David Lee Roth was driving excessive in the beginning of 1988 — however his descent again to Earth started with the underperforming “Stand Up,” launched as a single that April.
The previous Van Halen frontman had launched his sophomore solo album Skyscraper in January 1988. True to its identify, the LP climbed to No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum, propelled by the Prime 10 lead single “Simply Like Paradise.”
However not everyone appreciated the sonic left flip of Skyscraper, which discovered Roth abandoning his bread-and-butter arduous rock of 1986’s Eat ‘Em and Smile in favor of keyboard-heavy pop-rock, lounge-lizard camp and eclectic experimentation. After the funky dance-rocker “Stand Up” stalled at No. 64 on the Sizzling 100 — Roth’s final solo music to hit the chart — Skyscraper grew to become seen because the second when the singer’s profession started a decline from which it might by no means get better.
It was the end result of considered one of rock’s most well-known divorce tales. After splitting with Van Halen in 1985, Roth put collectively an all-star backing band comprising guitarist Steve Vai, bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Gregg Bissonette for Eat ‘Em and Smile. The raunchy, tongue-in-cheek romp was well-received by followers and critics, hitting the Prime 10 and going platinum, and it gave Roth some bragging rights over his outdated mates in Van Halen, who had launched the blander (however better-selling) 5150 round the identical time.
Two years later got here Skyscraper and — after the glow of “Simply Like Paradise” wore off and the video for “Stand Up” hit MTV rotation — the turbulence. Sheehan and Vai each exited Roth’s band shortly after the album’s launch, reportedly dissatisfied together with his new musical course. The accepted view grew to become that Roth was an egomaniacal management freak who did not know what to do together with his personal profession.
“It was actually fulfilling to be in Dave Roth’s band all these years,” Vai advised Basic Rock in 2022. “However I had the correct quantity of it.”
Watch David Lee Roth’s ‘Stand Up’ Video
Over time, Skyscraper has loved a optimistic reappraisal amongst some followers, and Vai seemed again fondly on co-producing the LP with Roth. “Dave and I have been having fun with working collectively a lot that we created our personal little manufacturing staff,” he stated. “We simply began chipping away at it and we stated, ‘Let’s simply proceed the best way we’re going and see what we provide you with.'”
Vai additionally took some accountability for the sound of Skyscraper, which was much less aggressive than the Ted Templeman-produced Eat ‘Em and Smile. “Dave and I have been simply actually forensic,” he advised EonMusic, “as a result of it was his first manufacturing outing, and he is obtained nice ears and all — however we most likely lacked being producers that made rock and roll data as a profession.”
Sheehan additionally had sort phrases for his former boss. In a 2022 interview with Speak Louder (through Blabbermouth), the bassist known as working with Roth “like getting a PhD in Present Biz 101 — he knew it in and out.” Though Sheehan “did not just like the outcomes” of Skyscraper personally, he admitted that “it takes a variety of braveness to make that sort of a flip. I give him credit score for the braveness.”
To modern ears, “Stand Up” actually does not sound just like the ’70s arduous rock that birthed Van Halen, or the ’80s metallic scene that ran parallel to Eat ‘Em and Smile. As a substitute, it is nearer to straight-ahead ’80s pop, carried out by first-rate musicians, in the identical method that Michael Jackson was as soon as backed by guitar virtuoso Jennifer Batten.
Roth defined his musical motivations clearly in interviews from the time. “It’s important to have an impenetrable spirit,” he advised MuchMusic’s Steve Anthony in 1988. “You’ll be able to’t query — I by no means do — about whether or not it’ll be a well-liked or a profitable factor, so long as I am doing it true to my spirit by way of: Is that this the best way I actually needed it to sound? Is that this what we actually like? Is that this what we actually imagine right here?”
Vai echoed this sentiment a long time later. “You get a man like Dave Roth, and he is carried out a lot in a method and, he needed to attempt one thing totally different,” the guitarist advised Basic Rock. “That is the artist’s inventive prerogative.”
Van Halen Lineup Modifications
Three totally different singers and two totally different bassists joined the Van Halen brothers over time.
