Van Halen went through a number of name changes in the group's early days before settling on a permanent one...

Every basement thud rocker in the 70s knew Grand Funk and Sabbath, probably not so much Genesis as their music was fairly intellectual, dense, and appealed to a different audience entirely.

Eddie's vision for the band was originally a bit darker and Sabbath-esque than the fun-and-girls songs that DLR liked. After all, they said no heavy metal act smiled until Van Halen.

>Before Paul suggested Kiss (prompted by Peter Criss’s ex-band Lips), a few other names were considered by the band. Ace liked Albatross, Peter preferred The Crimson Harpoon and Gene’s favourite was Fuck.

>Duly noted. Is it true that the original name of the band was Fuck?
>Half-kiddingly, I threw that name around. Then one of the records could be Off, another could be It, another could be Me, and on and on. The coolest name ever. I guess the closest thing that was acceptable was Kiss.

THE HOTTEST BAND IN THE WORLD.....FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

Wait, wasn't that where Gene Simmons signed some contract that resulted in him getting tons of royalties from them so by 1982 they were having constant money problems despite being one of the biggest touring acts in America?

>Peter preferred The Crimson Harpoon
Yuck. Easily the worst of these name suggestions. Sounds like the title of a fucking romance novel.

Ah the Vinnie Vincent Invasion. I almost instinctively think of 'Vinnie Vincent Evasion' having heard the joke so many times

You Forgot Danzig

He was a soft rock/jazz drummer, he wasn't from a hard rock background. The name actually does make sense in that context.

Actually it's more likely that like most people with too much money and not enough brains, they had no clue how to manage their finances and spent thousands on expensive homes, cars, food, drugs, booze, strippers, etc.

Tom Verlaine
T.V.
Television

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Makes me think of a dogs dick but my mind isn't right.

No, IIRC Gene actually tore up whatever contract he had with them so they could do their own thing.

Red Rocket

Dressed to Kill [Casablanca, 1975]
I feel schizy about this record. It rocks with a brutal, uncompromising force that's very impressive--sort of a slicked-down, tightened-up, heavied-out MC5--and the songwriting is much improved from albums one and two. But the lyrics recall the liberal fantasy of rock concert as Nuremberg rally, equating sex with victimization in a display of male supremacism that glints with humor only at its cruelest--song titles like "Room Service" and "Ladies in Waiting." In this context, the band's refusal to bare the faces that lie beneath the clown makeup becomes ominous, which may be just what they intend, though for the worst of reasons. You know damn well that if they didn't have both eyes on maximum commerciality they'd call themselves Blow Job. B

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I give him, he wasn't exactly far from the truth with that last sentence.

Where are you finding these reviews?

Uh...his shitty Web 1.0 website perhaps?

Hi Eddie Trunk.

I don't get it

Peter Gabriel era Genesis was irrelevant in the US. Too artsy. Peter Gabriel was way more famous for his solo stuff. They didn't become huge in America until the Phil Collins era and around Duke/Invisible Touch. Like the Patrick Bateman copypasta says basically.

Foxtrot [Charisma, 1972]
This group's supporters--fans of manual dexterity, aggregate IQ, stagecraft, etc--claim this as an improvement. And indeed Tony Banks's organ crescendos are less totalistic, Steve Hackett's guitar is audible, and Pete Gabriel's lyrics take on medievalism, real estate speculators, and the history of the world. The last is apparently the subject of the 22:57 "Supper's Ready," which suggests that Peter Gabriel has a sense of humor and knows something about rock and roll. Don't ask me to get any more specific though--I never even cared what "Gates of Eden" really meant. B-

