The little things...

[1nelahnav1]

My first Van halen memory was right after 1984 came out my dad got off work at midnight came home to me gasping for air. So on the way to the hospital he had cassette in and I remember him playing jump for me. Now I have a 4 year old when I downloaded tattoo I told her this is the new Van halen. When it came on she started dancing around the room and wanted me to play it over and over. She now knows every word to the song and her new favorite is she's the woman. So every day she says daddy can we listen to the new van halen? I proudly turn it on and watch her dance. Thank you van halen for these memories.

[DiverDowninKy]

Great thread!

One thing can really remember is sitting there listening to Van Halen with the head phones on for hours while reading through Cream and Circus magazine. Hadn't thought about that in a while.....

[Yount]

I remember doing biology homework to F.U.C.K.

Oh sorry.

Actually I remember getting my first Van Halen album. I looked at Diver Down in the rack first, then chose Van Halen I. The song that blew my young mind was Atomic Punk. Never the same after that one.

[Momshell]

ok...everyone's amazing stories are inspiring me to write in more detail what inspired me to go with my grandparents to the record store at age 13 and buy all 6 albums at once. I was in 7th grade, and there was the cool kid in 8th - you know the one - longish hair, smoking cigarettes since elementary school, but smart enough to be 'in' with the teachers and everyone. He played the drums for all of the school show and concerts, and played the piano in the auditorium before the chorus teacher arrived. He used to be buddy-buddy with my 7th grade social studies teacher, not sure why, and when we were in study hall with him, this kid would come in and draw the VH sign on the chalkboard. I didn't know what that was at the time...asked a couple of people, who told me it was the symbol for a band called Van Halen. Being that I had no older siblings or anyone cool to influence me musically, I was still listening to pop or whatever was on the radio, probably Michael Jackson at that time. I really liked this cool kid - still remember his name was Ben. Around the same time, I remember seeing a picture of Dave in one of the teen magazines - I think it was the one with him in or next to a pool. I thought to myself - who or what is that?! Never seen anything like that before! Again - asked around, and was told that was David Lee Roth, the lead singer of a band called Van Halen. There it was again....that name....Van Halen. Still never heard their music. Then one night, I'm in bed, listening to my little clock radio and I hear Jump. Liked it immediately, but had no idea what I was listening to. The song ended, and the DJ said "that's the new single by Van Halen". It all came together, the picture of Dave, the cool kid, and now the music. I also now realized that what the cool kid was playing on the piano was the opening to Jump. I was hooked!! That weekend I went to the record store and got the six pack with Grandma and Grandpa. I figured if I ever wanted to get Ben to like me, I'd have to be cool, and I now knew how to do that - listen to and learn Van Halen. Will never forget my grandfather in his living room with both hands in the air pumping his fists to "hey hey hey" in ATBL! I never went back to pop radio again. Great memories!!!

[wiseguy]

My first Van halen memory was right after 1984 came out my dad got off work at midnight came home to me gasping for air. So on the way to the hospital he had cassette in and I remember him playing jump for me. Now I have a 4 year old when I downloaded tattoo I told her this is the new Van halen. When it came on she started dancing around the room and wanted me to play it over and over. She now knows every word to the song and her new favorite is she's the woman. So every day she says daddy can we listen to the new van halen? I proudly turn it on and watch her dance. Thank you van halen for these memories.

Yes, I remember those days too....but that beautiful little girl will turn 14 and take the controls on the Alpine stereo in the truck and say, "ahhh Dad not Van Halen today..play LMFAO...I love this song". You will oblige, roll your eyes and carry on.
The little things...

[vandeleur]

The little things .... In the mid nineties van Hagar played with Bon jovi at our local stadium ... All the local rock fans were buzzed... Me and a group of friends had an all day party drinking session... We refused to go and called ourselves the real van halen appreciation society ( this was pre the phrase cvh)We had tee shirts the lot .... We got pissed and insulted the van Hagar Ben Jarvis fans in the pub before and after the gig ..... It was like being in a gang ... Bit like this place ... Like pa says its the little things

[Dave's PA Rental]

Another one...older brother story

Neighbor had a run-down 1966 Mustang fastback that was parked in his driveway and had never moved in years. My brother loved Mustangs and one day he paid the neighbor a few hundred bucks for the privilege of having it take up space in our driveway. Anyway, big bro and I would sit out in the car after school and listen to the AM radio, and daydream about road-trips, races, and beautiful girls.

