As the month starts winding down I’m feeling like I’m wanting a bit more rest. Los Angeles has been getting smacked with a heat wave, as has much of the southwest. It’s to the point where it’s actually exhausting. I remember a couple of years ago spending some time in Vegas hopping in and out of casinos in the middle of a summer swelter. The result was that by evening time I had a massive headache and felt not well. The sudden changes from AC controlled temps in the casino to the oven baking out in the street made for a bad combination.
Tonight, I’ll need to be in top form for a meeting/seminar with the PMA. A group that is for music libraries and the industries to which they serve. Thus while I’m sitting in a shop making calls and typing up Single of the Day, I’ll need to make sure I’m not bouncing around too much in the heat today.
With that typed, I’m gonna get to the music…
This comes from the late 80’s when guitars were king in the world of shred music. The guitarist is a shredder by the name of Steve Vai. David was well known for cheeky songs that had hot roddin guitar playing all over them. Of course that would be expected coming from a band like Van Halen.
The overtones of the lyrics are fairly obvious. The hot dog is the penis, the shake is the end result of the sex with the hot dog. Starting off with a rock style intro then uprooting and turning into an upbeat guitar course in trickery. All kinds of things going on here. Taps, hammers, pull offs, funky strumming, whammy bar dives, etc… It’s all in there.
Listening to this makes me wonder why the music industry got so serious. Wasn’t music supposed to be good times and fun? At least David’s little segment was humorous. Not to say there isn’t humorous music now, but it’s taken so seriously most of the time that it’s lost it’s luster.
With the 80’s making a return to prominence right now, we might see a return to fun music too, right? I think so.