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway [Atco, 1974]
I wanted to call this the most literate album since Quadrophenia, but it's only the wordiest--four pages of libretto text with double-spaced print to fit on all the words. The album's subject matter is apparently the symbolic quest of a Puerto Rican street kid/graffiti artist named Rael, but the lyrics neither shine by themselves nor suggest any unusual thematic insight I'm eager to pursue. For art rock, it's listenable though--with Brian Eno treatments and a hook that goes (I'm humming) "On Braaw-dway..." B

still the single coolest band photo i've ever seen, not even close

>This group's supporters--fans of manual dexterity, aggregate IQ, stagecraft, etc--claim this as an improvement
Starts off by imagining what their fanbase might be like.
>And indeed Tony Banks's organ crescendos are less totalistic, Steve Hackett's guitar is audible
Tells us the first album had shit mixing--tell us something we didn't already know.
>and Pete Gabriel's lyrics take on medievalism, real estate speculators, and the history of the world.
Pays a weak compliment to Gabriel's songwriting.
>Don't ask me to get any more specific though--I never even cared what "Gates of Eden" really meant. B-
Finishes with Lyl who cares this is dum.

>But the lyrics recall the liberal fantasy of rock concert as Nuremberg rally, equating sex with victimization in a display of male supremacism that glints with humor only at its cruelest--song titles like "Room Service" and "Ladies in Waiting." In this context, the band's refusal to bare the faces that lie beneath the clown makeup becomes ominous, which may be just what they intend, though for the worst of reasons.

Never once got the impression that those goofy songs about groupies were "cruel" or male supremacist, I just don't understand this attitude....I do with Christgau specifically because he has insane hangups and insecurities about anything he sees as masculine, but in general too I never got why such things are viewed that way, maybe it's because I was a youngster getting into Kiss and similar bands so it just seemed more innocent to me or maybe it's because I listen to so much "cock rock" that it just doesn't bother me, but I don't know....seems like just dumb but "rock n roll" lyrics to me, nothing offensive or "cruel". This guy praises Eminem who wrote about raping girls and killing them but apparently can see the humor/shock value in it enough to excuse the blatant misogyny, meanwhile he gets offended about rock bands who talk about getting laid or wanting to get laid? So weird.

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>This guy praises Eminem who wrote about raping girls and killing them but apparently can see the humor/shock value in it enough to excuse the blatant misogyny

robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-aow/altamont.php

Also see here where he tries to excuse away the Stones' misogyny as all a joke/irony.

it's frowned upon for 70s/80s rock bands right now because those embody "toxic masculinity" and all that dyke queer liberal bullshit that's popular right now

Except Cuckgau was doing this in the 70s. Clearly he was a pioneer. :^)

There are some groups from that era like the Eagles that definitely give off that smug use-and-abuse women vibe but I don't really hear it on DTK.

And Motley Crue--The Looks That Kill could be a feminist anthem if you let it.

>I do with Christgau specifically because he has insane hangups and insecurities about anything he sees as masculine
...because he got his ass kicked in the 9th grade by Elvis fans?

Dr. Dre -- 2001 [Aftermath/Interscope, 2000]
It's a New Millennium, but he's Still S.L.I.M.E. How Eminem survived all the misogyny conditioning to grow into the sensitive spouse we know today I'll never understand. A "family man" when he's explaining why he fled the 'hood, on the very next track Dre drips contempt for the wife he's dogging and the other husbands' wives he's sodomizing--apparently because his real-life wife told him that would be commercial, rendering him a liar more ways than Eminem himself could comprehend. For an hour, with time out for some memorable Eminem tracks, Dre degrades women every way he can think of, all of which involve his dick ("the whole eight," as this master of poetic license puts it). Best friend S. Dogg, bad speller Kurupt, and Dat 'Ho Ms. Roq are among the hangers-on who'll take his (really Eminem's) money when (and if) he writes the check. And just when you thought it was safe to discard your vomit bag he goes out on a tearjerker about a dead homey. Wottan innovator. C

>There are some groups from that era like the Eagles that definitely give off that smug use-and-abuse women vibe but I don't really hear it on DTK.
Care to give an example? I've always hated The Eagles so I never actually payed deeper attention to their music or listened to full albums.

