Diggin' In The Crates "Survey Says... Why Do You Need A Survey When Diamond Dave Is Involved?" Edition

Probably NOT interesting for the record itself, even though it's a great one...

Artist: David Lee Roth

Title: Crazy From The Heat

Label: Warner Bros.

Vinyl: Standard black vinyl

There's no need to tell the tale behind this well known record: David Lee Roth's first solo excursion, meant to be a short side trip before he reconvened with Van Halen to record the follow-up to 1984 only to find himself on opposite sides with Eddie Van Halen after this EP became a surprise hit and the videos for "California Girls" (with Langdon's homeboy Christopher Cross sharing backing vocals with Beach Boy Carl Wilson) and "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" became fixtures on MTV for much of 1985.

The real tale comes with my finding this record and then finding what was in it. No, I didn't find a different record - I had found a copy of the vinyl the other day at one of my usual haunts and, since I had only previously owned the EP on cassette (ugh!) and found the vinyl to be in excellent condition, I nabbed it for four bucks. It wasn't until I brought it home, readied a keeper sleeve and was about to give the record a spin on the turntable when I noticed two sheets of paper inserted within. Looking at the enclosed sheets made me realize what was up with the curious sticker on the bottom left corner:

The "Image" that this particular copy of Crazy From The Heat was compliments of was Image Consultants, a (thankfully) now-defunct company that thought that they could determine what kind of records people want to buy better than the people who actually buy records (this, of course, is around the time when SST Records was shocking the shit out of everyone by having surprise hits with two now-classic double albums from The Minutemen and Husker Du). "Consultants" like this are why most American major label records (the kind that sell only to people who only buy music as an afterthought at Sprawl-Mart) over the past several years swallow (never mind just sucking) while real music fans turn to indie labels for their rock and Japan (and Korea, thanks to BoA and Girls Generation) for their pop. But I digress.

Insert number one was a blue sheet meant to be filled out by store owners for each record to give their opinion on what they thought of the record and how many copies they think they sell every time they play the record in-store (never mind that the equation of Diamond Dave plus four interesting and well-done cover versions equals artistic and commercial win). Kind of pathetic if you ask me...

The other sheet of paper enclosed by Image in this promo copy is all sorts of win, since its' a reprint of a press release featuring some tasty Diamond Dave philosphy about the record and immediate future he was planning on at the time:

Diamond Dave, of course, was right about how well he got along with the rest of Van Halen in the penultimate paragraph of page two... only he was 23 years early! Here's to VH picking up where they left off back then!