Van Freakin' Halen!

This week so far has been interesting. I mean, there is interest brewing concerning how next week will mark the 30th anniversary of Elvis's death. Next week I will commemorate that by posting several lesser known songs of his. Then, last night was Barry Bonds becoming the Home Run King (at least when it comes to baseball in America; in Japan, Sadaharu Oh, who music-wise was name-checked in the Beastie Boys songs "Hey Ladies", set the record in that country's version of major league baseball by hitting 868 home runs. Yeah, their baseball isn't as good as over in America but it's not THAT bad and it's still one hell of an achievement that deserves a lot of credit) by hitting 756.

But, to me the story that relates to this entry is how a story that was reported a month ago was confirmed when it was announced that Van Halen, WITH DAVID LEE ROTH, will embark on a North American tour in the fall. To many that's a shock considering how bitter their split was over 20 years ago and the problems that resulted when a few years ago they tried to have a reunion but it broke apart only days after it was made public.

Along with many people, I prefer the David Lee Roth era of Van Halen (I hope no one thought I'd upload a tune from Van Halen III, i.e. the album with Gary Cerrone; I wouldn't punish you blog readers in that manner!) and plus I will be putting up a lesser-known track from the Roth era and then a solo song from Roth.

First, the song from Van Halen's second album, creatively titled Van Halen II, as it was the second album they ever did. The song is a cover of a tune written by Clint Ballard Jr. (not related to Russ Ballard) that may be best known to your readers for the version done by Linda Ronstadt. Yes, it's You're No Good. The version done by Van Halen has a great bass opening that returns near the end of the tune and nice harmonies in the chorus, which is good enough for me to post on here. I realize that depending on where you live you may hear it once in a blue moon on your local classic rock station (or heck, maybe even one of the satellite radio channels if you have that) but it's certainly not as well-known as their classic rock staples (truth be told, I mostly know their classic rock staples and that's it) so that's why I want to share it with all of you.

Van Halen-You're No Good (3.02 MB, 128Kbits/second)

http://www.zshare.net/audio/304544128a19d2/

The solo song from David Lee Roth is NOT one of the bluegrass tunes he did last year. Holy shit no I would not subject you guys to that either. Just seeing a YouTube video of it is bad enough. After seeing him cover one of their tunes with a bunch of guys picking on a guitar and banjo, I wonder if the Van Halen brothers decided, "Awww fuck, his career must REALLY be in the shitter... we'd better show him some sympathy and let him back into the group." I swear, that must've happened. I mean, his extremely unwise career move of trying to be the next Howard Stern was bad enough, but bluegrassing broke the camel's back.

Anyway, the tune is not from his first EP or his first album*. Now, Yankee Rose is pretty good, I will admit, but as it's in the Vice City game, I'll instead post a song that is from his second album, Skyscraper. It was a song pretty popular at the time but you rarely hear it anymore. Yes, it's Just Like Paradise... no, that's the name of the song, not how I feel about the song. While it's not like a song from his days with Van Halen, it's still very catchy.

* The revelation that a SPANISH version of that album was recorded... it blows my mind. If I ever find that, you know very well that it will be posted on here.

David Lee Roth-Just Like Paradise (3.71 MB, Kbits/second)

http://www.zshare.net/audio/3045474c1040e5/

I'll be back Friday night.