Short Cuts: Volume 2

Van Halen (Van Halen, Van Halen II, Women and Children First, Fair Warning, Diver Down, 1984)

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Van Halen.   More specifically, I’m conflicted about Diamond Dave and Eddie.  I mean there’s no denying that Eddie Van Halen was once king of the hill when it came to technical mastery of the electric guitar.  But for me, his trademark neck tapping solos and whammy bar dive bombs sounded forced and too often like the product of obsessive practice, rather than true inspiration.  Then there’s the hairy chested, walking, talking , squawking rock and roll cliché’ known as David Lee Roth.  It’s easy to write Lee off as a carnival barker, if not the sideshow himself, until you pay closer attention to his extraordinary pipes and phrasing.  With so many covers in the mix, sometimes these guys sound like the best bar band you ever heard, and that may be why I played through every single album released by the original Van Halen lineup last Sunday while I finished up painting some trim in the bedroom.  This band never takes themselves very seriously, which may be why their catalog seems to be aging so well.

Elton John (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road)

My family used to visit Florida every year.  We’d always spend some time at Disney, but often drove all over the state to see other attractions like the Everglades (where our boat sunk like the SS Minnow in a gator filled river), the Ringling Brothers Circus Museum in Sarasota, and the Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum in St. Augustine.  I loved to watch the road unfold ahead of me during these trips and never felt like sleeping so I often wound up playing “co-pilot” and sitting up front with Dad.  Since the cassette deck in our motor home was mounted behind the driver’s seat, another one of my jobs was swapping out the cassettes.   Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was the closest thing to hard rock that my Dad could handle (although on one occasion I somehow convinced him to let me play Led Zep’s Presence…and I don’t think he liked it).  It was during those longs drives to and around Florida that I fell in love with Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.  The highlights are too many to mention in this short cut, but beyond the obvious mega hits, I highly recommend, “Harmony”, “Dirty Little Girl, “All the Young Girls Love Alice” and “Grey Seal”.  I suspect  Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, one of the best releases from one of the 70’s most consistent artists,  will wind up getting a full review one day.

Elton John (Madman Across the Water)

Of all the fantastic records Elton John released as a rock artist in the 70’s this is amongst my least favorite.  In fact, I’d be hard pressed to name all of the songs, even though I’ve played the record dozens of times.  That being said, “Tiny Dancer,” “Levon” and the title track are good enough to draw me in on a fairly regular basis.  So far, however, the bait still hasn’t enticed me to bite on the less familiar songs.

UFO 2: Flying-One Hour Space Rock

The first three UFO records, recorded with guitarist Mick Bolton are even more obscure than the five celebrated but relatively unknown records the band recorded for the Chrysalis label with his replacement, 17-year prodigy Michael Schenker.   This is the second and last studio release with Bolton and has to be one of the most surprising records I’ve heard in a very long time.  Wrapping three solid hard rock songs (two of which concern the mythical Prince Kajuku) around two sprawling, psychedelic jam sessions, (the 19-minute “Star Storm”, and 26-minute “Flying”) this may be the closest approximation of Led Zeppelin’s early sound I’ve ever heard.  Would it be heresy to suggest I might even prefer “Flying” to “Dazed and Confused?”  It’s an amazingly indulgent record, but sometimes there’s nothing more refreshing than hearing young musicians play their hearts out with absolutely no concern for whether or not anyone feels like hearing it.   Likely to get a full write up soon.

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