The 84 shows which I saw three of them did not have the band cohesion. Everyone was off in their own little world. Eddie didn’t have the excitement he had in 80. In the Boise show Dave came over to Ed and Ed went up on the catwalk to avoid Dave. Now it still was great, but there was some bad energy that wasn’t there in 80. VH was a team in 80.Originally Posted by Von Halen
No! You can't have the keys to the wine cellar!
I agree. 84 was not as good but then I saw a OU812 show with Sam and saw a whole lower level of suck. I walked out feeling I needed a long shower to get the gay mojo off of me.
I saw them on their final tour in Camden, the “Philly” area show. I got 2nd row seats day of show, was cool being 5 feet away from them. But I gotta tell you, they were all in their own worlds, very little interaction between them went on. Just dialed in and going thru the motions, they played well, Ed was killing it but half the night he was staring off and looked disengaged, his autopilot was locked in though. Dave had a couple of tantrums that felt scripted. All in all a good night, a bit perfunctory, but a good night.
Yup. Eddie basically strolled around and played in 84. In 80 he had the excitement of a kid on Christmas morning seeing what Santa brought. That excitement was gone in 84. Ed would go up the riser and play by Al a lot.
Y'all minimize Michael Anthony's contributions to Van Halen's musical greatness, both from a compositional and performance perspective. But you are overlooking a key point... Van Halen was a power trio with a singer added. Without the bass and to a similar degree in backing vocals Van Halen wouldn't work... at all.
Look at some of the most notable power trio's in the history of rock... Hendrix with Noel Redding and later, even better, Billy Cox. SRV with Tommy Shannon. Cream era Clapton with Ginger Baker. Robin Trower with James Dewar. Toni Iommi with Geezer Butler. Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee.
None of those guitar greats and their famous bands would have achieved their success without the great bass players holding down the rhythm section. Three legged stools fall down without all 3 legs... Van Halen without Mike is NO different...
"If you want to be a monk... you gotta cook a lot of rice...”
You forgot Triumph!
Whoops... forgot a few. Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill... Page and Jones... Grand Funk Railroad... James gang... George Thorogood... on and on...
Damn! I forgot about Geddy Lee the rare exception... How about the 5th member of Van Halen, he has nothing to do in the mix, you'd think?
Now who`s that babe with the fab-u-lous shad-ow?
I saw them on the Monsters of (C)ock at a stadium show at then Rich Stadium. They sucked and I got the feeling Hagar and Ed already hated each other with Hagar referencing Edward being drunk and how he was carrying shows. Sammy couldn't carry Ed's, or Dave's for that matter, jockstraps...
I said Mike and Alex were a great rhythm section. I am both a bass player and guitar player and I’ve played in three piece bands so I know what you are getting at. Mike also had great stage presence and was great with the fans. Wolfgang filled in ok but his charisma and stage presence sucked. People say Mike Stone worked well with VH.
I like what Mike brought to the table but you could replace him. Good luck replacing Eddie.
The 5150 walk gave me the shits.
Jack Casady. Spent a week at a bass clinic taught by him at Jorma’s farm. I had to play Candyman with Jorma at the end of it.
Whenever I learned a new VH song I would focus on the core chords and notes. Eddie throws a lot of extra shit in but I ignored that until I had the basic song down. When I got ready to add the extra stuff would always think. Yeah this guy was doing Coke alright. Ha! Ha! When Mike said Eddie filled the space pretty well he didn’t have to I just laughed.
The bass player earning his keep is the one laying down the lines during this holy roller madness.
I'm still baffled after all these years how Van Hagar was even remotely successful. It was such a downgrade from CVH.
Guess they appealed to an entirely different audience.
=V V=
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EAT US AND SMILE
They appealed to the transgenders. Like Kristy.
I would throw the original Chicago lineup in there as well. Yeah they had a horn section, but the core of that band was the "power trio" of Terry Kath on guitar, Peter Cetera on bass & Danny Serpahine on drums.
Eat Us And Smile
Cenk For America 2024!!
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"If the American people had ever known the truth about what we (the BCE) have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched." - Poppy Bush, 1992
Good lord. And people bash Van Hagar? Chicago SUCKED!
I used to just not bother even listening to any band named after a US city - pretty sound rule unless you like MOR...
Chicago did some great stuff as long as Terry Kath was alive. Without him they were completely worthless, of course. Hendrix thought Terry Kath was better than him. That's some humility on Jimi's part, and I'm not sure I'd completely agree. But it's one Hell of an endorsement.
If you had any gay tendencies Van Hagar would certainly stimulate and amplify them until you no longer could restrain them. Maybe Sammy was the stimulus for all this flaming pride shit.