We killed the battery pretty quick and my bro put the boom box in the car, along with the 6-pack on cassette. Little things...kid stuff...sitting in a broken-down hot rod listening to VH, silently making our plans for world domination...

[rocking ron]

VAN HALEN & BON JOVI did in Holland an outdoor-show in the mid-90's , and you know what......

BON JOVI was HEADLINER ................yeeeeeeeeeck

[chefcraig]

VAN HALEN & BON JOVI did in Holland an outdoor-show in the mid-90's , and you know what......

BON JOVI was HEADLINER ................yeeeeeeeeeck

Uh, Van Halen did not exist between 1985 and 2007, so what's the big deal?

[slimdon]

Jump!

I started DJing in the stripclub in the summer of '93. By the summer of '94 I'd met Diamond Dave on his 'Filthy Little Mouth' tour and that moment really helped solidify me getting out of a bad relationship at the time. By the summer of '95 I was part of the management team at the club and serious heavy drinking had become my way of life.

That November I hooked up with a supermodel-of-stripper. She was a cross between Elle McPherson and Cindy Crawford... and for whatever reason, she was somewhat intersted in me. It was a bizarre time in my life, but before any kind of whirlwind affair could've flourished, the supermodel was gone and I was left with only my bottle of Jim Beam and a conveyor belt of hot drinking partners.

Alot of the strippers thought of me as their brother, so hookin' up with any of them really never crossed my mind. It was almost always about getting our drink on... and being the envy of all the other fools in the bar. Anyways, by the the time Christmas '95 rolled around I was headlong into a major binge. Mostly trying to get the supermodel chick outta my head, but no amount of Bourbon did the trick. So on the dawn of the new year I thought back to my meeting with Diamond Dave, and how that day had influenced me into not sweating the little shit (or any shit for that matter). So I made it a point on January 1, 1996 that every morning I'd throw 'Jump' in my CD player and live by the opening lyric, "I live my life like there's no tomorrow..."

Everday for almost 6 months I got up and put that song on. My drinking problem certainly took a turn for the worse, but it wasn't because I was drinking to bury the ill will, I was now just plain celebrating life.

I know alot of Army members dog that song, but that one's especially special to me. If I hear it come on the radio I always yell, "Thank you!"

[wiseguy]

I'd throw 'Jump' in my CD player and live by the opening lyric, "I live my life like there's no tomorrow..."

My drinking problem certainly took a turn for the worse,

Ummmm.......Its still pretty bad if you think the opening lyric to 'Jump" is...."I live my life like theres no tomorrow..." ????
Go ahead put that bottle down...go ahead, you can do it...you're amongst friends here.

Thats the opening lyric to Running with the devil but we're not here to split hairs. STOP DRINKING!!!!

[chefcraig]

Thats the opening lyric to Running with the devil but we're not here to split hairs. STOP DRINKING!!!!

Or, continue to drink, but do so while listening to a better (and possibly louder) stereo.

[tommyv]

Spring of 78. University wasn't going so well that term and it would turn out to be my last. I was much more successful at the three 'G's than the three 'R's...getting drunk, getting high and getting laid.

It was the first nice day of spring and a bicycle ride into downtown Kitchener from my home in north Waterloo was called for. Hit the comic book store and made my way over to the record store. I walked into the store and heard this wonderful sound. The clerk had a huge shit-eating grin on his face and I enquired as to the name of this particular tune. It was 'Running With The Devil' and I was awestruck. He directed me to the last copy on the rack. The record had been on non-stop play that day and he told me that no one left the store without a copy of it.

I took it back to the house and cranked it up. I couldn't wait for my roomies to get home and introduce them to it. VH I has been a constant. beautiful noise im my life ever since.

A few months later, my scholastic career over, I found myself working in a newly opened record store. It was now my job to educate the masses. VH I was a daily play in the store.

I was working in record stores when both VH II and WACF first came out. I had the pleasure of sharing the joy with our clientele.

