To Never Recover the Pieces to All That We've Lost

Following up on last week's post, I have an awful lot swirling around in my head that I want to write about.  For the moment, that'll have to wait for me to collect my thoughts.


I'm writing this morning because I just read that Lamb of God front man, Randy Blythe, is facing 5-10 years for an alleged assault on a fan, who later died from his injuries.


These sorts of things are difficult to discuss. Much like the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman issue, I don't really have a good grip on what actually happened, so perhaps I should keep my opinions to myself.  

And, yet, I have to admit that I am going to give Blythe the benefit of the doubt on this one. Sorry, Zimmermen.  Them's the breaks.


Because I met Randy in 2010.  It is a story I've been meaning to capture here, but the short form is that my wife and I bumped into him while touring the Forbidden City in Beijing.  Even though it was his first day in China and he told us the jet lag was killing him, the guy could not have been friendlier:  he asked us about our trip, he talked about his wife and he even put us on the guest list for the Lamb of God show the following evening. Even as both my wife and I started to worry that we'd taken up too much of his time, Randy just kept on chatting.


This past year, I dropped him a tweet before their show in D.C.  Much to my surprise, the guy responded, referencing our conversation from nearly two years earlier.  Totally unnecessary, and very cool.


I guess that even in my old age, I'm apt to be a fanboy from time to time.

The truth is that I don't really know Randy at all.  But I'm inclined to say that he's a good guy, which is why this is so troubling.  

If you're skeptical, I invite you to read two selections from his highly entertaining (though desperately in need of editing) Tumblr page: I Love Boobies, and What Its Like to Be In A Band.  I like to think that they're both very good indications of the man's character.

Sadly, not lost in any of this discussion is the fact that a fan is dead. And quite, frankly, I'm struggling to create a pithy conclusion to follow that.

A Decision in Five Movements

The First Movement: Frustration


"Above all, I didn't want to take any more shit."

The Second Movement: Resolution


"And if they try to slow you down, tell them all to go to hell"

The Third Movement: Grief





"Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind"

The Fourth Movement: Rebirth 


"I believe I've waited long enough.  Where do I begin?"

The Fifth Movement: Conviction


"Let this be my annual reminder: We can all be something bigger."



So....guess what I did?

Having Fun With Axl

So, I have a few more things to take care of before I return to my half-assed monthly posting schedule. 

But in the meantime, I wanted to share the following bit of brilliance I found on FunnyOrDie earlier today.  Enjoy....

RIP Dick Clark

Mind. Blown.

Welcome to Where Time Stands Still

You wouldn't know it to look around here recently, but I do have more to say.

But less than three months in to 2012, its already been a very busy and very stressful year. Twelve hour days and 800-mile round trip commutes are becoming semi-routine, and I think that it is safe to say that my charmed life has become very complex.

I know what happens after the stress and anxiety take over, and it is not good at all. For the immediate moment, I think that I have to focus my efforts on not sailing off that cliff.

Listen, damn it: we will win.

I'll be back soon.

Yes, Actually, Everybody Does Want Some

In light of my last post, I thought it would at least be fair to showcase a truly cool Vimeo page that Van Halen put out to promote the new album.

Boys and girls, this is freakin awesome. Bloated rock stars aren't exactly known for giving away free content. They also aren't known for doing a very good job at looking like they enjoy one anther's company.

As such, this makes me very happy. Please enjoy.

VH Interviews from Van Halen on Vimeo.

Brown M&Ms from Van Halen on Vimeo.

You Really Got Me from Van Halen on Vimeo.

Everybody Wants Some (?)

When I was 14 years old, my big brother took me to see the Rolling Stones on the Steel Wheels tour. It may sound cliche - perhaps dramatic - but the experience kind of changed my life.

So many things left an impression on me that night: the over the top set, the light show, the performance, the phenomenal depth of their set list (including songs I knew, songs I didn't know, and songs that I didn't know that I knew).

