I agree with this and it takes me back to a thread I started here a long time ago and was reminded of when reading Monk's book. He basically stated what I thought, that Van Halen was burned out by the constant touring by the end of 1981 and needed a break and some vacations that might temper the constant drug and alcohol use indicative to a young band on the road in their era. But of course "(Oh) Pretty Woman" changed that and Warner pushed for more and yet more constant recording and unbroken touring took place until everything was untenable. Although, perhaps a breakup was inevitable in any case IDK. It does seem that Ed wanted to stand back a bit and slow down but lost any ability to collaborate in this period with the building of 5150 coinciding with Alex Van Halen consolidating his power as the (alcoholic) leader of the band and pushing Roth out...
The problem is process, as in there isn't any. The six pack featured creative input from nearly everyone and Roth was able to give Eddie much needed feedback on what was good and on what sucked. As Monk stated, despite all his problems with Roth being a "sociopath" narcissist, he "knew what the people wanted" whereas Ed was becoming entranced with less pop and a more artistic approach that brought Fairwarning, perhaps their best (but least commercially successful) album, one that required payola to reach platinum sales. Ed basically turned his back on a winning formula and gradually became the king of his hermit kingdom at 5150. That's why AKOT sort of sucks in my opinion, it was done by phone-in. That's now how real bands work...
Of the non-reworked demo stuff on ADKOT, there were also some good ideas. Chinatown was a great track. However, the idea that Ed still has the workings of a great album, or the band still have one great album left in them...I'll believe it when I hear it. Would LOVE to hear it, but won't bet the farm on it actually coming to pass.
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