WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST Re-visited

[Rikk]

Thank you! I'll get to FAIR WARNING next week. And it'll be a grand one!!

[Andertime]

Fair Warning, sweeeeeet! Can't wait to read it Rikk.

[Terry]

Originally posted by Bill Lumbergh
Great comment here, I totally agree. And by the way (amazingly)this album has never really been at the top of Classic VH fans list of six pack albums. That's unbelievable to me.........FW,WACF, and I are untouchable IMO.

The one item that gets the most play is the double-album cassette I have with Women and Children First on side one and Fair Warning on side two. The fucker is approaching 25 years old, but still plays great. Sure, I got all the stuff on CD, but still dig listening to tapes (I dig the sound all jumbled up/not crystal clear).

Van Halen's first two albums are exceptional as well, but the one-two punch of WACF and FW was Van Halen at it's peak. No skipworthy tracks on either, nor any tracks that have lost their zeal despite either radio overkill or just plain not aging well. Can't quite say the same for Diver Down or 1984.....but it's true there's no such thing as a bad classic album. Not by default of Dave being there, just the way it is.

WACF and FW sold around 4 million each. In fact, those two may have sold the least out of the 6-pack, but they're still the best, even if only by a matter of degrees.

Can't wait for Rikk's Fair Warning review.

[Rikk]

Thanks guys. When I do get to it, it'll be detailed! And that CD will then by in my player (and yours, hopefully) for days!

[Casper]

Yeah I would say that WACF is pretty loose and likeable. Take your whiskey home is truly great. Maybe not as great as For those about to rock we Salute You by AC?DC but definately a nice but nasty brand of heavy metal.


I have a few reservations about this album though: "everybody want's some" seems to be a little light on actual content. Like two chords and four lines of lyric or something?

I wish I had it on Vinyl as the cassette and CD versions steal some of the essential grime.

[chefcraig]

Rikk...I honestly feel it was a stellar review.

You breathed some life into it...and in my opinion your review was superior to the record.

When I got it (day of issue) I was really dissapointed. I liked "Take Your Whiskey" and "Could This Be Magic", yet I thought the rest of the record was crap.

I'd seen them live, and wanted better.

"Everybody Wants Some" is still a "Cheech and Chong" song to me.

Frankly, I'm pleased (historically) that they used this record to shake off the rust..."Fair Warning" would come next...and I have roughly 3500 words for that text!

IMHO...craig

[Bill Lumbergh]

Originally posted by Rikk
Thanks guys. When I do get to it, it'll be detailed! And that CD will then by in my player (and yours, hopefully) for days!

You're not applying yourself dude..........take a couple weeks off from work so you can really nail the FW review. Thanks, Bill..........

[Rikk]

Originally posted by Bill Lumbergh
You're not applying yourself dude..........take a couple weeks off from work so you can really nail the FW review. Thanks, Bill..........

LOL. "I'd buy that for a dollar!"

[tjvhou812]

wacf....the fucking cd rocks, period.

[Rebel]

Awesome thread here. Romeo Delight is bar none, no doubt, my favorite VH song. That thing smokes. Dave is at his lyrical best on this one, great stuff, and the music is still ahead of it's time. The groove and arrangement is so diffferent than anything to that point, and anything since, just a great, great song.

Also, props to Gary for breaking it out on the "3" tour, very nice version and the band sounded really good on that tour. It really smokes on the Unchained Monsters boot.

As far as Sam singing it, I'd rather he didn't, he couldn't do it to be honest.

[Rebel]

Originally posted by Rikk
Thanks guys. When I do get to it, it'll be detailed! And that CD will then by in my player (and yours, hopefully) for days!

Don't forget to post one for "DLR Band" at some point. I listened to it last night, several awesome tracks on it.

I love that "Black Sands" track, it may be "cheesy", but I don't give a shit, Dave sounds great on it.

[Rikk]

Originally posted by Rebel
Don't forget to post one for "DLR Band" at some point. I listened to it last night, several awesome tracks on it.

I love that "Black Sands" track, it may be "cheesy", but I don't give a shit, Dave sounds great on it.

Yup. DLR BAND is definitely something I want to write. Not enough people appreciate the damn thing. In fact, I may do that first. If enough people on here that don't have it read a long appreciation of it, they may go pick it up!

Probably within a week I'll do one for DLR BAND.

