Van Halen!

Now, a sad dead relic. The fact that Diamond Dave and Sammy Hagar are on a headlining tour together this summer is both hilarious and appropriate.

Have only just found out why they demanded no brown M&Ms:
http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/vanhalen.asp

Yeah, a lot of the weird things you hear about in riders are for that very reason.

iggy's rider is a gas. it's online somewhere....

stet you should read Crazy From The Heat immediately

Home recording of Eddie working out a few ideas in 1974. Some impressive riffing, as well as the genesis of the main riff from "Somebody Get Me a Doctor."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McxV2IZHe2E

Wow, did everyone but me know that "I'll Wait" was co-written with Michael McDonald?

nice bump, I've been rocking VH in the car all week
what a ridiculous, amazing band

Too bad Mac didn't add backing vocals.

xxpost that's news to me too, Josh

http://www.vhnd.com/2011/11/10/van-halen-signs-with-interscope-records/

Van Halen Signs With Interscope Records
Thursday, 10 November 2011

VHND has been hearing some solid info from our trusted sources, and it’s all wonderful news!

Van Halen has recently signed with Interscope Records (not Columbia Records as rumors stated). The album is 100% done and in the can, and fans will have it in their hands early next year. The release date is set in stone and is top secret, but will be announced very soon.

In fact, the Grammys are hinting strongly that Van Halen will make their announcement at the Grammy Nominations Concert held in Los Angeles on November 30th. Fans will be able to watch the announcement live on CBS.

Who's the lead singer nowadays?

DLR!

Too bad Michael Anthony and the band can't patch things up, because he's integral. But I'll take 3/4ths of the band I grew up on over nothing at all.

Mainly I just want to hear some new EVH riffage. It's been 13 years since the Gary Cherone experiment.

Sadly the 3/4ths only seem about 1/5th there these days.

Nothing is ever for sure with this band, but tickets for 2012 shows apparently go onsale next week and the image below was shown in Times Square during NYE celebrations on one of the electronic billboards (which must have cost Interscope a bit of coin). Supposedly, it's the release date for the album and closely tied to the album's cover art:

http://image.email.interscope.com/lib/fed11671756d047f/m/1/Van+Halen-+The+Future.jpg

So yeah, the first VH album in 14 years is finally upon us. :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Z7mm4qenI

VH playing at Cafe Wha? Thursday

I love the classic lineup and hold out no hope this will be anything but a steaming pile.

really don't understand why Michael Anthony won't just do this

Haven't really kept up with all the gossip, but is that why? I thought Eddie didn't want him around.

Anthony sided with Hagar in the (second) breakup.

Okay, yeah, I guess I knew that.

I love the classic lineup and hold out no hope this will be anything but a steaming pile.

I'm hopefully if only because of "Me Wise Magic" and "Can't Get This Stuff No More," even if those tracks are from 1996. I think VH and DLR bring the best out of each other.

*hopeful

that was 15 years ago, and neither would have made any of the first six records (well, maybe Diver Down which is 1/3 filler already). No hope here.

I kinda hope the new album is only a half hour long, like the first six were.

I can't see how this can possibly be good. EVH hasn't written a good song in forever. Hate to say it, but it's true, Chickenfoot is a better band.

i think the production will make or break an album like this, as it usually does when a band comes back with what's essentially their first album together in decades (or at least the first Van Halen bros/DLR album together in decades), since rock production trends have changed so much that could really 'spoil the chemistry' as much as any change in playing or songwriting. the guy they worked with, John Shanks, has a LOT Of teenpop and country and adult contempo stuff on his resume (the only comparable project is the last Bon Jovi album), which is a little sketchy but honestly i could see that working w/ VH better than if they were trying to play catchup with modern rock radio and getting with Brendan O'Brien or something, which I really came to hate about those later Springsteen/E Street albums.

yeah I feel like the loudness war is going to get taken to new heights with this album

Chickenfoot is a better band

I feel like this is maybe the most ridiculous sentence in the English language.

Right now they are. I'd rather listen to Hagar/Anthony/Satriani than Eddie/DLR/that kid.

Last Chickenfoot record was solid.

Listening to it now (first time I've knowingly heard Chickenfoot iirc). First song's alright, but we'll see.

Yeah, this is really too Sammy Hagar-y for my tastes. Soz.

Both Chickenfoot albums are much better than I expected them to be, and the second one is an improvement over the first. By contrast, just knowing that the forthcoming Van Halen single is called "Tattoo" makes me cringe. Unless it turns out to be a tribute to Herve Villechaize. That will be awesome.

The odds of the new VH album being any good are very low. The odds of it even sounding remotely like the classic line-up are virtually nil. The odds of it being better than Chickenfoot are even.

I dunno, the new Devo album was pretty good and their last 2-3 records were terrible

My take on Chickenfoot was like the infamous 7/11 cocktail: you might be tempted to mix together all the flavors at the soft drink fountain together, once, but damned if you'd take a second dip into that well.

Like Devo, Van Halen is almost its own genre, but unlike Devo, it's beholden to a very particular template, a more unique alchemy linked directly to its set of players, its producer, and its era. How were those Roth-vox tracks on the greatest hits? Never heard 'em.

really don't understand why Michael Anthony won't just do this

As noted, Eddie doesn't want Anthony in the band, only let him play on three tracks since Hagar left, and only accepted him in the last reunion (after Hagar's insistence) on the condition that he 1) agreed to a reduced future royalty split, 2) sign away his share of the name and logo and 3) end all association with the band after the tour. And has since had his son included in the visual lineup for Anthony-recorded tracks on Guitar Hero: Van Halen, even in unlockable "classic line-up" costumes. Aaaand photoshopped his son into Anthony's place on original album covers on Van-Halen.com.

How would you expect Anthony to "just do this"? Turn up at every show and busk in the parking lot outside?

I wish I could find the interview where Eddie brags how awesome Wolfgang is because he locks the bathroom door and jacks off several times a day, but here's:

Wolfie plans to attend college at some point in the future, according to his dad: "He's obviously going to Julliard or something like that — and they'll take him at the drop of a hat, because he is ready. And the kid can act, too." But for now? "He is a part of Van Halen. Permanently."

Wolfgang-era Van Halen was awesome live a few years back. I can't hate. It's not like Anthony brought much more than his ability ti chug Jack Daniels. Wolfy handled the harmonies more than capably.

How would you expect Anthony to "just do this"? Turn up at every show and busk in the parking lot outside?

haha well I guess I just had this backwards - had assumed that since Anthony sided with Hagar that was how he wanted it. But makes more sense that EVH is just being a dick.

EVH's dickness is well documented, but I think it stems from Anthony buddying up to Hagar a long time back.

Found it - RS took down the transcript but there were highlights on Roadrunner Records' gossip/news page:

EVH: "My son Wolfgang plays drums, guitars and bass. This kid is fucking dangerous. If I excel at the speed of sound, he excels at the speed of light. My brother goes, 'This is the first time I've had bass in my headphones.' He's only fifteen years old and he's getting laid. He's spanking it too."
HS: "How do you know that?"
EVH: "When you spend 45 minutes in the bathroom you're not taking a shower."

lol

xxp: I was just listening to a Michael Anthony interview on the music radar podcast. If I remember right, he said the trouble between him and Eddie started when they were recording one of the 1990s albums. III? I forget. EVH I guess purposefully shifted the band's songwriting dynamic from (paraphrased) "a bunch of guys writing songs together" to "Eddie holed up in his studio writing everyone's parts for them".

Of course, Hagar was complaining about lack of creative control around the same time. One of my favorite interview segments ever:

GW: Eddie maintains that Alex asked you specifically not to write any lyrics that involved Twisters, yet you went ahead and did it anyway. Is this true?

Hagar: I have no idea what they're talking about. In our first meeting about the soundtrack, Ed and Al told me they didn't want the song to be about Twisters, and I said fine no problem. Ray Danniels came up to me and said he didn't want a song about Twisters. Again I said fine, no problem. All I wanted to do was see some footage of the film so I could at least make some of the lyrics fit the action on the screen. Since Eddie and Alex saw the movie to make their music fit, I thought I'd better do the same thing to get a vibe or the lyrics. I asked the film's director, Jan De Bont, to send me some footage and he did. From what I saw on the screen, I thought the movie was about the infatuation people have with fear and how it can suck you in. Sometimes you're afraid to fall in love with a chick, but she sucks you in anyway. You know that if you start messing with this girl, you'll become infatuated with the danger that she represents. So "The Silent Extreme" was a song that talked about being right in the middle of all this, and I wrote this really cool lyric I thought said it all.

GW: "Sky turning black/knuckles turning white/headed for the hot zone"?

Hagar: Headed for the "suck zone." That lyric had nothing to do with tornadoes. Again, I have no idea where Eddie came up with the idea that that was tornado stuff. The only word in that phrase that even comes close to sounding like a Twister is "sky turning black." But that line can mean anything, you know. The rest of the song had absolutely nothing to do with tornadoes. It was all about entering the silent extreme.

TBF, I imagine the Red Rider is a pretty easy dude to get along with. When you band's namesake and de facto dictator has been through the rotating door of rehab too many times to count, it's a wonder that even his brother is still in the fold.

er, Red Rocker

I got a Red Rocker for christmas once, despite multiple warnings I would rock my socks off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9tOR4On8Uk

thanking you red rocker

Man, I wish I could find this old alt-weekly piece on hanging with Hagar, a dude most comfortable with his status. I did find something else that pointed out how he made much more money with his tequila than he did with Van Halen. Like, over $100 million.

BTW, xpost, I just learned, like, a week ago that the singer of Red Rider was the same guy that did that horrid "Life is a Highway" song a decade or two later.

I just learned that 4 hours ago!

Really? Now we're getting off topic I think, but I loved the song "Boy Inside the Man" from the last album he did with Red Rider in 1987. I worked my way backwards to "Lunatic Fringe" and then a few years later "Life Is a Highway" came out and I was done.

Man, I wish I could find this old alt-weekly piece on hanging with Hagar, a dude most comfortable with his status. I did find something else that pointed out how he made much more money with his tequila than he did with Van Halen. Like, over $100 million.

Hagar's autobiography is a fun read. Not only did the tequila make him bazillions, but he also did very well investing in mountain bikes and indoor fire sprinklers (!) before they became popular. There's a guy with a head on his shoulders, unlike the VH brothers, who he said were pretty much living in squalor in 1985.

