The Divisive Albums Podcast Episode 2: Stabbing Westward’s Self-Titled Album

Episode 6: Van Halen’s 5150

In 1984, Van Halen were one of the biggest bands on Earth. By 1985, they were on the verge of breaking up, as vocalist David Lee Roth left to pursue a solo career and try his luck in Hollywood. After a couple asks that went nowhere, they settled on former Montrose vocalist Sammy Hagar as Roth’s replacement. Replacing a vocalist, especially one with the stature of Roth, is always a dicey proposition, but did Van Halen make it work? Come explore their 1986 album 5150! It’s time for the SHOW NOTES! 0:00: Intro and Theme Song 0:22: About me and the podcast. 0:41: Introducing our band: Van Halen! 0:55: The mythology of Van Halen’s INSTANT MASSIVE SUCCESS!! 1:16: The reality is it wasn’t quite that simple. 1:57: But when they did break, they broke big. 2:11: Why? Their singer. Also their guitar player. 2:23: The origins of Eddie Van Halen’s two-hand tapping guitar technique. 2:44: Van Halen sustain their success until 1984… 2:59: A digression into the inspiration for this episode’s intro. 3:43: HEY BROSSENTIA! Van Halen are about to run into trouble! 4:13: Specifically, now they don’t have a singer! 4:19: Ah, the first-album-with-a-new-singer. The classic Divisive Album! 4:52: Who could replace David Lee Roth? Patty Smyth? 5:14: Or how about DARYL HALL? 5:46: No, they went with Sammy Hagar instead! 6:06: Which didn’t exactly surprise Hagar. Hagar was a confident man. 6:16: There were positive signs when they demoed some new material… 6:27: Introducing this episode’s album: 1986’s 5150! 7:03: The opening of “Good Enough”, the album’s opener. 7:15: The chorus of “Good Enough”, and some discussion of the song. 7:51: A third excerpt from “Good Enough”, and discussion of this spoken-word section. 8:17: This monologue is more light-hearted than Roth’s tended to be. 8:28: Introducing the album’s first single: “Why Can’t This Be Love” 8:40: The start of “Why Can’t This Be Love”. 9:05: Discussion of the 80s keyboard-oriented smoothness of this song. 9:31: Maybe the worst lyric we’ve ever heard on this podcast, and discussion thereof. 10:03: Let’s hear it again, but this time listen to the drums! 10:16: Those electronic toms sound…a little out of place with everything else. 11:09: Of course, 1986’s popular consensus disagreed with my nitpicking. 11:20: An excerpt from and discussion of “Get Up”, song number 3 on 5150. 12:13: Introducing the second single from the album, and playing an excerpt from it. 12:47: Another excerpt from the song…. 13:08: Which is obviously called….”Dreams”. 13:29: An excerpt from near the end of “Dreams”. 14:04: Discussion of the last segment of the song. 14:50: “Dreams” was a hit too, but it had a B-side…. 15:01: …which was “Inside”, the album’s closer. 15:07: An excerpt from “Inside”. 15:34: What I’d actually make The Divisive Albums Podcast given a do-over. 16:19: Discussing what the band were going for with “Inside”, which was…. 17:09: Did you guess “Making fun of their previous singer”? You’re right! 17:16: Turns out Roth and Van Halen were not BFFs after Roth’s departure. 17:34: Another excerpt from “Inside” 18:06: Introducing the third single from the album, “Love Walks In” 18:40: Discussing “Love Walks In”‘s chart performance, and what it portended for the band. 19:03: How’d 5150 do? It did well! 19:30: Like “Van Halen’s first #1 album” well! 19:47: Like “Crushing David Lee Roth’s competing solo album” well! 20:03: What happened after that, and Where Are They Now? 20:55: Final Thoughts 21:20: Outro and Social Media. Twitter [https://twitter.com/EmptyeyeDotCom], Website [http://emptyeye.com/], Discord [https://discord.gg/MJ9JwNS], Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/emptyeye], The Music For Two Podcast [https://musicfortwopodcast.com/], E-Mail [divisivealbums@gmail.com] Also, thanks to MercuryZelda for becoming a Patron! Other Links: The Classic Rock interview/retrospective I mentioned [https://www.loudersound.com/features/van-halen-on-5150-we-were-the-anti-roth-camp-he-was-the-enemy-of-all-enemies] A Rolling Stone interview [https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/van-halens-5150-sammy-hagar-looks-back-97736/] where Sammy Hagar looks back on 5150. Sammy Hagar’s Live from Daryl’s House appearance [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcNxquYdnxQ]. The discussion about Daryl potentially joining Van Halen and the “Eddie’s funky” line come about 33 minutes in. The post Episode 6: Van Halen’s 5150 [http://emptyeye.com/2019/06/09/episode-6-van-halens-5150/] first appeared on Emptyeye [http://emptyeye.com].