[Lou]

When I first heard "Slam Dunk!" on the radio I immediately thought Van HALEN and not Dave solo. I could totally see that song being on 1984.

[Hecubus]

Dead on Rikk.....

Romeo Delight.

Quite possibly the best =VH= song ever written.

[diamondsgirl]

I finally got comfy with a cup of coffee and read that entire post. It was excellent. Nice job, Rikk.

I was just entering High School when that album came out and I was getting in with "the wrong crowd" , as my folks would call them.

What a great time we had. Whenever we'd smoke anything harsh, and then cough, we'd say "where'd you get that shit...oh yeah.".
Trying to sound like Dave. LOL.

[Kristy]

Some really interesting facts and tid bits about how the songs came together and I'm always astounded when I read one of these "revisited" posts because they seem to be written from the heart instead of the usual glib of some music journal hack. With that being said, I really don't like this record and personally find it to be the weakest link in the original Van Halen 6-pack. I don't know why that is but the many of the riffs seem dated and tired to me. There are some gems on this record though - like 'Take Your Whiskey Home' which, to me, sounds like this is exactly what Muddy Waters would play if he was white and in his late 20's. It's hard to believe a band like Van Halen preaching morals but I don't think that song was anything tongue-in-cheek (just ironic for Eddie) but more of a respect that rock was based on the blues and that short to-the-bone solo Eddie punches out at the end of the tune just takes the wind out of me.

Maybe success came too sudden for them back then and I know they were highly pressured by Warner Bros to put out album after album followed by tour after tour and maybe that's why this one seems so weak to me then the others - even 'Diver Down.' Still, I wouldn't disregard it even though of all the 6-pack albums, I usually turn this one down.

[Wayne L.]

WACF is one of the most underrated classic rock albums Van Halen has ever released for some reason even though it's bluesy, ballsy & raunchy with great tracks like Everybody Wants Some, Romeo Delight & Take Your Whiskey Home showcasing VH at their finest while most of the tracks would make Mick Jagger blush.

[DLRdelight!]

Adore this album , great review

[Rikk]

Thank you!

[secrets]

Great review and a great thread. Love this album. Those who don't keep listening it'll grow on you.

Underrated indeed. Came quite low in the top 100 (guitar) albums of the 80's in Guitar World, though 1984 was voted No 1.

[GAR]

Originally posted by Panamark
Its the only album cover where Ed has a destroyer!

I just saw the new Guitar World magazine has a doublepaged pullout of the destroyer

[guwapo_rocker]

Thursday, September 30, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Replay: Van Halen, Women and Children First


It was 1980, and technology was primitive. I had one of those tinny cassette players that lay flat on a table and had a plastic handle on one end. KFM, then an album rock station (an extinct species), announced that it would broadcast Van Halen's new record in its entirety. As a VH fanatic with limited funds, I had only one option: Record the station's broadcast on my tape player. I ordered my little brother to leave me alone for half an hour and closed my bedroom door. At the appointed time, I brought the cassette player's microphone up close to the radio speaker and hit the red record button.

That bootlegged copy of Women and Children First served me well. In fact, I relied on it for several years. The recording wasn't great, but it didn't matter: Eddie Van Halen's guitar pyrotechnics and David Lee Roth's rock god antics came through loud and clear.

Women and Children First was Van Halen's third album and arguably its best. The band's first first two albums are hard rock classics, but on its third disc it exhibits total confidence in its ability to enthrall listeners. The album's nine tracks may represent the best example in rock history of a band reveling in its charisma, talent and the utter coolness of standing atop the rock 'n' roll mountain. Almost everything about the album is gratuitous, yet the performers are so good at what they do that it almost never grates.

"And the Cradle Will Rock" kicks things off with Roth relating a classic tale of a young man at loose ends who finds his calling in rock 'n' roll. It's a theme that runs throughout the album. "Everybody Wants Some" is a jumble of a composition, really, but VH pulls it off, even Roth's play-acting in the middle ("I like the way the line runs up the back of their stockings. ... No, no, no, don't take 'em off. ... Yeah, that's it, a little more to the right.") "Romeo Delight" is a rock 'n' roll buffet, shifting smoothly from rollicking boogie to roller-coaster solo to intricate interlude ("Feel my heartbeat") and building back to a ram-jam conclusion. "Baby, please, I can't take it anymore," DLR pleads, and you believe him. But perhaps the album's highlight is "Fools," during which Eddie Van Halen and Roth basically fool around with their respective instruments for the first third of the song before launching into a midtempo headbang-fest. Roth had an uncanny ability to reach the hearts and minds of his teenage fans: "My teachers all gave up on me/ No matter what they say, I disagree."

