Happy to see this article this morning in my local paper, albeit with some inaccuracies....
http://hamptonroads.com/2015/01/popt...-hagars-demise
The anniversary of Van Hagar's demise
By Clay Barbour
The Virginian-Pilot
© January 17, 2015
IF YOU'RE READING this in print, there's a good chance we're in the same age range. So I apologize for this upfront, but I'm about to make you feel a lot older.
Later this month the album "Balance" turns 20.
Why should this matter to you? Because it was the last creative effort of the dreaded beast derisively known as Van Hagar (aka the Band that Killed My Innocence).
In 1985, after eight years and six hit albums, Van Halen parted ways with its flamboyant lead singer, David Lee Roth. The rock band had sold 56 million albums and was at the top of its game, having just released "1984," (its highest-selling offering) and enjoying near-constant airplay with songs like "Jump," "Panama" and "Hot for Teacher."
But hubris is a karate kick to the heart, and we all know that when you fly that close to the sun, the hair spray inevitably gives out.
The band emerged in 1986 with its new lead singer, a wild-haired, gravely voiced Sammy Hagar, the former Montrose frontman, best known for singing about the speed limits.
We were devastated. And not only because this meant more Diamond Dave solo albums.
We were furious because the resulting music from this union was a marked departure from what came before it. It's not like we couldn't handle changes in bands. Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Genesis all changed their singers - some of them more than once.
This was different.
Van Halen was rocking, with bawdy lyrics and interesting harmonies. Van Hagar was synth-heavy and cloying, with lyrics that should have stayed in Sammy's middle-school dream journal.
"I travel far across the Milky Way / To my master I become a slave / Till we meet again some other day
Where silence speaks as loud as war / and the Earth returns to what it was before"
David Lee was no Bob Dylan, but his playful twists of phrases and sexual imagery were Khalil Gibran compared to the Red Rocker.
That's not to say the new lineup was unsuccessful. Van Hagar produced four albums, every one of them reaching No. 1. Though the old lineup sold about twice as many records, it never reached higher than No. 2. Even "Balance" sold 6.5 million copies, more than "Diver Down," "Fair Warning" and "Women and Children First." But can you name one song on it? That's OK. No one can.
In the end, Van Hagar paid for taking away my innocence. It has became the go-to cliche for moves that ruin bands. Not really warranted, but deserved, I think.
I have enjoyed poking fun at Van Hagar, even as the years have allowed me to actually appreciate some of those songs now. And as Sammy said, only time will tell if something can stand the test of time.
God, that's awful. Seriously, let's make sure he sticks with tequila.
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Originally Posted by Grit
