Why Do You Think Ed Turned Into Such A Pussy in 1985?

[davehagarfan]

Too many years riffing on Elton John records during his youth or one too many late nights hanging out with Lukathur and those other fags in Toto?

[letsrock]

I'd say he went the route where he knew he could make money.
Do sappy love songs, so attract the females, not just the gear heads.

[Mr Walker]

It was the booze... there are all kind of drunks... ones who wanna fight when they drink, ones who wanna laugh all night when they drink, but then you get the worst kind... the ones who just wanna fucking cry and sob when they drink. That was Ed and it was a big part of the reason why Dave said 'I'm fucking out of here'. I think he said this on the Stern show once.

[letsrock]

Ed was drinking way before Dave left.
Unless it just took Dave a decade to grow tired of it all.

[Mr Walker]

Ed was drinking way before Dave left.
Unless it just took Dave a decade to grow tired of it all.

I believe it was a progression... Dave complained that all the music Ed started writing was very melancholy.

[WARF]

I'm the laugh all night drunk btw!!!

[davehagarfan]

I'd say he went the route where he knew he could make money.
Do sappy love songs, so attract the females, not just the gear heads.

You're out of your smokin' loon mind.....VH already had all the babes just as much if not more than the gear heads and they were making plenty of money

[davehagarfan]

It was the booze... there are all kind of drunks... ones who wanna fight when they drink, ones who wanna laugh all night when they drink, but then you get the worst kind... the ones who just wanna fucking cry and sob when they drink. That was Ed and it was a big part of the reason why Dave said 'I'm fucking out of here'. I think he said this on the Stern show once.

So according to Dave being a miserable, gigantic, crying pussy just came naturally to Ed?

[davehagarfan]

I believe it was a progression... Dave complained that all the music Ed started writing was very melancholy.

Melancholy isn't a word I would use to describe the music that ended up on 5150....if anything it's fairly bouncy and upbeat....sometimes bordering on gay....like Dreams for example

[sonrisa salvaje]

Why Do You Think Ed Turned Into Such A Pussy in 1985?

If you haven't figured it out in 24 years, don't ask me. I can't remember what happened last week for F's sake.

[Nickdfresh]

You're out of your smokin' loon mind.....VH already had all the babes just as much if not more than the gear heads and they were making plenty of money

That's the problem right there. They were making plenty of money and wanted to dictate to the market what the product of what Van Halen was and how it should be delivered be rather than adapting Van Halen to the market. They wanted to get uppity and play bigger stadiums with fewer gigs at only festivals such as the Monsters of Rock. Dave would have none of this understandably as I think he was far more in touch with CVH's core audience and market than the sisters were. Roth's leaving reignited them and got the Van Halens off their asses and back into the studio and hockey halls with a vengeance. But they still toured and recorded less frequently and Sam was the one guy that made Eddie Van Halen seem industrious in the safe confines of a 'super-group.'

Dave's attitude was also getting a bit uppity as he was 'on fire' and overexposed by the end of 1984 and 1985. I also think constant touring ground them down and contributed to the burn out factor, with (as I've posted before) WB goading them into the studio to follow-up a successful song and was supposed to be a one-off hit to carry over things while they took vacations after the Fair Warning tour. The easy cover song, "(Oh) Pretty Woman" turned into Diver Down and there was no rest for the wicked. I personally believe that this is where much of the acrimony grew out of that resulted in the death knell of classic Van Halen in 1985...

The main problem with all of these assholes is that they only ever seem to want to do something when it involves spiting or showing up each other, and less so for the sake of making new music...

[lesfunk]

Melancholy isn't a word I would use to describe the music that ended up on 5150....if anything it's fairly bouncy and upbeat....sometimes bordering on gay....like Dreams for example

Thats the hagar influence

[katie]

Eds dumbest move was to hire Sammy's manager Ed Leffler to manage VH.

Idiot!

[VHscraps]

Eds dumbest move was to hire Sammy's manager Ed Leffler to manage VH.

Idiot!

Or even - to hire Hagar in the first place! Anybody heard Sammy's luuurve songs - cack like 'Heartbeat' on his Danger Zone album? Listen, I loved Montrose, and I saw Hagar doing some real kick ass shows in the early 80s, but from the mid-70s his records were always half-full of middle of the road pap designed to get him on the radio.

Eddie didn't have Dave there telling him what to do, so he went with the flow. Which just happened to be right into Sammyland. Even Hagar said later that 'Roth was in charge of Van Halen 100% before I joined, and then I was in charge'. Ed's a natural, a musical originator, but still swayed by stronger personalities (including his wife).

But tt worked with Dave ... until it stopped working

[binnie]

I think there was a 'what would Dave do? Well, I'll do the opposite' mentality.

That coupled with Hagar's belief that if you put a piano or the word 'love' in a song it becomes three times better.....