The album closes with the folky "Could This Be Magic?" and the earnest, radio-friendly "In a Simple Rhyme," reflecting the band's ability to drop the pose and delve in the finer points of pop. VH could do no wrong there for a while.--Geoff Schumacher

http://www.lasvegasmercury.com/2004/.../24868076.html

[Apollo]

Women and Children First was my first Van Halen album.

I heard Take you Whiskey Home and was so blown away by it.
Strangely I had been listening to Roth for a few years by that time though.

[SNIPER]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rikk
[B]Continuing the Re-Appreciation thread begun by Sesh with his excellent review of VAN HALEN II, and following my threads for DIVER DOWN and 1984, I have next decided to write a re-appreciation of WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST (surely one of the most under-rated titles in the band's catalog). It's often stated that out of all the VH albums, the debut really has it all. I feel the debut is amazing, and I feel that 1984 really encapsulates all that's best about VH's various sounds (including Eddie's growing love of electronics). But WOMAN AND CHILDREN FIRST is so totally classic because it really is Van Halen's live album (for me). It has the ultimate live band sound, spontaneous solos, back-up vocals that don't sound like they've been overprocessed (as on 5150)...and this is probably Roth's most confident "swaggar album". I mean, listen to his little spontaneous banter in EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! Listen to his blues crooning at the beginning of FOOLS. Listen to him half-speak the verses of AND THE CRADLE WILL ROCK (very tongue-in-cheek). And yet, after all this swagger and scatting, he sounds as sincere as ever on IN A SIMPLE RHYME. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. It takes you on a million trips and convinced a lot of people that rock 'n' roll could really be dangerous again, but fun at the same time (a lot like APPETTITE FOR DESTRUCTION, which wouldn't appear for another seven years). It's funny that some critics over the years have accused the band of repeating a formula. And the truth is, the 3-piece band IS repeating themselves on this album (although the sound is a bit more bluesy than before). There are still a million brilliant Eddie and Alex moments on this one too. Mikey is...well, he's okay. He's Mikey. But anyway, it's not the band that really steals this one (although they are great)...it's Dave. How does he think up this shit? "I took a mobile light, I'm-a-lookin' for a moonbeam!" (if that's what he even says). This was a new, improved, less-structured Dave. It wasn't until the next album that the band would join in him in actually...evolving.

Coming off of a second platinum seller with VAN HALEN II and getting their name out even more with more big dates as an opening act and also with some headlining gigs, it would be the WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST album that would solidify their position as the new superband. Van Halen could feel pride in the fact that they had a hit single in 1979 (DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY hit the Top 20); and now, in 1980, they would go in and quickly hash out another album and then go on their first big headlining tour (the 1980 "Invasion Tour"). It's incredible that after two years of innovation and revolution, the band still seemed as if it was just getting started. The 1980 tour was going to be legendary. The band even hired a film-camera crew to capture some of the shows, intending to put together a concert film that would "blow THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME away!" If only they had followed up with that promise. A professional film of the 1980 tour would capture the band at their peak...still very young, spontaneous, still a little hungry...a set list not brought down by requirements of "old songs" that needed to still be played...or the hit single. It's a tragedy that the first concert film Van Halen released is the 5150 tour home video LIVE WITHOUT A NET. By the time that video was filmed, the band was already dead. They were safe, homogenized...a lot like other big-time corporate acts. In 1980, they were dangerous...practically a punk band.

One more thing...after WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST, the band took their first steps toward becoming a studio band, with overdubbed guitar solos galore and studio experimentation. WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST was maybe their last declaration of spontaneity. In fact, it may just be the most spontaneous album ever recorded. Hell, the whole thing sounds like a jam session! It's great.