That's insane (the 1985 squalor part). I could understand it if they were trying to live off record sales/royalties alone, but they'd just come off a 6-month arena tour.

Various Hagar interviews have outright stated that VH didn't start raking in the dough until Hagar took over. Found this gem:

Green: My brother interviewed you right after your Van Halen run came to an end. You had a great quote about comparing yourself to David Lee Roth.

SH: It's a fact, number one. The Van Halen part of it is the thing I'll never escape from. Other than both being singers in the same band, we have nothing in common. Other than both having a successful reign. We sold 42 million records, they sold 28 [with Roth]. I was in the band 11 years, he was 7. So stack it up. "Right Now" and all the No. 1 records were with me. They became a teenage phenomenon with him. But people grew up. It was more like 18-30 for me. Their wife and couples came to see us. The fact that I had a career before Van Halen was more important to me. David Lee Roth didn't have a career before and so he didn't have one after.

Elsewhere he notes the VH bros horrible business sense and bad contracts. Here's a piece on his accidental business savvy:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/20/MNO81IBVHU.DTL

a friend of mine is Hagar's IT guy in Hawai'i. Apparently he identifies himself as "the red rocker" on the phone.

that's all well and good Sammy, but you still only made a half decent record (5150) during your 11 year tenure with the band. the rest of it was just one steaming pile after another.

also you wrote the lyric 'only time will tell if we stand the test of time' and if you say it's ironic i won't believe you

I still think a lot of Eddie's most firecracker guitar work is on OU812, but Hagar is a big buzzkill on those tracks.

Everyone bought those steaming piles, so the joke's on us.

I will defend For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, and there are some good singles from that era, but yeah, DLR Van Halen is an entirely different level of quality. Still, I love Montrose and think that Sammy's solo career is stronger than Dave's.

I was in the band 11 years, he was 7.

Hagar: 1985-1996. Roth: 1974-1985.

We sold 42 million records, they sold 28

In what territories, Sammy? Are you counting singles, not just albums?

all the No. 1 records were with me.

I guess this is US albums, then? The first #1 single was with Dave. All your albums went #1, but they didn't sell as much as his, per RIAA (and steadily declined during your tenure):

VH: 10 million
VH II: 5 million
WACF: 3 million
FW: 2 million
DD: 4 million
1984: 10 million

5150: 6 million
OU812: 4 million
FUCK: 3 million
Balance: 3 million

Epic 2012 tour, surprising no one. Slightly more surprising, the email gaffe from EVH's wife/publicist in the press release, conflating the Van Halen bio with the Kool & the Gang bio.

...Presented with two Diamond Award RIAA Certified Status' for their albums Van Halenand 1984, the band has produced a repertoire of hits that remain some of the strongest and most influential rock songs ever written that fans will admire for decades to come.

Kool & The Gang found a special sound at the unique intersection of jazz, R&B, funk and pop. Their music has been created by the same core of players for over thirty years: Robert "Kool" Bell, his brother Khalis Bayyan, their longtime friends Dennis "DT" Thomas and George "Funky" Brown.

i like to imagine DLR inserting that in there because he was just really loving Kool & The Gang that day

From the Times review of last night's club gig:

Mr. Roth, 57, showed some wear in his high notes, and he wasn’t taking his shirt off for this gig; in fact, he was wearing overalls.

he's rocking the overalls in the 'trailer' johnny fever posted upthread

http://www.nylonmag.com/modules/magsection/article/uploaded_images/3964_ct_farmer.jpg

Boy, there must be some good account of how Van Halen pulled off "1984." I mean, I like "Woman and Children First" and "Fair Warning," but those albums are kind of rambling messes, as is "Van Halen II," kind of. And then here comes "1984," all killer and no filler. Or at least close to that. It's a small miracle they pulled it off.

o dude i love FW! the other two a little less so, but they're still p rad. dive down's the one where i'm all ehh

i'm really surprised 5150 outsold OU812. i guess 5150 was getting some residual shine from the 1984 behemoth?

maura's review!

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2012/01/van_halen_cafe_wha_january_5_review.php

clips already on YouTube

Why does every recent Van Halen piece, including that one, act like this band didn't reunite and tour just a couple of years ago? Like:

Last night Van Halen tried to blow away any last traces of the rancor and bad blood that arose again and again in the years since Roth's long-ago departure for a solo career, and it mostly succeeded.

Come on, the band reunited already. They seemed happy and great when I saw them in 2010 or whenever. This is what they call "a tour." Bands do it all the time.

once a band has reunited, the perpetual reunion narrative dominates forever

Unlike their reunion/victory lap tour from a while ago, there's a new album to go along with this one. Automatically = more buzz.

More like a buzzkill, really.

also w/ VH's messy history it would take more than just one or two successful tours to stop focusing on it (xpost)

But even then, DLR has recorded with VH in recent years! Now, Gary Cherone - that would be a reunion.

Besides, everyone knows the bad blood is still there. DLR and the Van Halen family have different publicists, representation, etc. DLR's dressing room is like a mile away from the rest of the guys.

They're just all contractually obligated to smile and be awesome. Unlike the last tour I saw with Hagar and Anthony in the fold, which was dire.

I should listen to VH3 again just to reacquaint myself with the Cherone-sung songs. I think I convinced myself it was good at the time, but it's THE album I never go back to.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/van-halen-08-rider?page=2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvKkgouCcGY&feature=player_embedded

I mean, I'm not immune to the hype, but they were awesome in '08. This is like a "still awesome" bomb they're dropping.

When is Radiohead going to reunite next?

Jim Morrison does Stairway To Heaven. Egad.

lollllll

man that looks like it was fun

i have always harbored the fantasy of seeing a really BIG hard rock act in a tiny club

i saw ace frehley in a tiny club. i guess that's as close as i'll come.

i mean, i'm no kiss fanatic, but to hear ace do ace kiss songs ten feet from me was pretty awesome. and he sounded great too. pre-reunion thing.

Burnt Hills was likely the biggest band -- in terms of size and volume -- that I'll ever see in a club.

i don't know, maybe i'm in odd circles, but there was a ton of 'is this even going to work at all' buzz before this show, hence me writing what i did

(hi everybody)

"This is like being abducted by aliens... or, no, Van Haliens."

That was a smart man who reminded you to write that down, maura.

xpost But why was there any doubt this would work? '08 shows were beyond solid.

Not loving the album title (A Different Kind of Truth), but glad they're coming to my burg in April.

1. Tattoo
2. She’s The Woman
3. You and Your Blues
4. China Town
5. Blood and Fire
6. Bullethead
7. As Is
8. Honeybabysweetiedoll
9. The Trouble With Never
10. Outta Space
11. Stay Frosty
12. Big River
13. Beats Workin’

hmm...

I hope "Blood and Fire" is a Niney The observer cover.

From what I gather, She's the Woman and Bullethead are tracks that have been around for forever in demo form. I don't know if they're pre-WB (that would a LONG time), but fans seem to already be familiar with them.

If "Outta Space" is the Billy Preston song, I'm on board.

too long

"She's The Woman" is on the WB demos. Don't know about "Bullethead"

OK, I'll post the video for the new, terrible, chorus-less single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WfQ-hV3WtA

It's actually the verses that are lame imo

Also, I can't remember any album since 5150 having one of its best songs released as the first single (Black and Blue, Poundcake, Don't Tell Me What Love Can Do, Without You—though, to be fair, III had no "best songs").

Man, that song plods. I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt but I could barely make it to the solo. Which isn't that great, either.

Oy. That's a dog of a song, though there is almost something good in the riff. Question is, is it the worst DLR Van Halen song? On first listen I say yes. Worse even then some of the Diver Down filler.

So, "Tattoo" isn't a Who cover and "Outta Space" isn't a Billy Preston cover. Pass.

don't they still have a pile of old 1976 demos they can use?

They used one of them on this album ("She's the Woman").

This is better than the song:

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxliemwvXT1qlzduwo1_400.gif

Also, I can't remember any album since 5150 having one of its best songs released as the first single (Black and Blue, Poundcake, Don't Tell Me What Love Can Do, Without You—though, to be fair, III had no "best songs").

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, January 10, 2012 11:07 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

poundcake is a jam

i thought the guitar solo in tattoo was great

it has a chorus, just not a good one

though i like when they say "swap meet sally" cuz it sounds like a song title off of "NWA and the Posse" or an old Toddy Tee or King Tee song

The bridge reminds me of "Walking Down Madison" by Kirsty MacColl.

OK, listened again, kinda dig it. I mean, it's at least as good as "I'll Wait," easily better than any Hagar thing aside from "Finish What Ya Started." It's a verse too long, though.

That's so not OTM.

At the least, "I'll Wait" is great.

Never liked it myself. Relatively downbeat Van Halen doesn't work too well; less so when it's keyboard-dominated.

I'll Wait is a classic track, and a Michael McDonald co-write. It's also way better than Tattoo.

This is just typical latter-day VH plod. I like the "tattooo, tattooo" part and some of the guitar work, but it's really a nothing type of song. Has it dashed all my optimism for the album? Nope. It's at least playful, unlike about 80% of the Hagar material and 100% of the Cherone album. DLR = fun VH.

'poundcake' is a jam. i'd forgotten that was on FUCK.

LOVE i'll wait.

kinda wishing they did more than one take on this video

xxp: read that as "typical latter-day VH1 plod".

It picks up life right around the transition to the solo. I think the solo is kinda boilerplate EVH but doesn't really go anywhere new. Too few "momshells" in the video. Too many wrinkly visages (and the one roly-poly baby).

i'll wait is possibly my favorite VH song ever. i have the 12".

new song is much better if you close your eyes while the video is playing

Rather liked it - the slight sense of melancholy around it, and the creaminess of the backing vocals. I mean, it's no Unchained, but for toes back in the water it's just fine.

new song is much better if you close your eyes while the video is playing

This is actually true. But it also brings to the forefront DLR's limitations in his higher register these days.

for toes back in the water it's just fine.

Yes, because it is absolutely tepid.

I was most bummed by the lack of harmonies.

