Originally Posted by
Terry
I mean, when the band split in 1985, I was bummed. It felt like there was still more great music to come.
After the split, when the band members started going public with how dysfunctional the band had been from the get-go in terms of personal relationships between one another (and Monk's book obviously put all of that into sharper focus than we as fans might have even imagined) - and then over the years you got things leaking out like Ed's 1982 unpublished telephone interview where he explicitly says he has little to no respect for Mike Anthony's contributions - all of this gradually shifted my own impression of the 1985 split. I started to feel it was more a case of it being amazing the band lasted as long as they did in the first place, rather than thinking they broke up too soon. That as a fan I was lucky enough to have gotten what I did in terms of the music, considering the volatility of the chemistry within the band.
With Ed's passing, I have feelings along similar lines. I don't know the specifics of his various medical ailments beyond what was made public. Nor am I a doctor. But from the early 2000s to 2007, Ed just looked physically dreadful. And come 2004 the guy couldn't even perform consistently well live anymore. Come 2006 it looked like Ed was gonna drop dead at any moment. So, while I was kinda bummed that a full CVH reunion never happened, all things considered it was kinda amazing that Ed managed to get himself sorted out enough to do the three tours with Dave that he did, regain his focus and apply himself enough to come ADKOT time he was able to perform the CVH material live at a professional level consistently well. To be sure, this doesn't seem like it would be asking too much from the perspective of a paying fan, but considering what Ed had been through (or put himself through, if one is inclined to have that view), it was more amazing that we got what we got...rather than lamenting what we didn't get (a full-on CVH reunion and an album or two of kick-ass new material).
But, yeah, there wasn't as much positivity surrounding Van Halen's activities from 1996 to the end as there seemingly had been during the CVH heyday. Even if the positive image of CVH was in no small part an image, what the band and their music meant to me WAS positive.