The moniker "Dogtown" is associated with late 1970s-mid 1980s skateboarding culture of Southern California, (i.e. in Los Angeles.)
David Lee Roth's Van Halen (i.e. Van Halen's music from 1978-1984, pre-Sammy Hagar,) emerged from the same Southern California youth culture as "Dogtown," (albeit a few miles away in Pasadena, CA,)
Early Van Halen's sense of aggressive fun, wanderlust, and technical virtuosity were all characteristics embraced and embodied by Dogtown. More than any other rock band of the time, Van Halen came to be associated with that formative period of skateboarding.
"The Dogtown Shuffle" was written by then-former Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth in 1990. In the song's lyrics, Roth looks back on what compelled kids around his age to become part of "Dogtown." His conclusion is the opposite of what he described in "Just Like Paradise."
In the "Dogtown Shuffle" Roth describes LA as a dangerous city that treats the lyrics' protagonists (kids from Dogtown) as nuisances or worse -- and protagonists who want to escape boredom, seek challenges to prove themselves, and back up their talk by "walking the walk," so to speak.
Roth describes how the Dogtown youth culture was shaped by homelessness, drugs, and parents who treated their children as ne'er-do-wells -- parents for whom there's not too much difference between "a pat on the back" and kicking them out on the street.
Roth, of course, saw "the Dogtown Shuffle" relatively up-close. Although he was playing in a band, many of these people were his age, his friends, or just slightly younger... And his music was the soundtrack to their lifestyle.
The moniker "Dogtown" is associated with late 1970s-mid 1980s skateboarding culture of Southern California, (i.e. in Los Angeles.)
David Lee Roth's Van Halen (i.e. Van Halen's music from 1978-1984, pre-Sammy Hagar,) emerged from the same Southern California youth culture as "Dogtown," (albeit a few miles away in Pasadena, CA,)
Early Van Halen's sense of aggressive fun, wanderlust, and technical virtuosity were all characteristics embraced and embodied by Dogtown. More than any other rock band of the time, Van Halen came to be associated with that formative period of skateboarding.
"The Dogtown Shuffle" was written by then-former Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth in 1990. In the song's lyrics, Roth looks back on what compelled kids around his age to become part of "Dogtown." His conclusion is the opposite of what he described in "Just Like Paradise."
In the "Dogtown Shuffle" Roth describes LA as a dangerous city that treats the lyrics' protagonists (kids from Dogtown) as nuisances or worse -- and protagonists who want to escape boredom, seek challenges to prove themselves, and back up their talk by "walking the walk," so to speak.
Roth describes how the Dogtown youth culture was shaped by homelessness, drugs, and parents who treated their children as ne'er-do-wells -- parents for whom there's not too much difference between "a pat on the back" and kicking them out on the street.
Roth, of course, saw "the Dogtown Shuffle" relatively up-close. Although he was playing in a band, many of these people were his age, his friends, or just slightly younger... And his music was the soundtrack to their lifestyle.