Aug
1
Written by:
bcleveland
8/1/2011 12:18 PM
I'll never forget the night my older brother burst my bubble about something I'd believed to be true. It was like finding out that there was no tooth fairy.
I was in the ninth grade and had just come home from my very first Van Halen concert. Earlier that evening, Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth had said something from the stage that thrilled me as much as Eddie Van Halen’s supersonic guitar pyrotechnics. It was as though Dave, king of all Jewish surfer dudes, had pointed me out in the back of the arena and spoken to me directly: "Hey kid! Yeah you! Up there in the balcony! Ya see this bottle of Jack here? I’m takin’ a sip for you, buddy … L’Chaim!" I did a "play by play" recap of the concert to my older brother, an aspiring bassist who’d chosen not to attend, and waited for just the right moment to relay the big news. That's when I quoted the exact words of Mr. Roth, who’d made me and approximately 13,999 others swell with pride by saying “San Francisco—you guys are the best crowd of the whole tour!”
To which my brother responded with five words of abrupt magnitude, like a 6.5 Earthquake on the Richter Scale: "He says that every night!"
NO!!! I refused to believe it. My parade had been overtaken by a torrential downpour. I felt like Neo, a character from a film that would come out 15 years later—The Matrix-who finds out everything he’s ever believed to be true has been a lie.
But it was no joke: Diamond Dave had been two-timing us. As I’d soon hear from numerous witnesses, Roth would tell audiences night after night that they were the best crowd of the whole tour, regardless of whether or not they actually were. So while my brother’s musical ambitions would be thwarted by misjudgments (he’d soon give up playing altogether) when it came to this matter, he’d prove to be absolutely right.
I’d like to think I’ve gotten over any issues of trust violation that this experience may have created between me and the classic Van Halen line up. But I tell this story not as a disgruntled fan. Rather, it is to illustrate an interesting point about the music industry.
From Vaudeville to Van Halen, show business has traditionally been steeped in illusion. Illusion turns mere mortals into giants. Sometimes it’s stage props—can you imagine a stadium concert by U2, Pink Floyd, or The Rolling Stones with no props? Sometimes it’s make up—Kiss, Marylyn Manson and Alice Cooper are extreme, but effective examples. And very often, as I learned that night, it is something much less obvious: lies which, when told for the sake of a band’s public persona, take on the form of ‘verbal illusions.’
Van Halen’s verbal illusions weren’t limited to Dave’s stage raps. They extended to the press. In countless interviews, the band would make statements like, "We’re having the best time ever,” “With Van Halen, every night’s a Friday night," and “We don’t even consider this work!” But today, it’s no secret that the very same tours and recordings Van Halen was promoting were marred by drama—yelling, screaming, awkwardness, even an occasional fistfight. The band nearly imploded on several occasions.
I’d been a fan of Kiss, but that was different. Kiss was a band with comic book superhero personas and a show that resembled a circus on steroids. My friends and I knew full well that Kiss was a group whose entire career had been based on illusion. But Van Halen? That was a bit of a shock. After all, it was Eddie Van Halen, who’d said this: “It’s a lot easier to have a gimmick. But if you lay your personality on the line and they don’t like you, you’re gone. So far we’ve gone the personality way, and it’s worked. And that’s how a band lasts—being real.” (Guitar Player, 1980).
Now before you think I’m singling out Van Halen, let’s look at one more example, a band that showed up a few years later who, like Van Halen, came across as one of the "real" bands with no gimmicks: Metallica.
Those of us who were youths in the Bay Area music scene all felt the presence of its most noteworthy metal band, whom we watched rise to the top like the foam in a just poured pint of Guinness. The story went like this: Metallica had never intended to "make it big." From L.A. to San Francisco, they’d play at any tiny rock club that would have them and were perfectly content to do so for the rest of their lives. They were the "people’s band." They were "just like their fans." They had no "plan" and were as surprised as anyone else as they began to rise through the ranks of the music industry. And it is with the utmost respect and admiration that I point out that this story is largely fabricated.
Looking back, it’s easy to see that Metallica’s career moves were part of a carefully orchestrated master plan, their lack of interest in "making it big" a clever bending of the truth. Their press quotes were carefully chosen. They wisely employed an exclusive photographer, Ross Halfin, and retained tight control over their image. Their fashion had an effective, uniformity even for "street clothes." Their artwork and merchandise, punk-like in its simplicity, had an Andy Warhol pop-art aesthetic, sophisticated yet highly accessible. And most of these effective creative decisions were the work of Lars Ulrich, the band’s drummer and founder and an upper class Dane with a prep school vocabulary, a knowledge of modern art, and a business savvy that rivaled his own band’s powerful management team.