Kool and the Gang is opening for them at MSG.

yeah I kind of love "Tattoo," to my great surprise - avoided listening to it when it was first posted to this thread because I figured if it sucked why did I wanna hear it. But Roth's gift for turning a phrase has always gone underpraised and this song's full of really clever little moments - the merits of "mousewife to momshell" are questionable (I think it's cute enough) but that it's followed by "in the time it took to get that new tattoo" gets a solid A from me, that's a smart little bit of narrative work imo. + EVH standing in to do (or fake) harmonies when the chorus comes in...I don't know. It's sweet. I always thought the Hagar move was lame & that Roth handily won round 1 of the post-breakup albums but was too nuts for the long game. I think for a "mature" Van Halen, this is really good. It certainly beats the shit out of the Hagar era, that dude is fucking dire.

The solo is a B- for EVH but it's all right, probably suffers from how easy it is to comp solos now.

also "mousewife to momshell in the time it took to get that new tattoo" is basically a Craig Finn lyric

haha otm

Also, Alex' snare sound. I honestly can't think of any other band, in any genre, where the snare drum is so consistently and perfectly recorded over so many decades.

"mousewife to momshell" is not a Roth original.

http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/momshell_power_cRT3VL9mngyCmpHRp8UGrK

Also, Alex' snare sound. I honestly can't think of any other band, in any genre, where the snare drum is so consistently and perfectly recorded over so many decades.

― Let A Man Come In And Do The Cop Porn (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, January 13, 2012 11:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is OTM, i was actually just marveling this the other day when a radio station was playing an ad for their upcoming concert here with a little montage of Roth era hits, and "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love" and "Panama" sounded so consistent side by side, like they were from the same album and not recorded 6 years apart. rock production changed SO much between 1978 and 1984 that it's hard to imagine that's true of many other bands, especially mainstream ones, if any, and the fact that that sound has been pretty unchanged through the Hagar era up to the present is even more amazing.

man, i had no intent of liking this song and what do you know, it's actually really good

yeah I listened to it late last night and when I woke up it's still running around my head. for DLR VH to have a decent record out in 2012 is about the weirdest fucking thing

I will admit that it easier on the ears when not watching the video.

i'm sure this is covered within the thread but at least a few of the songs are drawing from older VH songs cut as demos? That explains a lot to me

oh yeah, i just watched the video. don't watch the video.

do watch through the first chorus because when evh does the "I'm not mic'd but I sing the chorus anyway" bit there's something sort of tremendous & melancholy about it

rock production changed SO much between 1978 and 1984 that it's hard to imagine that's true of many other bands, especially mainstream ones, if any, and the fact that that sound has been pretty unchanged through the Hagar era up to the present is even more amazing.

Definitely. They didn't even do the gated snare thing in the late-80s, when it was pretty much the law.

If you look at Templeman's track record, dude knows what he's doing. Doobie Brothers, Van Morrison ... not the most fashionable producer, but a master of meat and potatoes. Ironically (or not) he produced the first Montrose record.

He also did a good job on Captain Beefheart's Clear Spot. Tix on sale today for much of the tour. I'd like to go, but only selling to people with American Express today. This kind of b.s. plus the $90 - $180 prices make me just say fuckit and stick with the less known bands in small rooms.

I've loved VH since I was 10 years old and I've never seen them with DLR and I've always wanted to, but not for $100. Maybe that makes me sound cheap...okay, yes it does make me sound cheap, but even that isn't worth $100.

Might have been worth the dough a couple of years back, when there was no threat of new material. I mean, they were awesome in '08. Played everything I'd hoped they play, more or less.

ok, this song isn't even as good as "Me Wise Magic"

^^^OTFM

This is....good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY7ZqN8Ksdg

This is... a 1984 instrumental with new lyrics!

but it is way better than "Tattoo"

If they wanna raid the vaults for stuff like this, it's fine with me.

i think at least half the record is going to be vault cleaning.

misread that as "vacuum cleaning", lol

half an album of vacuum cleaning would still make it better than the record they made with Gary Cherone.

agreed

Now that sounds like Van Halen.

I love how the band was still cribbing from the vaults as late as "1984." Cheap Trick should have known better than to blow its backlog wad so early ...

YES! The boogie is back.

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

I like "Tattoo," much better than expected too -- sorry.

Man, that part where it kicks in at 1:10 on Stay Frosty and the acoustic guitar is in this weird time signature relative to the full-band punches is KILL-ER!

Snippet of "The Trouble With Never" at Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0071GGIPC/ref=dm_dp_trk2?ie=UTF8&qid=1327529944&sr=8-1

YES!!!!!!!!!!! Van Halen is back, jack!!

I saw those club clips and was stoked, I liked the new song they played at that gig, but got leary when I heard Tattoo, although that fucking song gets stuck in my head rigght away when I hear it, but hearing these snippits I'm stoked again... Van Fuckin Halen, motherfuckers!!

This stuff is...okay. But "Stay Frosty" in particular is really missing Michael Anthony when the full band kicks in.

Get over it... Michael Anthony is not coming back.. this is the closest its gonna be to the real Van Halen.. And Wolfy, well if I can't have Michael Anthony, I'd rather have another Van Halen in the band. Missing his high pitched backups, although great, is a small price to pay to have Alex throughing down those HUGE back beats, Dave, one of the best frontmen of all time, and Eddie doing the most head chopping shit he can! I'll fucking take it!!

i would never have imagined that 2012 was the year i'd get back into halen

Man, Michael Anthony blows. I guess I miss his vox, but not his plodding bass playing, and Wolfy does fine with both of those things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ewsHwVOyyE

UM HOLY SHIT Y'ALL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FZCwTsoQMs

honestly totally shocked at the quality of this new stuff

I'm happy to say these further leaks are less embarrassing then I expected or that "Tattoo" lead me to fear. However, I'm not digging the obvious vocal cut and pasting in both "Stay Frosty" and "China Town". Dave can't fit the lines in and still breathe, and the word crunch of that effect really bothers me.

Crazytr...I mean Chinatown sounds great!

I really do not like "The Trouble with Never". sounds like stripper rock with a forgettable chorus.

Chinatown, on the other hand....is sweet.

Tattoo is boring.

Stay Frosty is fan-fucking-tastic.

VH practically invented "stripper rock" so that doesn't work as an insult

Trouble with Never is bad stripper rock, let me put it that way. too generic 'lol-80s'.

stuff like Chinatown will have my ear tho

I am getting closer and closer to buying this album day of release. If Best Buy has it for $9.99 (or less), I'm sold.

wouldn't be surprised if they stock racks and racks and sell it for 7.99 the first week.

Yeah, now that I've heard 90 seconds of The Trouble With Never vs the 30 seconds I heard the other day, it's kinda dire. I may appreciate it more in the context of the album, though...who knows. I already like Tattoo more than I originally did.

Beats Workin'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIq9CYP2JEQ

Big River
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aFu5oZtGLI

Outta Space
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6ZyoKbPOMw

As Is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JKk0EfR0RM

"Outta Space" makes a reference to a "facebook page" smh

"Big River" is the first song preview that makes me want to hear the whole thing.

Big River is one of pre-debut demos, isn't it?

Just heard a :30 snippet of You and Your Blues too...great opening riff.

Ah, here's a :90

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu7CXhBBywE

Apparently "Big River" is a rework of "Big Trouble". No wonder I like it! Thought it sounded familiar.

Hate to say it, but listening to it now and the demo is better. Michael Anthony and DLR's higher register both sorely missed.

Honeybabysweetiedoll
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Gz88ziwTw

Bullethead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOZzoBS1eEw

I think that's it now...90-second previews of every track are out there now. Of course, that's no way to judge an album properly, but so far I'm definitely giving it a B+ (The Trouble With Never and Tattoo being the only songs I'm not enthusiastic about).

Have you seen a listing anywhere of which ones are old demos reconsidered? Because "Beats Working" is "Put Out The Lights" (I'm skimming through the demos to compare, but I'm sure someone's already done the mall).

I haven't, but I'm sure one will pop up somewhere soon.

Full version of a few songs out there:

Blood And Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt0QEHenIxY

The Trouble With Never
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7BT-aFUPEU

This made me laugh.

Michael Anthony Looks Forward To New Van Halen Record

I somehow missed the snippet of "The Trouble With Never". Not so hot.

"Blood And Fire" sounds like a Skyscraper outtake.

Haha.

Also, that means that the album will have leaked by Feb 2, right? Why they don't release it the same time in every region nowadays is beyond me.

I don't know either, but the constant snippets and leaks are making us talk about an album we probably won't remember come March.

I will. I've been waiting for this since 1996 (when the two DLR tracks showed up on the best of).

I'll just listen to the album worth of demos from when they were good, thank you very much.

okay, so it's all oout there and pretty much "okay" so far. "Blood and Fire" is terrible though.

Dave being, well, full-on Dave here

Even so, he has chosen once again to hitch himself to the Van Halen wagon. Is it possible he and Eddie Van Halen – for all the very public acrimony between them – need each other to create anything resembling their best work? For the first time, Roth pauses – there are 30 seconds before he speaks. Then, finally: "Clearly. Very astute. Clearly." Apart, they're footnotes; together, they're a novel. "We went to school together. Literally. We took theory and orchestration together. We both have almost identical backgrounds in how we learnt. We learnt at the back of the hand from eastern-European teachers. Unfriendly eastern-European teachers." And for a long time, they shared the same aims: "I always thought of it as part of a group. I never thought in terms of Rod Stewart, I thought in terms of the Rolling Stones or the Sex Pistols. I think Edward thought in the same vein."

And does knowing you need each other make the tensions between you all the worse? And we're off on one of those long, rambling, glorious answers. "Jesus, let's go back to the 1600s again. People didn't understand psychology, right? You showed them emotional content and made somebody cry and they thought it was demons. One of the best reviews you can get in my estimation is from the villagers if they killed all the actors and buried them at the cross so their ghosts couldn't haunt the village – because everyone left the play crying and laughing and they couldn't understand why. Today we give them an Oscar for that kind of emotional ride. Being human has caused so much of that. Let's really back into some theory here. What is art? Simple, I think – something that forces and compels you to think, and that can be a mint condition copy of Raging Bull or it can be the Kardashians. The same questions will be asked and you will be forced to confront yourself, and you will be forced to triangulate where you stand on everything from racist politics to haircuts. And are they really different? Do you follow? You're going to ask the same questions and that … shit … is … art. And it has caused you to question more than that goddam soup can Warhol sold us. Or tried to. Bring that one up. You follow? You are compelled into argument. Consequently, arguing about our band and our rock'n'roll - you can do that certainly for longer than actually listening to it." Then he laughs long and loud, and offers the perspective that comes with being 56, happy, and aware that there's more to life than telling the world that it might as well jump. "Van Halen music is whisky in a paper cup! Short doses and not every night, PLEASE!"