Episode 5: The Beatles’ White Album

Five episodes! FIVE episodes! FIVE….never mind. For episode five, we go big, looking at an album by some guys from Liverpool who I guess were kind of big in the 1960s? Big enough that they could follow up a landmark album with a 93-minute opus and no one would bat an eye. And despite the band beginning to fall apart, or maybe because of the band beginning to fall apart, they managed to write a bunch of songs in a bunch of differing styles. Come explore The Beatles’ 1968 self-titled album, AKA The White Album! Check out these SHOW NOTES! 0:00: Intro and Theme Song 0:23: About me and the podcast. 0:48: Introducing our band: The Beatles! 0:53: A bit about my trepidation in doing this episode, and a little about The Beatles themselves. 1:42: On how The Beatles’ popularity endures. 2:47: Introducing this album’s episode, The White Album! 3:07: Some “double albums” wouldn’t be double albums today. 3:36: This DOES NOT apply to The White Album. 3:52: But is this album actually divisive? Yes. It is. 4:06: People generally agree 2/3rds of it are great… 4:17: …but no one agrees on WHICH 2/3rds that is! 4:26: Guess what? This album technically had ZERO singles in the UK/US! 5:06: So how did I decide what songs to discuss? 5:20: By picking the relatively lesser-known ones… 5:39: …Where I used The Beatles Rock Band to decide which tracks DIDN’T fit that description. 6:20: Presenting our first excerpt, from “Glass Onion” 6:49: Discussing a bit about the “Beatles Mythology” that had built up by 1968. 7:07: Another excerpt, and the “Paul Is Dead” rumor. 8:06: American Internet Jerk BUTCHERS the Greek Language in only THREE WORDS!! 8:40: On why the “Paul Is Dead” theory got so popular in 1969. 9:13: The chorus of “Glass Onion”, and its weird accent on “onION”. 9:38: An excerpt from and discussion of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” 10:10: The Beatles are fallible! Another excerpt, where the song characters’ roles are reversed, among other things. 10:51: An excerpt from and discussion of “Wild Honey Pie”, a strange little mini-song. 11:20: Discussing this song in the context of turning The White Album from a double to a single album (Most people cut it). 11:43: Discussing “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” and playing an excerpt from it. 12:28: Another “Bungalow Bill” excerpt, and introducing Yoko Ono! 13:04: A bit more about Yoko, and… 13:13: Digressing into the movie This Is Spinal Tap! 13:30: Back to Ono and how she totally didn’t break up The Beatles. 13:45: Turns out people who spend every waking hour together for YEARS get sick of each other! 13:57: Skipping ahead to George Harrison’s “Piggies”, which seems like it’s about pigs… 14:25: But is actually about CAPITALISM!… 14:53: And how it turns people into symbolic CANNIBALS!! 15:15: On one of the factors in The Beatles’ breakup: Lennon and McCartney not giving Harrison his due for his songwriting prowess. 16:02: Though Harrison could be goofy too. 16:08: Introducing and discussing “Savoy Truffle”, where Harrison worries about Eric Clapton’s dental health (Yes, really). 