I dunno...the idea that Van Halen, which over the last 2 decades in essence boils down to Eddie/Alex and whoever they want to sing for them, are going to look beyond previous lead singers and get someone new in there and really make a concerted effort to look forward as opposed to backward...that this will result in something new and exciting musically from the band...
I mean, I like the idea. I really do. If only because the nostalgia route (another tour with Hagar notwithstanding) has been pretty much tapped out, at least as far as my own interest level goes. Like, I understood in 2007 why that first reunion tour was gonna be an oldies only setlist, given the nature of how it came together. 5 years later, in some respects the band made a smart decision to revamp a 1/2 dozen 35 year old demos for inclusion: they all had that signature CVH sound that would appeal to CVH fans, and would only help reestablish a connection with the Van Halen record buying public. They would also be easier starting points for the band to work on, rather than trying to create an entire album from scratch. Much in the way the first reunion tour was going to be easier as an oldies only tour, rather than trying to make a new album in advance of that. THAT would have been a stretch (keeping in mind the amount of time it took Eddie just to get cleaned up for that tour).
My hope was that the band would by now have went on to create another album of predominately new material. While nobody was expecting these guys to put out a new album every year like the CVH days, it's been ten years since they got back together. If it is just (as both of them have stated) that Eddie and Dave have musical differences in personal tastes that make creating new music arduous at best, or they just don't feel the drive or need to put out new music (keeping in mind Ed's 2011 comments that he saw little point in putting out new material if fewer people are buying records than before and many are content to simply download the content for free), the DLR VH reunion of the last decade hasn't resulted in a bounty of new material...and clearly it isn't going to. So where does this lineup go from here? A CVH Greatest Hits tour every few years to refill the coffers?
Ed made a (wrongheaded or not) ballsy decision in 1996 NOT to go the easy route. The easiest thing for him to have done in 1996 would have been to do an album and tour with Dave. It's what I wanted to see. Putting the specific choice of Cherone and the merits of that to one side, Ed was clear back then that he didn't want to become a nostalgia act. They went ahead with Cherone. Ed called the shots for Van Halen III: that was Eddie's baby. Three years later, they saw the results of that bold decision. One can argue (and I'd tend to agree) that the songs simply weren't there for Van Halen III, but in the end they produced an album that sold a fraction of what all the Van Halen albums before that did - and this was well before massive amounts of people could pirate it online for free - and they got dropped from Warner Brothers as a result.
On a creative front, going with a new singer now would to my mind be the most authentic expression of Ed's desire (assuming he even has such a desire) to not be tethered to his past. The problem with Van Halen is that the accomplishments of their history are so baked into the cake now that anything they do with any other singer other than Roth or Hagar is inevitably going to be compared with what the band did with those two singers...and probably will be judged as coming up short.
So, say you're Eddie Van Halen 'Right Now'...do you say thanks to Dave and Sam for the memories and get a fourth singer, knowing in all probability that if your last record with Dave could barely crack a million in sales something with a fourth singer will be lucky to sell half of that in today's climate? Or, do you go forward with a Hagar tour? What would the touring guarantees financially be like for Van Halen Mach 5? How many promoters would even bother investing nickel one into securing venues and dates for a Van Halen tour now featuring a new lead singer? Irving Azoff doesn't have a credible sales pitch to sell what any promoter with an ounce of sense would see as another Van Halen III debacle in the making: a polished turd is still a turd.
I mean, I like the idea. I really do. If only because the nostalgia route (another tour with Hagar notwithstanding) has been pretty much tapped out, at least as far as my own interest level goes. Like, I understood in 2007 why that first reunion tour was gonna be an oldies only setlist, given the nature of how it came together. 5 years later, in some respects the band made a smart decision to revamp a 1/2 dozen 35 year old demos for inclusion: they all had that signature CVH sound that would appeal to CVH fans, and would only help reestablish a connection with the Van Halen record buying public. They would also be easier starting points for the band to work on, rather than trying to create an entire album from scratch. Much in the way the first reunion tour was going to be easier as an oldies only tour, rather than trying to make a new album in advance of that. THAT would have been a stretch (keeping in mind the amount of time it took Eddie just to get cleaned up for that tour).
My hope was that the band would by now have went on to create another album of predominately new material. While nobody was expecting these guys to put out a new album every year like the CVH days, it's been ten years since they got back together. If it is just (as both of them have stated) that Eddie and Dave have musical differences in personal tastes that make creating new music arduous at best, or they just don't feel the drive or need to put out new music (keeping in mind Ed's 2011 comments that he saw little point in putting out new material if fewer people are buying records than before and many are content to simply download the content for free), the DLR VH reunion of the last decade hasn't resulted in a bounty of new material...and clearly it isn't going to. So where does this lineup go from here? A CVH Greatest Hits tour every few years to refill the coffers?
Ed made a (wrongheaded or not) ballsy decision in 1996 NOT to go the easy route. The easiest thing for him to have done in 1996 would have been to do an album and tour with Dave. It's what I wanted to see. Putting the specific choice of Cherone and the merits of that to one side, Ed was clear back then that he didn't want to become a nostalgia act. They went ahead with Cherone. Ed called the shots for Van Halen III: that was Eddie's baby. Three years later, they saw the results of that bold decision. One can argue (and I'd tend to agree) that the songs simply weren't there for Van Halen III, but in the end they produced an album that sold a fraction of what all the Van Halen albums before that did - and this was well before massive amounts of people could pirate it online for free - and they got dropped from Warner Brothers as a result.
On a creative front, going with a new singer now would to my mind be the most authentic expression of Ed's desire (assuming he even has such a desire) to not be tethered to his past. The problem with Van Halen is that the accomplishments of their history are so baked into the cake now that anything they do with any other singer other than Roth or Hagar is inevitably going to be compared with what the band did with those two singers...and probably will be judged as coming up short.
So, say you're Eddie Van Halen 'Right Now'...do you say thanks to Dave and Sam for the memories and get a fourth singer, knowing in all probability that if your last record with Dave could barely crack a million in sales something with a fourth singer will be lucky to sell half of that in today's climate? Or, do you go forward with a Hagar tour? What would the touring guarantees financially be like for Van Halen Mach 5? How many promoters would even bother investing nickel one into securing venues and dates for a Van Halen tour now featuring a new lead singer? Irving Azoff doesn't have a credible sales pitch to sell what any promoter with an ounce of sense would see as another Van Halen III debacle in the making: a polished turd is still a turd.
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