Why Van Hagar Pales In Comparison

[Silexxx]

I have a friend who is a casual Van Halen fan. I think he owns the Best Of CD and that's it. Anyway, if he comes over and I happened to have some random CVH deep cut or even Dave's solo stuff playing in the background from the PC he always asks: "What VAN HALEN song is this? Sounds cool."

If some reason it happens to be Van Hagar song (since I have those too on my PC) he asks something like "... Is THIS Van Halen? Or Whitesnake?" He doesn't recognise Hagar's voice out of every other 80s bands singers but he immediately knows Roths.

[Seshmeister]

They've made 12 studio albums total (so, not counting two compilation albums and two live albums). Hagar the Horrible was on 4 of those studio albums. So, for him to say, "We sold 100 million albums" is like me claiming I've had sex with a famous actress because I once jacked off to her.

[MasonL]

I think Sam does all this "rock n roll roadshow" crap now, with literally a video with another celebrity releasing every week as they're drinking tequila, to overcompensate for the fact that his music didn't really contribute anything. Generic. Made to sell and appease the record companies and critics. Dave always talked about "having the spirit" as an artist. Sam's heart was in the idea of being an artist, not actually being one. He's got a lot of toys and money and publicity but he's an empty soul. It's such a shame that the Brothers wasted 10 years tooling around with that sellout, particularly when they called it "Van Halen."

[Vinnie Velvet]

I think Sam does all this "rock n roll roadshow" crap now, with literally a video with another celebrity releasing every week as they're drinking tequila, to overcompensate for the fact that his music didn't really contribute anything. Generic. Made to sell and appease the record companies and critics. Dave always talked about "having the spirit" as an artist. Sam's heart was in the idea of being an artist, not actually being one. He's got a lot of toys and money and publicity but he's an empty soul. It's such a shame that the Brothers wasted 10 years tooling around with that sellout, particularly when they called it "Van Halen."

They should have went with "Van Hagar" when WB suggested it.

But of course the brothers knew re-establishing a band name is hard work and it had the chances of imploding upon release but keeping their established band name wasn't.

[Heater]

Another “Roth era destroys Hagar era, end of discussion” discussion. Sam ain’t the only one who can’t let things go.

[Nitro Express]

Another “Roth era destroys Hagar era, end of discussion” discussion. Sam ain’t the only one who can’t let things go.

Sam is a HUGE attention whore. He never disappoints. He's going to run his mouth again and again making a fool out of himself and giving us plenty of stuff to laugh about. He's going to be in his 80's soon enough. He's going to be real pathetic then trying to act cool and shit.

[Heater]

Sam is a HUGE attention whore. He never disappoints. He's going to run his mouth again and again making a fool out of himself and giving us plenty of stuff to laugh about. He's going to be in his 80's soon enough. He's going to be real pathetic then trying to act cool and shit.

He has looked desperate for quite a while. I wonder how much he really communicated with Ed when they “made up”. The riff Ed gave him in that dream is……something. Before Ed died, the way he was angling to get back in, reminds me of the way Sebastian Bach is still holding out for a reunion with his old band……

[Rikk]

Another “Roth era destroys Hagar era, end of discussion” discussion. Sam ain’t the only one who can’t let things go.

...Says the guy who comes and trolls at a Roth website...

Your post reminded me that my house is cold and I need to turn on the heat, Heater.

[Rikk]

The riff Ed gave him in that dream is……something.

Yeah, that was a pretty fucked-up news story. I couldn't believe he claimed such a thing.

If Sam has such a great life, why is he calling Alex FIVE TIMES since Eddie died?

Why can't he do an interview without talking about Van Halen AGAIN and AGAIN?

Just the other day, he started talking about how the TWISTER song he and Eddie did that never got released needs to come out. It didn't get released back then because Eddie thought his lyrics were terrible...something about "I want to touch your shining star" or something. All I know is, when I've been with a chick, I wasn't looking for a shining star. The lights were usually out and no star was shining up the room...fucking douchebag.

[ZahZoo]

Ed didn't give Sammy a riff from the other side of the grave... sheesh. Hagar had a brain fart... associated it to Edward and created a convenient reality. Delusion at it's best.

[Heater]

...Says the guy who comes and trolls at a Roth website...

Your post reminded me that my house is cold and I need to turn on the heat, Heater.

Good one. Glad you finally took the third “k” off your name…..you don’t need it…..some things are quite obvious.

[Nitro Express]

Ed didn't give Sammy a riff from the other side of the grave... sheesh. Hagar had a brain fart... associated it to Edward and created a convenient reality. Delusion at it's best.

Sam lost me when he said he was visited by a group of aliens called The Nine and they downloaded stuff into his mind. I’ve been all over the world including Antarctica. I even camped out in a lava tube for a week. I’ve seen the curve of the earth from the summit of a tall mountain, I’ve been in jungles, I’ve been under the ocean. I’ve been in forrests so thick Sasquatch should be there but he never showed up. Aliens? Never saw any. Reptile people? Nope. But Sam see’s all sorts of things. The freakiest things I’ve ever seen were usually at parties during my mis-spent youth. Ski-resort towns over New Years can get pretty freaky.

[Terry]

I want to know - cause I can't recall - whether there were any VH fans that actually listened to Hagar pre-Van Hagar.

I can remember some digging I Cant Drive 55 in '84 but that's about it.

To be straight up fans of Sam and go see his shows I don't think there was any cross over.

CVH fans were into Ozzy, Sabbath/Dio, Priest, etc

I never ran across anyone pre-Van Hagar who was a Hagar fan.

Hagar had some Gold records prior to VOA, so obviously he had some fans, but none I knew.

Difference between Van Halen with Roth and what followed was Van Halen lost the fury when Dave left. Even the Van Halen stuff with Hagar that was harder edged seemed like the band was making an effort to rock, rather than a natural energy.

I think a lot of that I can put down to Van Halen as a band...they got as big as they were ever going to get with the 1984 album and tour. That level of success is what they worked so hard toward for a decade, and after they reached that summit the band kinda coasted and got lazy to a degree, perhaps because by then they could get away with it. The band didn't want to work as hard or as often once they reached the apex.

Once Dave and Ted were no longer in the fold there was nobody left to challenge Ed and perhaps make the comment that a given bit of music could be better or wasn't quite up to snuff or needed some work. Thus, you got a bunch of Van Hagar stuff that sounded from top-to-bottom like the entire group was going through the motions.

[Nitro Express]

To be honest early Van Halen was a very high energy act. I watched a show from 1978 and Roth was just screaming his ass off and Ed was just blazing. Night after night for nine months and then time to record a new album during two weeks. That ain’t going to hold up year after year. You are going to slow down and be more tame. That’s what happened. VH aged but it didn’t age well. Especially after the Hagar fungus latched onto it.

[Terry]

It could well have been the case where even if Roth had stayed on in 1985 that Van Halen wouldn't have been able to sustain the same level of quality those fist 6 albums had. I'm not sure Ed's synth pop leanings and Roth's showtune leanings would have necessarily meshed well. You look at other even bigger rock acts and see where there was a creative peak followed by a lot of material in later years that didn't quite measure up. The Rolling Stones come to mind. The Who by the time Who Are You rolled around or Led Zeppelin when In Through The Out Door was released were unable to put out albums that didn't have filler on them.

I'd like to think had Roth stayed in 1985 the band could have come up with a few more great albums. But at least the band went out on top.