Did Michael Anthony play bass on every classic Van Halen song?

[SNIPER]

The Van Hagar chapter in the Spam book does claim that Ed played a lot of the bass in the studio. But then again that guy is also a fucking two faced full of shit liar so it is hard to say.

[SNIPER]

There's no telling, ultimately, unless Donn Landee or Ted Templeman come out and say it, but I think it was Mike Anthony on all that stuff.

Yeah, I agree, that when Ed was tinkering around in the studio after hours on the Fair Warning sessions it might have given him an opportunity to do some bass. The funky bass on 'Push Comes to Shove' - for some folks that probably sounds like un-Mike bass playing, but I do remember at the time Mike saying that Ed was getting him to listen to Percy Jones of Brand X, and saying 'try playing a bit like that for this tune'.


C'mon - MA had been a bass player for a long time by the time VH came to record the six-pack. He subordinated himself to the needs of the band. He's probably got way more chops than he was ever allowed to show in VH.

I've said it before and I say it again now - one of the first things we KNOW for sure that Ed played bass on was that Hagar solo album around 1986. For me, the guy was simply not a bass player on the evidence of that - the bass playing on that album stood out to me as a guitar player trying to play bass.

Agreed. However Dirty Movies sounds like the Hagar bass to me the most.

[SNIPER]

That's your imagination getting the better of you...

I don't think so bro. I read this from an interview from the band. Don't forget there is NO bass in Jump anyway so that one is a given.

I dunno. On one hand, you have the admission by Billy Sheehan that he was approached by Ed and Dave to join the band sometime in 1980 or 1981.

I always enjoyed Mike's vocals, but damn....Sheehan would have been great with VH.

Whenever I call someone a name an angel gets its wings...

That explains why there are no wing-less angels.

[DLR Bridge]

You can't blame me for not putting anything past Edward Van Heineken...

Mmm hmm.

[ELVIS]

Yeah me too. Like that one time somebody tried to rewrite the bass playing credits to ADKOT before the cd even came out over a 9 page thread.


I know that took me all day, but this is a characteristically crazy Friday.

You can't blame me for not putting anything past Edward Van Heineken...

[VHscraps]

There's no telling, ultimately, unless Donn Landee or Ted Templeman come out and say it, but I think it was Mike Anthony on all that stuff.

Yeah, I agree, that when Ed was tinkering around in the studio after hours on the Fair Warning sessions it might have given him an opportunity to do some bass. The funky bass on 'Push Comes to Shove' - for some folks that probably sounds like un-Mike bass playing, but I do remember at the time Mike saying that Ed was getting him to listen to Percy Jones of Brand X, and saying 'try playing a bit like that for this tune'.

C'mon - MA had been a bass player for a long time by the time VH came to record the six-pack. He subordinated himself to the needs of the band. He's probably got way more chops than he was ever allowed to show in VH.

I've said it before and I say it again now - one of the first things we KNOW for sure that Ed played bass on was that Hagar solo album around 1986. For me, the guy was simply not a bass player on the evidence of that - the bass playing on that album stood out to me as a guitar player trying to play bass.

[DLR Bridge]

Assholes who strive to rewrite the history of Van Halen totally piss me off.

Yeah me too. Like that one time somebody tried to rewrite the bass playing credits to ADKOT before the cd even came out over a 9 page thread.


I know that took me all day, but this is a characteristically crazy Friday.

[CROWBAR]

Mike, quite simply, played what fit the music of Van Halen. It was all about EVH and you wouldn't want to overshadow him. Templeman knew what he had and showcased him. I personally am glad that the Sheehan thing never materialized, because then you would have a "lead style" bass player competing with Ed and it never would have worked. I think it would have sounded "too busy" and less stellar.

If you listen to Mike now (I know many won't because of you know who being in the same band) you can tell he has no constraints and definitely does have chops. To say he's a simple eighth note player is absurd.

[atlantakat]

Even back in the day, Ed resented that MA got songwriting credit when Ed came up with all the music. In interviews, Ed was already taking jabs at MA buying expensive Porsches without contributing much to the band's music. And both Sheehan and Berlin have confirmed that Ed was recruiting them to replace MA around FW.

Ironically, I don't think Ed would have been happy with complicated bass lines competing with his guitar. I remember him giving MA the ultimate backhanded compliment when he said something along the lines that he preferred MA (over someone like Cream-era Jack Bruce) for VH because MA "just plays bass."

Having said all that, I don't think Ed started playing the bass lines on the records until the Hagar years.

Over the past couple of months, I have been digging into the South American Diver Down boots (thanks Momshell!) and I was suprised how adventuresome MA was during those shows -- his lines were a lot busier and he was not just laying down single note grooves. While his solo always was the low point in a CVH show for me, I don't remember MA playing that freely at the concerts I saw in the US. I wonder if Ed more or less insisted that MA keep his lines simple as it turns out that MA had more chops than he got credit for while he was in VH.

[ELVIS]

Not all songs were recorded live. Some were finished before Mike or Dave even heard it. Jump, Panama, DDL. come to mind.

That's your imagination getting the better of you...

[DLR Bridge]

Listen to the rehearsal tracks of Girl Gone Bad where the song repeatedly falls apart, probably due to the songs level of difficulty and Edward trying to get the right feel...

Interesting. I've never heard the rehearsal tracks you speak of. Can somebody post that? I do have the Quebec 1984 bootleg video and I can clearly tell Mike isn't playing near as flashy as what was on the record.

[DLR Bridge]

I'm no conspiracy theorist. I absolutely love Mike's playing on demos, boots and studio albums from Gazzari's in '74 to WACF. From Fair Warning on, I simply wonder where that bass player went from time to time. I do recall him telling Jas Or(help me out here) in a guitar magazine that he wasn't happy with being told to play a certain way. This was around '82.

[SNIPER]

Not all songs were recorded live. Some were finished before Mike or Dave even heard it. Jump, Panama, DDL. come to mind.