It's hard to discern what the truth is regarding which Van Halen stuff Mike played on and which stuff he didn't in terms of the recordings. I've read all sorts of scenarios, including one that states the only album Mike played bass on was the first. One of the more dissembled rumors was that Ed re-recorded a lot of Anthony's bass parts during the Fair Warning sessions late at night when he was laying down the guitar overdubs and solos.
But I don't really take much of what Eddie Van Halen says at face value, because he has misrepresented more than a few things in interviews, even as far back as the early 1980s when he claimed that when the band were recording the first album he asked Templeman if he could just play live because he didn't know how to overdub, then when you listen to the Simmons demos recorded prior to the WB first album you hear overdubs all over the recordings. Or Ed's claims that Eric Clapton was his primary influence in terms of how he developed his style, then you listen to all those pre-Van Halen 1 album club gigs and hear the band playing Rainbow and Led Zeppelin songs (I hear a lot more Blackmore and Page in Ed's playing than I ever did Clapton).
But I don't really take much of what Eddie Van Halen says at face value, because he has misrepresented more than a few things in interviews, even as far back as the early 1980s when he claimed that when the band were recording the first album he asked Templeman if he could just play live because he didn't know how to overdub, then when you listen to the Simmons demos recorded prior to the WB first album you hear overdubs all over the recordings. Or Ed's claims that Eric Clapton was his primary influence in terms of how he developed his style, then you listen to all those pre-Van Halen 1 album club gigs and hear the band playing Rainbow and Led Zeppelin songs (I hear a lot more Blackmore and Page in Ed's playing than I ever did Clapton).
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