Originally Posted by
Terry
I mean, even more sad/pathetic/lame than the inability of CVH to reunite is the amount of time and thought I've given to the subject since 1996.
Shit, when I was hitting my teens, Van Halen were fucking IT. Zeppelin were disbanded by the time I hit junior high. The Who were barely sputtering along. Lennon was dead. The Stones were entering a near-decade of not touring. Hendrix, Skynyrd, The Doors...all those guys were long fucking gone. Van Halen were MY band, you know? Not some legend I had to hear about from my older uncles. Or an act like Ozzy with Randy where I didn't get the chance to see them before Randy died. Or a makeupless/Crissless/Frehleyless KISS. Van Halen were (then) here and now, and tearing it up in arenas nationwide, releasing great music.
Van Halen, for me, were always several cuts above the bands that zoomed in behind them. The Def Leppards, Quiet Riots, Motley Crues, Ratts, Dokkens...the only other bands active when CVH was that I liked nearly as much were Maiden, Dio, Priest.
But Van Halen were...just...fucking...IT for me. And I only got a chance to see them with Dave once in 1984. Then Roth bails, Hagar steps in...it's just like, fuck me, you know?
By the time early 1996 rolled around, CVH were just a memory to me. The likelihood of Roth even rejoining wasn't something I bothered to entertain for a moment, because those guys fucking hated each other, it had been more than a decade since they had played together...it was over, and nothing was going to bring it back. Christ, unlike three years earlier, by early 1996 Roth couldn't even get arrested. I recall seeing his Slamming Blues Mambo Vegas Revue (or whatever he called it) on the Tonight Show several months earlier, and my immediate thought was that Roth was finally totally washed up: if YFLM and the NYC pot bust were warning signs, that Tonight Show performance was the confirmation.
Roth had gone off the deep end, and Van Hagar were still putting out Van Hagar music. A cheesy turn of events, but whatever. Life goes on, and by early 1996 Van Halen had been releasing Hagar-filled swill for so long I was immune to it. I didn't even bother listening to Balance: I couldn't even be bothered to try and sift through that album for the few decent instrumental passages I found on previous Sam Halen albums. I didn't give a shit anymore, nor was I interested in Dave attempting to be the 2nd Coming of Wayne Newton.
Humans Being is released, and I must say I was fairly impressed with the tune. About as good as Van Halen with Hagar was going to get, and the instrumentation sounded like it had a bit of the old school fire to it. Then Hagar leaves. Then Roth is working with the band again. I gotta tell ya, I thought MWM and CGTSNM were really promising tracks. If Van Halen could have made a full-length album with songs of that quality with Dave in 1996 and then toured, THAT would have been pretty fuckin' suh-weet.
And ever since that 1996 debacle, in the back of my mind has been the thought that CVH could still REALLY put it together in a meaningful way. Even after the Cherone album. Even after Eddie's cancer scare. Even after Dave's silly radio show and Van Strummin' album. Even after the 2004 tour debacle. Even after Anthony getting ejected for Eddie's teenaged kid. Even after Eddie's Smoking Loon/crystal meth binge which left him looking like the Crypt Keeper, and he was reduced to drunkenly wanking on his patented Trans Trem Sustainer Drop D whatever the fuck he was calling that days EVH signature guitar and making "soundtrack music" for lame porn flicks his head fluffer girlfriend was "production assistant" on.
Through all of, even up through today, I'd still like to see CVH give it a go. Even though by now I barely give a shit (as you can tell from my constant flow of multi-paragraph comments on the subject), for me this band isn't finished properly until CVH take the stage again.
Once THAT happens, THEN they have my permission to retire.