Poundcake: The Real Version

[WARF]

This might have been Van Halen’s greatest song ever!

[FORD]

Sounds a lot better that way. So does this one.....

[Terry]

The non-vocal instrumentation on both of those tracks is good.

Same goes for stuff like Pleasuredome, or the title track for 5150.

It'd have been interesting to hear what Roth could have done on a track like Poundcake, although truth be told Hagar's performance on that particular track wasn't quite as grating to my ears as what he did on a lot of the other Van Hagar tunes...having said that, Poundcake does sound better with Hagar's vocals omitted.

[WARF]

Terry I’m making a mashup of Mean Street with DLR Singing over poundcake .... I’ll post it soon.

[WARF]

Sounds a lot better that way. So does this one.....

You can take almost any Van Hagar track and make it a classic without Hagars voice!

Well... dream and when it’s love is unsalvageable...

[Terry]

There were usually at least two instrumental tracks on each Van Hagar album that purely in terms of what the guitar, drums and bass were doing I enjoyed, or wondered what Roth could have done with vs. Hagar...which...I mean, it became readily apparent rather quickly - from the get-go with 5150 - that in terms of singing in Van Halen, Hagar had a limited amount of ability lyrically and creatively. Thus, far all the razz one heard about Hagar being a 'better' singer than Roth on a technical level (outside of Hagar having a higher natural range or octave, I never quite understood why that claim was so often made, but more than a few people seemed to believe it), Hagar seemed unable to do much more than write Moon/June love lyric rhyme patterns or fob off witless hard rock gibberish for the non-synth tunes without a fraction of the wit Roth had brought to the table.

[Terry]

You can take almost any Van Hagar track and make it a classic without Hagars voice!

Well... dream and when it’s love is unsalvageable...

Stuff like When It's Love, or So Good, or Love Comes Walking In or Why Can't This Be Love...it all came off at the time (and still does today) like pop stuff that just about anybody could have come up with. These types of tracks, along with Dreams, aren't the type of stuff I would have the least bit of interest hearing what Dave could have come up with. Then again, I wasn't a particular fan of either Jump or I'll Wait when they came out, either, and most of what I do like with those tunes was what Dave did with them...I will say Jump had a bit of a majestic feel to it instrumentally that the Van Hagar synth stuff lacked.

[So this is love]

I don't think EVH would have written these songs with DLR as singer. For example, Poundcake is not in DLRs singing register. I like the music but I don't hear DLR in that song. IMO, I think VH would have fared better with Patty Smyth than Hagar following DLRs departure...

[Nickdfresh]

Sounds a lot better that way. So does this one.....

The persistent rumor is that Dave completed a version of this song as a demo as "Eat Thy Neighbor", but it was destroyed by Ed when Sammy came onboard...

[WARF]

The persistent rumor is that Dave completed a version of this song as a demo as "Eat Thy Neighbor", but it was destroyed by Ed when Sammy came onboard...

Maybe that will see the light of day now that Ed has passed. I feel horrible even saying that.... but RAPE the vaults!!!