Naked Wake

while I agree with you about the loyalty aspect, perhaps MA didn't really have a choice, unless he went out and did his own thing, which, let's be honest, wouldn't have had much success. One thing I'll give MA is that he knows his place in a band. He's a contributor, not a leader. If DLR wanted Billy Sheehan the whole time, there is no way he would have considered Mike unless Sheehan said "No" again to DLR.

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VH122

What you've got to understand is life is full of attention hores who will allways brag about shit that never happened,yet will try and exploit the situation for all it's worth.
Mike is and forever shall be the back ground vocals of classic Van Halen enough said.

ziggysmalls

I really wish Mike would be back but thinking of the whole situation, I can't really blame Eddie for being a bit upset with the writing credits. However its his fault if he never tried to change it since he most indoubtly had artistic grounds for his argument (if its the cause). Like somebody said a manager should have realized the tension caused by this and worked something out. Hell if Mike is the great guy that everybody says he is, he could have even volunteered to remove himself from writing credits....if he indeed did not really contribute anything to a paticular song or what not. Then again millions of dollars can change everything.

Eddie is a liar that much is true however I do not doubt he most likely has contributed bass line ideas to Mike over the years. Most guitarists if they have access to a bass guitar will lay down a bass line for their ideas. I would think since 5150 was built, this has happened quite a bit. Maybe he gave Mike freedom to do what he wanted.....who really knows.

One thing that would be interesting (to prove or disprove) is if somebody had access to the snippets of songs on The Wild Life that made it to future VH albums. I believe Eddie played bass and drums on those songs so if they match what ended up as Good Enough, Sucker in a 3 Piece and Right Now, well chances are he told Mike what to play for those paticular songs.

All I know is that I am glad Billy didn't join the band because it would not have worked and we would be on bass player number 5 by now. Alex Jon Suck may be the current bass player.

Brett

Well in my band, when we started it (not that what a bunch of garage band tools are doing matters), the singer and I agreed that every song would be 50/50 no matter who brought it in, him or I. That was the deal. Our bass player has been there since the beginning but he knows the deal, and we rarely tell him what to play. He helps arrange songs, helps work out the vocals and such, we all do, but the writing credit is the singer and myself...unless he brings in something himself, which he has. He gets complete credit for that. But we're talking like a 10:1 ratio in our favor.

I think it's pretty shitty that VH had a different deal and Ed decided to change it up in 1984 because he thought Mike didn't contribute enough...that's a dick to me. If he didn't want to give Mike credit, then he shouldn't have from the beginning. However Mike's quite a competent player and surely doesn't need his hand held on how to play in the context of a song, I am sure he did what he wanted for the most part. Shit all of us in bands collaborate, I take suggestions all the time on what to play from EVERYONE...and I am pretty confident Ed, Al, Mike, Dave, Sam all did likewise. Do you think our drummer knows how to play guitar? No but sometimes he'll have a cool idea on something I can do, that doesn't make him a songwriter. However, I do believe Mike had a much bigger hand in VH's music than that, PLUS he had publishing rights originally. Our drummer and bassist never have.

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sickman

Hell I don't even think anyone here can say they believe anything EVH has said over the years because just about every quote begins with, "I think I remember Eddie saying" or " I thought I heard in an interview" EVH hasn't really done any interviews since 1998 about the band and like Brett said at this point who knows how much of past interviews was wasted bullshit or reckless fable.

brownnation

Yeah, I've actually kind of tried to listen to Sammy's album where Eddie played bass and see if I could pick out any stylistic components of his playing that would match up with VH songs. Pretty inconclusive so far.

Otis5150

His bassplaying is pretty generic.

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ziggysmalls

Actually I did that when VH3 came out and was fairly convinced that Mike played little on the album. I remember a thread a few years back where I mentioned that and got flamed. Then Mike did that interview where he said he only played on four songs.

Honestly just from that Sammy album and VH3, I can pick out a style that is different than Mike. However its not fool proof because to my ears, the bass in Not Enough sounds like something Eddie would play but Mike said he played it on a fretless bass. I believe Mike more than my ears.

When Eddie plays bass it sounds like a guitarist playing bass. When Mike plays it sounds like a bass player.

Brett

Exactly and there is nothing special about Ed's bass playing...nothing.

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Ian Sane

Ditto for his kid...

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BRING MIKE BACK TO VAN HALEN!! SAY NO TO THE KID!!

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Naked Wake

does anyone else remember the back and forth for three or four issues with Sammy Hagar through "Guitar For the Practicing Musician" magazine? I guess that was around '97 or '98.

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Raldo

Another mystery in the land of Van Halen.

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TOM_5150

The "mystery" of VH will keep their legacy alive!! (LOL).

snare812

I agree. Ed seems to noodle within his own guitar structures as opposed to laying the root notes down or any solid line. I call it "stepping on his own dick". While I love VH III, some of the bass playing on it (which is obvious to me) is a mess.....in without you? man he's all over the place. It was even more strange to see Michael play it live because it's was clearly not his style........ The new sammy stuff from 2004.....all over the place.



Carry on.....

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ziggysmalls

Just something to think about but I have a tendancy to pull one of my hundreds of guitar mags for reading material in my bathroom. Anyway pulled one from 2006 which had the unedited Fair Warning interview. This was back when Eddie seemed cool, goofy, trustworthy, etc. Before lead singer changes, How Many Say I, porn tracks and Smooking Loon. Anyway one thing I did pick up from it is he did mentioned his personal demos for Fair Warning, you can hear the bass but on the album you can't hear Mike. Specifically when Eddie wrote songs for Fair Warning, he recorded his own bass lines to whatever he came up with. Whether Mike totally came up with something different or he "borrowed" what Eddie wrote remains to be seen.

Of course he was in an angry mood this day when he mentioned Roth's lack of range and Mike does not contribute anything to the band. He even mentioned that at least Dave carries his weight. Those were edited out of the original interview.

Anyway just further proof that Mike was not hightly thought of by Eddie since he thought more of Dave. Makes anything that Sheehan says to be more believable regarding how they were looking to get rid of Mike from early on.