http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pb...409030710/1376
The cradle rocks again
BY MARTY CLEAR CORRESPONDENT
TAMPA -- Way back in the '70s, Van Halen was a favorite of the shaggy-haired proto-headbangers who called each other "dude" and just wanted to rock 'n' roll all night.
When MTV came around, the band made hard rock safe for the girls, who liked Eddie Van Halen's impish smile and David Lee Roth's bare chest and buttless trousers.
Along the way, serious music fans started to realize that, if you could get past Roth's buffoonery and barely adequate singing, this was a band with some serious chops.
Eddie took his rightful place among the pantheon of rock guitar gods, and the rhythm section -- featuring Alex Van Halen's heavy but prog-influenced drumming and Michael Anthony's basic but schooled bass playing -- was recognized as one of the best ever.
Now they're touring as rock legends reunited with singer Sammy Hagar, who replaced Roth in 1985 and left acrimoniously 10 years later. Its audience includes the original fans, now mostly in their 40s, plus a lot of younger kids.
But really, the band says, not much has changed.
"I think loving music transcends age," Alex Van Halen said in a phone interview. "We're living human beings, and we do the things that give us some kind of an emotional high, and making music is that thing."
It doesn't much matter, Alex said, whether the audience looks at Van Halen as nostalgia, as classic rock or as musical virtuosos.
"I think the common thread between the band and the audience is how they relate to the music," he said. "Some people quantify that as remembering when they were younger, and some look at it differently."
Van Halen quickly became one of the most popular hard-rock groups in the world upon the release of its self-titled debut album in 1978.
Propelled by Roth's over-the-top persona and Eddie Van Halen's innovative guitar techniques, the band scored six platinum-selling albums and a number of hit singles, including "And the Cradle Will Rock," "Jump," "Panama" and a cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me."
Ongoing tensions with Roth finally came to a head after the smash hit "1984," and he was replaced by Hagar. Already a star in his own right, Hagar helped Van Halen continue its platinum-selling trend into the '90s with a string of No. 1 albums and hit singles that included "Why Can't This Be Love," "Finish What Ya Started" and "Right Now."
The band's tumultuous relationships with its three lead singers -- Gary Cherone of Extreme briefly filled the gap between Hagar's stints -- has been the stuff of rock legend, or at least well-documented rock gossip.
But Hagar said getting back together with his three longtime cohorts was a natural process. The past few years have been a hiatus, not a breakup, he says -- he doesn't even like to think of this as a reunion tour.
"I personally have a hard time with calling this thing a reunion," Hagar said. "It's more like a continuation.
"And the reason we like to use that terminology is because I've seen so many reunions where, you know, guys are coming off some real estate job, or something, putting the guitar back on, and going back out. We are four real musicians that play music with or without each other."
Fans of any Van Halen era ought to find something they'll connect to in the current tour. Hagar said he was a Van Halen fan before he had any idea he'd ever join the band, so he has no qualms about singing the old Roth songs.
The only criteria he uses in deciding to sing a Roth-era song, he says, is whether he used to like it when he was just a fan, and whether it sounds good in his vocal range.
"Anyone that can't stand out there and sing a song like 'Panama' and have fun singing it, you're not a rock 'n' roll singer, as far as I'm concerned," Hagar said. "I think we're doing a great job this time out. I mean, like, 'Unchained' (from 1980's 'Fair Warning') is smoking. I think it's as good as it ever was.
"So, you know, you just kind of pick the ones that you feel comfortable with."
It's all Van Halen music in the end. And Van Halen music has always been about having a good time.
"To me, music is music," Alex said. "If you get in there for an evening and you can take your mind off whatever is ailing you that day, then we have done our job, and music has done its job."
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