How Some Of Us (Of Certain Age) Accidentally Found Van Halen

[VetteLS5]

I actually first heard them on an AM radio station of all things. There were two local AM stations that played a little bit "edgier" music, and RWTD got into a pretty strong rotation at both. I can remember riding in our Ford Country Squire station wagon pushing the tuning buttons to see if it would come up. A couple times it was a jackpot - it would be on one spot on the dial and I'd hit the button and jump to the other station and it would come up again within a song or two. My dad loved this of course.

Then it was a kid who was a grade older than me in school who got the cassette and played it on the boom box he brought to school. I bought the album about a week later.

[moose]

Great thread!!

78...don't remember the month but it was cold and there was snow.
Old style furniture stereo, older cousins brought this album with a cool cover over and said to me...."listen to this kiddo"
I swear to GOD I can still relive that moment every time I hear RWTD.....I get the chills and the shakes
I was addicted and I have NEVER looked back

[CreatureFrmTheC]

1980 my best friend's bedroom had the Helmut poster hanging on her wall. I asked who that was, the rest is history my friends.

[Fairwrning]

1980 as well.hadnt heard of Van Halen til the wacf lp was out...DTNA on the radio but no care of who that was....getting stoned in my buddies basement and he put on VH1....immediately bought all 3.

[cadaverdog]

I bought the first two albums on 8 track in early 79 but I didn't truly appreciate their talent until I saw them live the first time in April of 79. It was only my second concert but I had already seen Ted Nugent and Aerosmith at the first one, Cal Jam II. The other band that really impressed me at the second show was Cheap Trick. Trick and VH stole the show on their nights.

[guitard]

In March 1978, I was at the local record store looking to see if anything new had arrived. I had never heard of Van Halen, but bought the first album anyways - based on the album cover alone. I went home and put the album on and my jaw literally dropped open. I listened to it all the way through two times without saying a word. I was speechless. I immediately started telling my friends about the album and in a matter of a few weeks - it seemed like the 8-track or cassette player of every car in town was blasting this album.

[Sensible Shoes]

I've told mine many times - of hearing Beautiful Girls on the beach in the PERFECT atmosphere to hear VH. Made me feel like a Beautiful Girl. Had to have VH 2 soon after that.

[guitard]

This is not a 'first time' story, but it's still pretty funny. I was at college on a beautiful spring day walking across campus. There was a spot by the river where students liked to sit or lay on the grass and take a break. Someone had a boombox and was blasting "Women and Children First." The song "Everybody Wants Some!!" started playing. This male (drake) duck started chasing this hen across the grass, and right when Dave was singing the chorus, "Everybody wants some, I want some too," the drake caught the hen, bit down on the back of her neck, and started screwing her. The timing could not have been any more perfect. Everyone was watching as it happened and the small crowd spontaneously started cheering.

[cadaverdog]

I discovered I had a joint in my wallet a couple of days into boot camp while I was showing a buddy a picture of my girlfriend. I got another stoner to take the 8 to midnight perimeter watch with me that night so we could smoke it. Right after we finished smoking it some dude drives up and asks us where the fuck he's at and he's got Unchained cranking on the radio. This guy was so high he didn't even know he was on a Navy base. He wasn't even in the Navy. I had no choice but to call the MPs. If I hadn't brought Visine with me I would have probably gotten busted too. We ended up getting a trip to the geedunk machines as a reward for our efficiency. Geedunk is what they call candy and soda pop in boot camp. Perfect reward for a couple potheads for getting stoned on watch.

[diamondclaudio]

Van Halen en Montevideo.jpgFebruary 5th, 1983. I was ten years old. I saw them playing at the Cilindro Municipal , Montevideo, Uruguay.

[BenJammin]

Russellville, Alabama... sitting in the bedroom of "rich kid's house" (you know the guy in high school that was pretty cool, but probably only because his parents were rich and bought him everything ?), no parents around, with my best friend and listening to this dude's new Marantz sound system with the cool backlit analogue gauges. Getting high of course on a Columbian filled joint rolled in one of those banana flavored papers. The first album and of course opened with RWTD and followed by Eruption... thought my head was going to explode and I was grinning from ear to ear ! We listened to the whole thing while getting wasted. Blew my fucking mind (I think it actually changed my whole perspective on life for the better ) and I've been a fan ever since, with caveats for the Hagas and My-my-my-Cherona years.

[Hardrock69]

RWTD and You Really Got Me were on heavy rotation on KISW in Seattle by mid-summer of 1978.

Then the Black Sabbath/VH show was announced for Sept. 29, 1978. Bought my ticket, went to the show, and the rest is history.

[Eyes of the Night]

1986 in 6th grade listening to Eat em and Smile during reading hour because I don't read "for fun"!...

1988 my sister's boyfriend gave me the first 3 =VH= albums on tape and said "here this will change your life". I was 14 and never looked back...

[riggodrill44]

I think it was May or June 1978. 7th grade. The "coolest" guy in school, a guy named David Mayfield, was carrying a boombox between classes and RWTD was pouring out of it at high volume. It was like a bolt of lightning hit me. -- TJ

[BITEYOASS]

Probably around early 1984 on MTV when I was four years old. Plus the local rock radio station in mid-Michigan played =VH= (not Van Hagar or whatever the fuck that other band was) frequently and still do today.