In a previous review, I made a comment on the many lives of one group of artists. Well, here's someone who has been on the rock 'n' roll roller coaster for more years than many people have been alive. David Lee Roth has been a rock singer, a rock legend, a god, a casualty, a joke, and a has-been. Now, he is trying to return to his first position by going back to the roots of himself - the rock 'n' roll.
Therefore, enters:
The DLR Band. Well, there's more than a few members to the
band. Let's see there's the man himself, guitarist John Lowery,
Terry Kilgore and Mike Hartman, bassists B'urboun Bob, Tom Lilly
and Lowery again and drummer Ray Luzier. The most well-known out of
this bunch are Lowery (who left Rob Halford's Two and just joined
Marilyn Manson's traveling circus) and Luzier (who was the drummer
for Cinderella). I mean, if you're going to storm the gates of
Babylon, you would never send in a small group--you want an army.
That's what Dave's got.
Now let's be clear of something: If you are looking to this CD for serious insight on the plight of man, on the injustices of the world, on the carnage that man commits against its fellow turkeys, well, you may want to put this album back. This is vintage DLR. That means that guitar tricks will be flying, yelps and yells will come and go at an alarming rate and it will make you want to go out kill something, grill it and drive a very big, noisy car looking for women that are willing to do anything.
The album starts off with "Slam Dunk!" (which has already become a hit on rock radio). While the song might sound dumb at first, notice the double entendre--Dave uses basketball metaphorically to mean sex. There's also "Counter-Blast" where Dave deals with the very serious problem that every person who is online has - CYBERSEX! Well, lyrics like "My engine's searching like a harpoon/Like a monsoon/In your chat room" are not the deep, meaningful, ones that one searches for--but they are what they are.
David Lee goes from giving props to his band ("Tight") to giving props to his gun ("Little Texas") to giving props to himself ("Weekend With The Babysitter," "King Of The Hill"). And while he does so in a manner that he perfected while with the Van Halen boys, he comes off as entirely authoritative and his own self. Perchance all of the life he has lived from his split with Van Halen on has led him to look at what has happened. In "WaWaZat," he sings, "By the time your dreams come true/You've turned into someone else." Then, he switches around and sings about "a red-hot pink humvee full of party girls with damaged lives and tangled destinies" in "Indeedido." The album closes on the more pensive "Black Sand." Hey! A DLR song not dealing on how great he is or on women! Seriously, the song is a good way of closing the album.
Actually, while we're mentioning Van Halen, DLR does take a shot or two at his former/current/former band. In "Tight" he sings, "And all those rock 'n' rollers/That I used to want to meet/Now they're pushing strollers/And wanna be like me." Gee, I wonder who he's referring to???
Let's face it. This album will probably not win awards, but I think that if it wins fans, then Diamond Dave will be happy. It's not original, but then again, it's not meant to be. With Diamond Dave, it's all about attitude. If you want true rock n' roll take DLR and forget about all of the "sensitive guy pop" bands. Trust me, they wish they were DLR.