16:48: Comparing The Beatles to System of a Down (Yes, really). 17:27: Discussion of and an excerpt from “Yer Blues”, by John Lennon. 17:57: On Lennon’s genuine unhappiness at the time shining through the absurdity of the lyrics. 18:20: On The Beatles as musical chameleons. 18:53: Discussing the fracturing of the Lennon-McCartney song-writing partnership. 19:26: Lennon’s annoyance at McCartney’s pop songs. 19:36: Like this one, “Martha My Dear”, which sounds straight out of 1940. 20:08: So does this one, “Honey Pie” (Not the Wild variety). 20:41: McCartney, meanwhile, was annoyed at Lennon’s Avant-Garde focus… 21:01: …Which culminated in this, “Revolution 9”. 21:27: Discussing what Lennon was going for, and the technical difficulties in doing so in 1968. 22:14: How Lennon took up all of Abbey Road studios to put “Revolution 9” together. 22:22: On how to treat “Revolution 9” (Listen to it with a good pair of headphones. Once. And only once.) 22:40: Because it’s the OTHER song most people cut when reducing The White Album to one album. 23:00: Discussing a few other forgettable songs, and Ringo Starr’s dissatisfaction around this time. 23:37: Paul McCartney actually played drums on some songs after Ringo peaced out for a bit. 24:15: Ringo eventually comes back and they finish making the album. 24:26: And a strong album it is! 24:53: But how’d it perform on the market? Pretty well. 25:07: Like “#1 in multiple countries” well. 25:35: Like “Going Diamond in the US twice” well. 25:56: Like “The fourth-biggest selling album ever in the US, INCLUDING compilations (Third-best excluding them)” well. 26:18: Final Thoughts 26:55: Outro and Social Media. Twitter [https://twitter.com/EmptyeyeDotCom], Website [http://emptyeye.com/], Discord [https://discord.gg/MJ9JwNS], Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/emptyeye], The Music For Two Podcast [https://musicfortwopodcast.com/] Other Links: A 2010 Michigan Today Article [https://web.archive.org/web/20101228202339/http://michigantoday.umich.edu/2009/11/story.php?id=7565&tr=y&auid=5578331] discussing how the “Paul Is Dead” rumor blew up. A Rolling Stone Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1971 [https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/lennon-remembers-part-one-186693/]. Lennon discusses “Yer Blues” here: “[…]They always struck me as – what is the word? Funny? Ironic? – that I was writing them supposedly in the presence of guru and meditating so many hours a day, writing […] songs of such pain as “Yer Blues” which I meant. […]” A Howard Stern Interview with Ringo Starr in October 2018 [https://www.howardstern.com/show/2018/11/26/ringo-starr-brings-beatles-stories-his-childhood-memories-and-his-brother-law-joe-walsh/]. In the text summary, it mentions the “I thought it was you three!” story. The post Episode 5: The Beatles’ White Album [http://emptyeye.com/2019/04/22/episode-5-the-beatles-white-album/] first appeared on Emptyeye [http://emptyeye.com].