Relapse [Aftermath/Interscope, 2009]
As he told "XXL": "I wanted to go back to Proof's idea of, 'Let's just say the most f*cked up sh*t we can say.'" In other words, this great artist's big concept for his first album since 2004 is a D12 homage. Having slyly categorized it as horrorcore early on, and riding Dr. Dre's most bombastic beats ever, he unrolls the offensive work of art bluenoses have always insisted was there: misogyny up the wazoo, lesbians-only homophobia, libels for a stepdad, murders unnumbered, sexual humiliations previously unknown to hip-hop and more dropped names than Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, who's funnier--and also, uh-oh, more boyish. In a socially redeeming denouement, all of this and more is blamed on the drugs we hope he's kicked, we really do. There's even an inspirational number no more boring than the one about offing Lindsay Lohan. But for the first time in his career Eminem settles for sensationalism straight up, and, worse still, makes you wonder whether he ever truly knew the difference. Em, this is not a Slim Shady album. Slim Shady had a lightness about him. B-

Genesis had their first hit US single in 1978 - "Follow You, Follow Me" from "And Then There Were Three".

they weren't mega stars until the collins era though, van halen dlr type guys wouldnt have them on their radar probably

Try One of These Nights. That's probably them at their smuggest.

Blow Up Your Video [Atlantic, 1988]
The brutal truth is that sexism has never kept a good rock and roller down--from Muddy to Lemmy, lots of powerful rock has objectified women in objectionable ways. But rotely is not among them. Sure, their costumery was good for a laugh but Brian Johnson has always shrieked too much and his voice has grown hoarse with the advancing years. Their reunion with Vanda and Young no more signals a desire to resume making good albums than does Elton John's reunion with Bernie Taupin--it signifies panic and commercial desperation, and unlike Elton they're unlikely to reverse their long-term downward sales arc. I look forward to their retirement and the inevitable best-of that follows. C+

Yeah see I just took the album for a laugh, I never took the lyrics that seriously.

Stephen Stills 2 [Atlantic, 1971]
Steve Stills has always come on as the ultimate rich hippie--arrogant, self-pitying, shallow, sexist. Fortunately he's never quite reached his true level, but flashes of brilliance remain--the single, "Marianne," is very nice especially if you don't listen too hard to the lyrics, but there's more to the tune of an all-male chorus with jazz horns singing straightly and in perfect unison the chorus "It's disgusting" over and over. Keep it up, SS, it'll be a pleasure watching you fail. C-

You're a Woman, I'm a Machine [Vice, 2004]
I don't get this. We listen to a Snoop or Lil Jon record--I do, anyway--and say, Yeah, the music is pretty good, but it's really no fun hearing women degraded that way, so the hell with those guys. Maybe if the funk is terrific (Cam'ron, or the new improved--and somewhat more mild-mannered--50) or the rhymes acute (Jay-Z, Ghostface), we let down our guard and try to hear how the other half feels. Otherwise no. So why is this tight, intense, recidivist screech-and-crunch exempted from such complex responses? Preferring funk to crunch as I do, maybe I'm merely insensible to the guitars' siren call. Or maybe its slaves are insensible to misogyny that stops at cut-and-run man's-gotta-do you-hurt-me-too, rather than claiming to control that 'ho. B-

>AC/DC
>Fail
He must be really upset about how things turned out

I guess it didn't work with Sabbath either.

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Appetite for Destruction [Geffen, 1987]
It's a mug's game to deny the technical facility claimed by one-upping crits and young victims of testosterone poisoning--not only does Axl cruise where other "hard rock" singers strive, but he has a knack for believability, which in this genre is the most technical matter of all. When he melds scream and croon on the big-beat ballad, you understand why some confused young thing in an uplift bra is sure it's love sweet love. But Axl is a sucker for dark romantic abstractions--he doesn't love Night Train, he loves alcoholism. And once that sweet child o' his proves her devotion by sucking his cock for the portacam, the evil slut is ready for "See me hit you you fall down." B-

G N' R Lies [Geffen, 1988]
Axl's voice is a power tool with attachments, Slash's guitar a hype, the groove potent "hard rock," and the songwriting not without its virtues. So figure musical quality at around C plus and take the grade as a call to boycott, a reminder to clean livers who yearn for the wild side that the necessary link between sex-and-drugs and rock-and-roll is a Hollywood fantasy. Anyway, this band isn't even sex and drugs--it's dicking her ass before you smack up with her hatpin. (No wonder they want to do an AIDS benefit.) "One in a Million"--"Immigrants and faggots/They make no sense to me/They come to our country/And think they'll do as they please/Like start some mini-Iran/Or spread some fucking disease/They talk so many goddamn ways/It's all Greek to me"--is disgusting because it's heartfelt and disgusting again because it's a grandstand play. It gives away the "joke" (to quote the chickenshit "apologies" on the cover) about the offed girlfriend the way "Turn around bitch I've got a use for you" gives away "Sweet Child o' Mine." Back when they hit the racks, these posers talked a lot of guff about suicide. I'm still betting they don't have it in them to jump. E

