than just the Dave era VH.

If you exclusively listen to CVH, that’s cool, I don’t have a problem with that at all. I don’t think anyone does. That happens to be your personal taste. But are you aware that everyone is an individual and not everyone has your exact same interests?! Damn dude, check your ego.

I’ve always liked Dave, ever since I got into Van Halen, the same with Sammy. Your comments are frustrating to someone who possesses a decent amount of logic and the ability to reason without obvious or unfair prejudice.

Carnal Knowledge says:
“Dave Lee Roth wasn’t the reason Van Halen was blowing people off the stage. Just like Sammy wasn’t the reason for Van Halen’s demise.

Eddie Van Halen was and always will be Van Halen. If he’s on…..it’s on. If he’s not. It’s not.”

Eddie has to take most of the blame for Van Halen’s demise, as it was he who came up with the bone-headed idea to hire Sammy Hagar, wrote the mostly forgettable music and drove the band’s direction. But if we take Eddie out of the argument and just evaluate how Sammy impacted on their fall from grace – well he didn’t exactly help did he – with his inept lyrics, stodgy live performances and his uncanny ability to alienate most of the band’s original fan base.

And if you think CVH was all about Eddie, look at what happened after Dave left. Van Halen was always about the combination and the chemistry of the original four, with the creativity of Dave and Eddie at its centre.

Hey Carnal Knowledge- If Eddie is the only reason VH was so popular, than what happened to VHIII w/Gary Cherone?

The problem was that unlike when Dave was in the band, the lead vocalist had very little say in what was going on. Eddie, like alot of guitarists write these long key changing run-on pieces of music that have NO structure. No structure is fine if there is at least a rythym or a groove to lay a melody on as a singer. When Sammy came in, Eddie was younger and hadn’t been in the cave as long becoming what a person becomes when seperated from the flock that long. So Eddie was more on an equal playing field and would listen to a singer(Sammy) inject his opinion where it comes to melody for a vocal line. Gary had probably either NO control over song structure and was told to write his lyrics to what had been written, OR he didn’t have the confrontational personality that it takes to say “Hey, you’re all over the place and I can’t find a pocket, so lets shorten this and re-arrange that and take this part out and add this etc” to Eddie.
Now, Dave at least for the last couple of albums, maybe more, had control of the songs structure and kept them listenable to the common rocker. Eddie just took those 1-3-4 rythyms and added so many wonderful layers and ghost notes as to make them rule musically speaking.

Now, I fear Dave has little control. Maybe more now that Eddie realizes he’s running out of options as far as what the fans will take. Now if he wants to play to a smaller crowd, he can do what he wants. That’s cool, it’s his life! I will not personally go anywhere else with him. Not an all-star album, not Sammy, not another singer (Unless he changes the name, I can barely take Mike getting the shaft). That may not amount to a hill of dink to him and I say ‘No problem’. I look forward to the new album and hope they do well.