...AND THE CRADLE WILL ROCK
Funny that this is the only song from this album on the band's first (of many, I'm sure) Greatest Hits album. I would say it's actually my least favorite track here. I think it's definitely an experimental moment for the band (on an album without much experimentation). But it also seems to me like Eddie concentrated more on messing around with a new sound than on writing a good tune. I, personally, find the chords a bit boring and the lyrics dull and not up to Roth's usually-high standards (especially his high standards for the time). The song features an electric piano part blasting though Eddie's Marshall amplifiers, with a phaser effect (I think?) on it. And this is the first VH song on which a keyboard appears. It's amazing how many people didn't realize it...it does sound a lot like a guitar. But I never really liked the rhythm sound on this song too much because it sounds basically like a watered-down electric guitar (nothing like Ed's future synth sound). It doesn't have the melody of a keyboard, but it also doesn't have the menace of a Kramer or Fender. As for the song, the chorus is kinda cliched. Even the solo is rather typical (although I like the beginning of it, the way it just buzzes in). Whatever. It's Van Halen experimenting a little and writing a sort of by-the-numbers tune in the process. The fact that the band thinks this is probably the best song to represent this album shows how much they don't get what was brilliant about the early days. (Still, I'd take this song over LOVE WALKS IN any day... .)

EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!
A live favorite, the band pulled this one out on every tour up to and including the 1984 Tour. Of course, it was dumped after Dave left the band (although I believe the band may have revisited it during Gary Cherone's short tenure in the band). Eddie rubs the low-E string during Al's jungle rhythm intro, producing a rather menacing scraping sound (probably something they decided to do minutes before the tape rolled...I bet this is Take 1 or Take 2). The riff is simple, the rhythmic idea very primitive: blues riff over a primal drumbeat, with the vocalist yelling a line after each time the guitarist plays a riff (Chicago blues, basically)...band kicks in for simple singalong chorus, cool guitar solo after the chorus. There's not much more to it than that. But that's the point. It's simple, but extremely inspired and almost angry. It's classic Van Halen. That said, this is also not one of the very best songs in the band's catalog (nor on this album). But I s'pose after the "experimentation" of WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST, the band required a song that truly harks back to the first album. The funny thing is, there's no song on the debut that sounds this spontaneous. It sounds like the band marking time (song-writing-wise), but it's still new to the listener. Dave apparently even ad-libbed all his vocals, listening to the pre-recorded music through his headphones. And they're damn funny: "Where'd you get that...oh!" "No no no no, don't take 'em off...leave 'em on." "I always liked those high heels too." "Look, I'll pay you for it...what the fu..." Great stuff. I can see Alex rolling his eyes, hearing this stuff on playback. But it's classic Dave. If anything, it's just great to hear a recording by Van Halen at their peak that was probably written, recorded and mixed on the spot. Amazing that such quick work on a blues/rock song one evening in a recording studio led to the one song on the album they would play more than any of the others (hundreds of times, actually)!!

FOOLS
Again, this sounds like pure spontaneity (although it's apparently a much older song). My one complaint with the WACF album is that as brilliant as it is, it's brilliant as a whole more than part-by-part. It makes a statement in itself, even though not one of the first three tracks really tells you how amazing the whole album is. But this album really is great! Keep listening...I swear, you'll understand. Of course, FOOLS may not be MEAN STREET. But it's such sloppy blues with Chuck Berry-inspired lyrics that you can't help but tap the steering wheel and thank God the band was in the mood to jam the night they threw this down. My god, man...listen to that opening guitar solo (right after the soft intro and simple guitar announcement). It's nuts. And then Ed suddenly shuts up and softly plays a little lick before he kicks into a riff that sounds like it would have been right at home on LED ZEPPELIN II...so simple, so menacing (DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH-DUH). Dave probably again came up with some of the lyrics right on-the-spot ("Ooo, an' I'm sick an' tired of Golden Rules, ah!"?). But that's again what makes it great. This is another "fuck you corporate rock" kind of song. I'd like to have seen the manager of Styx or Journey listen to HIS band tell them that a track like this was going to go on their new album. He would have had a heart attack. And this again proves that Van Halen really were the hard rock alternative to that kind of sugary gloss pop/metal that was so big at the beginning of the 80's. Is FOOLS Van Halen's greatest moment? Hell, no. Does it have all the elements of what made the band great? Hell, yes!