But more than anything, it was the legend of the Stones that turned me on that night -- the twenty five years of sex, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, fist-fights, groupies, jail time, divorces, rumors, feuds and infamy.

In point of fact, the Stones' most scandalous years were mostly behind them by the time I was born. But in an odd way, that only fed my fascination. For the better part of the next twenty years, I was entirely obsessed with the legend of the Stones, and I made sure everyone knew about it.

A funny thing happened in my early 20's, though. I started hanging out with a lot of musicians....punk rock guys who were a good ten years older than I was. They were my band mates and my best friends, and I looked up to each of them.

Imagine my disappointment when they all -- every last one of them -- dismissed and belittled me for continuing to see the tours behind admittedly terrible albums like "Bridges to Babylon."

Make no mistake: these guys totally respected what the Stones did in the 60's and 70's. But they couldn't fathom why anyone would want to see them today. The two most favorite words of the music snob -- "embarrassing" and "irrelevant" -- frequently came up every time I pleaded my case.

It always came across like sour grapes to me. What the hell was so wrong about the Stones continuing to tour and record if they still enjoyed it and people still enjoyed hearing (and seeing) it?

Seriously:

What was the big fucking deal?

+++++++

This brings me to the recent reunion between the Van Halen brothers and David Lee Roth.

Guess what?

I don't get it, and I don't get why anyone would want to see it. I find it.....wait for it .....embarrassing and irrelevant.

And it's not because I hate on Van Halen. Quite to the contrary: I firmly believe that Roth-era Van Halen was one of the single greatest American rock bands ever. Superior to Aerosmith. Superior to the Allmans or Skynard. Superior to the E Street Band. Superior to the Stooges or the Ramones.

On par -- so help me God -- with the Beach Boys, the Velvet Underground, Metallica or the Wrecking Crew.

Roth-era Van Halen was phenomenal. To this day, when I hear the word "rock star," I think of David Lee Roth in the "Jump" video, with the silly tights, the hairy chest, the mane of hair, and the "I'm-very-serious-about-not-taking-this-very-seriously-heyyougotanycoke?" attitude.

So, then, why the hate for the reunion?

Because that moment is gone. I saw it in real time through the eyes of an eleven year old, and it'll never be so vividly cool or crazy again.

Make no mistake, is was real beyond real for a nation of 17-year olds with only Journey and AC-DC to fall back on in 1982.

But for me, that moment passed before I was even old enough to see the band play live; all I was left with was Roth's half-assed solo career and Van Halen's laughable earnestness with frontmen that were little more than substitute teachers.

These things happen. It is the nature of peaking before you're done with your career. And even though it seems completely unfair to a natural musician as creative as Eddie Van Halen or a natural entertainer as enthusiastic as David Lee Roth, perhaps the best they could do for their fans is to preserve their memories of Van Halen at their greatest, unclouded by middling solo records and meandering personnel decisions.

I want that Life Magazine spread intact in my brain. (I can't find it online, so suffice it to say you either know what I'm talking about or your don't).

What I do not want, is to remember them this way.

Of course, some of this commentary is pretty superficial. No one is s carefree or as beautiful at 55 years old as they are at 25. That's just a fact of life. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how you look, so long as the songs hold up.

Just ask Tom Waits.

So, how does the new song hold up?

Well... not well.

Oh, "Tattoo" isn't as terrible as people like to say. But it still isn't any good. And I can't say that such a lackluster effort doesn't diminish my 1984 memory of Van Halen as the most exciting, most fun band on earth.

To the contrary, it solidifies my image of them as a bunch of older guys, doing what they can to stay in the limelight a little longer and recoup some of the cash they lost when they were young and foolish and didn't know what they had between themselves.

And that's a problem.

Because when I struggle - and fail - to reconcile those dialectically opposite images of the same band, I'm hit with a very uncomfortable kind of empathy:

I suddenly know exactly how my older friends feel when they look at the elder Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.