Eddie Van Halen I get, but David Lee Roth knows theory and orchestration?

why not?

"Van Halen music is whisky in a paper cup! Short doses and not every night, PLEASE!"

OK, that is brilliant.

That was the most enjoyable interview I've ever done. Only 31 mins, by phone, but every word was marvellous. If not usually relevant.

Love the caption in the piece's supporting photo: Van Halen on rollerskates. Just in case anyone was wondering what was on their feet.

i highly reccomend Dave's autobio Crazy From The Heat to anyone that hasn't read it

heard a song from this on the radio this morning that made me go WOAH what is THAT

Crazy from the heat is great, would love to get roth and rollins in an interview about the writing of that book

yeah that book is awesome

Crazy from the Heat is still "Used from $42.00" on Amazon. Anyone know where a pdf might exist?

yeah it's pricey, it's been out of print for years

xp Maybe try your local library? That's why they're there.

Like as if I didn't do that.

new album up on spotify!

HELLLOOOO what I'm listening to all day tomorrow

^^^ (night tonight)

ok, this is fucking incredible

"As Is" is my favorite so far

Sort of surprised (maybe I shouldn't be?) by the amount of evil-sounding chromatic riffs in this

I actually think this album starts a bit weak and ends up absolutely smokin

lol @ at that Roth quote.

Two things I wrote:

http://www.emusic.com/listen/#/music-news/review/album/van-halen-a-different-kind-of-truth/:

http://www.spin.com/articles/fair-warning-best-and-worst-moments-van-halens-7-david-lee-roth-records

Sort of surprised (maybe I shouldn't be?) by the amount of evil-sounding chromatic riffs in this

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, February 8, 2012 6:40 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, there were a couple of times where I was like, "Damn, EVH sounds like Kim Thayil here!"

this is kinda like a whole record of van halen "album tracks"

"How many roads must a man walk down, before he admits he's lost?"

I don't really even like Van Halen and this is pretty great. Could they have picked a weaker lead track/single? It's catchy, there's that, but there's such a yawning gulf in quality between "Tattoo" and the rest of the record that you wonder, what the hell were they thinking?

yeah esp cuz "she's the woman" seems to have that classic VH sound and is obv an old track, i'm really surprised they didn't have that open the record and be the single...

i hate songs where the title phrase is repeated in different sections of the song or with different melodies/cadences, so when DLR says "tattoo" 5-7 times in a row in three different ways it feels like he's personally trolling me

<i>this is kinda like a whole record of van halen "album tracks"</i>

Yeah, kinda. But some of my favorite tracks on the first six were never anywhere close to being singles. And with VH, it usually takes ten listens or more before I start really digging into what's going on with the guitar, get familiar with DLR's vocal tics, etc.

"Blood and Fire" is def. the "Little Guitars" of this album.

i have to admit that when dlr says "you wanna play?" in "the trouble with never" i silently add "i'll hook your line to a stingray"

They nailed it! How often do we slag an old band for putting out a record that is too modern sounding, or when they try to jump on a trend? And how often to we slag an old band when they put out a record that sounds exactly like something they did before? Somehow Van Halen managed to do both and neither at the same time, and its great!! its not the most amazing record, but with all the hype and expectation, they made a fine record that old fans can get into, and new fans can understand why they are one of the biggest and baddest rock'n'roll bands of all time..

i like the line "Swap Meet Sally" in "Tattoo" because it sounds like a the title of a song that could have been on NWA & the Posse

Klosterman has weighed in in his usual equivocating, maybe, kinda sorta, liking it, except not really, but it's okay, way:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7561092/judging-new-van-halen-album-different-kind-truth

I don't hate Klosterman as much as everyone else seems to do, but yeah, I cannot fucking stand the way he never really comes down on a side.

He would be a decent writer if he could hold to an actual opinion.

I did like this: "To a degree, Dave gets a lifetime pass just for proving that humans like himself can exist in reality. The only way he could ruin a Van Halen album would be by not participating."

But still he has to add "To a degree" to the front of it! It's a good observation and he should stand by it.

"conversational" is his stylistic trademark, though, and the equivocation helps generate an off the cuff, just-dudes-talkin' vibe. i mean, i actually like klosterman, and that's at least as much a product of his writing style as his taste or analysis. he's funny, gently trenchant, informed about his passions but never arrogant or professorial, and he's got a clear, personal literary voice. you know not only what he thinks about the subject at hand, but "where he's coming from" in general. i appreciate that. he may be the dave barry of pop criticism, but but at least he's not feigning a position of authoritative, journalistic objectivity.

"to a degree" is conversational?

as i see it, his style is conversational, overall. he gets this across in part by foregrounding things like indecision and self-awareness, as though he isn't under a journalistic obligation to maintain a dispassionate and authoritative remove from his subjects. i'm not saying that he tries to duplicate conversational cadence and phrasing in his writing, but rather that his style is fairly casual and he spends as much time describing his own position in the moment as he does the object he's ostensibly considering. i mean, maybe "conversational" isn't exactly the word for what i'm attempting to describe, but it's somewhere between that and the style of a personal essay.

dude sucks

Finally listened to this today. I liked some of the fast tracks, but I thought it was too long by a third and too loud by maybe as much. There used to be lots of space and dynamics in VH, but this is pretty monolithic. First impression, of course, but I don't know how much I'm going to return to this, bless 'em for existing.

Shanks did a good job on getting the overall sound right, yeah, but there's definitely no nuance in the production that Templeman and Landee were so good at.

dude sucks

Six hour Van Halen special on the Howard Stern channel is the arena rock Rashomon. Worth seeking out if you want to hear all the stores.

From the POV of a DLR-era Van Halen geek, Klosterman nails it. Why does a review have to come down to a single opinion?

yeah, OTM. esp love the summary in the 2nd to last paragraph. sure, the "to a degree" might be unnecessary, but that's such a minor quibble.

I like Tattoo more and more and more. I seem to be alone in this.

it has grown on me a little (but i still haven't heard the rest of the album)

as a piece of music, "tatto" is pretty great. the only real problem is the lyrics, and i have the same objection to "stay frosty". when dave tries to be all comical, hip and topical, he comes off like a drunk uncle at a bar-b-que. and there's nothing really wrong with that, uncles are cool and all, but it does make me cringe a little. stop saying "mousewife to momshell", dude. i know it sounds clever in your head, but it really should have stayed there.

still, though "tattoo" is arguably catchiest thing on ADKOT, the best shot at a hit, it's not what the band does best. the eight-song stretch from "she's the woman" through "the trouble with never" does a much better job of demonstrating where VH are at these days and what they're capable of. i can't believe how sharp, heavy and focused this sounds, given that it's been thirty freaking years since they last released an album i could so much as stand to be in the room with. maybe the key to this is that they've moved back more than forward. as far as this album is concerned, it's still socal in the 70s/80s. cutoffs and empty pools. you can hear both the echoes of zappa and the inspiration that would later be taken by bands like the red hot chili peppers and the minutemen. thing is, despite this fealty to their heroic past, ADKOT doesn't sound like a tired, nostalgic throwback. aside from a few drunklish outliers, these songs are fresh and full of life, familiar yet totally unique. nobody else sounds like this. van halen helped define their era, but they don't have an ossified "period" sound. they just sound like van halen.

alex and eddie haven't slipped a notch in 30 years (or well, slipped more than one), and wolfgang is a better bass player than michael ever was. listening to this album feels like being knocked around inside a pinball machine or a motorcyle engine. the interplay between guitar and drums is dizzying, almost ecstatic. my only real complaint is that the sound is a little one-dimensional. when the band are really ripping, it works just fine, but there isn't much depth or subtlety on the quieter parts, like the unicorny acoustic intros. and the bass is given way too much space to stomp around in, gets oppressive after a while. still, this is a far, far better van halen record than anyone had a right to expect. though i have nothing against his writing, i think klosterman's kind of dick for being so wishy-washy about it.

stop saying "mousewife to momshell", dude. i know it sounds clever in your head, but it really should have stayed there.

I feel like it's worth repeating: DLR seemingly ganked the "mousewife to momshell" phrase from someone else.

DLR not the best at keeping his thoughts to himself, it is true

it turns out "Tattoo" is based on one of the early tracks too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kCj0VfD22o

Wow.

Has that awesome David Lee Roth scream/sound generator vanished from the internet forever?

It's not where it used to be, but I'm hoping to find it mirrored somewhere.

http://www.realmofdarkness.net/pc/sb/music/dlr/2

was there ever a time when DLR didn't come off like a drunk uncle? i mean, that's just who he is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKTc9VaNIiI

Part 2 of the interview series

This one's really great, because they talk about the nuts and bolts of their first WB record deal and why it takes so long to make albums now as opposed to the one-per-year they used to make.

https://vimeo.com/37045572

was there ever a time when DLR didn't come off like a drunk uncle? i mean, that's just who he is.

yeah, i know, but he used to wear it better, imo. this stuff is more "i-i-i-i-i ain't got nobody" than "ain't talkin' 'bout love". big gap there.

Saw a "=VH=" logo spray-painted on a wall in Pasadena today.

From a couple days ago...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHUG9KxCZfo

Was totally going to see them tonight, but I promised a friend I'd see Bettye LaVette. She was good, but she's not Van Halen.

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m05lz4eh6I1qz5dqgo1_500.jpg
Van Halen 1, Flaming Lips 0

took longer than i expected, tbh: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/van-halen-postpone-summer-tour-dates-20120517

Who would win in a fight between WVH and DLR?

