Just curious. I don’t think I’ve jumped for a while, maybe two weeks? I think it was performative like ‘wow I’m so happy’ to underscore a point not practical

  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    7·
    1 month ago

    An eon. The older you get - the far less you jump.

    Go ahead and jump

    The first time I heard that I was so very young. The album had just come out. It was ~40 years ago. I took it so personally - as young people do for creative stuff they love. I was driving along by myself and almost said “What is this fucking garbage!” out loud. And my thoughts continued “This is fucking awful! Fuck this shit! Fuck David Lee Roth!..” and yet more swearing. I was so angry listened to the whole song. It was a real hate listen even though that term was decades away.

    • KuroXppi [they/them]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      1·
      1 month ago

      I can’t say I have strong feelings about the song either way, it’s from before my time. I wonder if there’s any that will make me feel similar down the track

      • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
        2·
        1 month ago

        My strong feelings were because I was young and I thought of Van Halen as “my” band. Eddie was often depressed so his lyrics could be (very) dark. The songs on the album Fair Warning (1981) are examples. David Lee Roth wanted Van Halen to be far more of a party band. He didn’t want to sing songs like Mean Street from that album. In any case - I’ve never googled but I’ve always assumed Jump was 100% David Lee relentlessly pushing and telling the band that as a radio friendly pop song it that would be a hit. And it sure was.

        It is Van Halen’s most successful single, reaching number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

        But Eddie pushed David Lee out of the band in 1985. Funnily enough - David Lee was replaced by somebody even more interested in money and radio friendly crap: Sammy Hagar. I think Hagar’s musical interests have only been three things: money, fame, and women. The band had their first Van Hagar era. 1984 was the band’s last really good album and the band never nearly as good again. That’s a shame but that’s how it goes.

          • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
            2·
            1 month ago

            One more thing.

            David Lee was incredibly dumb. He tried to do the impossible. He tried to recreate the lightning in a bottle vibe of Van Halen with his new band and their album Skyscraper (1988). I assume the band’s goal was to be a fantastically successful supergroup. I don’t know if he literally said to Steve Vai “Pretend to be Eddie” but that’s what Vai did. Vai and the bassist were technical wizards but they bring to mind a quote I learned decades later from the jazz saxophonist Stan Getz. He said “I can’t play a lie.”

            The album was painful to listen to. It will always be amazing to me how some insanely talented musicians can have no taste and no soul. I felt embarrassed for Vai and the bassist.

            -–

            Ninja edit

            I haven’t listened to any tracks on the album ~35 years. I remembered the songs as being at best about 2/10. If this song is typical - that’s far too kind. Maybe all the tracks are sub 1/10. My god. All that talent to create utter crap. And the Eddie ripoff stuff is even worse than I remembered.

            Knucklebones.