Episode 4: Yes’s Drama

For Episode Four, we travel back to 1980 and get to know five musicians who only worked all together one time. Three of them are what’s left of a prog-rock band after their singer and keyboardist left. The other two are a duo who write songs about the perils of technology using the finest recording equipment money can buy. Together, they fight crime. Or, well, they release an album together at any rate. Come explore Yes’s 1980 release, Drama! Check out these SHOW NOTES! 0:00: Intro and Theme Song 0:21: About me and the podcast. 0:50: Introducing our band, with an upbeat heroic fanfare: Yes! …..Yes! 0:58: About the band, musically and personally. 1:30: On Yes’s status as a critical laughingstock. 1:49: HERE’S THE THING about Yes. They’re either REALLY GOOD…. 2:11: ….or REALLY BAD. 3:33: Time warp to the late 70s, as Yes try to follow up Tormato, while punk rock has taken over the world… 3:55 …or so revisionist history would have you believe. 4:36: Either way, Yes’s attempt to write a new album goes catastrophically wrong. 4:47: Like “Their singer and keyboardist quit” wrong. 5:18: But manager Brian Lane comes to their rescue by uniting the remaining members with… 5:27: Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, AKA The Buggles! 5:36: Yeah, the Buggles you’re thinking of. 6:08: The Buggles are oblivious at first, but eventually catch on… 6:42: …and join the band, despite Horn’s trepidation. 6:48: Introducing the album for this episode, Drama! 7:15: A discussion of the album’s cover. 7:12: Discussing and presenting an excerpt from the album’s opener, “Machine Messiah”. 8:17: Discussion on the song’s heaviness. 8:34: On Yes’s frequent lineup changes. 9:18: Discussing Chris Squire (Bass) and Jon Anderson (Former Vocalist), who until Drama had been the two constants in the band. 9:45: The real test: Trevor Horn’s first vocals, and discussion thereof. 10:29: On the assistance of backing vocalists in rock bands. 11:40: Discussing Yes’s backing vocalists in particular. 11:52: Slowing down “Machine Messiah” and discussing its lyrics. 12:51: Who wrote what on Drama? Who can really say? Not the credits! 13:07: Introducing and discussing “White Car”. 13:52: The differences between Trevor Horn and Jon Anderson. 14:55: An excerpt from and discussion of “Does It Really Happen?” 16:01: An excerpt from the 11/8 chorus of “Does It Really Happen?” 16:26: Talking about the song’s false ending, and its lead in to a bass solo. 17:16: Discussing the album’s length, and the track lengths. 18:09: Introducing “Into the Lens” and playing an excerpt from it. 19:13: Another excerpt, this one from later in the song, and discussing how this was the album’s main single. 19:55: A TRIVIA TANGENT into the history of music videos. 21:21: Go watch Yes’s video for “No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed”. Seriously. Just go now. 21:30: On the Second British Invasion caused by early MTV because Britain beat the US to the punch on the whole “music video” thing. 22:33: Discussion of and an excerpt from “Run Through the Light”, a moodier track re-worked from an earlier song. 23:03: How the single version of “Run Through the Light” differs from the album version. 23:19: Briefly discussing the Drama remaster’s bonus tracks. 23:43: The album’s closer, “Tempus Fugit”, which plays to everyone’s strengths. 24:48: What do I think of Drama as a whole? 25:30: And what did other people think of it? 26:12: On the truly divisive tour, thanks to Yes not bothering to mention the latest lineup changes. 27:25: What happened after Drama? 27:37: Squire and White formed a new band… 28:04: …when that didn’t work, they formed ANOTHER new band… 28:19: …which became a reincarnation of Yes… 28:34: …which reached new heights with the 90125 album! 29:01: And now there are TWO Yeses! 29:14: The one that Chris Squire was in until he died in 2015… 29:38: …and “Yes Featuring ARW”, which has some of the members people consider essential to Yes. 29:54: How did two Yeses come to be? 30:36: Geoff Downes had a pretty nice career in Asia before returning to Yes in 2011… 31:04: …but it was nothing compared to Trevor Horn’s becoming a superproducer. 32:40: Outro and Social Media. Twitter [https://twitter.com/EmptyeyeDotCom], Website [http://emptyeye.com/], Discord [https://discord.gg/MJ9JwNS], Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/emptyeye] Other Links: Trevor Horn’s 2011 Red Bull Music Academy Interview [http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/trevor-horn-buggles-in-the-bassbin], with a transcript. It goes over his whole career, and is long, but worth listening to. An Interview with Trevor Rabin [https://web.archive.org/web/20141021001234/http://jammagazine.com/mf201205-trevor-rabin.aspx]. It mainly discusses his new-at-the-time solo album, but he does discuss his misgivings about being in the reincarnated Yes in the early 80s. A cover of “White Car” [http://emptyeye.com/songs/White_Car.mp3] I did as part of a college course. The post Episode 4: Yes’s Drama [http://emptyeye.com/2019/02/26/the-divisive-albums-podcast-episode-4-yess-drama/] first appeared on Emptyeye [http://emptyeye.com].