Fast forward to 1984. 1983 had been another interesting year and I decided that I needed a short vacation. On New Year's Day, a friend and I flew down to Florida for a week. One of the first things that I did was purchase a radio walkman. Sitting by the pool, drinking some cold ones and I heard "Jump" for the first time. To this day, I get goosebumps. I was moved to tears when I received the e-mail announcing the 2012 tour and 'Jump' came out of the speakers. 1984 was a watershed year in my life and "Jump" started it all off. "1984" is probably the most played album of my life. My wife and were driving home from a party a few weeks ago and "Jump" came on the radio. I turned it up and started trying to explain why it meant that much to me, but I'm not sure that she really understood how it tied our lives together. We had only started going out in late 83 and as our relationship grew throughout the next year, "1984" was the soundtrack.

I await Tuesday with anxious anticipation. My only regret...I wish that it was vinyl that I was bringing home.

Music really does provide the bookmarks of our lives....

[estang74]

What a great thread, seriously.

My Van Halen Story

1984, My older cousin, who I owe getting into good music and guitar, comes over and brings a cassette of 1984. I didn't know who Van Halen was yet. I had Def Leppard Pyromania and that was about it for tapes. I was 9 years old and the folks weren't to keen on me listening to Heavy Metal(or even hard rock) So my cousin pops the tape in and I was blown away, later that weekend I ended up watching the video for Jump and it was all over. I tried to hide the cassette from my cousin(who lived 45 min from me) but to no avail, he found it and he was gone.(he also gave me blizzard of oz to keep, very cool cousin) The next plan of attack was to find a way to buy the album cover with the kid smoking on the cover because I knew my folks weren't buying that album for me. I don't remember how I got the album but little by little my folks started loosening up(mostly my dad) and I was doing chores for albums. I remember seeing unchained on MTV and you know what the second album I bought was(still my favorite).

I've been playing guitar for 24 years now and the first tab book I bought was van halen 1. PLaying guitar opened up so many doors in my life, it's what I do for a living, it's how I met some of my best friends to this day, it gave the quiet kid confidence. Van Halen is something that if you get it, you get it for life. I can still remember hearing eruption for the first time or trying to learn spanish fly from a guitar magazine.

The new album makes me smile, it brings me back to a time in my life when everything was simple, when the hardest thing was getting up for school or trying to get the courage to talk to that hot girl in your math class. I hope the album blows up and I hope all the true VH fans really dig the record as much as I am digging it right now.

[So this is love]

I started DJing in the stripclub in the summer of '93. By the summer of '94 I'd met Diamond Dave on his 'Filthy Little Mouth' tour and that moment really helped solidify me getting out of a bad relationship at the time. By the summer of '95 I was part of the management team at the club and serious heavy drinking had become my way of life.

That November I hooked up with a supermodel-of-stripper. She was a cross between Elle McPherson and Cindy Crawford... and for whatever reason, she was somewhat intersted in me. It was a bizarre time in my life, but before any kind of whirlwind affair could've flourished, the supermodel was gone and I was left with only my bottle of Jim Beam and a conveyor belt of hot drinking partners.

Alot of the strippers thought of me as their brother, so hookin' up with any of them really never crossed my mind. It was almost always about getting our drink on... and being the envy of all the other fools in the bar. Anyways, by the the time Christmas '95 rolled around I was headlong into a major binge. Mostly trying to get the supermodel chick outta my head, but no amount of Bourbon did the trick. So on the dawn of the new year I thought back to my meeting with Diamond Dave, and how that day had influenced me into not sweating the little shit (or any shit for that matter). So I made it a point on January 1, 1996 that every morning I'd throw 'Jump' in my CD player and live by the opening lyric, "I live my life like there's no tomorrow..."

Everday for almost 6 months I got up and put that song on. My drinking problem certainly took a turn for the worse, but it wasn't because I was drinking to bury the ill will, I was now just plain celebrating life.

I know alot of Army members dog that song, but that one's especially special to me. If I hear it come on the radio I always yell, "Thank you!"

Which song are you talking about again?? Also what's Hic a cross between Elle McPherson and Cindy Crawford...???