Wolfgang is a strapping 21-year-old man now, not even a question really

I dunno, man. DLR has always been into martial arts. Now, if we're talking a bong-off, it'd be a toss off, but I bet DLR could toss Wolfgang across the room.

i expect DLR has a Batman-like file on each of his teammates, describing their weaknesses in detail in case he has to neutralize them.

also DLR probably would not be above revealing some dark-ass shit about Wolfie's parents, mindfucking the poor kid just long enough for an expertly placed karate chop

maybe i'm just fooled by DLR's goofy public persona but i almost kind of imagine that he doesn't even really hate the Van Halens and he just keeps getting on their bad side by being obnoxious

oh i doubt DLR would start the fight. but he would finish it.

like the seperate dressing room areas thing could totally be "we don't want to have to listen to him talk backstage, the banter during the show is enough"

xpost See also: Stewart Copeland vs. Sting.

his autobio definitely suggests DLR is always his electricifying self and the van halen brothers are miserable fellows who can't handle the glory. sammy hagar and michael anthony would at least agree with the last part.

yeah i loved Crazy In The Heat but it's been like 12 years since i read it, really should revisit it

Shake Your Rump was my own #1, and has been since pretty much the first time I heard it. I may not have fully understood Paul's Boutique when I was 15, but I understood that Shake Your Rump was otherworldly great.

took longer than i expected, tbh: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/van-halen-postpone-summer-tour-dates-20120517

Would pay to hear DLR's "Shake Your Rump"

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3430/3716761946_f89c6263a1_b.jpg

Kiss Unmasked

As cool as that photo is, my first reaction is an urge to punch Sean Penn in the face.

yeah he has been needing a punch in the face for 30 years straight

Mike D looks about 13 and like he has mumps in that picture.

Mike D in that pic is like:

http://www.sigmanubruins.org/s/585/images/editor/flounder_animal-house.jpg

Plus:

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRAxli4w552JI-xEy6Oqwirjbg68blEwUxgvJFyvadKfVp_YmEf

no doubt saying "THIS NEXT ONE...IS...THE FIRST SONG...ON OUR NEW ALBUM!"

I had REMEMBERED "Panama" as having this long instrumental bridge with lots and lots of bong and lighter foley but I guess I got that wrong?

the new album is nice when it shows up in random rotation

Why didn't anyone tell me there is an entire 1982 show up on youtube? So damn good so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmCfjv0gGC4

That's from the Capital Centre in Largo, MD either Oct 11 or 12, 1982.

Man, I was driving down 495 the other day and I realized that there's still a shopping center called Boulevard at the CAP CTR. R.I.P.

Can't believe that's still there! You would have thought they'd rename it after 15 years or however long it's been gone.

This show is reminding me just how amazing DLR is at pandering to the crowd. A true master.

That was pretty great. (Skipped through, but saw a lot of it)

DLR on the language of video. Along the way, you get a Bruce Springsteen imitation, a deconstruction of Picasso, and how "DLR" wouldn't exist without the Nicholas Brothers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ql_6aSOq6c

My God, I have never seen this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3Alu8nZuvk

Is the audio on that not working for anyone else? I checked a couple other youtubes and I could hear them fine.

Saw on VHND that Eddie is a recording a track with LL Cool J for his new album.

Couldn't be worse than Page/Diddy

you say that like Eddie isn't completely nuts

My God, I have never seen this:



Man, Eddie seems in sad shape here. Shades of Ozzy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKxKtqB6zAM

I dunno, he seems okay there. Don't forget he had part of his tongue removed.

Oh yeah.

I suppose I was more shocked by how low and grumbly his voice is, given he's half-famous for his high harmonies

I thought Michael Anthony sang all of those...?

It was him and Eddie.

(But mostly MA!)

Man, Eddie seems in sad shape here. Shades of Ozzy:



Love how he still makes an awkward black joke.

MA sang the high harmonies.. Eddies are mid range

Christ. That's almost entirely in keeping with what I've heard he's been like since the height of their dame, but even still the bit about Quincy Jones was brutal -- the "hey, no offense, black sound guy" part included.

― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, March 16, 2013 4:52 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Eddie was a major alcoholic for years, so I'm guessing he was pretty trashed during this (not that that excuses any of it). There's also this interview which consists mostly of Eddie either not answering questions, promising to answer questions later, or demanding the interviewer turn off his tape recorder.

I exaggerated a it for sure, but EVH always had this boyishness to him, and that interview was the most grumbly old man-ish I'd ever heard him, Yes, years of smoking and drinking will do that. Though of course, it's not like I've been watching interviews with EVH over the years. Maybe he's sounded like that for the past 30 years.

he's definitely sounded like that since at least the '90s, he was pretty gravelly and cantankerous circa the first abortive DLR reunion

Eddie should just retire and give Wolfgang a more spry partner, thus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV6SmY04WdE

They should put her in Slayer.

Tattoo! Tattoo!

uh that girl playing eruption above is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFjNvJv4iKA

Absolutely no idea what got into me, but I was suddenly struck by an interest in reading a Gary Cherone interview. What's up with that dude? Did he disappear, or did I, along with everyone else, just stop paying attention? So I find a good one on Rolling Stone, very honest and blunt, with Cherone in good spirits and thankful for his opportunity, talking about his tenure in Van Halen as well as getting back together with Extreme (when Nuno is not touring with Rihanna). Then I think, huh, I never heard a note that Cherone actually sang with Van Halen, nothing from that album, nothing live. I quickly find a clip of him singing "Panama" live with the band, and you know what?

it sucked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4taG7bjvSI

That done, one of these days I need to seek out isolated Michael Anthony bass tracks and hear if he's actually playing anything.

Anthony is a serviceable bassist, but an indispensable background vocalist.

Also, that whole VHIII album stinks. I was gracious to it in 1998 because I'd waited a while for new VH material, but in hindsight it is absolute mush.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ewsHwVOyyE

I liked the single on VHIII, and some of the playing was really great. but there's a song called "once" that sounds grotesquely like that Mike Post dude that EVH was said to have been friends with…and "How many say I," a ponderous piano ballad sung by EVH must be heard to be believed.

I am listening to a Different kind of Truth for the first time…

1. when did DLR start doing this spoken, sotto voce, quasi-"ahm talkin' like a sexy black man" routine? I've noticed it on some of his solo shit and on this record, but do not recall it in 78-84 VH or Eat 'em and Smile.

2. They want to have Michael-style background vox, so they do…without Michael. and there are these discrete synth stabs, which sound old-fashioned, and not in the way you would think the band wants.

3. clearly, EVH wants to do the band now because he can do it with Wolfie… like now it's a family band, and maybe wolfie can take the edge off DLR for his dad. some EVH freaks I know think it's some of his best ever playing…I wonder if Los Bros VH ever cared about what DLR's lyrics are about…here, some of his phrasing and ideas are clunky, but that means he's trying, not phoning it in…

4. has anyone listened to this record since 2012? does anyone listen to records made by old rock guys made in the last decade after the first few weeks? seems to me they get left behind in the komputah churn with little regard to merits…or maybe that's just everything?

It's exceedingly easy to grab one of the original six albums instead of the most recent one, but I did play it about a month ago. Some of it still really holds up. Tattoo still sucks.

I'm not at all a fan of Tattoo, but I really think its the best I could have hoped for regarding a modern Van Halen album with DLR. I was very much afraid we would get the kind of tracks on the first greatest hits which just sound like Dave singing over Sammy era riffs and production. ADKOT doesn't have quite the live in the studio feel of the early records, but it's certainly loose and allows plenty of room for Dave to be Dave.

If they end up doing a new record (and it's rumored they will), I can only hope it's this good. Outside of 5150 I'll take it over ever Van Hagar album...I'm biased, of course.

when did DLR start doing this spoken, sotto voce, quasi-"ahm talkin' like a sexy black man" routine?

does the "ease the seat back..." bit in panama count?

4. no :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ewsHwVOyyE

http://www.theonion.com/articles/cia-admits-role-in-1985-coup-to-oust-david-lee-rot,37570/

My wife just asked me if David Lee Roth was ever a sex symbol. I'm not sure! Was he? I think of him as more of this party animal wild man than a Rock Sex God, but I'm sure he had plenty of Sunset Strip groupies.

http://img5.bdbphotos.com/images/orig/c/3/c3y2bxxno7ee7oex.jpg?djet1p5k

Inara says yes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wxuQ9szJ3A

I just started this, so I don't know how good it is, but if you want to hear EVH talk for an hour then here you go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl59RPs7PiI

Looks cool, can't wait!

Really fascinating story behind the Helmut Newton photo of DLR that was included with Women and Children First.

Listening to the new remaster of 1984 right now. They STILL haven't added that little DLR ad-lib that's in the video but not on the record. I guess I understand the inclination to keep the album as it was originally presented, but I kind of like that ad-lib.

In "Jump," that is.

But it wouldn't be an adlib on the record!

I get up!
And nothing gets me down

CANT YOU SEE ME STANDIN HEAH I GOT MY BACK AGAINST THE REKKID MACHIIIIII-IIIINE
I AINT THE WORST THAT YOUVE SEEEE-EEEEEN
AW CANT YA SEE WHAT I MEEEEEEEEEEEEEAN

Yowza!

nothin' beats the Legion of Rock Stars version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1JjHVE4Uco

ain’t talking bout

"DLR Band means Dave, Lowery, and Ray. I named it that because it sounds more like a band than David Lee Roth, which just sounds like a person. When you hear David Lee Roth - you think of a person. When you hear DLR Band - you think of a band. Just like when you hear Eddie Van Halen you think of a person, and when you hear Van Halen - you think of David Lee Roth!"

hahaha

lord strike that poor boy down

HAVE YOU SEEN JR’S GRADEZZZ???

Summer reunion rumors in full effect.

You know, there's a reason VH never put out a live album in their heyday - they were raggedy as fuck live, always. I mean, every time I watch a clip on YouTube from the glory years ('78-'83) Roth is out of breath by the middle of the first verse of the first song, missing lines, letting the crowd take over...I mean, he's not as bad as, say, Vince Neil, and the other three mostly kept the songs hanging together, but they were not an amazing live act IMO. I can't imagine what they must be like now. Oh, wait, yes I can, because I've heard that godawful live in Tokyo album they put out a few years ago.

Eh I saw then with David 10 years ago? And they were great. Eddie makes them great.

“Secrets” could be a Zenyatta Mondatta b-side

https://variety.com/2019/music/news/van-halen-michael-anthony-no-reunion-1203249956/

Wolfgang...

