There's
a bit of controversy about David Lee Roth being removed from the
current Kiss tour. Gene Simmons hasn't come right out and said that Dave
can't sing, probably because he'd be opening up a big can of worms
regarding the vocal abilities of Kiss. This gives me pause to forward an
observation about Roth.
Billy Idol did an EP
prior to releasing his self titled debut album back in the early 1980s.
There's a whole interview on one side that he did with Martha Quinn of
MTV. He talked about Robert Plant and Mick Jagger, and he said something
interesting. I don't recall his exact words, but he said that Robert
Plant can sing and Mick Jagger can't. Why does he listen to Mick Jagger?
Because he can't sing and he sounds great.
For
long time Van Halen listeners, here's a good question for you. Name the
great Roth vocals on any Van Halen song that would hold up against the
best vocalists in rock music history? I'm waiting. My answer is he was
never a great vocalist. Some might say that's blasphemy, but I'm going
to be honest here.
As a vocalist, he was okay.
I'm not saying he didn't sound good enough on many classic Van Halen
songs. The bottom line is I can admit Sammy Hagar was a better vocalist
than Dave, but I'd rather listen to Dave's Van Halen any day of the
week. Basically, I'll paraphrase Idol when I say Roth can't sing and he
sounds great, or he did back in those days.
When
everybody was throwing a fit about Dave during his Vegas residency, I
listened to his vocals. They weren't great, but they were hardly
screechingly bad either. They weren't what they would have been 30 years
ago, but even 30 years ago they wouldn't have been earth-shattering. I
don't think he butchered his songs, and the people who paid to see him
got exactly what they wanted to see.
I know
it's not a major revelation here, but people are paying for nostalgia.
My generation has the disposable income and will pay more for concert
tickets. Many people want to be taken back to the good times in their
past, and that's why so many artists in their 60s and 70s are still out
there touring and playing the classic hits. Even if they don't have all
of the old band members, people will still come out and watch them
perform.
You can name the band from the 1970s
and 1980s, and if they're still out there touring it's because they're
making good money doing it. Record sales aren't going to be that great
at this point, and going into the studio to make new music isn't going
to make them money. If they do make new music, it's because they feel
that creative itch or they want to give their die hard fans some new
music to enjoy.
This brings me back to Diamond
Dave. The reality is people want to see the spectacle of his show. They
want to hear him attempt to belt out those classics from back then, but
they also want to see what's going to happen next. Dave was always about
the show itself. When you put a microphone in front of him for any
given interview, you never know what he is going to say. When he goes
into one of his dialogues between songs, people are curious what he's
going to say next.
People might go see Journey
because Arnel Pineda sounds reasonably close to Steve Perry and isn't a
bad singer. They might go see Styx because Tommy Shaw still sounds
about the way he did in his glory days and they'd see Dennis DeYoung in
his solo tours for the same reason. When they go to Dave's shows,
they're going to be entertained by the overall spectacle of it, not
necessarily just his vocal stylings. Most long time fans of Roth's will
admit he was never that great of a vocalist to begin with.
