1984 Turn's 30

[Nickdfresh]

Van Halen's 1984 Turns 30 Today -- How Does It Hold Up?
By Nick Greene Thu., Jan. 9 2014 at 5:00 AM

Today marks the 30th anniversary of Van Halen's 1984. Let's put that in perspective: Twice as much time has passed between today and the release of 1984 than between 1984's release and the moon landing (the 20th century's other crowning achievement). It was Van Halen's most commercially successful album and one of the biggest rock albums of all time, but does it hold up?

Does Diamond Dave's swagger translate in the age of Twitter, YouTube, Jelly, Path, Uber, Seamlessweb, HopStop, Yahoo News Digest, Smarm, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, Tinder, and Facebook? Does Eddie Van Halen's guitar still blast ear drums the way it did in the age of Reagan and crack cocaine?

The Rest at the Village Voice LINK with song by song takes...

[Mushroom]

=VH= missed another opportunity to release a special anniversary package. Oh we'll, every year I'm alive I have hope. Maybe it will be the 31st anniversary.

[Mushroom]

Mr Nick Greene missed top jimmy

[VHscraps]

Forgive me from being pedaaaaantic about this, but the Village Voice dude is wrong - Dec 28 1983 was the release date of the 1984 album, not January 9th, 1984. I still have the vinyl copy I bought in December '83 and it says pretty cleary on the label and packaging "Warner Bros. Records 1983".

This leads to all kinds of confusions - admittedly they are of no great importance except to trainspotter types like me - but you even hear people say the album was RECORDED in '84, when it was recorded in Spring/Summer '83, and mixed and mastered in October.

So, my point is, despite the title of the album, it is a 1983 album. Period.

[DavidLeeNatra]

...man, I'm an old fart...

[Kristy]

Who cares? I wasn't even hatched yet in 198Fuck. And since EVERY THREAD is about ME in some form or another I'm glad I missed on on all that MTV greed and horribly directed videos. So how does 198Fuck hold up? Compare it to Thriller, any Duran Duran offering or Madonna record of the time and I'd say not all that well. 'Hot For Teacher' is nothing more than a stripper bar anthem these days. 'Panama' and 'Jump' are white trash staples and F A T Sammy destroyed any cred da Halun might have had in the 80's. 198Fuck had its fifteen minutes of airplay that it's true legacy.

[vandeleur]

Who cares? I wasn't even hatched yet in 198Fuck. And since EVERY THREAD is about ME in some form or another I'm glad I missed on on all that MTV greed and horribly directed videos. So how does 198Fuck hold up? Compare it to Thriller, any Duran Duran offering or Madonna record of the time and I'd say not all that well. 'Hot For Teacher' is nothing more than a stripper bar anthem these days. 'Panama' and 'Jump' are white trash staples and F A T Sammy destroyed any cred da Halun might have had in the 80's. 198Fuck had its fifteen minutes of airplay that it's true legacy.

Yeah ,but apart from that I Like it

[VAiN]

I remember being about 11/12 in late 85/early 86 and talking to one of my dad's buddies about VH and if I thought they'd make it with the new guy... even as little VAiN I didn't think it was a good idea.. I remember saying something along the lines of 'he sings like a woman'... I was wise beyond my years.

[Kristy]

Yeah ,but apart from that I Like it

Dude, you like Led Zeppelin.

The defense rest.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

Dude, you like Led Zeppelin.

The defense rest.

promise?

[vandeleur]

[cadaverdog]

promise?

Thanx isn't enough for that gem. They need to install a high five button for that one.

[Nickdfresh]

...'Hot For Teacher' is nothing more than a stripper bar anthem these days....

And? Your point?

[Seshmeister]

...man, I'm an old fart...

Here's a thought - 30 years ago when 1984 came out rock was 29 years old.

If you draw a timeline of the history of rock music, 1984 is now in the early period...

[Seshmeister]

Forgive me from being pedaaaaantic about this, but the Village Voice dude is wrong - Dec 28 1983 was the release date of the 1984 album, not January 9th, 1984. I still have the vinyl copy I bought in December '83 and it says pretty cleary on the label and packaging "Warner Bros. Records 1983".

This leads to all kinds of confusions - admittedly they are of no great importance except to trainspotter types like me - but you even hear people say the album was RECORDED in '84, when it was recorded in Spring/Summer '83, and mixed and mastered in October.

So, my point is, despite the title of the album, it is a 1983 album. Period.

Wikki says January 9th which is probably where they got that from.

My copy said (c)1983 too but I can't remember when we got it - maybe the UK release was a little earlier?