ROMEO DELIGHT
For me, this is the album's best moment...and among the band's greatest moments ever (if not THE greatest). "I'll take your whiskey to the party tonight and I'm looking for somebody to squeeze!" Oh yeah! Of course, that line is lifted directly out of an older VH song called GET THE SHOW ON THE ROAD (great song, appears on the '77 Demo tape). Dave steals his own line and uses it to even greater effect in this classic song that sounds either like the LP is on 78 or the band embraced speed metal before it actually broke! My god, man...this smokes! The drums are so fast and angry, the riff is super-aggressive...pure heavy metal. The first three songs on the album sound like the band is swaggering and finding a good groove. This song sounds like they've had LOTS of cocaine and can't think of improvising if their lives depend on it. There's simply no room to move around in because the beat is going so fast! (Of course, the middle-part with the chorused hi-hat and Dave singing "ooh baby", with the background vocals, is so amazing...more WACF spontaneity). This was also the song the band used to open shows with on the DIVER DOWN tour (was this the opener on the FAIR WARNING tour?). Dave's infamous "I forgot the fucking words!" declaration in the second verse of this song at the U.S. Fesitval was actually his standard line in performances of this song at the time. Of course, Sammy Hagar has probably never even heard of this song...and he definitely didn't ever sing it during his tenure with the band. Gary Cherone did (he's a big fan of the 6-pack); and although such a performance could never be like the original band, it was nice to know that someone in the VH camp was acknowledging this song's greatness (even if this person wasn't even around during that part of the band's history). How on Earth could any VH fan listen to this track and say, "It's good, but not as good as SUCKA IN A 3-PIECE"? It ain't quite RUNAROUND?:eek: After this song, rock 'n' roll should have retired. Why bother trying to follow this? It just doesn't get better than ROMEO DELIGHT.

TORA! TORA!
A fun little recording experiment. This is less than a minute long. In fact, it's never been clear to me why this little piece of noise meant anything to the band at all! There must be hours of this kind of noise on tape in the vault...it reminds me of the little guitar feedback noise at the beginning OUTTA LOVE AGAIN (on VAN HALEN II). Anyway, it's also my opinion that the title actually refers to the little noise piece that fades in...not the actual slow riff that follows with the whole band playing, although both CD versions of this album actually place the track mark later...in fact, the track doesn't switch over until the riff introducing...

LOSS OF CONTROL
A lot of fans don't like this one. I love it. This is the greatest highway song ever written. I swear, I want to outrun every cop in the entire planet when listening to the solo in this one. That damn insane chugging sound that jumps from speaker to speaker in the middle part makes my heart speed up more than amazing sex! It's awesome. This may not be quite the song ROMEO DELIGHT is (let's face it, the vocals are insane). But it makes ROMEO DELIGHT sound like a Scorpions ballad. That's how jacked up on coke and steroids this one is. I recently heard a boot of the band playing this on the "Invasion" tour (in fact, I downloaded it here at the wonderful RothArmy)...it was amazing. They got all the little vocal nuances right: "Oh-woah-woah-woah-woah, loss of control, loss of control, loss of control!", and the guitar solo was spot on. The drums were even more insane than on this studio rendition. Anyway, this is garage music at its finest. The band couldn't try to write a track like this nowadays if they tried. This is a song written by people in their twenties, with enough alcohol in them to kill a herd of elephants. (According to classicvanhalen.com, there's an unreleased music video for this song with the band dressed in surgial outfits. I'd kill to see it! Of course, I'm sure their next DVD will instead contain the "other" version of FINISH WHAT YA STARTED...and this will excite me just as much as someone giving me a remastered copy of MARCHING TO MARS.)

TAKE YOUR WHISKEY HOME
Dave has always said he loves ZZ TOP. You can hear it in this one. My god, listen to Eddie's riff. Listen to his tone. So bluesy. So funky. This one is dripping with J.D. and oral sex. The acoustic intro was new for this version, and this older song actually sounds like by-the-numbers Van Halen rock except for the fact that it's brilliant. It completely swaggers, cut live-in-the-studio (although I'm sure the vocals were added later). BTW, another interesting Van Halen phenomenon is again in display on this album (and pretty much all of the Roth-era albums). The band obviously wrote SO MUCH MUSIC in the early days that they could keep digging out riffs, pieces and entire songs for new albums...each time. Fans constantly point out how songs like BIG TROUBLE and SHE'S THE WOMAN should have been on proper VH albums. Yes, they should have. But then again, we could have also been arguing, "They should have put TAKE YOUR WHISKEY HOME on an album." But that one they had time to get to. Hell, if that follow up to 1984 had been finished, they probably WOULD HAVE included BIG TROUBLE. Still, something as jamming and funky as TAKE YOUR WHISKEY HOME would really have fit on no other VH album. The VH albums have songs almost chosen at random to record, but a certain personality comes out with each album. And maybe this really is the jam album. And this song? Well, it's right at home with FOOLS and EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! Too bad this didn't really become a live favorite.

