Van Halen---The debate to end it all.

[Huggy]

Since Eruption is an instrumental, so it doesn't count...

I'll buy that!

 

[mpcincal]

Sometimes I feel bored reading this because I go on the Metal Sludge website once in awhile and its seems like every third thread on its message board is a Dave vs. Sammy debate.

First off, to the question at hand -- yes, I have to pick VH with Dave and part of it is the fact that it's their early days, which in most cases is usually a band's best output, when things are new, the stuff they come out with is stuff you never really heard before and it's usually free of corporate influence and rock star mentality.

And Roth was a near-perfect frontman for that band. He had the other three guys were great musicians (Eddie especially) and he could just go up there and be Diamond Dave. It was a great, great combination.

But, as others have said on this board, I dig Van Hagar, too. It's maybe not as good as earlier VH, but they put out some good stuff (5150 and Carnal Knowledge being my favorites). And the idea of Hagar as some hack who would have nothing without the VH gig is laughable: He had a solid solo career before he joined the band, and I think he would have continued to do so if he had never joined VH. IMO, I don't think you could say the same for Roth.

To reply to one poster's comparison: Roth VH=Lakers is accurate, but Van Hagar=Clippers is far from true. VHagar is at least on par with the Jazz or Suns of the '80s-'90s -- no titles, but solid playoff contenders.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

1) "Right Now"
2) "Eruption"
3) "Jump"
4) "Panama"
5) "Me Wise Magic"

 

[mpcincal]

Oh, and since you asked:

With Diamond Dave:

1. Panama
2. Unchained
3. Everybody Wants Some
4. Jamie's Crying
5. And the Cradle Will Rock

With Hagar:

1. Finish What You Started
2. Runaround
3. Good Enough
4. Black and Blue
5. Top of the World

 

[Gator]

1) Panama
2) Everybody Wants Some (Love this in Better off Dead)
3) Hot for Teacher (if only for the drums at the beginning ... filthy)
4) Hot Summer Nights (Love this intro riff)
5) Ain't Talkin' Bout Love

 

[Captain_Kirk]

1. Everybody Wants Some
2. Dance the Night Away
3. Right Now
4. Finish What Ya Started
5. Jamie's Crying

Suprisingly a mix of Roth and Hagar. Was expecting this to be pretty much all DLR until I sat down and went through the discography to compile it.


Favorite VH obscurity: In a Simple Rhyme

 

[Huggy]

I don't feel tardy.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Favorite semi-obscure VH songs are "Little Guitars" and "Atomic Punk."

 

[Gator]

I remember the first time I heard Atomic Punk ... it was actually covered by a little band at a small bar. But it caught my ear right away, and I asked the guy what it was during his next break. Great tune.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

This thread inspired me to rectify the lack of a Van Halen channel on my Pandora feed.

1. Mean Street
2. Little Guitars
3. Everybody Wants Some!
4. Top Jimmy/Hot For Teacher
5. The rest of Fair Warning, especially Sinner's Swing!

Van Halen with Roth, at its best, was like the Howard Stern show's (pre-Artie) heyday: it sounded like a party that the listener was invited to. Full of energy, fun as heck, and sounded like they just didn't give a shirt. Extra points for being able to fit two albums on a single homemade CD.

The Hagar years, for whatever reason, were a more controlled style of music, heavy on the keyboards. Is that Hagar's fault? Not necessarily. But Eddie Van Halen stopped sounding innovative with 5150. The Cherone album . . . by that time, Eddie was starting his Gene Simmons impersonation, running through bandmates like he ran through tobacco products.

They were my dream reunion tour ever since Roth left the band. The 1996 MTV awards appearance is hilarious, in hindsight. Had a chance to see them in 2008, and they were great. A lot of fun, and at two hours, longer than any they played in their heyday, with plenty of their usual three-minute hits in there.

I have a few of their bootlegs from the early 1980s, and the band was amazing. Just great energy. Then Roth comes in, and acts like an ass. The US Festival is most striking. I guess it was part of that tour's schtick for him to yell that he "forgot the f$#%in' WORDS!" during Romeo Delight. But at the US Festival, they were playing in front of 200,000 people. The biggest audience most bands ever see. And Anthony and the Van Halen brothers are absolutely CRUSHING. It's as if they know exactly how big this gig is, they feel the history of the moment, and they are determined to live up to it.

And Dave is doing stupid schtick. I can imagine Eddie standing there thinking, "WTF?"



What's the best bio of these bozos?

 

[Steak Snabler]

According to Sammy, there were a lot of "WTF?" moments on his last VH tour because of Eddie's fallen-down drunken-ness.

 

[albert77]

That this is even a discussion is this week's sign of the apocalypse.

Top 5 for me:

1. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
2. Hot For Teacher
3. Ice Cream Man
4. And The Cradle Will Rock
5. Runnin' With the Devil