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Cover: 6
Knife-Wielding Intruders out of 10
It's a picture of David Lee Roth sitting on a
big chameleon-colored chair and his hair looks completely white. There's
some chicks standing behind him with sunglasses and these fucked up
bomber hats on. Are those the Tenison Twins? I can't tell. Anyhow, Dave's
wearing this sparkly blue pantsuit with gargantuan bell bottoms and
an orange scarf around his neck. Kind of like a psychedelic Evel Knievel
without the helmet. The color of his skin is bled out and looks quite
red, like he's got a bad sunburn. His hairline is higher than ever and
he looks really old. But he looks like a hip old guy, and at least the
picture is colorful.
Booklet: 7
Shotguns out of 10
The booklet is ten panels which fold out to reveal
tons of bizarre pictures of Dave and his entourage, taken at various
photo shoots over the past year or so by - who else? - Neil Zlozower.
It's, uh, kind of hard to explain. Basically it's a collage of DLR in
all sorts of different poses, with various costumes and all these chicks
and odd looking people around him. If you've ever seen David Lee Roth's
"No Holds Bar-B-Que" video, you'll know exactly what to anticipate.
All of the tracks are listed along with credits as to who wrote and
performed on each one, and a page with general album credits and thanks,
but no lyrics or anything. It's more or less all weird pictures of Dave.
Songs: 8
Pasadena Police Officers out of 10
At first I didn't know what to expect.
It's DLR doing cover tunes plus a few new originals. Just like Warrant's
"Under the Influence," but different. He pays homage to some
of his favorite artists, doing tunes by The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, the
Steve Miller Band, Savoy Brown, a bunch of old blues guys I've never
heard of, and "That Beatles Tune." (That's what it's called!
"That Beatles Tune," which is actually "Tomorrow Never
Knows" from the Revolver album, but who am I to point that out.)
DLR is credited with 3 originals on this disc, but it's hard to call
them all 'songs.' "Medicine Man" is just Dave blowing into
a harmonica and "Act One" is Dave screwing around in the studio,
making weird noises and then laughing about it for over half a minute.
No music, no accompaniment. Just Dave laughing. However, "Thug
Pop," really the only 'rock song' on the disc, sounds like classic
Dave and is actually pretty good. He also does a more swingin', bluesier
version of "Ice Cream Man" than he previously did on Van Halen's
first CD, with Nile Rogers on guitar and a sax solo by Edgar Winter.
Actually, aside from Dave's laughing fit, these songs are all well done
and cool to listen to. The core DLR band of Brian Young, James LoMenzo,
and Ray Luzier is tight and versatile enough to go from jazz, psychedelia,
70's porno music, straight-ahead rock and back again. There is lots
of accompaniment by a horn section, jazzy piano, and several guest musicians.
Overall the songs are bluesy, swingy, smoky, trippy, and downright bizarre.
But in a good way. I dig it.
Comments: I
really liked this CD a lot more than I thought I would and have been
smoking pot and playing it over and over again. It's not really like
anything he did with Van Halen or with the Eat 'Em and Smile band, it's
a lot more experimental than that, but it's got that DLR signature sound
all over it. Supposedly, he filmed a video for the track "Shoo
Bop," which was actually recorded as "Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma
Ma" by the Steve Miller Band in 1972, but I like Dave's version
better. I hope VH1 or someone gives it some airplay 'cause I can't wait
to see what the video looks like.
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