David Lee Roth (By Abby Gillardi)
Darren Paltrowitz author of ‘How David Lee Roth Changed The World’ chooses David Lee Roth’s Top 5 Deep Cuts. It is the first book focused on Diamond Dave in over 25 years, since his autobiography, and covers all eras of his life and career, pre-Van Halen to current day.
Slam Dunk!
“Darren, how in the world is ‘Slam Dunk’ a deep cut? It was released as a single off the album and played live by Dave in the late 1990s.” Valid points, but it was the single from a self-released studio album — 1998’s DLR Band — which has since gone out of print, and it never got a commercially-released accompanying music video. Co-written by John Lowery (the future John 5) and producer Bob Marlette, “Slam Dunk!” is an uptempo rocker in the style of Van Halen classic “Hot For Teacher.” In fact, in an interview with me for DLR Book, Marlette admitted it to be a “Hot For Teacher” rewrite of sorts, and “Hot For Teacher” never gets old to me. As of this article’s writing, you can officially stream the track via Amazon Music and find bootleg repostings on YouTube, but “Slam Dunk!” is otherwise hard to find in 2024.
It’s Showtime!
“Wait, Darren, doesn’t ‘It’s Showtime’ also sound a lot like ‘Hot For Teacher?'” Well, yes, it does, and also has an exclamation point in the song title. But it is from 1991’s A Little Ain’t Enough. It is one of only two commercially-released songs I am aware of which Becker penned 50/50 with virtuoso guitarist Jason Becker. Hear how fast Becker is playing on this track? That is all while Becker was beginning to tragically suffer the effects of ALS, which makes his playing even more amazing. There are a lot of lyrics to sing in this song, which — along with a higher-register chorus — especially make it hard for any vocalist to perform in concert, and I unfortunately have never heard it performed live. Kudos also go to long-time DLR drummer Gregg Bissonette for some masterful drumming on “It’s Showtime!”
The Bottom Line
This one is among the faster David Lee Roth solo recordings, tempo-wise, and was strangely the song DLR and band opened shows with on the Skyscraper tour. It includes a studio trickery-ish, backwards-style bass solo like Paul Simon’s “Call Me Al,” which Billy Sheehan performed on the record and Matt Bissonette had the burden of playing live at arenas around the world. The song spans a few genres, further showing the versatility of Sheehan, Bissonette, Tuggle and Vai, who I believe to be the greatest rock backing band of all-time. As for what the song means, per its lyrics, I still have no idea.
Big Train
Like the Your Filthy Little Mouth single “She’s My Machine,” it is arguably bluesier and more mature than what the last few Diamond Dave solo albums had offered. When I had the pleasure of seeing Roth a few times in early 2020 in Las Vegas, not counting a Christone “Kingfish” Ingram cover, “Big Train” was arguably the only non-hit he and band performed during the show. Co-written with guitarist Terry Kilgore, Joey Hunting (whose credits also include Billy Joel and Guns N’ Roses affiliate West Arkeen) and Preston Sturges, “Big Train” was a non-single from Roth’s last solo album recorded for Warner Bros. Records, 1994’s Your Filthy Little Mouth. Beyond all of that, “rock with horns” done well, like playful early rock & roll with 1990s-style grunge guitar tone.
Elephant Gun
“Elephant Gun” is the only song on this list which you can listen to in both English and Spanish, thanks to Dave also recording 1986’s Eat ‘Em & Smile in Spanish under the name Sonrisa Salvaje. Whether you listen this song in English or Spanish (“Arma de Caza Mayor” en español), Billy Sheehan and Steve Vai tastefully shred — beyond their allotted guitar and bass solo sections — on a Ted Templeman-produced track. Arguably, this is not too far off from the first 6 Van Halen songs and could have been where Van Halen evolved to after 1984 should Roth still have been its frontman. Ultimately, it delivers just about everything I want from a DLR song in under two and a half minutes — and is sadly another one I have never heard performed live.
Further information
Darren Paltrowitz is a licensed private investigator who began working around the music business as a teenager. He is also the host of Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz. When not busy with writing, investigating, or co-hosting the world’s only Roth podcast (The DLR Cast), he and his wife Melissa – co-host of the Paltrobox unboxing video series, enjoy their adopted hometown of Long Beach, New York.
For more information about Darren Paltrowitz and DLR Book: IMDb, Paltrocast, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Authory
