Inspired bands are better: Van Halen is just a loud R & B group
Van Halen is just a loud R & B group
Not because they covered Roy Orbison, Martha and the Vandellas, and Dee Dee Warwick.
I've always had the feeling while listening to Van Halen that I should be at a school dance in the mid 1950s.
David Lee Roth's vocal performance resembles that type of manufactured vocal group front man, flanked by 3-5 musicians or anonymous backup singers who would always support the leader with passable harmonies.
Even as late as the album 1984, the band is still enthusiastic for the unavoidably positive pop rock 'n roll that was probably their comfort when they were kids.
They transparently honored the spirit of 50s and 60s pop and r&b groups in the "Hot for Teacher" video--that song itself memorializing what were their first passions.
Off of their debut Van Halen, "Jamie's Cryin'" has the kind of stable rhythm in the chorus where you would expect the band to be learning a choreographed dance routine, or at the very least snapping their fingers in unison while singing the woah woah woahs, and then maybe clapping their hands and twirling on the "Jamie's Cryin'" refrain.
Inspiration of this kind doesn't mean that Van Halen is an unoriginal band. They're a better band because they are so deferential to their influences. Bands that come out in front with a persona of hyper-originality aren't particularly fun.
Music is primarily a salve, either for feelings of loss and sadness, or uplift. Even some of the earnestly dissonant black metal I listen to can still be waded through to uncover familiar pop structures.
I think people want to recognize lineage in the music they listen to. WHAT IF Martha and the Vandellas shucked the horn section and went for a guitar played through a dimed Marshall plexi? WHAT IF Roy Orbison sang with a little more audacity?
Van Halen is a timeless band because we can hear the history.
If you want to continue the discussion, send me an email or put it through the snail mail
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