COULD THIS BE MAGIC?
I've often wondered about the origins of this track. It sounds like a sing-a-long standard. And the lyrics are amazing. I love the rain effect added to the track (song for a rainy day, I guess). And Dave's vocals are so hip on top of the acoustic guitars. I can just picture Van Halen sitting on the back porch, rain dripping off the roof...smokes and beers all around...Mikey serving the other three...Alex convincing himself he's just as important as the other two even though he's not playing an instrument here or anything... I think Dave's playing acoustic on this. Anyway, this is another Van Halen anthem that hardly anybody knows. I know it would never happen, but my ultimate Van Halen reunion show would be not only a set of electric guitar classics but (also included) a short backporch set with this track performed in its entirety after a complete acoustic performance of the LITTLE GUITAR intro from DIVER DOWN. Oh, and another moment in this song that I love? How about when Dave finishes singing the second chorus and then says calmly, "Edward?", before Ed rips into a great acoustic solo. Excellent back-up vocals by Nicolette Larson, BTW. Eddie played guitar on her solo debut in 1978. The poor woman passed away in 1997.

IN A SIMPLE RHYME
This is why I love this band. How could an album that contains a backporch jam like COULD THIS BE MAGIC?, a full-out garage rocker like ROMEO DELIGHT, a keyboard experiment like AND THE CRADLE WILL ROCK and a Chicago blues like TAKE YOUR WHISKEY HOME conclude with a song as rehearsed and accomplished as IN A SIMPLE RHYME? I absolutely love the 12-string electric intro on this...I love how it kicks in and Dave sings his heart out (introducing the "So This Is Love" vocal idea a year before the song of the same name appeared on FAIR WARNING), before the very catchy and simple riff of the chorus. I love how the song is brought down to the soft 12-string electric again (with light drums) and Dave sings some very simple lyrics of love (without sounding ANYTHING like Sammy)..."You coulda heard the angels singin'". I think Dave meant it...don't you? And Eddie's solo after the soft middle-eight is simple and passionate. It's nothing new, but great nevertheless. And when the whole song is finally over, you're gasping for air...blown away by yet another incredible performance. How did they do that? How did they put an song like this together when their fingers were still hurting from playing LOSS OF CONTROL? Well, yes...this was written in 1975. But it sounds like wrote it very recently, inspired by some recent rock 'n' roll heartbreak. To end the album with one more blues jam would have been a mistake. Ending it with this, however, ensured that this was yet another Van Halen that covers everything. (And yes, the little ending jam that the band plays after the last note of SIMPLE RHYME is amusing...and longer on the CD.)

My god. The band always covered everything on every album they cut (with Roth). The debut has both ATOMIC PUNK and LITTLE DREAMER. The second one has WOMEN IN LOVE and LIGHT UP THE SKY. This album has LOSS OF CONTROL and IN A SIMPLE RHYME. This was a perfect band. It would have surprised no one hearing it that the band would go on to cut three more brilliant albums. But this is probably the last Van Halen album to contain their original classic sound. After this album, the echoed guitar panned dead left (or is it dead right?) would be almost history. And that spontaneous creativity would die briefly too...WACF was cut in two weeks. FAIR WARNING would be more labored, or at least it sounded like it. Maybe FAIR WARNING was the bigger accomplishment, but this album really sounds the death knell for the band's early sound. After this, they became a studio band.

One more thing...I know out there, some poor kid has probably missed WACF because the following tragedy has happened to him:

A 12-year-old kid gets into Van Halen after hearing AIN'T TALKIN' 'BOUT LOVE on his classic rock radio station. He goes out and buys the VAN HALEN album and VAN HALEN II. He takes them home and loves them. He is so excited by this band that he has to hear more. He saves up his allowance and lawnmower money and finally earns enough to get one more Van Halen CD. He runs to his local suburban record store and finds just the CD he's looking for...VAN HALEN III!

too bad your writing reviews didnt work in a paper or mag or something. Must suck being a failed writer like yourself, prob pushing 40 living at moms and paying child support. Why dont you post this shit for someone that has not known this for 24 years.

