Why we should not hate Sammy

[Dirty Duck]

Originally posted by DavidLeeNatra
dunno...we had worse sheep here...

True...

When you're right...you're right.

[Halen High]

When Dave left and Sammy replaced him I bought the party line and continued to support the band, as in buying their albums and still taking an interest in what they were doing. It was still Eddie, Alex and Mike under the Van Halen banner. They were never as good as they were with Dave. Not even close. But I stuck with them until they released FUCK. That's when I really started to miss Dave. Well not just Dave, but what Van Halen once was.

And Sammy's constant disrespect to the CVH era really started to piss me off. It's as if he wanted to pretend CVH never happened. He came into this band when they were already established as the premier metal/hard rock act on the planet and he had NO respect for that. In the early 90s, I remember reading several interviews with Sammy in which he actually started putting down CVH's live performances, saying they were so much better now. Crap! They were famous for their live shows. What a jerk!

They could never have replaced the unique chemistry with Dave, and everything he brought to the band, but they could have made a hell of a lot better choice than Sammy Hagar! Sammy is arguably the worst lyricist in the history of the genre, and his one-dimensional screeching vocal style is a huge turn-off! And Eddie and Sammy NEVER had any chemistry as a song writing team. Van Hagar's best work, 5150, was at least for the most part music written before Sammy came along, and look what happened after that when they had to come up with something together.

But at the end of the day it was Eddie who killed this band. Yes, Dave did quit. But no one forced Eddie to betray the legacy and turn VH into 'Bland Halen'.

[Terry]

I've got no real ill-will toward Hagar.

Don't blame the guy for taking the gig after Roth split.

Even Hagar's continual lying about how many albums he sold with Van Halen is more funny than anything else.

Far as your fuck a fat chick vs. lifetime of celibacy analogy (i.e. we should have been happy to have crappy albums with Hagar as opposed to no Van Halen after all when Roth quit), well....

...even when you fuck a fat chick you're gonna get a payoff in the end via an orgasm. I get no payoff listening to Van Hagar music. Just utter blandness from a band where Hagar is trying his best and the rest of the band is able to do a lot better but would rather be on autopilot...

...and Eds 20 minute guitar solos were boring even when Roth was in the band. Ed's best stuff was done in the context of CVH songs...

Hate Sammy? No.

Laugh at him regularly? Yes.

[POJO_Risin]

Good post...it's actually nice to have someone wanting to have a fucking discussion...instead of hammering the shit out of anyone with a different take on things...

I think some of the posters here haven't had a fucking conversation in so long...that they have lost the ability to conversate...

on that note...a good post though it is...it's a bit misguided...

Hagar SHOULDN'T be bashed for taking the gig...same as Cherone...they'd have been insane not too...but as someone posted earlier...

Hagar essentially shit on the previous era from the start...in many different ways...so did Eddie...but perhaps you can connect Eddie hammering Dave...and vice versa...much more than Hagar...who should have just taken the fucking gig...and gotten over it...

then...

came the fucking lying...

first the sales...

then about how he'd never rejoin the band...

Then...to top it all off...Hagar turns into a commercial bitch...

Do I hate Hagar? How could I...I don't know the guy. Do I hate his music? Yep? Do I hate the watered down VHagar...yeah...

Hagar's only a part of it...

look no further than the Head Chirella for the rest...

[sadaist]

I saw the 5150 tour, and was surprised at all of the Dave bashing. Very childish. If they truly wanted to get revenge on Dave, they should have put more effort into the music. I think Sammy just went along with the Dave bashing in the beginning to "be one of the guys". But after a while, he really started to believe his own shit.

Just for fun, I played the Balance cd the other day. I can't tell you the name of one song on that cd. At the end of each song, I still have no idea which track is coming next.

To me, that was kinda the fun with CVH. Every great song I listened to, was amplified by the anticipation of what I knew was the next track.

[Hardrock69]

Grate pic of the new 5150 Matt....

:D

[Matt White]

We'll find out one day how close to the truth that pic is Bro....


van hagar?

Bland...from day one....


Spam never got over DAVE ripping his old lady back in the 80's....


Spam couldn't hang with DAVE...not for a minute...

The bitter sisters just played along....

Crying into their Schlitz that DAVE had gone & taken the magic with him.....

Remember...EVH said that he stopped getting along with SPAM around ou812....then had to live that lie for another 7 years.....

No wonder the music got progressively worse...as did the sales...

[Terry]

See, the Van Halens and Hagar could have just kept quiet about the whole thing from the word 'go' and let the music do the talking...

The potshots at Roth started by Eddie as soon as Dave left the band (the first I heard of that was a blurb in the April 1985 Rolling Stone where Ed was quoted as saying something along the lines of how he was glad to be rid of that asshole (Roth) and had put up with 11 years of his bullshit. This was followed up by 10 months of slamming Dave in various guitar mags and the like...

Far as I'm concerned, Dave was just responding to this stuff which probably should have been left between the band members, but I didn't mind so much when Roth let rip on Ed and Co. because a) dave is just plain funnier and gives better interviews than they did, and b) after a while, you notice how Eds' story always changed, while dave was consistent.

I mean, if Ed was really secure about his choice in Hagar, and Hagar was confident about his own abilities, than nothing would have to be said about Dave. I think both of them were just scared that 5150 was gonna flop without Dave in the band, and took to the press to put out some anti-Roth propaganda so that fans of the original lineup wouldn't turn away in droves before giving the music a chance.

I think Dave for his part could have done the same in terms of just keeping quiet about the whole thing, but he's got his former bandmembers and some 3rd rate wannabe hambone frontman slamming him in the media, so for him not to have responded would have almost been a pussy move...although he should have just waited and released EEAS, then when interviewers asked him about the breakup, he could have said "well, listen to my album and listen to Van Halen's...pretty much sums it up!"

[sadaist]

Nicely said Terry. Ed's stories even changed when he was bashing Sammy after their breakup. Ed sure can be a little bitch when people don't kiss his ass. The only thing Ed is consistent about is not being consistent.

"I don't need so much to remember. That's how it is when you tell the truth" DLR

[jcook11]

I've had the good taste to hate the choad rocker long before he joined Van Hagar (Does anyone other than me find that name just fucking disgusting?) He has always been a 2bit shitbag trying to act like a frontman. his lyrics are just fucking cheeeeeezy!

[jcook11]

I've had the good taste to hate the choad rocker long before he joined Van Hagar (Does anyone other than me find that name just fucking disgusting?) He has always been a 2bit shitbag trying to act like a frontman. his lyrics are just fucking cheeeeeezy!