Rolling Stone - Wolf & Ed

[Terry]

I have all my original VH albums. I would make a tape copy off the LP and play the tape instead of the record so my LP’s are in great shape.

That was smart.

I still have vinyl for WACF, DD and 1984, which I picked up maybe...15 years or so ago. New, but they were reissued vinyl, not vintage original vinyl.

All my old cassettes shit the bed in the 1990s. The last one I had that I held onto was the BOV1 cassette, which had that RWTD version that had parts of the track sequenced differently than the original version. Eventually, that one wore out, too.

I wish I had taken much better care of my vinyl and the 45's my mother, father and uncles/aunts had handed me down in the 1970s when I was a kid. My mother had given me all her Beatles 45s on Capitol that she had bought when they first came out in the early 1960s, along with her full-length Beatles albums. I played all of those to death on a shitty record player in the 1970s. Those things would be worth some good money today. I'd sell 'em today for that money, too (I can't remember the last time I listened to any Beatles music).

[Nitro Express]

That was smart.

I still have vinyl for WACF, DD and 1984, which I picked up maybe...15 years or so ago. New, but they were reissued vinyl, not vintage original vinyl.

All my old cassettes shit the bed in the 1990s. The last one I had that I held onto was the BOV1 cassette, which had that RWTD version that had parts of the track sequenced differently than the original version. Eventually, that one wore out, too.

I wish I had taken much better care of my vinyl and the 45's my mother, father and uncles/aunts had handed me down in the 1970s when I was a kid. My mother had given me all her Beatles 45s on Capitol that she had bought when they first came out in the early 1960s, along with her full-length Beatles albums. I played all of those to death on a shitty record player in the 1970s. Those things would be worth some good money today. I'd sell 'em today for that money, too (I can't remember the last time I listened to any Beatles music).

I have some classical LP’s my dad bought in the Soviet Union. Those records are like 1/8 thick and perfectly flat and play great. They might be celluloid instead of vinyl but records in the late 70’s were not as good as the older ones. They were a bit warped. Not all vinyl is the same but I have the whole six pack on original vinyl and those were stored in a record case where no dust or anything would get on them. Of course when CD’s came out I bought those and the LP’s just stayed in that case for years untouched.

[Nitro Express]

I can remember when The Beatles got a ton of air play on the radio. Obla-Di Obla-Da was always playing. In the 70’s there was nothing special about those records. We all had the shit record players. I played Bill Cosby’s Wonderfulness on mine. Now your records are collectible and Bill Cosby is a quaalude drugging perv.

[Nitro Express]

I was not much of a Beatles fan. I liked The Rolling Stones better. I liked some of Paul McCartney’s solo stuff.

[ZahZoo]

Speaking of another six-pack reissue, apparently there is a new box set of them that is a Wal-Mart only exclusive.

And get this.....something extra finally in them.....

wait for it.....




Vintage backstage passes (reproduced of course) from each tour!

After Ed's passing one of the early Sunset Studio interview videos had extensive talk of a box set put together with musical leftovers/alternate takes from the 6-pack era which I assume was recordings owned by WB from the 78-84 timeframe. It was all mastered and even had packaging/distribution laid out.

For some unstated reason... the Van Halens would not approve the release.

[Terry]

I have some classical LP’s my dad bought in the Soviet Union. Those records are like 1/8 thick and perfectly flat and play great. They might be celluloid instead of vinyl but records in the late 70’s were not as good as the older ones. They were a bit warped. Not all vinyl is the same but I have the whole six pack on original vinyl and those were stored in a record case where no dust or anything would get on them. Of course when CD’s came out I bought those and the LP’s just stayed in that case for years untouched.

The 6 pack vinyl records I purchased between 1980 and 1984 were also played on a moderately priced record player, and subjected to being dropped on the floor along with scratching and such. Back in the mid-1980s, I don't recall there being a widespread market for perfectly preserved vinyl records, though doubtless some people collected them even back then. I basically stopped buying vinyl around 1986 or so; between then and the end of the 1980s most of what I bought was on cassette. Then in the early 1990s I started buying exclusively on cd, including updating older albums I had on vinyl.

I don't think it was until the mid-1990s that I recall hearing about a market for original vinyl pressings of, say, those old Beatles Capitol records and such, where people were willing to pay $100 or more per title/album for mint quality.

[Terry]

After Ed's passing one of the early Sunset Studio interview videos had extensive talk of a box set put together with musical leftovers/alternate takes from the 6-pack era which I assume was recordings owned by WB from the 78-84 timeframe. It was all mastered and even had packaging/distribution laid out.

For some unstated reason... the Van Halens would not approve the release.

I recall that. I can't remember offhand if the specifics of the extras of that proposed box set were disclosed, in terms of which song titles the musical leftovers/alternate takes would be.

