‘Van Halen: The Studio Albums 1978-1984′ Due For Release March 26th!

[twonabomber]

That's one of the reason's Spam left. Ed didn't think his lyrics were serious enough and was bringing in other writers to do 'treatments' (like movie producers who bring in new writers to fo script treatments). That guy who produced Alanis Morrissette's first album was one name I heard mentioned. He produced dome of those songs .. name escapes me.

Russ Ballard. He wrote New York Groove, too.

[chefcraig]

Yeah 4th, he's the D-nozzle that wrote Living On A Prayer and a host of other nauseating things.

"...maybe that works out great for Bon Jovi. For Van Halen, it's syphilis." - D L fuckin' R

To continue that quote, from the Reunion Blues chapter of Dave's book: "Any amount kills the engine, OK? Those sanguine, sissified, grew-up-way-too-close-to-mommy lyrics. It sounded awful but even then I tried to sing some of it".

That guy who produced Alanis Morrissette's first album was one name I heard mentioned. He produced dome of those songs .. name escapes me.

The guy was Glenn Ballard. More from Roth: "They had written a whole song, lyrically and melodically, over the telephone; the producer Glenn Ballard, Eddie Van Halen and Desmond Childs."

[ELVIS]

Russ Ballard. He wrote New York Groove, too.

There's a credential...

[twonabomber]

The guy was Glenn Ballard. More from Roth: "They had written a whole song, lyrically and melodically, over the telephone; the producer Glenn Ballard, Eddie Van Halen and Desmond Childs."

I had the wrong Ballard. Forgot about Glenn.

I was reading the Wiki article on Russ thinking damn, this guy's old!

[Halen High]

I quite like MWM. Thought the other tune was fairly mediocre - can't even remember what it goes like. Dave was doing far better stuff on YFLM.

But MWM, for me, is one of those late-Hagar era / Cherone era guitar parts where Ed seems to take a minute or two to get to the point. On Human's Being, the last song with Spam, it works. I only listened to VHIII once (in 2011 - hadn't heard a lick of it before) but it seemed to have quite a lot of those aimless guitar intros.

In the CVH days, I bet Ted - or maybe even Dave - would have told him just to ditch the intro and outro and cut it down to 3 mins.

I like Me Wise Magic but I always thought Eddie's solo was too long. When he switches to the outro, it doesn't seem to fit with the earlier part of the solo. It wasn't necessary and just drags it out when we should have been returning to the chorus. Humans Being is another example of perhaps Eddie dominating the recording process - the solo stretches out to almost 1.40 - way too long for a track of this type. The song loses momentum and then builds up into a generic sounding outro.

[Halen High]

And they would be right, but make no mistake, the long version of Believe Me / Take It Back is a stellar long composition. Songs like that deserved a spot on the second side of any of the first three LPs. God, I hope that song sees official light of day some time down the road.

You know I can't recall ever hearing that track - thanks DLR Bridge! Just listened to the 1977 Starwood version, if that's the one you were referring to. Love it...I hope a reworked version of this ends up on the next album - at least the one that has been hinted at.

That's an example of a longer solo composition that engages you from start to finish, and it fits perfectly with this kind of track.

[Zing!]

But MWM, for me, is one of those late-Hagar era / Cherone era guitar parts where Ed seems to take a minute or two to get to the point. On Human's Being, the last song with Spam, it works. I only listened to VHIII once (in 2011 - hadn't heard a lick of it before) but it seemed to have quite a lot of those aimless guitar intros.

I agree. This time period was the height of Ed's self importance, where he thought every note he played was gold. He started believing his own press and you can hear it in the music. MWM and CGTSNM don't have the structure or brown sound of classic VH songs. They sound like reworked Van Haggar tracks that Sam couldn't figure out (although he might have tried his own pizza pie lyric).

[VHscraps]

This new box set was reviewed in the new issue of Classic Rock - by Pat Cash ... yes, Pat Cash the ex-tennis player.

A kinda 'this is why I love VH' review. He gave it 9/10.

I guess VH musta been the band of choice for 80s tennis players (although Pat Cash is probably a bit later) - it reminded me of that Kramer guitar ad with Ed sandwiched between Vitus Gerulaitis and John McEnroe ...

[Halen High]

Cheers mate! I just read Pat's review. Of course it's no surprise that the really cool, interesting, edgy and full of attitude kind of tennis players such as Cash and McEnroe prefer Classic Van Halen, although I didn't realise Pat was such a big VH fan until now.

That photo is featured in McEnroe's autobiography, 'Serious', which I highly recommend.