EVH YouTube Examinations. Had Enuf, Yet?

[RobB]

Just finished listening to a 3-1/2hr Final Resonance TV panel with Chris Gill/Brad Tolinski. Topic was a, "review", of the Alex VH book, "Brothers." It was a slog. Seemed like they were complaining that every chapter had parts taken (not verbatim) from their own biography, "Eruption."

I understand that EVH's death was a collective mindfuk to the guitar world. He was a giant, standing on the shoulders of giants. I get that he is missed. However, there is such a glut of EVH video-necropsies on YouTube now. It seems like new content springs up every hour. Some are insightful, most miss the mark by a mile.

What do you think? Discuss...

Edited January 8 by RobB

[alantig]

Ooo - maybe we should start a podcast and a YouTube channel where we critique all the videos about EVH!  Eventually, we'll get around to our own videos and it will become self-perpetuating!

Having read both of those books, I can see the Gill/Tolinski side of things.  Alex's book has a lot of "Edward told <insert journalist/magazine> this..." - whether it's too much or not is a matter of taste, but there's also not a lot of formal attribution or even a bibliography to show where he pulled it all from.

More and more as I read these kinds of books, I'm reminded of how important an editor is.

[Steve Haynie]

Did Alex write his own book? 

[velorush]

I thought Ted Templeman's book was outstanding. Not Van Halen specific, of course, but included many insights from his perspective.  Likewise, Sammy Hagar's book was interesting in its Van Halen insights.

I've also enjoyed many of Drew Dempsy's ("Roundtable") YouTube videos on Sunset Sound, many of which were centered on Van Halen.

[LucSulla]

2 hours ago, velorush said:

I thought Ted Templeman's book was outstanding. Not Van Halen specific, of course, but included many insights from his perspective.  Likewise, Sammy Hagar's book was interesting in its Van Halen insights.

I've also enjoyed many of Drew Dempsy's ("Roundtable") YouTube videos on Sunset Sound, many of which were centered on Van Halen.

That is one of my favorite music biz autobiographies, and I eat those like candy. That is one of the few that was really something more than a tawdry way to kill a Sunday afternoon. 

More general to @RobB 's conversation prompt, coincidentally, I have been thinking about somewhat this topic but from maybe a little different angle the last couple of weeks due to the Van Halen subreddit. The only popular posts there are about band drama, and it is all the same band drama that has been there for as long as 40 years now. Wolf rightfully just checked out of dealing with Dave and the Van Halen fanbase because too much of it is so toxic. Al, even with the book, doesn't engage really. Mike seems like a classy guy who seems happy to just remember the good, sling some hot sauce, and enjoy riding off into the sunset playing with Sammy and respected by most everyone. Which leaves us DLR getting restless with the lack of attention and occasionally baiting the surviving parties, of whom only Sammy seems stupid enough to end up on the hook with any regularity. But then, Sammy always seems to be happy to deliver some little quip when provoked, which keeps the whole tired, sad, desiccated corpse of a fandom chattering about the same shit for another couple of weeks. I wish he'd learn, but he probably never will if he hasn't yet after all these years. 

All of which is totally moot because Ed is dead. There is no new story to spin out, and the only reason anyone gives a shit about any of those folks in the context of Van Halen is because we wanted to see where the story was going to end.

Well, it ended.

No new tour. No new album. No more wondering if Ed will reconcile with Sammy and Mike. No more wondering how DLR will sound on this tour. Plus, Wolfie is out on doing anything with the name and seems perfectly content to do his own thing and let the folks that don't get it fume, which I love. To whatever extent the drama circus could have continued without EVH, Wolfie saying, "Nah, I don't need that," pretty much locked it forever into this static universe with no new information. The fact I am so tired of hearing old shit over and over again makes me wonder why I still subscribe to that page. The older I get, the more I've started to make peace with everything having an end, something which fandoms seem unable to cope with as a whole.

My Dad is a great guy, but he's also very direct and kind of treated me like a little adult from jump. I remember when I was three asking him why we don't buy batteries that never die. He responded, "Because everything ends, Jason." The implication immediately was clear, even to a three-year-old. Man, I hated that, and not just because of its implications on my existence, but just the knowledge that everything is ultimately ephemeral. "Merrily merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream."