[HELLVIS]

I still have this one in my ride. I'm rotating between it, Golden Age Of Grotesque, and Facelift.

[Rikk]

Originally posted by SNIPER
too bad your writing reviews didnt work in a paper or mag or something. Must suck being a failed writer like yourself, prob pushing 40 living at moms and paying child support. Why dont you post this shit for someone that has not known this for 24 years.

LOL. You're such a loser.

First off, idiot, I live alone. I don't pay any child support. Third, I'm in my twenties. I've never tried to be a writer. It's just a skill I have (sort of like your skill at being around places in which you're not popular), although I have done some editing. I do these reviews because they don't take me very long (I'm a quick writer) and I have a simple love of writing for the sake of writing.

You are obviously a bitter bitch that doesn't like the fact that you were SHEEP OF THE WEEK. Well, you'll remain a sheep in my Pen as long as you're here, dickbreath.

[Rikk]

Originally posted by HELLVIS
I still have this one in my ride. I'm rotating between it, Golden Age Of Grotesque, and Facelift.

You have great taste, HELLVIS. Which do you prefer? Facelift, Dirt or the self-titled?

[HELLVIS]

Facelift all the way. LOVE HATE LOVE nuff said.
However, I really like their first e.p. Has a really cool song KILLING YOURSELF.

[Rikk]

I don't think I know KILLING YOURSELF. Is it in the box set?

I have to say DIRT is my favorite. I also really love the self-titled. HEAVEN BESIDE YOU is still my favorite AIC song.

It really sucks about Layne! I was hoping for another album.

[HELLVIS]

As far as I know Killin' Yourself is only on the e.p.

[moose]

Originally posted by Rikk
Oh yes...you all know what this looks like...

To me one of the BEST album covers of our time, which may I add compliments the fantastic muzik on this disk. Rikk youz one crazy ass MOFO CANADIAN. Great Read. .

Cheers.

[Bill Lumbergh]

Originally posted by SNIPER



too bad your writing reviews didnt work in a paper or mag or something. Must suck being a failed writer like yourself, prob pushing 40 living at moms and paying child support. Why dont you post this shit for someone that has not known this for 24 years. [/B]

Is somebody speaking from experience here?! SHUT THE FUCK UP, AND GET BACK IN THE MOTHERFUCKING PEN, BOY!

[Rikk]

Originally posted by moose
To me one of the BEST album covers of our time, which may I add compliments the fantastic muzik on this disk. Rikk youz one crazy ass MOFO CANADIAN. Great Read. .

Cheers.

Thanks dude!

[Rikk]

Originally posted by Bill Lumbergh
Is somebody speaking from experience here?! SHUT THE FUCK UP, AND GET BACK IN THE MOTHERFUCKING PEN, BOY!

I know. What a bitter little baby. Funny how he's telling me that I shouldn't be posting this here. LOL. Funny how many people have enjoyed reading it. This is a DLR/VH site. But, of course, this isn't the place for it? LOL. DIAPER is one bitter poopy-pants.

[MAX]

Fuck off Diaper!!!! You illiterate twat. You know that you are only jealous cos you are incapable of posting a complete sentence. Let alone an entire paragraph. Tool!

Why the fuck am I even talking to you anyway?

GET THE FUCK BACK INTO THE PEN!!!!!!

[Lady Cab Driver]

Excellent review! This should be on the official site. Anyone know anything about why there is nothing going down there?


Sorry, I hit the wrong button. I meant to quote and not edit. LOL!

- Max

[spmusicplyr]

i was 4 years away from being shot from my daddies left nut when this album was released, but sadly, this is my least fav of the 6 pack

[MAX]

Originally posted by Lady Cab Driver
Excellent review! This should be on the official site. Anyone know anything about why there is nothing going down there?


Sorry, I hit the wrong button. I meant to quote and not edit. LOL!

- Max

Maybe you should tell us? Hmmmmmm...............

[salsanin]

Hi frds

in Italy is I M P O S S I B L E find this Album on cd

( I have vinyl with poster and cd)

Excellent review.

Ciao a tutti !!!!!!

[teamaa104]

Could this be magic?
Possibly one of the best VH songs, its so different but Dave's voice on it is totally extreme, i love it!

Agree with everything you say