Your father did business with David Lee Roth

He respected David Lee Roth

But he never trusted David Lee Roth

When you’re runnin’ with the devil, sometimes you need to stop for a McMuffin or something to keep up with that bastard. pic.twitter.com/mhu3d5Zs6N

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) May 2, 2020

lol

eddie doesn't seem to have liked his bite very much

hey last week I was driving home and I had on the best classic rock station in town, KGB 101.5 FM, and they put on this super cool noisy feedbacky big room drum instrumental thing, like a proto-Radio Friendly Unit Shifter, and it totally stuck out as rad after all the bullshit Five Man Electrical Band and Eagles they'd been playing. anyway I eventually recognized the drum sound as Alex Van Halen's, and then after a while the noise jam congealed into a cover of Pretty Woman and by that point I was like ohhhhh shit this is a Van Halen jam I've never heard before!!!

so yeah Diver Down (1982), yessir in fact eleven years prior to Nirvana's pathetic Intruder-ripoff Radio Friendly Unit Shifter. thank you KGB 101.5 FM for enriching my life.

That intro is called "Intruder" and was recorded and segued with Pretty Woman just to get the timing of the video right!

well see now I gotta go watch the video

well. don't blame me for pointing you in that direction.

ooh cool they open it with the Life of Brian/Land of the Lost font. this is gonna be interesting

aaaaaand we got midgets

the midgets appear to be raping

aaaaaand the midgets are dressed in plains indians regalia

well alright, that was worth the time it took at least. sort of a mindfuck that I'm just now seeing this video when the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge cassette was one of the first music albums I ever bought with my own money, but I guess that's just the way the cabo wabos

I mean, even they admit it's a different take than what Roy Orbison had in mind.

Greg Renoff's Van Halen Rising needs to go into the "books about Los Angeles" canon just for the details about the 70s suburban Los Angeles house party scene:

"A month later, another opportunity materialized. Jack Van Furche', the teenage son of a successful doctor, had just applied to become a member of a custom van club. "I was trying to get into the club at the time," he remembers. "And they always gave everyone an initiation of some sort. And mine was, 'Jack, you've got to throw a party for the club.' They thought, Heh, his folks ain't never gonna to let him throw a party at their place. I came to the next meeting a week later with my stepdad, and he said, 'All right, let's go! ”How many kegs are we ordering?' … Two days later I was voted into the club."

"It's no surprise that the club wanted Van Furche' to host a party. His parents' residence was an English Tudor mansion nestled in the heart of San Marino, one of the most elite zip codes in the Golden State. "Jack's house was huge. It was like a castle," explains Debbie Hannaford Lorenz, who was dating Jack at the time. The backyard covered two-and-a-half acres, landscaped with terraces that sloped downward from the back of the house and bordered by mature trees. The lowest terrace levels featured tennis courts and a pool. In sum, it was a property tailor-made for a gigantic backyard party."

"Meanwhile, Van Furche' and his club printed up hundreds of flyers and spread them everywhere. The handbill promised "Refreshments + Dancing," along with music by Van Halen, all for two dollars."

"By the day before the party, it was clear that the promotional campaign had worked well — perhaps too well. Van Furche' explains, "Back then there was KMET-FM radio, and on Fridays and Saturdays if anything was happening in town they'd always announce it over the radio. Somehow, one of my flyers had gotten over there, and over the air they said, 'Hey, Van Halen's playing this weekend on Arden and Oak Grove.'"

On the afternoon of March 9, preparations began at the Van Furche' residence. Down on the tennis courts, Van Halen tested its lighting rig and soundchecked on its rented stage. Back up at the house, a local liquor store delivered a dozen kegs. Van Furche' and his friends also worked up a plan to keep freeloaders from jumping the property's walls. Reinforcements for this effort would come from members of the Vagos, an outlaw motorcycle club, who, after an invite from the van club, had added the party to their social calendar.

"By dusk, it was clear that a significant percentage of the San Gabriel Valley's young people had decided to attend. Lorenz recalls that from early in the evening "people were coming into the backyard saying how long it took them just to walk to the house." When they told her which streets they'd parked on, she'd say, "That far away? You couldn't even get any closer than that?" But once she glanced back up at the house, she better understood what was transpiring. Under the archway that led to the backyard, she remembers that people stood shoulder to shoulder as they struggled to enter the yard.

When the big yard had nearly filled up, Van Halen started to play. Lorenz recollects, "They were in the very back of the backyard. You could see them through the tennis court fence, so from everywhere you could see, because the backyard went higher and higher. They actually got to play for quite a long time. It was amazing." Down on the courts, kids boogied. Karen Imler says, "I remember dancing at that party while Van Halen did the blues and some Led Zeppelin."“

"By 9:30 p.m., the party was raging. Scores of kids milled around inside the home. The backyard was a sea of humanity. "I remember standing facing the house," Lorenz says. "It's packed like sardines in this whole backyard. It was solid people. There were thousands of people there. There were people into the front yard."

"Just then, the rhythmic whump of helicopter blades sounded. As everyone looked up, a three-and-half-million candlepower spotlight illuminated the yard.[ 214 ] Chris Holmes, who later went on to platinum success with 1980s shock-rockers W.A.S.P., remembers, "This was a huge party. It got outta hand so the cops showed up and of course they brought the helicopter, which was shining a light down that lit up all the kids in the yard." After the spotlight did nothing to scatter the crowd, the pilot began ordering people to disperse over the chopper's loudspeakers.

Van Halen and the partygoers were having none of it. Edward and Mark turned their amps to ten while Roth cracked one-liners. "When the helicopter came over, the band just thought it was funny," Lorenz says. Van Furche' adds, "The helicopter was flying overhead for about forty-five minutes with the spotlight, and Dave was hamming it up. From the start, he saw that light and he just used it by singing in it, because the light was right there on the stage — right there on the guys. There were instant spotlights."

"Meanwhile, dozens of San Marino police officers fought their way onto the property. Lorenz remembers that as the copter hovered, she and her friends stood in the middle of the yard with their backs to the house, watching Van Halen. "Then all of a sudden, a policeman taps me on the shoulder and I turn around and everything behind me was completely empty of people. I never even noticed that everyone behind me was gone! I didn't have a clue." Van Furche' observes, "It took the police over an hour to get through the crowd back into the tennis courts where the band was. They finally got stopped when a cop removed Roth's microphone from under the spotlight."

"Lorenz, who was living in the house at the time, made her way into the residence and found some friends in Jack's bedroom. With the lights off, Lorenz and the others looked out the window at the chaos in the long circular driveway and up on the street. "Everyone was pissed off at the police for ending such a wonderful night," she remembers. Out in the yard, partygoers hurled rocks and bottles at the police. Janice Pirre Francis, who later helped promoters put on Van Halen shows, saw kids on nearby streets "turning over trash cans, lighting them on fire, and destroying property."

Closer to the house, a mob of kids had set upon a police cruiser. "You know how you can rock a car back and forth to get it to flip over?" Lorenz says. "I watched it happen. We were up in Jack's room looking out the window and sure enough they'd flipped over a police car in front of the house."
"In the days that followed, partygoers spun tales about the night in high school hallways. An account of the event even hit the local paper. The San Marino Tribune reported this "van gathering" had backed up traffic for miles and "a disturbance," punctuated by thrown projectiles, had broken out around eleven o'clock.

The Van Halen brothers still remembered this party twenty-five years later. In an interview, Alex recalled that "four cop cars got turned over" that night. Edward said, "I'll never forget we played a backyard party once. It was written up in the paper. Nineteen people got busted and stuff. I'll never forget a group of guys took one cop and they took his handcuffs and they handcuffed him around a tree with his own handcuffs!"

how it was supposed to be

Great story.

Near the top of this thread Ned has one my favorite posts on ILX: "At one point, some sorta California party dude genius apotheosis of something or other."

Custom vans, Van Furche, Van Halen ... so many vans!

https://flypaper.soundfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/VDP-header-1024x683.png

Everyone was there.

Would have been awesome if the party was on Van Nuys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44wDwMQVqCc

https://open.spotify.com/track/49KoX0qpXf3wHyP9nfUaqq?si=YT0xcq63T9CyfLCMiphFYA

Dig that steam
Giant butt

otm

Dig those moves
Vamipra

Nice white teeth
Betty Boop

I get nothing but the *shakes* over you

calstars you've sent me back into this album.... and i thank you

just now noticing that the 'radio edit' of i'll wait trims 30 seconds from the song, bringing it down to...... 4:10 lol

from the wikipedia page for 'i'll wait' it says 'Despite the song being a hit, no video was ever filmed for it.' maybe this is why it's always been one of my favorites. there's an enigma to it. and i think no electric guitar at all!?

also 'girl gone wild' is fucking crazy. like something on zep's presence.

There's a guitar solo on "I'll Wait".

lol

of course - it's pretty swooping and epic too

1984 best album ever

A few summers ago my iPod died and I borrowed an ancient cromagnon discman from my cousin with a copy of 1984 inside. My CD's had long since been packed away into boxes in the darkest recesses of my overstuffed closet and this was all I listened to for 3 or 4 months until I worked up the motivation to dig them out.

Brad otm

It's really a perfect pop record, or whatever kind of record it is. Kind of hard to pin it down.

also 'girl gone wild' is fucking crazy. like something on zep's presence.

haha i'm a mess on this thread

Hot for teacher drag race intro easily the best thing they ever did. All that gorgeous reverb on the first album does not cast them in the best light.

Always considered this like the spiritual successor or something to the bb's I get around, fun fun fun etc

Spiritual not the right word lol

Well damn.

pic.twitter.com/kQqDV7pulR

— Wolf Van Halen (@WolfVanHalen) October 6, 2020

so sad...RIP
He was something else.

fuck

No!

michael anthony still lives

Like, as much as everyone knows he was a great player, he was so uniquely great. Probably the second best known great guitarist after Hendrix, and I'm not sure there's even a number three on the list. Clapton?

RIP EVH

RIP

yeah, he was the guitar-god-iest of all guitar gods. the only guy who guitar mags gushed about whose songwriting approached his chops.

RIP

oh man

Also, one of the few flash guitarists whose flash was fun and never boringly technical, imo.

was great with synths too

I'll admit that I never grew into a huge Van Halen fan, I came into music awareness around the time Van Haggar was blowing up with all their radio singles and it was years before I went back to appreciate the DLR years, but I will never forget the first time I heard "Eruption" absolutely blasting in my uncle's Camaro - I can't think of many better settings to first hear it.

