Jan 28 2008
The Most Amazing Thing You’ll Hear All Day
My grandfather had a friend who was fond of saying that the closest he ever came to a religious experience was hearing his first Frank Sinatra record. Old Blue Eyes’ stylings never made me feel the touch of God, but this morning, I think, for the first time, understood the essence of what Mr. Briggs was talking about.
That’s because I was fortunate enough to stumble across this, David Lee Roth’s isolated lead vocal track from Van Halen’s 1978 hit Runnin’ with the Devil. The song is the first track from the band’s self-titled debut album, and opens with the 10 seconds of honking car horns before morphing into a thumping guitar riff. In other words, could there have been a better way for Van Halen to introduce themselves to the world?
And just in case you had any doubt as the vocal mastery of David Lee Roth-and I’m not sure how anyone could after his inflection of “burning” into “boinin” made the song “Panama”- this .mp3 should clear that up.