Van Halen Entertainment Weekly 10-18-96

[ALMOSTsaved]

Okay, tried to post this earlier but screwed up the photo links. Anyway, I found this old magazine and wanted to scan the article just for fun and post it here. As we all know this is right after the '96 reunion went south. Kind of a cool read. Sorry if the scans are large and the fact that I had to split some pics. I also had to omit a roller skating pic because it too was 2 pages. Enjoy!

[Anonymous]

Hahaha, I love how Eddie is smiling & Dave is wiping a tear.

Eddie portraying the son of a bitch who betrayed Roth & doesn't show any signs of guilt.

Dave Lee portraying the innocent, hurt party. "He lied to me. Broke my heart. The son of a bitch."

Priceless.

Cheers! :bottle:

[VAiN]

Thanks for scanning that in... I remember that time pretty clearly.. damnit.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

I don't want to read it again...Brings back shitty memories...

[joe d'amato]

... that entertainment weekly mag you posted was part of the magic of the quasi-reunion of '96 ...

... excellent post ...

[Unchainme]

Probably the 2nd biggest mistake behind hiring Hagar in the first place.

Rock had a major void in at the time, I mean the grunge movement had died out, though there were a few bands out there but nothing that would have stood in =VH='s way. Perhaps they would have been able to push the bubble gum shit that was on it's way, out of the scene?'


I believe that if they would have stuck together the next album would have sounded spectacular. "Me Wise Magic" and "Can't get this stuff no more" had a very mature sound to them, while still retaining that classic van halen edge to them, and I imagine that we would have gotten more of the same from Roth and spED.

Should have realized a lot earlier how much one needed the other in order to make great records and rake in the dollars.

[Terry]

Remember that issue and article well.

That whole episode was a fucking bummer. A stroke job with a minimal payoff. Like, just as MWM hit the radio, the Roth/VH public letters were released and the whole biz was over before it ever really got started.

More than anything, it was a missed opportunity to have possibly several more years of productive, creative work from the band in terms of new music. Instead, we get a decade of floundering, and by the end of it Eddie ends up doing exactly what he said he didn't want to do in 1996 anyway, which was become a nostalgia act. Difference being that by 2007-2008 his ability had waned.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

I believe that if they would have stuck together the next album would have sounded spectacular. "Me Wise Magic" and "Can't get this stuff no more" had a very mature sound to them, while still retaining that classic van halen edge to them

Have to disagree....

As I've said quite a few times before, IMO MWM and CGTSNM were very mediocre songs.... For whatever reason, the vocal ranges for Dave were on both extremes, either way too low or way too high... The melodies were merely average....

I just think it was obvious they were hurriedly produced.....

But in terms of the fan's reaction, and I'll repeat this part too, I have to compare it to Eddie Murphy's "Ritz Cracker" bit in Raw, and I'll mix it in with this topic;

If you're starving (VH fans) and somebody throw you a cracker (new songs),

you gonna be like this:

"Goddamn, that's the best cracker I ever ate in my life!

"That ain't no regular cracker, was it? What was that, a Saltine?

"Goddamn, that was delicious.

"That wasn't no Saltine. That was... That was a Ritz. That wasn't a Ritz?

"God, that was the best cracker I ever ate in my life.

"Can I have another one, please? Please, one more."

[GAR]

I don't want to read it again...Brings back shitty memories...

[x] GROAN.

[Terry]

Have to disagree....

As I've said quite a few times before, IMO MWM and CGTSNM were very mediocre songs.... For whatever reason, the vocal ranges for Dave were on both extremes, either way too low or way too high... The melodies were merely average....

I just think it was obvious they were hurriedly produced.....

But in terms of the fan's reaction, and I'll repeat this part too, I have to compare it to Eddie Murphy's "Ritz Cracker" bit in Raw, and I'll mix it in with this topic;

If you're starving (VH fans) and somebody throw you a cracker (new songs),

you gonna be like this:

"Goddamn, that's the best cracker I ever ate in my life!

"That ain't no regular cracker, was it? What was that, a Saltine?

"Goddamn, that was delicious.

"That wasn't no Saltine. That was... That was a Ritz. That wasn't a Ritz?

"God, that was the best cracker I ever ate in my life.

"Can I have another one, please? Please, one more."

Maybe this is setting the bar for MWM and CGTSNM artificially low, but considering 1) the time elapsed at that point of Roth being in the band, 2) the relative decade-long blandness Ed and Hagar brought to the name 'Van Halen' and 3) the circumstances under which they were recorded, I'd have say the tunes somewhat defied expectations and were an indication that there was still creative juice left in the Roth/Ed team. A shame that Eddie chose not to explore his options with Roth further in 1996 than he did.

I mean, who knows what they could have cooked up with Dave if they took more time and made a concerted effort. Does anyone doubt that CVH could have come up with a result that was far better than VH3? And how long did that album take to be released? Cherone joined the band somewhere in August/September/October of 1996, and the album was released in the spring of 1998. So that was around 18 months. I daresay a 1996 CVH reunion, even allowing for Eddie's fucking hip, could have produced an album far better than Van Cherone in half the time if the Van Halens didn't react to Roth like a couple of cockteasing coozes felt up at a Drive-In movie.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Absolutely Terry, the watered-down Van Hagar certainly had something to do with it....