RIP

Being of Indonesian-Surinamese background, seeing him and his brother succeed and become so beloved was really inspiring. Thank you, Eddie

Damn

        _____  __
ccccc\      / /    /ccccc
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  ccccc\  / /    /ccccc
        \/ /    /
          /    /
              /
             /

otm

Growing up, the VH logo was the only band graffiti I ever saw.

what a rhythm player he was -- just amazing...listen to Top Jimmy, the transition from that amazing harmonic pattern into an almost R&B/country/hard rock thing no one played like that

so many of the shredders who followed him just chugged 16th note power chords, he was so liquid and fucking crazy on rhythm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d681GuMZj6Y

My guitar teacher is also always showing me just how hard his parts are, not necessarily the speed or anything - he's always told me that the tapping part in Eruption is ironically the easiest part - but just the seemingly illogical phrasing that makes perfect sense the way he plays it. I want to say he also cites the most obvious stuff in Hot for Teacher as particularly challenging, and also ... the Beat It solo, iirc.

This breaks my heart

fuuuuck this year goddammit fuuuuck

still can't believe Robert Zemeckis went with ZZ Top for the town festival band in Back to the Future Part III, after all Eddie did for Marty in Part I

Like Page, he was one of a handful of guys I could listen to again and again, hundreds of times, and never tire of Their tone or note selection, and always noticed some little nuance every time

This story is great:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ejq8NLGXgAEkJAP.png

XPS Well, ZZ Top had the single on the BTTF3 soundtrack, and Billy Gibbons has since claimed the only reason the band appeared in the film was that they happened to visit the set that day, and Zemeckis asked if they'd do a cameo.

xpost - That's a great story, and I love picturing MJ using the phrase "blaze a solo", but I'm assuming that's Eddie's paraphrase.

As I understand it I think they had to redo a lot of Beat It, with Lukather rearranging bits, but that was partly because Van Halen nailed the solo so well they had to rearrange the song around it.

always looked like he was having the time of his life playing.

Not a towering influence on me as a player, but by far the reason I wanted to play when I was 12 years old.

i haven't listened to van halen in maybe two decades so i'm ripe to go back.

Thee local classic rock station, beholden to its corporate playlist, apologetically announced that the Van Halen block will be coming up, but first they have to play all their usual crap

I listen to their debut album about once a month. It's a perfect album.

I just told one of my daughters that when I saw the Van Halen reunion tour some dude turned to me and said that one day I will be telling my kids I saw Van Halen. And she turned to me and said, well, he was right.

No joke, just a few days ago she told me, Dad, I don't like most of your music, but I don't mind Van Halen.

I’m sure I’ve heard songs by Van Halen but I can’t think of a single one offhand. I need to check out that first album, at least.

Have you heard of a little song called Jump?

Van Halen's technical chops were phenomenal. His tremolo picking, tapping and use of harmonics along with the vibrato (whammy) bar are all just lightyear jumps in rock guitar vocabulary.

But if there is one thing that really sets his playing above nearly all other rock guitar players, and the reason SO many of the YouTube videos are just wrong, despite getting every single note right, is the phrasing. His phrasing was unbelievable. His ability to bend the beat of the song around and land on a dime before flying off in a completely different direction just as tastefully and beautifully phrased is unmatched.

As much as everyone knows that solo from Beat It, it is utterly mind-blowing and just so ... cool.

RIP, wild man. I hope you have found your rest.

Shred in peace. Van Halen overall was not my bag, but 1984 is an absolute masterpiece and EVH was obviously a genius player

Nope, Josh, it’s a quasi total blind spot for me and much of my generation, I suspect. Growing up VH was basically the most uncool band ever, and I never questioned that doxa.

"Eruption" is what "Daft Punk" was going for with Aerodynamic right? never put that together until revisiting VH now.

This is a bummer though. we should eventually do a singles poll or something. they had some jams for sure.

personal favorite:

https://youtu.be/-sKxFrTHwhI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sKxFrTHwhI&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR1AHf7XcZSPZa5dJhaawyDZ7t-kH5bvVbl4tQUT9M8ECUblCVU92D23-q0

Drop Dead Legs is the example I thought of re: his phrasing. Just fooling around with the blues like a cat with a mouse.

yeah i fucking love "drop dead legs"

Also cool how few guitar overdubs are going on on those first few albums at least. When he shifts from rhythm to lead, there's no net. Just the rhythm section pounding away, and him speeding through his stuff with no room for error.

always looked like he was having the time of his life playing.

Yeah, I just wrote a little thing on FB about this, how all his chops and innovations always seemed to be at the service of joy. He loved playing guitar.

Henry Rollins on seeing Van Halen open for and blow Ted Nugent off the stage

http://www.vhnd.com/2011/03/02/henry-rollins-on-classic-van-halen/

a tale of EVH (1/2 dutch-indo, 1/2 dutch) as related by Pat Smear (1/2 black, 1/2 cherokee):

Pat: Can I tell you my Eddie Van Halen story? I actually met him. He was backstage at the final Nirvana concert at the Forum, which for me, was
like,"Oh my God, I'm playing on the SAME stage as [Queen's] Brian May!" I was dying. Anyway, Eddie Van Halen comes backstage drunk out of his fucking mind, and he started begging Kurt to let him play with us. It was so disgusting. He was like, "I'm all washed up; you are what's happening now." It was horrible! He was a horrible racist pig!

Jeff: I heard he was running Mennen Speed Stick deodorant all over his face. Is that true?

Pat: Yeah [laughs]. Kurt had this deodorant, and he sniffed it or something like that, and it got on his face. It looked like he had cocaine under his nose.

Jennifer: I heard he was asking Kurt to let him come on stage and play "Eruption," but Kurt said, "no," and Eddie said, "C'mon, let me play the Mexican's guitar," referring to you.

Pat: I told Krist [Novoselic], I thought we should let him play with us. But he said no because we'd never get him off the stage. When I walked up to Eddie, he was talking to Krist. I just saw the back of his head so I didn't know who he was. And Krist goes, "Oh Eddie, you haven't met Pat. He's our new guitar player." Eddie turns around and sees me, but he doesn't say hello or anything. He just say's, "Oh no, not a dark one."

At first I thought he was kidding. But he kept asking me, "What are you? Are you like a Raji or something? Are you Mexican?" Then he kept saying to Kurt," C'mon let me play the Mexican's guitar." I was horrified!

Jeff: Is he the El Duce of Metal?

Pat: [Laughs] Eddie Van Halen is the perfect example for me of not wanting to meet your heroes 'cause you'll be disappointed. I hear he's sober now. I blame that incident totally on the alcohol. I've done a lot of bad things when I was drunk, too.

Jeff: I don't think you're coming from a judgmental place at all.

Pat: I was just shocked. I was thinking, "God, Eddie Van Halen hates me."

______________________________________________________________________

Dave Markey's take:

The difference between sobriety and intoxication was never more clearly illustrated than on December 30, when Nirvana played a show at the Great Western Forum near Los Angeles. Filmmaker Dave Markey was videotaping that night and observed a display of inebriation so extreme, he turned his camera off in pity. And it wasn't Kurt who was a mess - it was Eddie Van Halen. The famed guitar player was backstage on his knees drunk, begging Krist to let him jam. Kurt arrived only to see his one-time hero collapsing toward him with his lips puckered, like a toasted Dean Martin in a bad Rat-Pack skit. "No, you can't play with us", Kurt flatly announced, "we don't have any extra guitars."

Van Halen didn't grasp this obvious lie and pointed to Pat Smear (Nirvana's then-rhythm guitarist), shouting, "Well, then let me play the Mexican's guitar. What is he, is he mexican? is he black?" Kurt couldn't believe his ears. "Eddie went into this racist, homophobic banter, typical redneck," observed Dave Markey. "It was surreal." Kurt was furious, but finally came up with a worthy verbal response:
"Actually you can jam" he promised. "You can go onstage after our encore. Just go up there and solo by yourself!" Kurt stormed off

The world mourns

I changed my twitter trending topics to Japanese as so not to have piffle showing and click on it and get furious. The only thing I understand on there right now is 'Van Halen'.

— Ian Wade (@WadeyWade) October 6, 2020

Imagine having a frontman as great as David Lee Roth but the guitarist is so original that the band gets named after him instead?

— 3 Feet High and Crying™ (@TimDuffy) October 6, 2020

The guy practically lived on cigarettes and alcohol, but I'd heard so many tales of his struggles with the latter that I never considered the toll the former was taking on him, even when he first started fighting off cancer. I don't know if Alex or Michael or even Dave have said anything yet, but Sammy posted something sweet. And yet Sammy's take on EVH in his book was very unflattering.

As I mentioned on Twitter, I had a weird thought while listening to EVH's isolated guitar from "Panama": the way he winds around the riff, changing it up constantly and seemingly falling in and out of time, bending pitches to get someplace new, reminds me of Ornette Coleman. Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen were a pretty locked-down rhythm section, but he still managed to head off in all kinds of weird directions. I wonder what he might have done with a more fluid bassist, like Geezer Butler, and a looser drummer. VH could have become even more of a bizarre jazz-fusion/power-pop/metal amalgam than they already were...

Casual fan who counts "Dance the Night Away" as one of the great singles of the late '70s, and the "Panama" video as just about the dumbest, most perfect video ever made. Glad I'm out teaching tomorrow; I will try to explain them to a room full of 12-year-olds.

Van Halen's songs were pretty tight, and Eddie never seemed terribly interested in improvisation or jamming. It's telling that as a guitar hero god among men, there is very little, if any, footage of him sitting in or jamming with anyone. There was that one "Van Halen Shreds" video that shows him with Tony Levin and Jan Hammer and Jerry Marotta and I thought, huh, I wonder what the original song they were doing was? And it's just this sort of run of the mill boogie. But there is video out there of him sitting in with Letterman's band, that was another exception.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obe1jCYwzw8

I told my wife last week she should play VH's "Dance the Night Away" at my funeral. How's that for a legacy?

― Tōne Locatelli Romano (PBKR), Monday, July 20, 2020 9:01 PM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Mr Veg always talks about how that first album sounded like NOTHING else in 1978 and how it so perfectly sounds like “summer” to him even now

I agree and also my favorite opening is Little Dreamer forever and ever amen

what a fucking gifted genius freak of a weirdo he was. Rip EVH

No joke, I was driving around and the classic rock station, in the middle of its Van Halen tribute rock block, played "Why Can't This Be Love" and my first reaction was ugh, this is so tacky, this is supposed to be a tribute to Eddie Van Halen, why are they playing this shit? And then a second later remembered, oh yeah, this is still him.

I have a quick thread about an important thing.