The Divisive Albums Podcast Episode 3: Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk

The third episode of The Divisive Albums Podcast, where I discuss the follow-up to one of the most successful albums in history: Fleetwood Mac’s 1979 double album, Tusk! The episode comes with the following SHOW NOTES! 0:00: Intro and Theme Song 0:25: About me, and announcing I’ll be begging for money in about 20 minutes. 0:50: Introducing our band: Fleetwood Mac! 1:35: Fleetwood Mac’s lineup circa 1975 and their first wave of U.S. success in 1975-1976. 3:06: Then Fleetwood Mac blow everything up personally… 3:45: …while riding to unprecedented success with the album Rumours. 4:18: Some of the albums that sold comparatively to Rumours 4:47: Even more on how big Rumours was in 1977-1978 5:02: But how do you follow up a megahit? 5:32: With enough songs for TWO ALBUMS!! 5:38: You may be getting deja vu right about now. 6:00: Finally introducing the album: 1979’s Tusk! 6:17: Discussing how the album opens with Christine McVie’s “Over and Over”, which breaks with the formula from previous albums. 6:52: An excerpt from “Over and Over” and discussion on it. 7:40: An excerpt from and discussion of “The Ledge”, Lindsey Buckingham’s first contribution. 8:17: On what post-punk is, and more “The Ledge” discussion. 8:59: Another excerpt from “The Ledge”, highlighting some of the experimentation Fleetwood Mac did in the studio. 9:24: An excerpt from and discussion of “Save Me A Place”. 10:08: Discussion of “Sara”, the first Stevie Nicks song on the album. 10:33: On the album’s (Relatively short, for a double album anyway) length. 11:18: An excerpt from “Sara”. 11:45: On Stevie Nicks’s songs on this album, and how “typical” they are. 12:05: An excerpt from and discussion of “Sisters of the Moon”. 12:57: Discussing Christine McVie’s songs, including “Brown Eyes”. 13:15: An excerpt from “Brown Eyes”. 13:37: On whose album Tusk actually is, and the irony of its reputation versus what’s actually on it. 14:26: Introducing “That’s Enough For Me”, where Lindsey Buckingham goes to a country bar. 15:17: More on the ethos behind the album as a whole. 16:01: An excerpt from and brief discussion of “What Makes You Think You’re The One”. 16:38: Discussion of and an excerpt from “That’s All For Everyone”, where the band employ harmony in a new (For them) way. 17:25: Discussion of and an excerpt from “I Know I’m Not Wrong”, with its uncanny valley synth sound. 18:27: The album’s main event! Its title track, “Tusk”. 18:55: How about a drum solo with your title track? 19:33: AN UNPRECEDENTED DIVISIVE ALBUMS PODCAST EVENT! A THIRD excerpt from “Tusk”, this time featuring the USC Marching Band! 20:06: I love this song! 20:18: The song was a hit single! 20:45: The album’s closer, “Never Forget”, and discussion of it. 21:30: How well did Tusk sell? Featuring a digression into Atari 2600 sales figures. 22:29: Finally discussing the actual sales of Tusk. 23:09: Lindsey Buckingham’s defense of his musical baby. 24:43: A brief summary of what happened to Fleetwood Mac post-Tusk (They kept right on making hits, and are still around through some ups and downs!). 25:40: What do I think of Tusk as an album? 26:34: Outro, Social Media, and a brief explanation of Patreon. Twitter [https://twitter.com/EmptyeyeDotCom], Website [http://emptyeye.com/], Discord [ https://discord.gg/MJ9JwNS], Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/emptyeye] Other Links: An interview with Lindsey Buckingham from USC in 2015. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtGzaPQtW_o] Long, but fascinating, featuring several performances and covering Buckingham’s entire career. If you’re only interested in the Tusk-centric portion, they begin discussing it at about 41:30 [https://youtu.be/LtGzaPQtW_o?t=2489]. Embedded Podcast Listen: The post The Divisive Albums Podcast Episode 3: Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk [http://emptyeye.com/2019/02/06/the-divisive-albums-podcast-episode-3-fleetwood-macs-tusk/] first appeared on Emptyeye [http://emptyeye.com].

