# Fucktard of the week!!! ("I'm a kind of famous" edition) - Site: Analog Industries - Author: Chris Randall - Date: 2006-06-18 - URL: https://analogindustries.com/2006/06/fucktard-of-the-week-im-a-kind-of-famous-edition/ Speaking as a "kind of famous" person, you just have to know when to say when. This might make it in to Fucktard Of The Year contention. (Thanks, TD!) ## Comments (22) **matrix** (2006-06-18): Dude. Why the fuck doesn't he get a back up band and kick Van Halen where it hurts. I just don't get it. If he has the rights to play this why not play it right. Fuck! This is blasphemy. It's like like having Bob Moog put put the SH-201. **Chris Randall** (2006-06-18): Well, I don't know about all that. But anyone has the right to cover any song they want. DLR has been touring on Van Halen material for years, in much the same way that Vince Neil has been touring Motley Crue material. That doesn't really make it good. -CR **americanjunky** (2006-06-18): fuck, what? ouch..... unbelievable **penzoil washington** (2006-06-18): i feel embarrassed for his kids **inteliko** (2006-06-18): Is it just me or is even the banjo and violin players trying to not burst out in laughter? **inasilentway** (2006-06-18): David Lee Roth is, I think, slightly (but not much) smarter than everyone gives him credit for. He's clearly in on the joke, look at his delivery. It's just that it's not nearly as funny as he thinks it is, but rather painful. He gets fucktard points not for doing it, because he's obviously doing it as a gag, but for overestimating his own ability to carry the joke. **Twlo** (2006-06-18): why is he covering that Aztec Camera song anyway? (heh) wow, what a find, it gets funnier every time. thanks! **Twlo** (2006-06-18): BTW: Chris, I recall RevCo couldn't cover--at least release (Let's Get) Physical, so how does that work? I know live is fair game, but then do you need permission to release that recording? Permission or just pay? just curious how that works. **musicmachinemaker** (2006-06-18): You can cover whatever you want when doing performances or even on an album. The problem comes when it gets famous. Normally if the song doesn't change, there shouldn't be a problem. If you start adding or changing a few words, you need to go thru publishing but not the artist. I'm on this compilation where we all covered standards "diamonds are a girls best friend" etc... it's all electronica and sounds almost nothing like the original , mine doesn't, nothing was asked by the label who set the project up. all those tribute cds don't go directly to the management and ask for permission. They just do it. Weird al asks permission but he doesn't have to and he even changes a few words. It's just respect if you ask the artist. The reason let's get physical was a problem had more to do with the name revolting cocks... but i think they had a problem after they released it. but someone needs to clear that up. **Chris Randall** (2006-06-18): Yeah, there's a difference between an interpretation and a cover. An interpretation changes the lyrics or changes the top-line melody (or both). In either case, they're compulsory licenses. Normally, a composer or author doesn't have the right to prevent anyone from doing a direct cover. If you want to release a song written by someone else, you just go to the Harry Fox site (or whatever the analog for Harry Fox is in your country) and buy a license for however many copies you plan on releasing of that song and call it a day. Otherwise, your label pays mechanical royalties to the composer/author's publishing company, avoiding the annoying Harry Fox process. In the case of "(Let's Get) Physical," it's my understanding that Olivia Newton John blocked the release of the RevCo track via the label. (Warner Bros. owns Sire, of course. Or did at the time; I don't keep track of that shit any more.) You can cover anything you want, but if the label won't put it out, it doesn't matter whether you have the right or not. At any rate, there's a lot of information about this sort of thing on the Harry Fox site, if you want to do a cover. -CR **Jaysen** (2006-06-18): I saw this when it came on Leno and was pretty appalled- i think i vomited in my mouth twice. As for the tongue in cheek thing- i read on rolling stone or billboard.com last week that he was planning on doing a bluegrass album featuring van halen covers. Seems Diamond Dave got into bluegrass a while ago and is an accomplished (probably self-proclaimed) finger picker. On the guitar that is. As for him looking like he was doing this as a joke... look at any footage of him from the last 10 or 20 years- he looks just as coked out now as he did then. I guess i might as well JUMP! **boobs** (2006-06-18): what's w/that smile.. he must be plastered on pharmaceuticals... **Chris Randall** (2006-06-18): He always looks like that. Remember how your mom always said if you kept making that face, your face would get stuck like that? She was right. -CR **AdamJay** (2006-06-18): well, it should at least be illegal to suck that bad. **Jaysen** (2006-06-18): My favorite anecdote on him was in the Motley Crue autobiography where nikki talked about sitting with him in vince's / tommy's bedroom floor back in '83 doing coke and the full length mirror that was on the door right behind dave comes loose and crashes right over dave's head. He didn't even notice and kept on snorting while surrounded by broken shards of glass. Maybe that's when his smile froze in place. **dm** (2006-06-18): I'd have that shit-eating grin too if I had just fleeced CBS Radio for a porported 9 mil. **ecallender** (2006-06-19): What worries me is that Dave's the genius and we're the fucktards. FYI — Word has it he's recorded a cover of "U Can't Touch This." **neilium** (2006-06-19): Wait a minute; how is this worse than the original? I could have lived my whole life in blissful ignorance of Eddie Van Halen's DX7 superchops. But no, that dream died in 1984. **Jaysen** (2006-06-19): Wonder if they're gonna do Eruption on the violen- er, fiddle? Yee ha! **inasilentway** (2006-06-19): "Eddie Van Halen's DX7 superchops"? Erm.... try Oberheim OB-Xa. http://www.vintagesynth.com/oberheim/obxa.shtml Good quote attributed to Diamond Dave: "You know why music critics hate Van Halen and love Elvis Costello? Because critics all look like Elvis Costello." **neilium** (2006-06-19): "rm.... try Oberheim OB-Xa." Great, so there's two synths out there purpose-built for crappy sports highlight music. **ecallender** (2006-06-21): Hey, fucktard fanatics... feast your ears on this tasty fuck-up: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=66340574&s=143441&i=66340662