For the past four days, I've been staying with Dave, the publisher of sunnyoutside, and his roommate Jim, who is a painter. Last night, after wolfing down a cheeseburger that would make a vegetarian incontinent and watching one of the best baseball games of seasons at a great little pub, we went back to Dave's place for a night of downtime before hitting the road today. When we got back to the house, Jim was watching reruns of The Office on TBS, and it seemed like it was going to be a mellow night until Jim broke out a vinyl copy of Van Halen's 1984 he picked up the previous day.
Then we rocked our asses off.
As the synthesizers for "1984" broke through the speakers, I became buoyant, clenching my fists in anticipation of "Jump." And my mirth would not relent, knowing it would be followed by "Panama" then "Top Jimmy" and the side would finish with "Drop Dead Legs" and a riff that ripped through my chest. Oh yes. Diamond Dave and those beautiful songs about nothing.
"What do you think 'Jump' is about?" I asked Jim.
"Jumping."
Spot on. The age-old debate of Sammy vs. Dave was broached, but both Jim and I decided that it was moot because they're really two separate bands. I happen to like the band who put out their first five albums better than the band with the same name who started getting too political and lovey-dovey on our asses in the 90s. As Jim pointed out, the beauty of David Lee Roth is the fact that it really doesn't matter what he's saying in the songs---although, personally, I find partying and cruising for chicks to be perfectly acceptable material to write all your songs about---because the rhythms drive the music. Dave then pointed us in the direction of this gem of a website. If you have some time to kill, go nuts.
After Van Halen, Jim spun (in order, I wrote them down) Chuck Brown, Led Zeppelin, Band of Gypsies (Hendrix at his best), Sly and The Family Stone, and then an album titled Erotica: The Rhythms of Love, which as far as I could discern was basically couples screwing to some trippy 60s backbeats. I ended up staying awake until two a.m. listening to tunes.
Today, I read at Buffalo State at 4:30 p.m. then Dave and I hop in the car and start driving to Cincinnati for another shindig tomorrow night, which hopefully ends before 9:47 so I can catch the Sox game. In the meantime, my twenty-five friends, I'll leave you with this:
Go ahead. And jump.
Then we rocked our asses off.
As the synthesizers for "1984" broke through the speakers, I became buoyant, clenching my fists in anticipation of "Jump." And my mirth would not relent, knowing it would be followed by "Panama" then "Top Jimmy" and the side would finish with "Drop Dead Legs" and a riff that ripped through my chest. Oh yes. Diamond Dave and those beautiful songs about nothing.
"What do you think 'Jump' is about?" I asked Jim.
"Jumping."
Spot on. The age-old debate of Sammy vs. Dave was broached, but both Jim and I decided that it was moot because they're really two separate bands. I happen to like the band who put out their first five albums better than the band with the same name who started getting too political and lovey-dovey on our asses in the 90s. As Jim pointed out, the beauty of David Lee Roth is the fact that it really doesn't matter what he's saying in the songs---although, personally, I find partying and cruising for chicks to be perfectly acceptable material to write all your songs about---because the rhythms drive the music. Dave then pointed us in the direction of this gem of a website. If you have some time to kill, go nuts.
After Van Halen, Jim spun (in order, I wrote them down) Chuck Brown, Led Zeppelin, Band of Gypsies (Hendrix at his best), Sly and The Family Stone, and then an album titled Erotica: The Rhythms of Love, which as far as I could discern was basically couples screwing to some trippy 60s backbeats. I ended up staying awake until two a.m. listening to tunes.
Today, I read at Buffalo State at 4:30 p.m. then Dave and I hop in the car and start driving to Cincinnati for another shindig tomorrow night, which hopefully ends before 9:47 so I can catch the Sox game. In the meantime, my twenty-five friends, I'll leave you with this:
Go ahead. And jump.
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