I do sincerely think that the album 5150 wouldn't have musically been THAT different. I think Dave would've rejected a couple of things...but for the most part, it would have been the same music.
The problem was what was chosen to sing on it. GET UP would have been a stunner had Dave been around for it.
The argument made here by many of us, Heater, is that the six-pack was where it's at. I don't just blame Ed for the band being over after that. I think Dave's ego was so enormous that he went and did a really stupid thing: he left the band. He should've stuck around.
Some fans knock 1984 for the new sounds on it. I love it...it was my first VH album. I was eight-years-old. I love that through all the new sounds Ed was producing, he and Dave worked at it and found a meeting place and made a brilliant album.
Dave made a ton of mistakes after he left the band...he DID become a self-parody.
But I listen to ME WISE MAGIC and think, wow...that's the sound. They did it. It took 12 years...but they did it.
And A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRUTH, I don't listen to it the way I listen to newer albums by some vintage acts and sort of pretend to like it because I'm nostalgic. I genuinely love A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRUTH. In fact, it's not my 7th-favorite VH album. It's probably my 4th or 5th-favorite VH album. I listen to STAY FROSTY, OUTTA SPACE, BEATS WORKIN', SHE'S THE WOMAN, CHINA TOWN, YOU AND YOUR BLUES, BULLETHEAD, HONEYBABYSWEETIEDOLL, BIG RIVER, BLOOD AND FIRE and genuinely enjoy them the same way I enjoy those early albums. No irony. No apology. No pretending.
And anytime idiots like Eddie Trunk try and whine that so much of the music on that album is "old songs," I wonder just how much these people know anything about the band's history. They were recycling old riffs and music on all of those albums...even the Sammy ones. TAKE ME BACK from BALANCE is based on a pre-1978 piece of music Ed had tried with Dave. Point is, I don't care. It's Van Halen. It's a new (well, it WAS new in 2012) Van Halen album. Most of Dave's lyrics are new. And I like them. Yes, he needed them to make an album like that. And they needed him.
The problem was what was chosen to sing on it. GET UP would have been a stunner had Dave been around for it.
The argument made here by many of us, Heater, is that the six-pack was where it's at. I don't just blame Ed for the band being over after that. I think Dave's ego was so enormous that he went and did a really stupid thing: he left the band. He should've stuck around.
Some fans knock 1984 for the new sounds on it. I love it...it was my first VH album. I was eight-years-old. I love that through all the new sounds Ed was producing, he and Dave worked at it and found a meeting place and made a brilliant album.
Dave made a ton of mistakes after he left the band...he DID become a self-parody.
But I listen to ME WISE MAGIC and think, wow...that's the sound. They did it. It took 12 years...but they did it.
And A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRUTH, I don't listen to it the way I listen to newer albums by some vintage acts and sort of pretend to like it because I'm nostalgic. I genuinely love A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRUTH. In fact, it's not my 7th-favorite VH album. It's probably my 4th or 5th-favorite VH album. I listen to STAY FROSTY, OUTTA SPACE, BEATS WORKIN', SHE'S THE WOMAN, CHINA TOWN, YOU AND YOUR BLUES, BULLETHEAD, HONEYBABYSWEETIEDOLL, BIG RIVER, BLOOD AND FIRE and genuinely enjoy them the same way I enjoy those early albums. No irony. No apology. No pretending.
And anytime idiots like Eddie Trunk try and whine that so much of the music on that album is "old songs," I wonder just how much these people know anything about the band's history. They were recycling old riffs and music on all of those albums...even the Sammy ones. TAKE ME BACK from BALANCE is based on a pre-1978 piece of music Ed had tried with Dave. Point is, I don't care. It's Van Halen. It's a new (well, it WAS new in 2012) Van Halen album. Most of Dave's lyrics are new. And I like them. Yes, he needed them to make an album like that. And they needed him.
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