ADKOT - Six Months Later

[ashstralia]

i've been saying all along tattoo is killer... yeah i skipped it in the early days too, anyone remember my vehement stance against listening to snippets?
driving home with the adkot blasting was one of the best moments in my life.
blood and fire is amazing. stay frosty has some of ed's best work ever. big river is epic. as is speaks for itself. wolf owns hbsd. the trouble with never.. just for that line, 'when was the last time ya did somethin for the first time!' and the hendrixy vibe. outta space.
i can't pick a weakest song...

[chuckjitsu]

Interesting thoughts so far, particularly about Tattoo, which seems to be getting more love (or at least more appreciation). I like the song, but for me personally, I would've preferred a "Hey fuckers, we're back!!" type rocker as the first single- China Town, As Is, or Outta Space would've fit the bill nicely in that regard.

I was talking to a friend of mine a few weeks after the album had been released and we thought a good alternate title for the album could be Return of the King because Ed's guitar work is just a great return to form. Just top shelf from start to finish. The rest of the album outside of Ed ain't too shabby either!

[DLR Bridge]

...a good alternate title for the album could be Return of the King because Ed's guitar work is just a great return to form. Just top shelf from start to finish. The rest of the album outside of Ed ain't too shabby either!

Could be another topic all together, but I think a cool alternate title would be "In a World Without End". I love Dave's delivery of that line in Stay Frosty.

[fourthcoming]

Or another album title could be....'Guess what Fuckers, we're back!!!'

[fourthcoming]

Ok....that was childish....but it's such a great comeback album.

[vandeleur]

how about 1985.
Like any thing after 1984 hadnt happened

[DLR Bridge]

Dejavu time guys. Those both sound like titles from a "Guess the next album title" thread!

[vandeleur]

couldnt resist

[fourthcoming]

I wanted ADKOT to be titled Van Halen VII. I had heard that was the tentative title for the next album before the roof caved in in '85.

[DLR Bridge]

That damn roof.

[riggodrill44]

I love "Outta Space". Old f**king School, crank it up and let her rip. "Tattoo" is a keeper especially now that is has context (songs on the rest of the "album"). Catchy. "As Is", "Chinatown"... the power trio on fire. Thunder Funk of "The Trouble With Never" is awesome. Each song has its own story and sound and... I'm drinking the Kool Aid. Love each one.

ADKOT is "different"... but the same, too. I think it is beyond what I expected... and I expected a lot. Love it and it is a big part of my iPod rotation.

Stay Frosty, my friends.

[DLR Bridge]

ADKOT is "different"... but the same, too.

The hardest trick to pull off and they sure did! Ross Hogarth described that very challenge and I'm glad he was part of it. Sounds like he had the right approach towards marrying the old sound with the new.

[chuckjitsu]

As strong as the "vault" tunes are on this album, I'm a bit surprised that none of them made it on to any of the previous six albums, particularly Diver Down, with its dearth of originals.

Any vault tunes out there that you'd like to see dusted off and polished up? I'd be interested to hear an updated Babe Don't Leave Me Alone.

[FORD]

The circumstances of Diver Down, as I understand it, was that originally there was supposed to be a Live album released in 1982, and that would have bought the band some time before the next record had to be made. But at the last minute, for whatever reason this plan got scrapped, and this left the band on the hook to release an album, according to the terms of their WB contract.

It's not that recording an album within a week or so was problematic for Van Halen - it's exactly what happened with VHII. Difference there is that whole album was already written, and they had been playing the material live for years. And even WACF was mostly stuff they had in the can, even reaching back to the bands earliest demos for songs like "Take Your Whiskey Home" and "In A Simple Rhyme".

Fair Warning was the first album they had to write almost entirely from scratch ("Mean Street" being the exception, being a reworked "Voodoo Queen" with a breakdown piece of the original "She's The Woman" thrown in) so that left them with no material ready and the sudden unexpected need to crank out an album. Obviously they managed to turn a song called "Last Night" into "Hang Em High", but my guess is they passed on doing so with other old songs, because Fair Warning had been an obvious departure from the 73-76 material that dominated the first three albums, that they didn't feel comfortable going back in time so soon after that. So they wrote a couple of new songs, and filled the rest of the space with covers (and even so, at barely over 33 minutes, made their shortest album)

As for why they took this approach with the new album? Apparently Wolfie had a lot to do with it. Somebody turned the boy loose in the vaults, and he probably said "Fuckin A, dad! I can't believe you never released this! Let's put it on the new album"

[chuckjitsu]

I suppose the bottom line is that there's a time and place for everything and they felt it wasn't the time or place to mine the vaults further for Diver Down beyond Last Night. I guess Last Night fit or seemed appropriate to where they were at that time. The vault tunes sound great on ADKOT, so I guess that's all that matters, really.