So, just a short thread of appreciation, but another reason why Van Halen represented SoCal so well. They just WERE SoCal. It has to do with a guy from Sweden who ended up in LA called Carl Strom and an artist named Vaughn Kaufman. (1/x)

— Ned Raggett (@NedRaggett) October 6, 2020

ha that letterman clip is gold—with Carson in the studio!

Ned, your comment at the top of this thread, "At one point, some sorta California party dude genius apotheosis of something or other. "Jamie's Cryin'" and "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love" alone -- the Minutemen had no problem covering the latter, neither should anyone else!", would be a top ten ILX post of all time for me.

Hahah, thank you. One of my tweets today was about that very Minutemen cover.

Eddie never seemed terribly interested in improvisation or jamming. It's telling that as a guitar hero god among men, there is very little, if any, footage of him sitting in or jamming with anyone.

Never mind, of course I know ‘Jump’.

yeah it goes

I'll take you down, I'll take you down
Where no one's ever gone before
And if you want more
If you want more, more, more
Then jump

Jump up jump up and get down

Pom, do you at least know Tim Hecker's My Love Is Rotten to the Core album?

definitely a high school fav and I got the ones I missed in HS later in life. few people sounded like them, good pop instincts with flashy guitar whenever you wanted it, sleaze but they weren't glam rock.

I always loved Eddie's "Hot for Teacher" opening tapping lick, or "Baluchitherium" from Balance (killer instrumental piece), the main verse lick to "I'm the One".

also enjoyed his honesty in admitting he "cheated" (his words) on "Little Guitars" and that he can't actually fingerpick.

I do and I guess my experience of it is mostly context-free.

xp

I was an intern at Musician, starting during the aftermath of that article… the writer was one of my best friends for many years… this was 1991, right as the band was gearing up for For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge…

The implication was that not only could he not hang in a jam context —in this case, which was at a NAMM event, he didn't have the Chet Atkins vocabulary at his beck and call, as Lee and Morse did and do— but that he never challenged himself whatsoever. He never played in other contexts other than Van Halen, never tried to do anything different than to play hard rock in a band with his brother…Brian May star fleet or the odd cameo on a friend's record… or the softcore porno soundtrack notwithstanding.

The writer was a product of the guitar mag milieu of which Musician was of, but was also above… Guitar World and Guitar Player would never dare suggest that the man upon which their entire raison detre resided was not beyond reproach, but Musician could make such a claim. As a result, Ed Leffler the VH manager at the time threatened the writer, and the writer —who otherwise is an intimate friend of every single living elite guitar player (I'm not exaggerating when I say that) — was persona non grata in the VH fold afterwards. 10/6/20 is a moment of existential import for GP and GW.

According to Greg Renoff's book Van Halen Rising (which is excellent), EVH was a scholar of 70s hard rock and elite guitar playing. But when he became the apotheosis of the guitar, he quickly lost the desire to keep up with music… he would say for many years that the last record he bought and cared about was Gabriel's So …a parallel would be Michael Jackson, teenage kid/prodigies who were venerated by everyone around them and who were worshipped globally from like 1978 to 1991 for their unparalleled talent and innovation… therefore, when 1991 rolls around, FUCK and Dangerous are big budget blockbusters that show out of touch both were… and then Balance and VHIII as well as HisStory are even more misbegotten…

I've only ever written about Van Halen once, and it was a 20th anniversary piece on Van Halen III.

Honestly, it's not fair to ask anybody to hang with Steve Morris or Albert Lee, both virtuosos but neither in the sui generis, self-taught style that Van Halen is. It's like, dunno, someone like Lindsay Buckingham as well. He's an immensely gifted, easily identifiable guitarist, possibly a virtuoso, certainly some sort of genius, but also self taught and also someone you never see jamming with anybody else.

an immensely gifted, easily identifiable guitarist, possibly a virtuoso, certainly some sort of genius

This is all that matters. Carlos Santana and Derek Bailey: both brilliant guitarists. Would I want to hear them playing "together"? Fuck no.

I would.

I do and I guess my experience of it is mostly context-free.

"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" is the main source material for the first track so it might be a good starting point.

I remember picking up a used copy of the first VH album at Cheap Thrills when G4ry (who was used to me buying improv or new music) told me the upcoming Tim Hecker album would be based on samples of the album I was buying, haha.

Xp So would I.

"they could improvise on chord changes, while all Eddie could do was repeat his bag of tricks (the “elephant” etc.).

I've heard this charge repeated often, usually in comparison to someone like Steve Vai. I think it's true that he has a limited range, but within that range he explores all the hidden nooks, teases out colors that didn't exist before. "Bag of tricks" might work as a descriptor of his more gimmicky techniques, but doesn't do justice to the way he uses them imo.

There's this really exciting chaos against or within the very controlled framework. I like that a lot of his solos and licks aren't really in any particular key. But I suspect the distance between his soloing and the song foundation is pretty important to that end- idk how effectively it would work against a looser backing.

a tale of EVH (1/2 dutch-indo, 1/2 dutch) as related by Pat Smear (1/2 black, 1/2 cherokee):

That's sad. As an Iranian immigrant with Iraqi parents I think my own childhood Van Halen obsession was a way of asserting my Americanness, distancing myself from the old culture and my own foreignness. It makes perfect sense to me that immigrants made this music.

The Mac Dad'll make ya.

"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" is the main source material for the first track so it might be a good starting point.

It's also my OPO tbh.

EVH was indeed a virtuoso at his own style, which to me is the ultimate compliment. He was really good at doing the EVH.

And his sense of melody is something that few virtuosos possess. Many, many instantly memorable riffs.

It's also my OPO tbh.

Noted. I'll check out the debut in its entirety.

Part of the appeal of VH at a time when I wanted to like actual heavy metal but didn't... was energizing metal, taking a lot of the sludge out. Their music wasn't actually heavy. They were, yeah, basically like a power pop band with this veneer of metal.

he didn't have the Chet Atkins vocabulary at his beck and call, as Lee and Morse did and do— but that he never challenged himself whatsoever. He never played in other contexts other than Van Halen, never tried to do anything different than to play hard rock in a band with his brother

sounds rad to me.

As I understand it I think they had to redo a lot of Beat It, with Lukather rearranging bits, but that was partly because Van Halen nailed the solo so well they had to rearrange the song around it.

He pretty much did it all himself as Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson let him to do whatever he thought was best. His interview on what happened.

I'm a casual fan myself who owns the first LP and made a personal best of from the Diamond Dave years. That's all I really listen to from Van Halen, but I also like it a hell of a lot.

It's also my OPO tbh.

otm

Some of the things above - not things said by ILXers directly but things others have said that are repeated above - remind me of when I was reading the letter section of some guitar magazine. In it someone wrote a pissy-sounding letter that said EVH was a hack and how if he tried to do his tapping with the fat gauge strings that (insert some old guard guitar player who evidently used fat strings) he would break his fingers. Even when I read this (and I was really young at the time - the magazine was in my school library) I was thinking, man, what a boring old fart.

He was so highly venerated at the time that it makes sense to me that people (especially ones who write for Musician) would want to evaluate his musicianship. I do think "can he jam?" or "can he play other styles?" are more valid questions than "could he tap on .13s?", though.

Van Halen were the entry point to nonsensical glam metal & also the safe midway point between rock & glam metal, DLR’s assless chaps notwithstanding.

Rockdudes who hated glam could usually agree on VH, and glam lovers who hated normcore rock could usually agree on VH

Van Halen: bringing people together since 1978

He was so highly venerated at the time that it makes sense to me that people (especially ones who write for Musician) would want to evaluate his musicianship. I do think "can he jam?" or "can he play other styles?" are more valid questions than "could he tap on .13s?", though.

― The nexus of the crisis and the origin of storms (Sund4r), Tuesday, October 6, 2020 10:42 PM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i guess? did he ever claim he was some kind of virtuoso? i really don't know, my sense is that he was doing his thing and a lot of stuff was projected onto him.

I don't really see it as any different or any worse than these magazines making "best guitarists/best drummers/..." lists every year (or Pitchfork ranking albums): these all involve some kind of evaluation; at least the Musician writer was making their criteria explicit.

I don't know of EVH himself making Malmsteem-like claims to his own virtuosity, no.

This is a powerful goddamn minute.

At an interview conducted at the Smithsonian in 2015, Eddie van Halen answered a child’s question about his first day of school in America. pic.twitter.com/bRj5aefFk8

— Jeff Nichols (@backwards_river) October 6, 2020

If anything, I think that recognizing that he doesn't have those kinds of schooled session-dude chops helps with appreciating how original and idiosyncratic his playing actually was - he really was talked about like some kind of technical virtuoso, which might have done him a disservice.xp

But he was a technical virtuoso! Just not as technical as many of the virtuosos he inspired, which is a good thing, because fuck those guys, I'd rather listen to dial-up internet noise.

If anything, I think that recognizing that he doesn't have those kinds of schooled session-dude chops helps with appreciating how original and idiosyncratic his playing actually was - he really was talked about like some kind of technical virtuoso, which might have done him a disservice.xp

― The nexus of the crisis and the origin of storms (Sund4r), Tuesday, October 6, 2020 11:23 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah, this makes total sense, it was just funny to me that someone would be like "that guy can't jam!" when he pretty clearly was not interested in jamming.

Well, apparently not with playing Chet Atkins licks or jamming with Steve Morse. Obv a virtuoso with his own style (one that I don't and can't play), so much so that he redefined the lead guitar vocabulary. xp

I mean, "jamming" is just one standard by which many musicians are judged. But as we all have been talking about, that's not really a standard that applies to him. He was Eddie Van Halen, the band was named after him, and expecting him to be anything other than the best guitarist a band named Van Halen could ever have is silly.

Btw "Finish What Ya Started" is packed with Chet Atkins licks that most guitarists couldn't pull off.

Ha, that's among the first VH songs I knew since it came out right when I started paying attention to radio. "Feels So Good" too.

you can tell the story of electric guitar without Steve Morse and Albert Lee, you cannot tell that story without Eddie Van Halen

also xpost - thanks for that Musician mag post veronica

I completely agree tbc (although Morse is really good on the new Deep Purple)!xp

Morse is great! love Dixie Dregs

but you know, like some people make music and play in a way that has an impact, and that's why Eddie is both very much a part of but also somewhat outside the guitar mag world imo