Yeah. Nickdflamingfruitcake was actually straight (I know, hard to believe) before he attended that Monsters Of Rock show in Buffalo.
I sorta recall I read/heard the Jimi said Billy Gibbons was the best player he knew.
Perhaps he thought anyone was better depending on, y'know, circumstances/substances involved.
There have always been these quotes about what one guitar player said about another one... like how Eric Clapton supposedly said "The two greatest guitarists on the planet both come from Ohio. Joe Walsh & Phil Keaggy" though nobody has been able to point to any specific interview where Clapton actually said it.
I can't give you a specific date for the Hendrix quote about Terry Kath either, but what seems to give it credibility is the fact that Jimi decided he wanted a band with a horn section (the "Gypsy Sun & Rainbows" thing) after he had played on the same bill with the Chicago Transit Authority (as the band was called in those days). So that would seem to imply that Jimi thought Kath was on to something, and wanted to try it himself.
I had to have electro shock treatment and go through reprogramming after seeing one live show of Van Hagar. What that band did to themselves and others was horrible.
Alice Cooper did say Billy Gibbons was Jimi’s favorite player.
I think you can count the really exceptional guitar players on one hand. I think most experienced players would agree one of them was Jeff Beck.
When I was ski racing the time between the fastest and slowest skier on the team was about one second. I was really good but there were a lot of really good skiers. The only way to get any recognition in that sport was to take a gold medal in the Olympics and have a personality that drew media attention. Not easy to do. Lot’s of great guitar players but only a few got to where they got enough attention to be remembered.
I wouldn't doubt it.
5150 walk; doing jumping jacks on stage; that stupid hand sign. Gay AF.
Van Hagar weren't gay... they were just "French"... or something.....
At the time of the first Van Hagar album, I noticed the band appealed exactly to the same type of people who had no use for the band prior to the Jump single being released. With Jump - then 2 years later with Van Hagar - Van Halen broadened their appeal to where their stuff was no longer restricted to the party rock/burnout stoner crowd. Now, everybody could enjoy Van Halen, because they were safe and fun to listen to!
Yay!
Scramby eggs and bacon.
They went from The House of Pain to have a Pepsi Right Now! Nothing like hearing Dreams in a elevator.
This is true yes.
My sister for instance loved Jump and I'll Wait.
But not much else in the VH catalog at the time. Then also liked Dreams when Van Hagar came out. And then became a big Bon Jovi fan.
You can see the pattern lol.
If Roth had stayed what would their next few albums have been like? Ed wrote the music, and that was the music he was writing then. And were any of Dave’s albums, or any of his SONGS, for that matter, on par with the initial 6 VH albums?
Dave wasn't thrilled with either Jump or I'll Wait. Ed didn't think much of the covers Roth did on his CFTH EP.
All the principals agree that the rehearsals in the spring of 1985 for the follow-up to the 1984 album didn't go well. The personality clashes over the years could be worked through when everyone was basically on the same page musically. Once Roth and Ed started finding less common ground on a musical level, doubtless all the other non-musical issues got exacerbated.
It was almost as if they had done all they would be able to together at that level. Maybe that area of Ed’s musical well was dry which is why his stylings were changing. Interesting that Dave wasn’t thrilled with Jump, more interesting is that he essentially spent the next 27 years singing that very song, as a country song, a big band/orchestra version, even in a techno dj rave version….he sang it a lot.
I love the original incarnation. The second has some excellent music as well, not necessarily the riff driven bangers initially associated with the band, but some strong songs. The big difference between the two, at least to me, is when you are sitting at a red light blaring some VH, if someone pulls up next to you, you carry on. If you are playing VH mach2 and you see someone pull up next to you, you turn it down.
5150 would have been a better album at least, can't say what would follow as yes the main problem was Ed sequestering himself at his studio of that name effectively minimizing band interaction and cutting down a lot on Dave's input...
I'd give part of my swollen left nut to hear what might have been "Eat Thy Neighbor" (ultimately "Summer Nights")...
I would say yes, the albums would have been better. Dave was a lot pickier with regard to song selection.
Some of the obvious rehash stuff on 5150 would never have made the cut with him. The synths would not have been an issue. It worked so why he would be against it now? Why Dave quit is beyond me.
Didn't they start Dreams with him?
5150 was originally built to be a sound proof practice space for Ed. It was never intended to be the band’s home base. Ed had Donn Landee buy some used equipment and install it to record samples but when Ed discovered you could record a whole album 5150 became more than that and I think that was a major factor in breaking up the band.
It was not a great studio. The control room was cramped and Al had to use electronic drums because the recording space was small. One reason 1984 has a unique drum sound. Ted Templeman hated recording there.
Ted Templeman went with Dave because Dave had a better feel for the audience. The Van Halen’s were savants which most talented musicians tend to be.
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