Van Halen C/D?

Van Halen was really soft after Hagar joined the band. It even had less of an edge than anything off of 'Standing Hampton' or something like "Bad Motorscooter". The band sounds way too up with people.

Julian Cope is a Van Halen fan? Who knew...

The long slow groaning nothingness of Van Halen's apparent demise is even worse than the Rolling Stones. At least the Stones try and pretend.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf900/f954/f95436avu17.jpg

i'm really scared

i used to be a really big VH fan in high school, and am sad i got rid of all my cds right about now.

Speaking as a great fan of Dave's, it's probably best that you never hear this record.

"House of Pain" had actually existed since 1977-78, when VH were recording their original batch of WB demos. Why they waited to put it on an album until 1984 is anyone's guess.

Hello! Here are fifteen songs.

Just finished former manager Noel Monk's tell-all. It's a pretty amiable read, like he just sidled up to you at the bar and started telling stories. This is now the third VH book I've read, along with Hagar's book and DLR's book, and I guess I'm pretty comfortable at this point assembling the full picture.

1) Rock star excesses aside, all the four members of VH seem by default nice guys, especially Michael Anthony. But after their success the drugs and alcohol turned the emotionally fragile VH brothers into passive aggressive monsters, and further magnified DLR's already mammoth ego; he apparently played the guys his cover of "California Girls" on the Concorde on the way to the European Monster of Rock tour, expecting them to react positively.

2) Michael always seemed to be at ease with his mediocrity, but Alex resented Eddie's genius, which added to the former's drive toward alcoholic escape.

3) Post DLR, the money really fueled the paranoia and substance abuse, with the brothers in particular mercurial messes (this is the takeaway from the Hagar book).

No surprises, I guess, though I was surprised to learn that Michael has been married to the same woman since like 1980. There are some other nice tales of payola (to keep the band's platinum streak going when "Fair Warning" started to falter) and charming misbehavior (like making Steve Perry cry by dousing him with guacamole). And, if I knew, I forgot that starting as early as "1984" the band was screwing over Michael for royalties and minimizing his position in the band.

I dunno, worth a couple hours to read I guess.

Yeah, the way they fucked Michael Anthony out of all that money made me gasp out loud when I read the book.

Excellent write up, thank you josh

What substances were the bros indulging in (besides drink) post DLR? I'm guessing pills or something

http://www.vhnd.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/VAN_HALEN_BLACK_SABBATH_1978.jpg

Hmm, post DLR? Well, during DLR is was non-stop weed, alcohol and cocaine, for everyone involved, with Michael maybe they least worst off and Alex the worst. Eddie and Alex's father was an alcoholic and they took after him on that front; it scans that in Alex's case, the cocaine mostly made the effects of the alcohol abuse worse - he would do cocaine to stay up to drink more - and in Eddie, maybe the cocaine was the bigger problem, but mostly financially. In DLR's case, neither drugs nor alcohol seem to be a problem, per se, but he was also very physically fit. Post DLR, iirc from the Hagar book, alcohol becomes a huge problem for the Van Halen brothers. At a certain point Alex is just downing bottle after bottle, with a trash can next to his drum set to barf in, and Eddie goes through long stretches of incapacitation. Hagar claims he generally avoided the worst excesses until closer to the end of his tenure, when he dives full in to the worse rock can offer. But Eddie and Alex, they've really got problems that the other dudes don't seem to have. The Hagar book "Red" makes the VH bros sound impossible to deal with.

There are lots of stories, btw, of those early tours opening up for first Ronnie Montrose (solo) and Journey, then later late '70s Black Sabbath. Van Halen apparently got along famously with the Sabbath dudes, even though their crowds were super different (and indulgences on a totally different level).

Hilarious. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when ozzy met DLR.

I think Ozzy knew his time had passed, but then, VH was blowing everyone away. There's some throwaway line somewhere in there about Tom Scholz needing to prove his guitar mettle in the face of Eddie's revolutionary onslaught. Tony Iommi, on the other hand, EVH really respected, even if it's unclear whether he felt threatened by this young virtuoso.

Other takeaways. DLR is pretty smart, the rest of the band less so, but all four are shockingly naive about so many basic things. Like, facts of life things. EVH in particular is just this strange myopic creature who is just constantly toting around his guitar, taking it apart, rebuilding it, and so on, yet almost completely unaware of the world around him. I've heard him claim he stopped paying attention to music not long after Hendrix and Clapton, and I believe him.

Oh! Also shocked to learn that EVH did the "Beat It" appearance for free, refusing payment or points, just because he liked MJ.

Myopic is a perfect word to describe EVH. What would he and his bro have done if they weren't into music?

Also lol at David being the smartest one, which seems true, but then this is the same guy who got busted in Washington square park for trying to score weed.

Do we love Crystal Gravy?

Van Halen III is 20 years old. Consequently (and for money), I listened to it all the way through for the first time ever.

I know there must be tons of stuff out there like this, but I'd never thought to listen to it. Here's a boot of Van Halen live in 1975, the cover-band era:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gMGh0RmOxw

And then, just a mere three years later, opening for Sabbath (I think) but pretty much fully formed and full of originals:

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

That Gene Genie in the first video is great. Also, DLR sounds just like Jeff Spicoli.

Last night I dreamed that I was auditioning to be the drummer for Van Halen but Alex was there too. He asked me where my drums were and I said I didn’t have any so I asked if I could borrow his. He gave me a beat up snare top with a bent up rim and told me not to play it too hard. I hit it twice and it tore apart.