I can't even say that I'd bother purchasing/downloading a box set now even if it was loaded with extras. After all the money I've spent over the last 40 years on Van Halen-related stuff, fuck 'em: that stuff will eventually be uploaded online for free, and that's how I'll listen to it.

[ZahZoo]

This was posted yesterday... not the interview I mentioned but it's new and this seemed like a decent place to drop it...

[Terry]

It struck me as interesting watching the interview above that for all the behind-the-scenes stuff I've read over the years the clip pics were literally the first time I've ever seen a picture of Donn Landee. I wouldn't claim to be the Ken Jennings of Van Halen trivia, but I thought I knew a fair amount of stuff. A similar experience to when I read Monk's book and read about the Van Halens and Roth paring down Mike Anthony's part of the split via a contract in 1984, in that I'd never heard about that, either.

It looks like some of the clip pics that are labelled as the band recording in the studio in 1977 for the first album appear to have Dave's foot bandaged up. Some of those pics I have seen elsewhere as far back as the 1980s, and I was under the impression those pics were taken after Roth had broke his foot for the pic showing him doing the split that was printed on the backside of the Van Halen II cover and were of the band recording the Van Halen II album.

[Seshmeister]

Something that always hits me about seeing pictures from the studio from back in the day is how young the producers look. Often those guys weren't that much older than the bands and had their biggest albums in their 30s.

When you are a kid you think of the producer being some old fart.

[twonabomber]

This was posted yesterday... not the interview I mentioned but it's new and this seemed like a decent place to drop it...

I think it was from the long Peggy Mac video they put up a few months ago. It was mostly about Prince but there was some VH talk in there.

[Nitro Express]

Yeah she was there when some of the early VH stuff was recorded.

[Nitro Express]

It struck me as interesting watching the interview above that for all the behind-the-scenes stuff I've read over the years the clip pics were literally the first time I've ever seen a picture of Donn Landee. I wouldn't claim to be the Ken Jennings of Van Halen trivia, but I thought I knew a fair amount of stuff. A similar experience to when I read Monk's book and read about the Van Halens and Roth paring down Mike Anthony's part of the split via a contract in 1984, in that I'd never heard about that, either.



It looks like some of the clip pics that are labelled as the band recording in the studio in 1977 for the first album appear to have Dave's foot bandaged up. Some of those pics I have seen elsewhere as far back as the 1980s, and I was under the impression those pics were taken after Roth had broke his foot for the pic showing him doing the split that was printed on the backside of the Van Halen II cover and were of the band recording the Van Halen II album.

Dave Bertinelli was telling me some 5150 stories like what a character Andy John’s was. He said Ed had bought all this used studio equipment for 5150. Donn Landee was up there for days installing it. Dave walked in the control room area and Donn had hundreds of wires all over the place and Dave said it was actually scary. He’s thinking how in the hell is that mess going to work? Well Donn being the mad scientist genius he was got it working and Dave said that was the stuff 1984 was recorded on.

[Nitro Express]

The Van Halen’s were not nostalgic. They were into what the current thing they were into was. They were never concerned about what the fans wanted and why they got away with that attitude is they were cool enough and talented enough they sucked people into their world. They didn’t have to do all this market research and try and figure out what the fans wanted. They did their thing and the fans were addicted enough to them they could get away with doing things their way.

[Terry]

The Van Halen’s were not nostalgic. They were into what the current thing they were into was. They were never concerned about what the fans wanted and why they got away with that attitude is they were cool enough and talented enough they sucked people into their world. They didn’t have to do all this market research and try and figure out what the fans wanted. They did their thing and the fans were addicted enough to them they could get away with doing things their way.

Calling bullshit on that one post-2000.

Their last four tours were all exercises in nostalgia.

Nothing wrong with it, because the bills have to get paid somehow (or, alternately, if Van Halen DIDN'T need the money, then why tour with Hagar and Roth and perform setlists consisting almost entirely of old music?). And don't give me "the band needed to keep touring to give Eddie something to do" because the three Van Halens could have went out and performed without Roth, or Hagar. Wouldn't have been headlining arenas, to be sure, but they could have.

I can 100% buy what you said for the 1996 to 2000 period (and obviously the band basically did what they wanted from 1978 to 1996 as well). The Van Halens, for better or worse, did exactly what they wanted to do in those years. It wasn't the decision I wanted them to make, but one can't say it didn't take a certain amount of nerve and belief in themselves to not do an entire album with Roth and go out on the road after Hagar left in 1996. It was ultimately a stupid move, but it did take balls.

Going back to Hagar in 2004 and then Dave in 2007? Neither of those moves took guts. Both of those moves were done out of necessity because post-Cherone those two singers were the only ones enough people to fill arenas would accept fronting the band.