Story of Van Halen: The Early Years

[sadaist]

I think Eddie still has nightmares from that MTV 'Welcome Back'
(little ad mtv did for Dave about the reunion) from 96.
Ed ringing Dave saying "What is this shit!" etc (documented in Dave's book)

Your Youtube link has been removed. No fear. I have the most complete copy up. Recorded on VHS when it was first airing and transferred to digital a while back. So yeah, it's not the best quality, but it is the only copy of the commercial out there. A couple others only caught about half of it. here is the full shebang.

(Apologies for the VW commercial at the beginning. No matter how hard I tried with my limited video transfer experience, I just could not cut it close enough to remove it)

But yes, this thing pissed Eddie off immensely. Funny, because it had the exact opposite effect on the fans.

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qiPf7ubjk4Q?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qiPf7ubjk4Q?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

http://www.rotharmy.com/forums/showthread.php?54560-WELCOME-BACK-DAVE!-MTV-clip-IN-FULL&highlight=

[POJO_Risin]

I think the first time I saw that history video was a few years back when Va Beach came down to the MOJO Dojo East for the Sam and Dave tour. I've got a copy of it somewhere...but I think this morning was the first time I saw it sober.

Shit, it is what it is, but I think I'd watch anybody talk about Van Halen's glory days...cash grab or not.

We should all fucking put out a video talking about the first time we heard Classic Van Halen, what we thought about each album, the break up, EEAS Band, Vegas, Fake Halen, Sammy Canned, MTV, out again, Fake Halen 2, rumored 2000 reunion, Sam and Dave tour, Sam reunion fiasco and the two shittiest songs of all time, new reunion, future...

If nothing else, it would be fun to watch...

[POJO_Risin]

Your Youtube link has been removed. No fear. I have the most complete copy up. Recorded on VHS when it was first airing and transferred to digital a while back. So yeah, it's not the best quality, but it is the only copy of the commercial out there. A couple others only caught about half of it. here is the full shebang.

(Apologies for the VW commercial at the beginning. No matter how hard I tried with my limited video transfer experience, I just could not cut it close enough to remove it)

But yes, this thing pissed Eddie off immensely. Funny, because it had the exact opposite effect on the fans.

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qiPf7ubjk4Q?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qiPf7ubjk4Q?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

http://www.rotharmy.com/forums/showt...ULL&highlight=

I remember the first time I saw this...going apeshit...

[POJO_Risin]

It appears as though the double-posts and white screens have fucking returned...oh joy...

[sadaist]

I remember the first time I saw this...going apeshit...

Ditto.

And my friends that thought I was lying about Dave being back, I couldn't wait to show them this video to rub it in their faces. Turns out I ended up with a lot of egg on me face.

[POJO_Risin]

Ditto.

And my friends that thought I was lying about Dave being back, I couldn't wait to show them this video to rub it in their faces. Turns out I ended up with a lot of egg on me face.

Those few months were crazy. I was working in management at the time, and working 14-16 hour days, so after the MTV music awards, I was more or less out of the loop. Maybe a month after the awards, a good friend calls me up and says, they kicked Dave out again...and of course, I told him he was full of shit. Me Wise Magic was on the radio at this point, and same day he calls, I'm sitting at home listening to the radio, and Me Wise comes on. When the song ended the DJ read Dave's open letter over the air...

One of the shittier moments of my life...I felt like fucking kilroy, peering over the edge at the Mighty Van Halen...then having that spED stop on my fucking fingers, and kicking me off the wall.

Bastard.



Egg in the face

[sadaist]

I actually won a call-in contest from the local rock station. The promotion was anytime they played a VH song (classic), the 10th caller would win a VH cd and be in the final drawing for tickets & limo to the concert when/if they came to San Diego. I was 10th caller, drove down & picked out VH I from the box even though I already had it. And was stoked I was in the final drawing.

I shoulda hit that station up in 2007 for tix since that was the next VH concert in town.

At the time Me Wise Magic hit, me & friends were discussing renting a motorhome for 2 weeks & seeing as many shows as we could once they toured.

[fifth element]

thx, Thrills, I enjoyed the biography....

[POJO_Risin]

I actually won a call-in contest from the local rock station. The promotion was anytime they played a VH song (classic), the 10th caller would win a VH cd and be in the final drawing for tickets & limo to the concert when/if they came to San Diego. I was 10th caller, drove down & picked out VH I from the box even though I already had it. And was stoked I was in the final drawing.

I shoulda hit that station up in 2007 for tix since that was the next VH concert in town.

At the time Me Wise Magic hit, me & friends were discussing renting a motorhome for 2 weeks & seeing as many shows as we could once they toured.

You wouldn't have been the only one...

[Terry]

By the time 1996 rolled around it appeared that the Van Halens were gonna keep churning out shite rock with Hagar for years to come...that lame Twister movie came out in, what, late spring 1996 or so and the Humans Being video was being played quite often...by then it had been several years since I'd read any rock media mags with any regularity and Dave's career following ALAE had become progressively low-key to the point of near invisibility. Also, back then it wasn't a case of nearly every home having the internet, so the exchange of information was hardly instantaneous. Like, for that whole two month span of the band being back into the studio until the MTV Awards show info about the reunion existed in as close to a media blackout as you could get. All that was really known is that Roth apparently was back in the studio with the Van Halens.

Then comes the MTV appearance, followed by a few weeks of silence, then right around the same time MWM hits the radio Roth and the Van Halens issue their respective open letters explaining why nothing beyond the two tracks is gonna happen, and btw Gary Cherone is gonna be the new singer. It was just such an odd series of events, all of which happened in a black hole in terms of any key players saying what was going on until it was all over.

I remember thinking at the time that the Van Halens were totally insane to do anything along the lines of what they did with Dave, then try and go forward with Cherone as the new singer. I mean, why get people's expectations raised shy-high and not deliver? It was tantamount to dousing their fanbase with a bucket a cold water in announcing that the former lead singer of Extreme was their choice.