1st time you ever heard VH

[Mothereffer]

I recall in 1980...I was 13. Some cheap piece of shit radio was playing in the local community centre, tuned to Q107 in Toronto. I heard the opening to "And the Cradle Will Rock". I was blown away - most especially by that unusual guitar sound at the beginning - the flange effect or whatever it was.

I stood there in amazement and listened to the end waiting for the fucking radio announced to identify the song and the group. I had never heard of Van Halen up to that point.

Once I found out who it was...I immediately went out and bought the 45 (remember 45s???) of "Cradle..." and once I saved up enough of my allowance from my Mommy ( ha ha), I bought "Women and Children First" .

From that point on and to this day...I'm hooked on Roth Halen.

Does anyone know how the great Eddie was able to create that sound? And the similar sound on "Unchained". Is that "flange"? I don't fucking know . Whatever it is...it sounds amazing and I had never heard anything like that before I heard "Cradle..."

[Northern Girl]

1978...My brother had the first album which he copied onto cassette. He never let me touch his stuff, but one day he actually let me ride home from school in his car and he was playing the cassette. That was it ! It wasn't one particular song, but I do remember really liking Jamie's Cryin' and Ice Cream Man. I was hooked. Whenever I was alone in the house, I would go into my brother's room and just crank that album. Then I got my own and the rest is history.

[Mothereffer]

The rest is indeed history brutha! Ya, I think I bought Van Halen's debut record after WACF because an older buddy of mine let me hear "Eruption" and I was stunned. How could a guitar make that sound? How does he play so fast? Remember, I was 13 fuckin years old! Up to that point, I had been listening to Kiss, Joe Jackson, Devo - all different kinds of music and don't get me wrong , that music was cool too - but I had never heard anything like Van Halen.

Believe it or not, back in 1980, I thought my sister was stupid for liking Zeppelin - who I hated but learned to love them as much as I do Van Halen once I matured and realized how fucking awesome Zeppelin was. The only music to this day that ever gives me shivers when I hear it is Zep and Roth Halen.

[Northern Girl]

Umm..I'm not a brutha ! I figured the name would be a big ass clue.

[Mothereffer]

A chick that actually likes Van Halen? Can't be, sista.

[smaz]

I first heard Roth solo - Yankee Rose on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Had me hooked

Then heard VH 1 which my friend bought after finding out a bit more about DLR - finding out he was in VH and that VH fans hated Spam - And loved it. Then saw him and was an even bigger DLR/VH fan.

[Atomic_Rob]

I heard the mighty VH about 5 years ago when I first started out doin guitar lessons. Some guys in school were learning You Really Got Me and Runnin' With The Devil so I learnt them too

[SNIPER]

I first herd RWTD in 1984 when I was 13, a friend had the album. Shortly after I saw the jump video. I was so fucking hooked! Made my Dad buy me the whole collection, Fair Warning was my fav and still is. I even have That record signed by al, ed, &, mike. Waiting for a Roth tour to be in my area to get him on there. hmm, bands reunited?

[LookN4AMootBeat]

I first heard Ice cream man in most likely 1978, visiting family friends. One of their daughters had the first album and I listenned...I had previously heard the name van halen on the radio and was curious. Ice cream man blew me away and I decided to learn the guitar. I was 14. Years later I bought my first van halen album, the store only had Fair Warning. The meanstreet tap and Unchained blew me away completely, I was hooked. My 3 brothers caught on and became hard core van halen fans as well. We partied through our teen years like there was no tommorrow hehe.

Yes the effect on the guitar intro to "cradle" is Flange. There is also a keyboard type instrument all through the song......I remember reading something about it, I think it said eddie played one of those old-style electric keyboards through one of his marshalls.

[DLRdelight!]

My first time was about a year and a half ago actually. I was in the car with my dad, and my dad had got off to drop something off. I was messing with the stations and i belive i came across hot for teacher and i was hooked right away, have all of their albums, roth is god

[Kelly]

78 or 79 saw You Really Got Me on tv. "Fuck yeah!" I thought. I was 14 or 15. Then heard Runnin with the Devil on the radio. Bought the first album then each subsequent album as soon as it came out up to 1984. Haven't bought one since until the first Best of.

Not much tops Roth era Van Halen.

[JacktheRipper]

i remember i used to listen to 1984 on tape and jump and down on my bead to..jump of course. me being like 7 or 8 or so. then after that i found my moms stereo with a turntable on top. and started unpacking and listening to the records, after using some thing called ted nugent as a frsibie with my friends(no dissing,but thats how i remember) i put on something called van halen, and i thought the cover was pretty cool. and that was the beginning with van halen. my fav's were you really got me, i'm the one, feel your love tonight, at the time i hated little dreamer and thought that it was the worst song they could of put on there. i dont what it is as a kid but you only seem to like fast pace songs with fast guitar and fast drums. yeah...
then later on MTV a they were doing some video countdown and show van halen doing junp and i about freaked, (it never occured that the song jump and the album i was listneing to were done by the same band). after that its a fog of buying every van halen cd. and van hagar, and even VHIII which i listened to without you...once and i dont think i have heard any other songs of that album...and never will.
still have 1984 tape and when i get my license and my ranger its the first tape getting played.

[JacktheRipper]

oh yeah, that sound in cradle, hey said he was fooling around with this synthezier and plugged it through his marshall and that was it, but what is flange?

[Grant]

I was about 5 years old back in 1986 when my older sister would have VHS tape of MTV music videos that I'd like to watch. The very first clip played was "Jump" and not being into much music, I really dug that tune. I still remember my sister saying to me, "That's Eddie Van Halen. He's a really good guitar player" and thinking to myself while Roth doing his jumps, "How does he get his leg up that high?" That was my introduction. Around when 9/11 happened, I decided to get into Van Halen and become more familiar with their music since remember liking them when I was younger. Went out and bought Van Halen and BOOOOM...I was hooked.

[Carmine]

9 years old...1979. My friend Marty had a couple of older brothers who would blast VH whenever he and I were doing whatever 9 years olds do??

Anyway, the first VH I ever heard was the debut, RWTD and then Eruption...I was like OMG! thats a guitar solo!!! Daves screams, were like nothing I had ever heard! So, I started to bug my parents for the VH and VHII albums, which I got...WACF was the first "new" release I believe I got on my own...rode my bike a few blocks to Gentiles Music Store with allowance in hand...that was it! By age 13 my entire room was plastered with VH posters, pics from mags etc...and I was anxiously awaiting the release of their new album 1984...to this day, I still feel 14 and I aint allowing myself to get any older...time stopped in 1985! When I see em live...I'll wash away these 20 some years....