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Use Your Illusion I [Geffen, 1991]
what pros ("Don't Damn Me") *

Use Your Illusion II [Geffen, 1991]
"Civil War" Choice Cuts

"The Spaghetti Incident?" [Geffen, 1993]
Talk about your anxiety of influence. As someone who never thought punk had much to do with musicianship or musicianship much to do with GN'R, I remain impressed even with the excitement worn off. I mean, Axl Rose damn near stealing "Human Being" from David Johansen? Because his drummer is so fierce? Fear and UK Subs (!) and Nazareth (!!) tunes that belong on the same record? What would Harold Bloom say? Something about Axl being a shitty songwriter, I hope. Which wouldn't be altogether fair. But hey--criticism is unfair. A-

Chinese Democracy [Geffen, 2008]
Hopeless eccentric spends most of his adult life and a large chunk of his ill-gotten fortune trying to make the perfect album. Succeeds, kind of, on his own totally irrelevant terms. Nobody cares. Since he's no longer capable of leading young white males astray, this effort isn't just pleasurable artistically. It's touching on a human level. Noble, even. I didn't think he had it in him. B+

What a jackass. Just goes to show critics are the most clueless out of touch people for the most part. They WANT to be the guy with their ear to the street, but in reality they're so far removed from the real people who enjoy what it is they "critique" that they couldn't possibly do the job well

I'll just say Sabbath ended up well outlasting Zeppelin. Lyl.

Guys like Cuckgau never entirely got over how the punk revolution they'd hoped for was a non-starter and that metal ended up largely satisfying white teens' need for rebellion.

All punk really did was spawn some iconic artists and inspire a bunch of others who aren't playing punk music. Such is the nature of a genre that prides itself on being "underground" or whatever. Ramones and Sex Pistols and their old school ilk can get away with being stars and punk because they're old school, nobody else has that luxury lest they be considered sellouts and rightfully so

Johnny Rotten moved on to post-punk anyway like all his peers from the class of '77 who actually proved to have some musical abilities and post-punk was just a sequel to the 70s AOR that critics put down.

Punk was a cultural movement anyway, it never really got past the late 70s-early 80s image of bands with spiked dog collars and Mohawks while metal evolved in many directions since that time.

I agree. It introduced some cool new ideas and attitudes that were a 180 from hippie mentalities (although arguably a lot of what went into punk was already started by early 70s powerhouses like Sabbath, Alice Cooper, and the Dolls) but in the end that was all taken up by metal and post-punk groups who could actually play and were more suited to an arena setting.

Stop posting cumgoy reviews

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Axl is a detailed enough songwriter that he couldn't totally dismiss them. Remember--what critics really like is lyrics because they're all journalism/English majors.

I don't think I ever made it all the way through Foxtrot or TLLDOB.

He copied hackett's tapping so he made up this story so people would think that they both had the same idea coincidentally.

Actually EVH said he got the idea from Jimmy Page and that he'd also seen tapping pioneer Harvey Mandel live. So he almost certainly did not get the idea from Steve Hackett and likely was barely aware that Genesis existed back then.

what a disgusting pleb

W/e. Like user said guys like EVH wouldn't have been listening to Genesis, their influences were the more meat-and-potatoes hard rock groups.

Judas Priest began using tapping around the same time that Van Halen debuted in the late 70s, most likely Tipton and Downing got it from Jimmy Page as well. Despite being British I doubt they were listening to Genesis either.

Genesis in the early 70s were like pre-Dark Side Pink Floyd, only a tiny niche audience especially in the US had heard of them.

Weezer (Carl Weezer)