Monday, September 22, 2003
Fun with Roth. #013:
Rockcritics Daily points us to:
Bill Tuomala's wonderful "Best Band in the Land", which will be included in the Matt Groening-edited Da Capo Best Music Writing 2003 collection.
The whole thing is great, but the 1981/Fair Warning section is particularly masterful, ending with:
Fair Warning was the album where Van Halen, appearing to have given up hopes of stardom, settled for mere greatness. The critical response was overwhelming. Greil Marcus wrote that Fair Warning was "where Van Halen stared down these bleak eighties and barely won. Brutally vicious hard rock mixed with funk and fervor." Legend has it that the Clash themselves (who had made a ploy for metal credibility by having Blue Oyster Cult producer Sandy Pearlman produce their second album,) stepped down from their multiplatinum thrones, took one listen to Fair Warning, and scrapped the work that had been done to date on their next album. Mick Jones himself confessed: "We knew we had to turn it up a couple of notches."
Really fun epilogue, too. Finally!
posted by Linus |
7:54 PM
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