But, here in middle age, my perspective has changed somewhat, and I'm not sure if anything would be as magical if it didn't end. That perfect summer in high school, the first big romance, the first band that really had potential - youth - had they not had an expiration date, those experiences would have grown as mundane as any other I think. Not new thoughts from me; poets and philosophers have written on this shit for years. I just can actually feel it these days rather than understand it in abstract. And the same goes for Van Halen - how cool to have been around at the same time as Eddie Fucking Van Halen. It was never going to last for ever, but we were there, man!

I hate it ended how and when it did, but what I hate even more is that a bunch of people, who literally know none of the people involved, are perpetuating an ongoing struggle to figure out who to blame for why they don't have more in the few communities left more than just the music itself, as if that will change anything. Seems all there is left to talk about is who to blame, and I do feel like that takes away from what it really meant.  And maybe if that is all that is left to keep any sort of community engaged, it's time for everyone to just walk away and turn out the lights. I prefer to remember Van Halen as a band, not a soap opera.

I also think you can still find new stuff like that as you get older if you stay open to it. Perhaps the reason a sense of wonder dies for so many as they age is because they keep looking over their shoulder expecting something that already happened to deliver something new rather than looking in front of them. No one was looking for "Eruption" when it happened, or at least they didn't know they were. You ran into that shit out of nowhere because you didn't have enough past to be hung up on yet to distract you from living. Whatever it is will never be another "Eruption," but I'm willing to bet we all have things right now in our lives that we will wish we enjoyed more 10 years from now just as much as we wished we would have savored 15, 18, or 25 more. 

So I find myself listening to Van Halen these days not wishing there was more, hoping some sort of official tribute happens, or being pissed at what we did get isn't official enough. I listen to Fair Warning and 1984 and think, "Man, I'm glad I was around when this was going on."  

Told you I had been thinking about it lately, lol. Also going to unsubscribe from that subreddit now. 
 

[alantig]

1 hour ago, LucSulla said:

Perhaps the reason a sense of wonder dies for so many as they age is because they keep looking over their shoulder expecting something that already happened to deliver something new rather than looking in front of them.

This is why I don't get swept up in the "this is the new Led Zeppelin/Beatles/Van Halen" hype around some newer bands.  I don't want the new Beatles.  I don't want another Van Halen.  I don't want another Zeppelin (not just because I'm not a huge fan).  What I want is a band that hits me the way those bands hit me all those years ago.  I loved the Knack when they came out, not because they were being called the next Beatles, but because they made good music that grabbed me.

[LucSulla]

48 minutes ago, alantig said:

This is why I don't get swept up in the "this is the new Led Zeppelin/Beatles/Van Halen" hype around some newer bands.  I don't want the new Beatles.  I don't want another Van Halen.  I don't want another Zeppelin (not just because I'm not a huge fan).  What I want is a band that hits me the way those bands hit me all those years ago.  I loved the Knack when they came out, not because they were being called the next Beatles, but because they made good music that grabbed me.

Same for me. It's like hooking up with a chick who looks like your ex simply because she looks like your ex. That rarely goes anywhere good, lol.

One of the best shows I've gone to in the last 10 years was Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats in Birmingham, AL. The version of "Slow Death" I saw that night at 37-years-old in a small venue was as affecting as any peak moment in any big show I'd ever gone to. Plus, it was like $30. Not that they are just completely revolutionary, but I do find their mix of stoner/psychedelic rock/metal to be its own thing. 18-year-old me would have never given it a chance because a punk rock fan recommended them. 

The last two Opeth shows I saw in Nashville are up there as well. Even though they've been around quite a while at this point, harsh vocals are something I really didn't get into until I was in my 30s. I got into them early enough in their U.S. touring cycles to watch them move from playing a sport bar in San Antonio and having to compete with a football game being on all the televisions to seeing them in the Ryman in 2020. 

I also HATED country music until I was in my 30s, and got into that just in time to catch Sturgill Simpson blowing up. I thought seeing him at the Orpheum in Memphis was about as good as he'd get until I saw him this fall in Brandon, MS. Just an absolutely killer 3-hour concert. Another guy that isn't doing anything alien but also somehow just a little different than everyone else. 

All in all, just trying to find some new stuff to get into even if it meant getting a little out of my usual flavors of rock and metal has delivered on a lot of great shows even as I've got older that I wouldn't swap for some of the classics I went to for my age group in the 90s.