Friday Night Videos: Van Roth
We’re back, baby!
David Lee Roth: Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody (1985)
I swear, people used to think David Lee Roth was cool. I mean, he got all the girls, and guys thought he was something else. I still think he’s something else, only now it’s in a “holy cow he’s a goof” kind of way. Here he smirks his way through sub-Weird-Al-style parodies of videos from Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Poison, Billy Idol, Richard Simmons (!) and more. He also spends some time terrifying the “Censorship Bored” with his fringed chaps. This, kids, is what music videos used to look like. Oh, and don’t miss “Eddie Van Halen” cleaning the floor at the very beginning.
Van Halen: Right Now (1991)
I don’t think I can improve on Beavis’s take on this video: “Huh, huh, right now David Lee Roth wants his old job back.”
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Comment by LB
Yeah! The return of the videos!
DLR Van Halen was totally better than Sammy Hagar Van Halen…
Posted on June 15, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Comment by Limax
I remember seeing the DLR video when it first aired. I think it’s interesting how Boy George is the only one happy to see DLR. The VH video was interesting too.
Oh, and Right now I don’t think I’ve heard of either DLR nor VH in the news for close to 15 years or more.
Posted on June 15, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Comment by Jeff
The “Right Now” video is classic. To me, it was one of the ones that used a truly unique and clever idea. Something like 15 years after the video was first released, it holds up incredibly well in my opinion. Even most of the messages in the video are still pretty relevant. Some of the outliers are pretty amusing, though… particularly the line referencing the US fear of being economically taken over by Japan.
Gotta throw in a vote for Van Hagar myself. I know it’s heresy, but I just like Hagar’s more precise and better-polished vocals (which, I suspect is exactly the reason why many people like DLH better).
Posted on June 17, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Comment by Andrew
My favorite memory of the Right Now video is when Pepsi used it for their “Crystal Pepsi” line: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tign09D5IgE
Ah, the days of crystal pepsi and new coke.
Posted on June 18, 2007 at 11:03 am
Comment by john
Where is Eddie in the beg. of the Video? The guy wiping the floor? I would take it that you are joking.
Posted on June 19, 2007 at 9:02 am
Comment by john
Where is Eddie? the guy on the floor is not him a refrence to the way he looks now a joke?
Posted on June 19, 2007 at 9:03 am
Comment by Stephen
I’m pretty sure the guy wiping the floor is meant to look like Eddie as DLR’s way of making fun of Eddie.
Posted on June 19, 2007 at 11:18 am