One break, comin' uuuuuup... ILM Artist Poll #75 - VAN HALEN (Voting thread)

http://www.guitarplayer.com/news/1024/roths-van-halen-sales-trounce-sammy-hagars-hold-on-there-dave/52326

Regardless, VH would be nothing without the Roth catalog.

Cumulatively the Roth years shifted more units in part because they recorded more albums. The first album was, like the first Cars album, a steady seller for years. Every record between it and 1984 is at least double platinum. The Van Hagar's biggest seller was 5150, which benefited from the 1984 juggernaut + the Hagar novelty + "Why Can't This Be Love." It's shipped six million.

speaking of 5150 they have no New Jerseys in their catalog, right? Every one of the Hagar albums has at least two singles that fans can still hum.

idk if most fans can hum "(Don't Tell Me) What Love Can Do" (tho I could)

but Balance not really a NJ anyway

Van Hagar also helped by (a) CD sales (b) Soundscan.

This "Van Halen vs Van Hagar" podcast from the Yacht Rock guys is pretty ace:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-yacht-rock/id1074528052?mt=2&i=362780678

SALT SHAKA LITTLE LICK O' LIME

the interviews after the Van Hagar split (original) were ace. I think Eddie said the phrase "Next time I see him, he better be wearing a fuckin' cup" at least ten times.

i don't think i've heard "me wise magic" before today. that's a pretty good song!

yeah taht was the better of the two 'new' songs for the greatest hits

preparing to apologize to my roommates for deliberately listening to the post-5150 hagar records

Me Wise Magic almost made my ballot, but I slipped Push Comes to Shove in at the last minute.

My five favorite tracks from the 78-84 albums that no one ever talks about (and I voted for all of them)

Somebody Get Me a Doctor
Light Up the Sky
In a Simple Rhyme
Hang 'Em High
The Full Bug

In an alternate universe, they could've all been as big as Unchained or Panama, but ¯\(ツ)/¯

Okay, maybe not The Full Bug.

i loooove "light up the sky"

I love the drum break in "Light Up the Sky."

The thing about Van Hagar for me is that, while they certainly had their moments, oftentimes I've listened to a Van Hagar record and felt like just watching an '80s David Lee Roth interview instead.

I'm listening to "Dreams" and keep hearing the aural equivalent of poppping hemorrhoids.

a different kind of truth really doesn't hold up, huh. the song i remember liking the most ("china town") i don't even like that much anymore?

although this time around i ended up really falling for "you and your blues" (great dave vocal) and "as is" (that riff!)

i like "dreams" a lot more than "love walks in," but i don't even know what "like" means in that clause

as said upthread though the title track of 5150 is awesome

holy shit i had no clue "finish what ya started" was a van halen song

that song rocks!

This 1996 interview priceless. EVH does his impression of DLR, uses the "better wear a cup" line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqUJ9Vdjs88

http://i.imgur.com/Za7Xv8u.gif

Something very Henleyesque about repeatedly making bold threats to fuck up someone's genitals.

ou812 is mostly really dull but "mine all mine" is fucking amazing

also i find "cabo wabo" really fascinating, i have no idea why a song about sammy's fav vacation spot is seven minutes long but i sort of get hypnotized by it anyway

Xpost that one rocks.

ou812 is mostly really dull

Guitar-wise, it's not.

"mine all mine" is fucking amazing

You are correct.

Can there be a sub-poll created just so I can vote for No Holds Bar-B-Que?

"On Fire," "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and "Atomic Punk" are all battling for #1 on my ballot. The last one is inching to the top...

Also, Fair Warning sounding great this week...about equal with WACF.

Guitar-wise, it's not.

you have voiced this opinion elsewhere here and i don't really hear it

I know, I tend to repeat myself a lot on ilm (I've been saying the same thing in VH threads for years).

There's just a lot of interested textures he plays with on this record that go well with his early years "classic" tone, but not yet switching over to whatever he was doing from F.U.C.K.-onwards. Also, a lot of neat little non-recurring riffs (like the diverging few measures in "Sucker in a 3 Piece" and "A.F.U.") that are unexpected and wonderful.

"On Fire," "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and "Atomic Punk" are all battling for #1 on my ballot. The last one is inching to the top...

OTM

There's just a lot of interested textures he plays with on this record that go well with his early years "classic" tone, but not yet switching over to whatever he was doing from F.U.C.K.-onwards. Also, a lot of neat little non-recurring riffs (like the diverging few measures in "Sucker in a 3 Piece" and "A.F.U.") that are unexpected and wonderful.

huh! i'm gonna relisten with this in mind

"Dance the Night Away" is my favorite call back to "Be My Baby" in rock.

"Dance the Night Away" is my favorite call back to "Be My Baby" in rock.

This is off topic, not to mention embarrassing, but it's only been in the last couple of years that I picked up on the fact Eddie Money actually incorporated "Be My Baby" into "Take Me Home Tonight" (besides just giving Ronnie a vocal feature).

idk if i've van hagar'd myself out but f.u.c.k. is so exhausting. i think i enjoyed "pleasure dome"? is this the singlemost unappealing-looking tracklist in music?

It's my least favorite VH album (VH3 doesn't count, bc who's got time for that?).

Oddly, the only times I ever saw VH live were on the FUCK tour.

ah, the FUCK tour

they jettisoned the synths and became 100 percent joyless

having said that i really like "top of the world" which is maybe the only time i've really felt a roth-era effortlessness in the hagar era

My dad threw away my concert shirt because he picked up on the acronym which I knew about but thought he was too dumb to figure out.

xp Top of the World is based on the outro riff of Jump.

no wonder it's somehow good

Just watched a bootleg VH video from 1982 (Largo, MD) and was surprised at how awesome the band was vs. how sloppy Roth was. He was good as a ringleader or emcee, but very wanting as a singer, and I could finally understand why they would want to bring in someone like Sammy Hagar.

I can't even really think about Van Hagar as the same band. It's just NOT.

Thing I dig now listening to the original Van Halen is that they had riffs and grooves a boodle. Screw the tapping, Eddie Van Halen could get funky as hell. You can hear Black Oak Arkansas, Billy Gibbons, Sabbath and Play that Funky Music in their grooves. I think the Van Halen brothers daddy's jazz influence shows up a bunch too. Sinner's Swing, Little Guitars, Dance the Night Away and many tunes swing pretty good for rock and roll.

TUNES:
Ain't Talkin' Bout Love
Unchained
Somebody Get Me a Doctor
I'll Wait
House of Pain
Atomic Punk
Take Your Whiskey Home
And the Cradle Will Rock
Light Up the Sky
Everybody Wants Some!!
DOA
Mean Street
Dirty Movies
Hang Em High
Drop Dead Legs
Panama
Girl Gone Bad
Little Guitars
Sinner's Swing
Dance the Night Away
Jump
You Really Got Me

Van Halen albums
1- Van Halen
2- 1984
3- Women and Children First
4- Fair Warning
5- Van Halen II

Is that a ballot? Would you like to email that? Or should I just add it to the pile myself?

Note to everybody else: plz don't vote in the thread. ;)