Most Helpful Customer Reviews
78 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
More Scrapbook than Bio, October 20, 2007
This review is from: Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga (Hardcover)
Ian Christe's "Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga" is a good book - it's just not a great one. So, before picking on the details, let's get the obvious out of the way. Alex and Eddie Van Halen are musical geniuses. They were both the kind of wunderkind that in an earlier age gave us Mozart. David Lee Roth is a hyperactive, strutting ego-maniac, custom made to rise in the era of MTV, where appearance and flash became far more important than actual talent and skill (though Dave has both - just not as much as he thinks.) Given this kind of material to work with, this book should scream with pathos, grit, defeat and triumph. Unfortunately, it just doesn't. As I was working my way through the book, I became aware that there were no dramatic build-ups, no tensions leading up to, for example, David Lee Roth's split from the band. Essentially, there's no insider insight. This is because Christe only presents what the public already knows. The book is essentially a distillation of every news report, MTV interview, or magazine article concerning the band from their earliest inception to the present. Yes, it's well documented - but there's virtually no first person research. From cover to cover, I couldn't find any evidence that Christe had ever interviewed any member of the band. In fact, the entire book reads more like a stack of newspaper clippings than an exposé. As a consequence, remarkable turns in the lives of everyone associated with Van Halen are rendered pedestrian and seem to pass by in a workmanlike fashion: "David Lee Roth joins the band: Check." "Valerie Bertinelli marries Eddie: Check." "David Lee Roth quits the band: Check" "Valerie Bertinelli quits Eddie: Check ..." You get the idea. It's unfortunate, because the band is only recently undergoing something of a renaissance these days and this kind of looks like something put together to capitalize on that resurgence. Or maybe the paean of a devoted fan. But not the kind of intuitive, investigative band bio I've read on other subjects (especially Streissguth's " Johnny Cash: The Biography" and Gene Simmon's " Kiss and Make-up.) Still, the book makes for an interesting, if not compelling, read. It's convenient to have all of these articles, interviews, etc. in one place and distilled down to their "just the facts" essence. It's well illustrated and divides logically along with the different singers who've acted as lead singer over the years. So I'm still looking for the definitive Van Halen/Van Hagar band bio. This isn't it - but it'll fill the empty hours until the real thing comes
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
49 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Everybody would want some more, October 19, 2007
This review is from: Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga (Hardcover)
Let's get straight to the point. There is nothing here that the hardcore Van Halen fan does not already know. The immigration from Holland. The classical music lessons. Eddie and Alex swapping instruments. Meeting up with Roth & Anthony. The club scene. Their 'Discovery' by Gene Simmons. The disagreements in style on Mean Street and Diver Down. Roth's solo ambitions. The great initial personal chemistry with Hagar. The falling out over Twister. Cherone is a 'brother' but still had to leave. The alcoholism and the cancer. The 1996 MTV Awards fiasco. The 21st Century stagnation. Almost all of Van Halen's history is now legend. And almost all of it is already well known to fans - in other words, the very people who would buy this book in the first place. Sorry, folks, but this volume offers you very little that you don't already know. This is no surprise when you consider that the author Ian Christe has done virtually no exclusive interviews in this book. All the quotes are second hand. Everything uttered by the band or their associates has been copied from old, published sources. So how can this book possibly offer anything new? Where are the fresh, exclusive interviews with the families, friends, fans and foes? Nowhere in these pages. So what does this leave you with? Certainly nothing naked, raw and revealing to compare with Metallica's "Some Kind of Monster", or even a Motley Crue "The Dirt". Basically all you get is a lengthy Wikipedia entry, with selected quotes taken from old magazine articles. The author gives his own oustider's summary of 30-40 years of the band. That's it. Even the 'exclusive' photos are few and nothing special. To be fair, Christe's is a moderately entertaining book. His prose is neither aloof nor air-headed. It is actually quite a readable account that runs along at a decent pace without getting repetitive or boring. It is an entertaining read. But you get the feeling that the entertainment is derived solely from the drama of Van Halen's real-life ups & downs, rather than because of any particular skill of the writer. I have previously read and reviewed Christe's other book "Sound of the Beast". That book was flawed, but it was well researched and it is obvious the author spent a lot of effort and time trying to craft a definitive short history of Metal. This current book suggests only that he is out to make a quick buck. No gems unearthed by painstaking research, no sweat broken to dig for undiscovered nuggets of news. Just rehashing of old news. Disappointing. In "Sound of the Beast", one of Christe's most evident weaknesses was his inability to maintain objectivity when he is striving to write an objective, neutral history. He wants to sound authoritative, yet dribbles over some of his own favorite bands like a starry-eyed fan-boy, while he flippantly passes over mentioning other very important bands that maybe he isn't so keen on. Fair enough if you're writing a fan article - but not really good enough if your book is subtitled "The Complete History of Heavy Metal". He does the same thing here. He unashamedly sympathizes with Roth, and makes juvenile remarks at the Hagar years. He seems to side openly with Roth vs EVH and vs Hagar. He even adds an immature appendix entitled "Van Hagar for dummies". Says it all, really. I enjoy both Roth-era and Hagar-era stuff equally, and when I'm reading a supposedly 'authoritative' account I'd prefer some neutrality so I can make my own mind up about what I like best. I can respect other's preferences (Dave OR Sammy) if expressed on an appropriate forum (Blabbermouth??). But when I am paying premium dollar for a hardcover book, why must I put up with childish name-calling? I'm a Van Halen fan. So I enjoyed reading about Van Halen's story for the umpteenth time. But I found nothing new, nothing to raise my eyebrows. The only way any average VH fan would not have already known 90% of what's in this book would be if he/she had lived under a rock for the last 30 years. Yes, if I wasn't a Van Halen fan, I might have found some new things here ... but if I wasn't a fan already, why would I even buy this book? VH fans deserve better. If I wanted to buy just one book on Van Halen, this would NOT be the one. I would rather buy "Van Halen 101" by Abel Sanchez. Yes, it is even MORE opinionated and biased and fan-boyish than Christe's book ... but Sanchez never implies or boasts that his is anything other than a fan tribute book. No pretensions about being an authoritative history. Just a true fan's book written by an enthusiastic fan for other enthusiastic fans. An honest, simple-minded labor of love. And compared to Christe, Sanchez goes to great lengths to research his material. Witness the painstaking analysis of sales figures data, the insightful discussion of every component of EVH's success (does he play too many notes? what was the impact of Spandex? etc). Most remarkable of all, Sanchez got exclusive comments from dozens of the leading rock musicians today (from James Hetfield to Steve Vai to Brian May) talking just about EVH. Now THAT was impressive.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Mediocre Book About a Great Subject, January 2, 2008
This review is from: Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga (Hardcover)
Ian Christe's latest book about the Van Halen phenomenon is a work of tortured prose. This is more a collection of anecdotes and vignettes than it is a biography. Almost all of the quotes from musicians used in this book are taken from previously published articles by other writers and are not the results from interviews that Christe has had with them. It is par for the course for Christe whose career as a rock music writer is akin to that of a journeyman baseball pitcher: he can have his moments, but ultimately his work may not be worth your money. Instead of merely attempting to tell us Van Halen's life story, Christe attempts to pass off ridiculously overwritten, bombastic babble as having insight into his subject. However much of a Van Halen fan that you may be, this is one book that you need to take your time in deciding whether or not to buy it.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
