CVH Infleunces

[cdwillis]

I would love to think Van Halen thought up every facet of the music style they created, but everyone has used other songs as inspiration for their own music.

You can clearly hear the smooth California harmonies the Beach Boys pioneered in the Van Halen songs (especially the chorus of songs like In a Simple Rhyme or Little Dreamer).

Another characteristic is the songs like Unchained and Runnin' with the Devil use the same chords like those in songs by the James Gang and other previous rock bands.

Something about Dance the Night Away reminds me of Fool in the Rain by Led Zeppelin.

Besides they had a repertoire of around 200 cover songs which obviously had an effect on their song writing.

[Casemeister]

The big power chords of the Who can be heard in some VH songs. Funny, when Van Hagar covered Won't Get Fooled Again, they blew it, but the Who were an influence on VH.

[Loons The Great]

James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee, John Lee Hooker, Doc Watson, Humble Pie, Louie Armstrong, them Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Slade, Spinal Tap, Cheech and Chong, Robin Trower, Ten Years After, The Doors, The Ohio Players, Deep Purple, Top Jimmy, The Rolling Stones, Budgie, The Faces, Mose Allison, Otis Redding, an' The Kinks. Yez. Yez. Yez.

[TheManWithNoName]

Someone mentioned David Lee Roth reminding them of Robert Plant? Dave acts nothing like Plant onstage. If you've seen Big Jim Dandy, you can see the connection there. But let's face facts, Dave's nearly as original onstage as you can get. I see him parodizing himself now, but, other than Dave doing Dave, I don't see many past Jim Dandy being an onstage influence for DLR.

Ed worked on Clapton's solos yes, but he also used to just sit by the radio all night and play. I remember his brother Al saying he used to leave to go out on a Friday night at 6, and Ed would be on his bed playing his guitar to songs on the radio, and he'd come back home at 6 in the morning, and he'd still be playing.

As for Dave, I agree with many of the dudes mentioned in the post before mine.

[SammySucks1984]

I know that dave was a fan of the kinks.