The Divisive Albums Podcast Episode 2: Stabbing Westward’s Self-Titled Album

The second episode of The Divisive Albums Podcast, where I discuss an album by a band a lot of people forgot about: Stabbing Westward, and their 2001 self-titled album! In the episode, I discuss the following. SHOW NOTES! 0:00: Intro and Theme Song 0:22: About me, and introducing our band: Stabbing Westward! 0:51: Announcing we’re trying something new this episode. Kind of. 1:18: Stabbing Westward’s beginning, and a clip from “Ungod”, the title track from their first album. 1:49: On the similarity between “Ungod” and Filter’s “Hey Man Nice Shot”. 2:39: Stabbing Westward’s breakthrough: “What Do I Have To Do?” from 1996’s Wither, Blister Burn & Peel. 3:30: Shoutouts to my Connecticon Karaoke friends, and DJ Stephanie Stardust! 3:57: Discussion of the band’s 1998’s Darkest Days album, and its biggest hit, “Save Yourself” 4:54: A brief digression that I use The RIAA Website [https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/] 5:11: Disaster strikes Stabbing Westward, and they downgrade to an independent record label. 5:30: Noting this is my first “personal” Divisive Albums Podcast, since I actually remember the album coming out. 6:05: Finally introducing the album: Stabbing Westward’s self-titled fourth album! 6:22: An excerpt from and discussion of the song “So Far Away”, the album’s lead (And only) single. 7:06: An excerpt from and discussion of the song “Perfect”, which is…rather acoustic. 7:49: Comparing this album to another, more famous self-titled album: Metallica’s 1991 “Black Album”. 8:10: Delving into “Perfect”‘s lyrical similarities to “Desperate Now”, a Darkest Days track 8:38: The utter tease that is the start of “I Remember”. 9:19: Another excerpt from “I Remember”, and discussing how I actually remember this song from my only listen of this album many years ago. 10:07: Discussion of and an excerpt from “Wasted”, a song that’s a bit more traditionally Stabbing Westward. 10:53: Discussion of Stabbing Westward’s lyrical variety…or lack thereof. 11:44: An excerpt from and discussion of the album’s last track, “Television”, which I like. 12:44: An excerpt from “High”, another more “traditional” Stabbing Westward track. 13:16: Discussing “High”‘s lyrics and how they subtly differ from most of the band’s catalog. 13:44: On Stabbing Westward’s inability to come up with original song titles for this album. 14:22: An excerpt from the song “Happy”. 14:53: My thoughts on the song “Happy”. 15:19: What I think of the album as a whole (Well, it’s half good…). 15:55: And how the album did in the marketplace (It tanked basically everywhere). 16:07: On Stabbing Westward’s brief tour for the album, and eventual breakup. 16:36: But hey, the album did okay in Australia! 16:57: Discussion how one person at Koch Records wanted this to be Stabbing Westward’s Black Album, and what happened when that didn’t happen. 17:54: A digression into what SoundScan is, inspired by the bajillions of copies Metallica’s Black Album has sold. 18:48: Discussion of what Christopher Hall did post-Stabbing Westward. 18:56: Noting Stabbing Westward reunited and are back on tour! 19:08: Final thoughts on the album. 19:31: Outro and social media: Twitter [http://twitter.com/EmptyeyeDotCom], Website [http://emptyeye.com], Discord [https://discord.gg/MJ9JwNS] Other links: A 2008 interview with singer Christopher Hall [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvzqzrpV4_o] Another interview with Hall from October 2018 [https://crypticrock.com/interview-christopher-hall-of-stabbing-westward/?fbclid=IwAR1qtbt7t4gyrrNy_FQvlDImAeUWm-DBUPtYr-zbs7FWdnrSk1AhZLvuM94] Stabbing Westward’s performance on The Jon Stewart Show from September 1994 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG4XMp7HJLQ] The post The Divisive Albums Podcast Episode 2: Stabbing Westward’s Self-Titled Album [http://emptyeye.com/2019/02/06/the-divisive-albums-podcast-episode-2-stabbing-westwards-self-titled-album/] first appeared on Emptyeye [http://emptyeye.com].