David Lee Roth solo material

I gotta say, I probably love Dave's solo stuff at least as much as his albums in Van Halen.

"Crazy From the Heat" is still ridiculously entertaining. It's an obnoxious EP of Sinatra-meets-Queen type songs, but I love it. It's a sublime rape of your senses.

"Eat Em and Smile" is a classic. It's my favorite Van Halen album, which is exactly what it sounds like. It retains some of the quirkiness and over-the-top ridiculousness that made "Crazy From the Heat" so much fun, but it still manages to kick my ass every time I listen to it. It's like a big "F*CK YOU" to Sammy Hagar. Oh, and Steve Vai is at his best here.

"Skyscraper" is pretty good. It's kinda like a watered down version of the previous record. This one sounds more like 80's pop metal than the raw rock n' roll I was hoping, but it's still got a lot of cool songs with memorable hooks. As always, Steve Vai tears it up on guitar. The man is a beast.

I never bothered to pick up any other of his albums due to the fact that all the reviews I've read of them have sucked big time.

Show some love for ol' Diamond Dave.

There's a reason DLR ended up playing clubs while VH continued to headline arenas and ampitheatres...

I liked Eat 'Em And Smile and Skyscraper (funny how DLR chastised EVH for use of keyboards, then when 5150 went #1, DLR released Skyscraper which is saturated with keyboards)...and A Little Ain't Enough and Your Filthy Little Mouth had moments of coolness...but overall, DLR became a characature of the cartoon he already was...VH remained a band.

I liked David Lee Roth's solo material, I still think that 'Eat 'Em and Smile' and 'Skyscrapper' are classic albums, and 'A Little Aint Enough' while not as strong as his earlier releases was still a good album, and it managed to go gold. Also the album featured the guitar work of Jason Becker and one of Alice's axe men Steve Hunter.

'Your Filthy Little Mouth' was a bit of hit or miss (as Shawn stated) but I admire the fact that DLR did not play it safe and tried a few different musical avenues even if it cost him a huge portion of his audience.

The next album 'DLRB' is a very good album and worth looking into. Features excellent axe work from John 5, who records under his real name John Lowery.

Saw him live during the 'Eat 'em and Smile' tour one of the funniest and best concerts I have seen.

I thought Eat 'Em And Smile was a very good album. I like it as much as any Van Halen album. It could have easily have been a killer Van Halen album.

I actually saw Roth on that tour with Billy Sheehan and Steve Vai. It was a highly entertaining show. I still have the tour book from that show.

Skyscraper was good too.

I've always thought Eat 'em & Smile was his best solo work and then each album after that got worse & worse. That's not to say they were terrible or unlistenable. They all had some good songs on them, but the overall quality dropped more & more with each release.

Eat Em and Smile is my favorite from his solo stuff.The video for Yankee Rose is still one of my favorite videos to this day.

The only solo DLR's I ever owned were CRAZY FROM THE HEAT and EAT'EM AND SMILE, liked'em a lot back when they were current but I never upgraded'em from tape to CD, therefore I haven't heard 'em in years now.

As Thrasher sez, that video for "Yankee Rose" still cracks me up tho. "Eeeeeeeeew! Not if you wuz the LAST immigrant grocer on EARTH....honey!"

Fat Freddy wrote:

The only solo DLR's I ever owned were CRAZY FROM THE HEAT and EAT'EM AND SMILE, liked'em a lot back when they were current but I never upgraded'em from tape to CD, therefore I haven't heard 'em in years now.

As Thrasher sez, that video for "Yankee Rose" still cracks me up tho. "Eeeeeeeeew! Not if you wuz the LAST immigrant grocer on EARTH....honey!"

Now that you mention it, I have or had Crazy From the Heat on vinyl. If I remember correctly, I bought it at a Sam Goody for $2. I'll have to look if I still own it.

EDIT: A quick check says that I either got rid of it or it's somewhere in my parent's basement. Oh well.

Anyone that likes Dave's version of "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" should check out the version by Louis Prima....it's an exact copy.

detuned wrote:

Anyone that likes Dave's version of "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" should check out the version by Louis Prima....it's an exact copy.

Oh yea. Being half-Italian, I knew old Louie's version well before Diamond Dave came along.

Bosey-bosey-bop diddy-bop!!

I like a lot of the songs but not enough to buy an album. They really need to do a best of with him.

TheNazgul wrote:

I like a lot of the songs but not enough to buy an album. They really need to do a best of with him.

Good news, metal brutha a greatest hits package was released by DLR a few years ago,

TheNazgul wrote:

I like a lot of the songs but not enough to buy an album. They really need to do a best of with him.

You seriously have to pick up "Eat em' and Smile". It's a classic!

MetalGuy71 wrote:

detuned wrote:

Anyone that likes Dave's version of "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" should check out the version by Louis Prima....it's an exact copy.

Oh yea. Being half-Italian, I knew old Louie's version well before Diamond Dave came along.

Bosey-bosey-bop diddy-bop!!

Spongebob Squarepants does that "hominababilaboosadee-bop" bit from "I Ain't Got Nobody" in the midst of his big "I'm A Goofy Goober" rock song towards the end of the Spongebob Squarepants Movie. The first time I saw that with my son I laughed so hard I nearly fell outta my chair. He was like "What's so funny Daddy?" and I sez "Forget it, you wouldn't understand."

The sax solo at 2:10 is awesome.

Eat'em is very good. I wanna try Skyscraper, but I'm reading a lot of reviews knocking it. It's only around $6 at CD Universe though...

Metal Misfit wrote:

Eat'em is very good. I wanna try Skyscraper, but I'm reading a lot of reviews knocking it. It's only around $6 at CD Universe though...

$6? It's a worthy investment for that amount.

Schbopo wrote:

Metal Misfit wrote:

Eat'em is very good. I wanna try Skyscraper, but I'm reading a lot of reviews knocking it. It's only around $6 at CD Universe though...

$6? It's a worthy investment for that amount.

You can get it even cheaper on Amazon...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000002LDG/ref=sr_1_olp_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1248701839&sr=1-1

I had Skyscraper on tape, but never bothered to upgrade to cd. From what I remember, there was too much keyboard on it for my taste and too much filler.