hvb, i disagree....

gathering the strength to click on the link, is hard enough.

and we are not rewarded for our courage.

the attempt to establish a "smoldering", driving- through-L.A.-with-your-shades-on-at-night-after- having-done-some-horse vibe (like the travolta scene in pulp fiction), fails.

instead, the song gives me images of my drunk uncle in the throes of a midlife crisis, in the basement, left to his own devices with garageband, while the rest of the family bar-b-que's in the back yard.

the production is canned (airy, gated reverb rimshots and backwards guitar for a touch of authenticity).

dave's growled, campy vocal approach (so great on the right tune!) misses the point of the song entirely: its green, rebellious naiveté, delivered in excited bursts by jimi, is its power. if dave's new interpretation of the vocals brings something meaningful to the table, i didn't hear it.

if dave sounds a little human, it's in spite of his attempts to sound cool, kickazz, and on top of things. any humanness that creeps in probably results from dave's having been knocked down a few pegs lately. maybe he doesn't really believe the image of himself that he still tries to put across.

but then again, who knows how self-aware he actually is? whether he knows it or not, the lyrics are the polar opposite of what he's tried to be during most of his career. rather than ever displaying any genuine form of rebellion against "white collar conservatives", he has spent his career conspiring with the suits at warner bros. or, more recently, clear channel, in order to shill a parody of anti-authority, a comic book-ish, frat-guy-with-boner style rebellion.

if dave "really means it" because he's feeling like he got screwed by "the man" somewhere along the line, he should take a look in the mirror to see which man it was who done 'im like that.

I remember this when it came out. My problem is that I don't get much out of the original Hendrix version. This sounds like Was (Not Was).

It sounds like it could come from one of those self help videos for moms that Oprah pushes, like Lose Weight and Get Sexy For Your Man With a Stripper Pole Workout. I don't think it's bad, but I don't think it's good, either. I suppose it's pretty good for a guy that deep dpwn inside, really and truly wanted to be a paramedic.

calling bullshit on myself:

i prefer hvb's generosity, mod's objectivity, and 2k's bemusement on this subject to my own wrath.

y'all are model citizens.

meanwhile, panties in a bunch, i'm all like "don't mess with jimi man, how DAAARE you?"

diamond dave is what the elder men in my family would call a "chaloots" or a "shnook"...what i would call a "shmoe".

but aye...ee's a lovable, cheeky chap, iddn't'ee? wish this version had a little more of that in it.

if only he had dropped the ray-ban 'tude, and flown his freak flag a little higher, ya know, had a little more...fuuuuuuun.

in essense: i should lighten the fuck up, but so should dave.

Sorry, I bailed on the song after 30 seconds. I can't stand DLR.

This isn't completely wretched, just kind of useless. And he left out the line that made a big impression on me as a young teenager. "I'm the one that's gonna have to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my own life ... the way I want to." And no mention of hippies cutting off all their hair?

But he and his band cut out the beautiful middle section from their version of Oh Pretty Woman, so what do you expect.

I don't think DLR wants to "go there" regarding hair, BigSteve. I'm with those of you who feel this is useless, like something I'd hear while picking up a prescription at my Walgreens.

Gotta give props to Saturnismine for at least listening to the damn thing, and attempting an in-depth examination of why DLR's version of this tune kicks ass/sucks eggs. Jeers -- JEERS -- to those of you who bailed simply because of the messenger. That includes you, BigSteve! Had you actually opened your earbones, you would've heard the line you missed, sung with perfect clarity in the middle there.

For me, the real revelation in this cover comes at the extreme tail end, where Diamond Dave drops the L.A./horse/three-day-shadow-and-a-hangover stylin' and goes right into his gameshow quizmaster routine for the Hendrixian extemporaneities: "fall, mountains... just don't fall on me..." Love him or hate him, that's David Lee Roth, cast in sugar-free Jell-o, in the center of the table, for all to see.

When Jimi says these things, it's part of his space mystic, trippy shaman-venusian routine, and it's kind of cool, in a dated, Owsleyian kind of way. In Dave's hands... well, listen for yourself and you be the judge. But spare me the notion that the Jimi reading is somehow etched in stone tablets that were carried down from the rockist mountaintop. It's only rock and roll, people.

I listened to that whole mediocre track: Was (Not Was). Plus I find the Hendrix original to be too much of nothing.

Here's what I'm hearing in your defense, Hrrundi: We get jeers for bailing because of the messenger yet you want us to respect this soft-core porn music BECAUSE of the messenger. On a musical level, are you saying that the highlight is when he does his "routine," a routine all of us know and some of us already don't like? Are you saying that the revelation is that he eventually abandons the sleezeball take and resorts to his stock in trade? Sounds more like a relative strength to me.

