I was blown away by this CD the first time I heard it (some time in 1998 I think) and I find myself loving it more and more every time I listen to it.

Two minor points: The first song (A Little Ain't Enough) and the last song (Drop In The Bucket) to me are just begging to have a triumpant slow fade out with a majestic solo from Jason Becker ripping away as the music disappears. In my opinion a fade on both these songs would have been preferable to the cold endings.

Originally posted by theodore templeman:
I was blown away by this CD the first time I heard it (some time in 1998 I think) and I find myself loving it more and more every time I listen to it.

Two minor points: The first song (A Little Ain't Enough) and the last song (Drop In The Bucket) to me are just begging to have a triumpant slow fade out with a majestic solo from Jason Becker ripping away as the music disappears. In my opinion a fade on both these songs would have been preferable to the cold endings.Agreed! And they are two of the greatest cuts on the album. graemlins/thumb.gif

Not a bad idea. Those songs kick ass and a solo at the end would have been nice.

Originally posted by theodore templeman:
I was blown away by this CD the first time I heard it (some time in 1998 I think) and I find myself loving it more and more every time I listen to it.

I bought it on the day of its release - think about how much I love it!!!!!

Yeah, fade-outs for those songs would've worked - good point.

ALAE, I see as MY album - it was the first time I bought a new DLR record after becoming a fan of his in late '88. I saw the tour, and I was gutted to see the American leg was cancelled. Even moreso when the album was dis-continued. Whatever WB's problem is/was with DLR, deleting the album meant that Jason Becker never got a Platinum disc.

ALAE kick ass as do all of Roth's solo albums!

I dunno....those are my two favorite songs on that album, and I love the endings to both. At the risk of sounding stupid, I still get chills...

I was lucky enough to catch one show on the ALAE tour in NJ, as well as buy the elusive tourbook. Good attendance as I recall. The show started out near disastrously, and Dave actually reamed his band onstage for making a mess out of the first verse of one song (I think it was "...Gigolo"), and demanded it be started over. There was an uneasy feeling until about halfway through the show when "Beautiful Girls" was performed for the first time in years at that time. After that, Dave could do no wrong. The audience was left wanting more...usually a good thing, but his set wasn't that long on that tour. Another song or two would have been great.

What was missing on ALAE for me was Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan.

Originally posted by Mambo Slammer Casalad:

The show started out near disastrously, and Dave actually reamed his band onstage for making a mess out of the first verse of one song (I think it was "...Gigolo"), and demanded it be started over. Losing Jason Becker was a big blow - people didn't know who Joe Holmes or Desi Rex were - and when they heard them play, they weren't impressed.

I think Management, Warners, Dave???? made a big mistake hiring those two guys - should have went for a name player - try get Steve Vai back just for the tour - or maybe John Sykes (Whitesnake guitarist joins Roth after he lost his last one to Whitesnake - would have bee a nice spin), maybe Joe Satriani? - anybody with a big name.

Originally posted by YankeeRose:
What was missing on ALAE for me was Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan.You werent impressed with Jason Becker on that album?

My brother who was in the Marines during the ALAE tour got to see Dave.

He said Dave was the man in command and that it was pretty much a sold out show if not close to being sold out.

The Album Rocked that is for sure and it still to date remains my favorite Dave solo album.

In my opinion, Dave's solo records got worse with each release in terms of song quality.The playing and craftmanship were always fine but were in service of increasingly generic songs.The two songs mentioned are the best on ALAE ,but do they hold up against tthe best two songs on Skyscraper? Eat 'Em and Smile is still my favorite Dave release (I'm biased though because the Eat 'Em tour was my first concert and they played almost the whole album and every classic VH song you could ask for)

I think Dave's lyric writing, though, got better and better with each solo album.

Filthy Little Mouth, although it has a lot of songs with generic musicianship, had ingenius lyrics, I think.

I would say about half this disc is good.
the other half is filler

PLUS
you can NEVER say the name "Johnny" in a song!
It worked 1 time--Johnny B. Good