Metallica’s transformation from music industry black sheep to one of the top selling acts in history was partially built on the illusion of the whole band being nothing but a bunch of average, scruffy headbangers who didn’t really know what they were doing businesswise. Van Halen’s rise to the top was aided by the illusion of their lives being all smiles—one big, happy party, 24/7. But illusions aside, neither band’s ascent towards immortality would have been possible without something very real at its core: timeless music that touched a nerve, resonated with legions of fans, and broke a lot of rules in the process.
It is not a criticism, just an observation, to point out that illusion, verbal and otherwise, is a frequent component for the world’s biggest rock bands. The use of strategic "lies" has proven true, even amongst bands that, at one time, couldn’t have been seen as more "real" or less "gimmicky." For in the music business, the concept of a band that has "no gimmicks" is very often, in and of itself, a gimmick.
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16 comment(s) so far...
Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
quite enjoyed that one ALEX...a fine use of words to express your veiws on some 'touchy" subjects with a bit of finesse and not with venom
hhmmm theres a band i might need to dig up and jam to ;-)
be well n hope to see AST soonest
By GERBAL on
8/18/2011 8:42 AM
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Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
If a band was honest and genuine to the max degree, they simply wouldn't sell records or sell out shows. Even foo fighters, dave grohl being a staunch family man, strive to put on a flashy stage show. Being "normal" is being boring! No one wants to see a guy in plain jeans and a polo shirt onstage! You can look left or right at any concert to find that
By Chris on
8/18/2011 8:42 AM
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Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
So what about RUSH. Those guys have always been the outcast and yet they shine to their fans like no other.
By Jeffrey on
8/18/2011 8:42 AM
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Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
so very very true................
By earl weldon on
8/18/2011 8:43 AM
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Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
You certainly have a point there...that reminded me of a 1973 documentary about Jimi Hendrix. Someone asked him a question (I'd say it might have contained some implicit criticism), about he and his Experience relying on gimmicks onstage. He says, "Gimmicks, here we go again, gimmicks man, I'm tired of people saying we're.... gimmicks, what is this? The world is nothing but a big gimmick, isn't it? Wars, napalm bombs, all that, people getting burned up on tv and it's nothing but a stunt. Gimmick. Yes we do" No more be said...
By João Jorge da Silva Pereira on
8/18/2011 8:44 AM
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Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
I saw Robert Plant at the St Paul Civic Center and he introduced his drummer from Duluth, a small town a couple hundred miles up north in Minnesota. Everyone cheered for the "hometown" boy made good. The concert was magical that night. At the last minute we embarked on a road trip to see him in Chicago two nights later. Along with everything else possibly going wrong that could and the concert sucking ass, he introduced the drummer from some small town a couple hundred miles from Chicago. I actually lost all respect for Robert Plant that night. It's one thing to tell every audience "you're the best", but to actually look at a map and introduce your drummer as being from a town in the same state just to get a fake cheer out of the audience is incredibly weak. It's almost like he got off on manipulating people. I'm aware of the "illusion" of rock. But disrespecting your audience is not cool. He'll always be an asshole in my book!
By Alex on
8/18/2011 8:44 AM
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Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
I agree. As personal experience, I had a local metal band in Quebec City area, light years away from the San Fransisco/LA scene, but I've seen that when your aiming the top, to be "Big" every move must be calculated. I've practice a lot my guitar technics, to create inspired solos, but that means nothing when peoples barely listening to you. They want entertainment.
Kirk and Lars are not even able to play live like the albums, but there is 100,000 peoples at their shows...Remove the make up of Kiss members, I'm not sure it would be that big with only their music.
Eddy Van Halen is a giant, but without his solos, they have a couple of cheesy songs..
Megadeth and Testament are, at my humble opion the biggest band that still have no gimmicks and above the average musicians.