By the way, do you dig the Hendrix original, HVB?

No, no -- you misunderstand. I've been trying to share my deep inner conflict about this song since my first post on the topic, and have been doing a bad job. One of my issues is that I -- Mr. Backstory-My-Ass -- am swayed by the fact that Dave Lee Roth even attempted this song. I admire his chuztpah, and *in that context*, believe his middle-finger-for-the-world interpretation is sincere. But why should I care?

And, yes, I kind of like the original. It's not one of the Truly Great Hendrix Trax, but it's a goodie for sure.

I get you now, HVB. I appreciate your coming forth with this struggle. You will be a better person for it. Maybe some of us will as well.

I listened to the whole track, HVB. I'm not going to do it again this AM, because once really was enough for me. I like Diamond Dave. I liked him a lot more when I was youner, and I like his attitude that there's no musical sacred cows. Everything is ripe for Dave's "artistic" vision, and I like that about him. Dave just sounds more sincere when he's singing about girls in bikini's.

What was that song he did when he got back together for a short time with VH? Moonlight Magic or something? I think that didn't work because it wasn't about girls in bikini's, too.

As far as I'm concerned, anyone can cover any song. And in this case, I understand not trying to duplicate the incendiary guitar riff and vocals.

But the end result--I would think HVB you'd be the first to jump all over this: the tastee licks, lite-jazz arrangement, and bad late night DJ vocals all compete for being the worst feature of the song.

By anyone's standards, this sucks. I'd say this no matter whose name was on it.

What was that song he did when he got back together for a short time with VH? Moonlight Magic or something? I think that didn't work because it wasn't about girls in bikini's, too.

VH/DLR pince nez time. The song in question, which was featured on the Greatest Hits record that came out (to promote a VH reunion that didn't end up lasting) along with one or two other songs that were new at the time, is called "Me Wise Magic". Yeah, I also think it's a stupid title.

Oh and I listened to the song. I agree with Big Steve. It's not horrible, but just kind of useless. I also adore the original and it definitely made a big impression on me when I was a kid as well. Note: this doesn't mean that it's sacred or uncoverable.

However, I must point out that Dave does indeed sing the line about the hippies cutting off all their hair, but he does skip and change around some others, though. For instance, I was disappointed that he launched into the "white collar conservative" part too soon and didn't go into "I got my own world to live in and I ain't gonna copy you" until afterwards.

Regardless, it's not quite humorous enough to be cool in an ironic way like Paul Anka's re-workings of rock songs a few years back or those Moog Cookbook albums, to use a few examples. Its failure is that it tries too hard to give a modern, almost late '90s trip-hop like, take on the song and it just ends up failing. Sorry hrrundi.

And what's up with his album covers? He must have the absolute worst in the biz, right up there with Prince's post-Warner Brothers albums.

hvb, thanks for the props.

to be clear: i didn't intend to suggest that nobody was allowed to cover this song. if i felt that way, i wouldn't have wished for a more "fun" DLR doing this song.

i'm in the school of folks who think that this isn't jimi's top shelf stuff. but the problem is with the lyrics (what starts as a nice abstract concept when we read the title, turns out to be an almost comic-bookish "us vs. them" scenario in reality...the "fall mountain" lyric saves it for me, because i find it to be such a pretty and powerful image).

i think that musically, however, we're listening to one of the Experience's shining-est (shiniest? ha) moments. i always thought the music was transcendent. then, i learned that this was not only a first take, but aside from messing around with the two note riff at the beginning for a little while before they started rolling tape, the JHE version of this song was completely made up on the spot. so that middle section with the running bass is being written as it's being played. beautiful.

I listened to this over the weekend but didn’t get a chance to comment. I didn’t enjoy it, but it was somewhat of a revelation, because in this performance lies the origin of Diamond Dave’s short-lived radio career. If you never had a chance to join Dave in the mornings, it sounded a lot like this cover of “If 6 Was 9”, only with more of a weird vibe of passive-aggressive hostility and about 37 hours worth of NYC paramedic stories.

The spoken word parts of this play out a lot like the sections of his show where he’d have something going in the music bed, then fade it down and start rappin’ to us about an important social issue, reach a pithy break, ride the music back up, fade it back for more DLR straight talk and so on until reaching his big reveal at the end, at which point the music would come all the way back up to take us to commercial and make us think, man. And then he’d do a really awkward live read commercial for Brother P-Touch label makers.

That album cover up above looks like it should be the DVD cover for a Roth-led remake of Tron. Which I would definitely watch.

I listened to the whole thing. It sounds like an outtake from a recent Tom Jones album.

I agree with Art in that Dave's trying way too hard, but I have no idea what he's trying to be.