By rikvail on
8/3/2011 8:38 AM
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Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
Of course everyone from every form of entertainment has a "gimmick" even if there isnt one ,,,thats the gimmick!!!!!! who fuckin cares????? did you just discover this??? are you telling us something new???? are you drunk????LOL.. Please enlighten us more on the foundation of rock and roll bubba !!! Did the ramones have a gimmick...yes!! did black flag??? did D.R.I.for that matter ??? Did Led Zep??? Deep purple??? yes !! ......does motorhead??? ... good question??? but yes,,,yes they do !!!!!!!They all did ..some just hide thembetter than others... lemmy with the bad ass attitude, straight shooter who doesnt give a fuck about what anyone thinks? , the cigarettes and the jack daneils,,,is it a gimmick or is that really him??? you choose??? ill say its him being him...but at the same time ,,,its his gimmick being himself. did he set out to be the coolest mofo in rock??? well ...lets just say he said to himself at one time while in transition between hawkwind to motorhead "ill be the baddest,coolest,honest,friendliest, rebel mother fucker the music scene has ever witnessed","and ill have the loudest band too"....and that ,,,,my friend...is his shtick!,,,his gimmick!....his thing!... even if he didnt 'set out' to be who he is obviously (. and what a thing it is !!!)(hmmm or did he?)HA ! ...its just common sense dude...even if lemmy is the only rock god out there,,,,with the true no gimmick image ! everyones got a friggin gimmick buddy !!!! Alex YOU'VE TOURED...you know what its like to meet your heroes and see a different side to them you never thought you'd see,,,and it ruined that image of who you thought they were right.? there are some things we just wish we didn't know!!! cheers!
By BOOCH on
8/18/2011 8:48 AM
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Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
Interesting piece on Metallica,Van Halen. You got to hand it to the band members, for being business like enough to stay together long enough to have any success. So many band members have quit before they joined! The one foot out the door before they got there, routine. It is amazing they didn't implode right away,as it seems when you get any notoriety, you can't fit the egos too close together. I speak from being in over 100 lineups. I am surprised my present band has had the same lineup for 3 years, cause so many of them did not make it past 6 or 7 months. This is especially frustrating when you actually have bookings, and they still quit, and often it is not you, but 2 others disagreeing on some silly ,very unbusinesslike behaviour.
Funny how about 90 percent want to rejoin after they burned you, if you have success. Even after they forced you to find a last minute replacement, which is a real gamble whether you will go over, with a barely rehearsed lineup. So hats off to the bands who "ate each others crap", and made music and careers.
By Jim Poobah Gustafson on
8/18/2011 8:49 AM
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Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
In an early bar band of mine, we used to play (groan!!, I know...) Freebird. And as we all know on the live version Ronnie say's "Play it pretty for Atlanta" when the slide solo comes back in. Our singer at the time (not the brightest bulb on the tree) used to say "Play it pretty for Atlanta", even though we were in Dubuque. I could never get him to say "Play it pretty for ______" or not say anything. Thirty years later the drummer and I still laugh about him. I still make music and he's in prison.
By Jeff on
8/18/2011 8:51 AM
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Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
I agree, very few bands, if any, are 100 percent authentic from beginning til the end, and the motivating factor is almost always money. Most bands have to say whatever they can to sell, and with so much competition in the music industry, I can't say I blame them.
By Cesar Salgado on
8/18/2011 8:51 AM
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Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
I am the second comment,that speaks to something about this topic. I guess most people want to believe that their favorite rock star looked into their eyes or acknowledged their presence in the crowd. those were more romantic times in music history. Now it seems to me that kids are trying to emulate behaviors of superstars and gangsta rappers wich is even a bigger lie than the ones thhe rock stars told.
By Bruce on
8/18/2011 8:52 AM
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Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
Hmmmmm, Testament is one of those bands that has no gimmic? Please of course Alex Skolnick of Testament will say that. Honestly, they have employed the same gimmicks with less success. overused cliche phrasing that pass for political lyrics. The early on claims that "we play live, no overdubs" for Practice What you Preach and Souls of Black, but the albums are completely polished. I'm sorry but this is just hypocritical. I"m sorry Alex, I love Testament's music but you win no points tearing down two of musics most well deserved iconic groups to try to place Megadeth and yourselves on a pedistal. And for the record, Megadeth are a better band than Testament in almost every way. sorry.
By Nate on
8/18/2011 8:52 AM
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Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
It can be exceptional, instead useful communication
By liping123456 liping123456 on
8/23/2011 5:45 PM
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Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
Your respected information :), hilarious...
By liping123456 liping123456 on
8/23/2011 5:50 PM
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Re: Alex Skolnick: Lies That Bands Tell
I don't know; how "authentic" does an individual or group have to be to be entertaining? I have been privileged to play with or know several well-known musicians. You know what? They are just regular guys who are trying to earn a living in a business that does not pay much for the average joe with an instrument and a dream. How many artists started their careers begin called to the stage from the crowd as a "local boy?" A lot of them. Now, I'm 69 and am not up with nor do I have the appreciation for some of the more modern groups, but I know a good show when I see it! (earplugs optional!)
By JohnnyB on
9/13/2011 7:29 AM
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