The Elfoid_TFS

The Best of Both Worlds was because they couldn't squeeze more than three songs out of Eddie.

Eddie's insistence that he'd not tour without new material was probably why they ended up doing that, to be honest. He'd probably be more adamant about it during that raging alcoholic phase.

Clearly the tour meant enough to Mike and Sammy that they agreed to do the hits set as a compromise (and yeah I know Mike didn't play bass on it, but he sang on it).

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2009:
Def Leppard/Whitesnake/Motley Crue/ZZ Top/Journey/Tesla/Judas Priest/Megadeth/Thunder/Buzzcocks/Opeth/ACDC

QUITE A YEAR!

lmr5150

What? Eddie had ten albums worth of material at the time he was scoring pornos (and God help me, I love porn).

Eddie toured after "Live: Right Here Right Now", that was not new material, save for the Who cover.

BTW, in Ed's defense, the music was much better than the lyrics for "BOBW".

Bad to the Bone

the bottom line is that lefler would have been able to smooth it over with Ed and Al and nothing would have become of it, it would have been viewed by them for what it was. Daniels jumped on it and egged Ed and Al on making it (in thier minds) alot more than it was. The funny thing (to me anyway) is that Ed was going around talking about how he's sober and he couldn't be manipulated anymore when in reality Daniels was pulling his strings like a he was a puppet. "Sam's evil, he wants to be a solo artist...look at him" and I can see ed getting all pissed off going "YEAH" and then Daniels eggin him on "look at him, he's got that club and all of a sudden he's making money with it...remember he sang back up on that meatloaf song!" just piling on Ed's insecurities....

SLEEPER5150

I'm not sure, but I think it was negotiated into being a greatest hits. If I recall correctly, he originally owed two more albums, and it did get negotiated down to one, then the greatest hits with some new material. There was an interview where Sammy mentioned the conflict of doing a solo album, but didn't elaborate on where the conflict was. On the release of unboxed Sammy did the usual promo tour. He was on Rockline, and made an appearance on the short lived Whoopi Goldberg show, and it seemed like business as usual. Then when it was announced as time went on that he was out of the band, Eddie and Al started the whole venom deal of "He quit" and "his work ethic sucked" ....he'd rather be a solo artist...etc. etc. To me it was nothing more than business. I think he compromised honestly. He could have done another new album or even two, but didn't. That tells me he had a commitment to the band. Whoever handled the whole thing on the VH side did a horrible job.
It was evident by some of Ed's interviews, that Ray seemed to think VH could be better without Sam.

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She looks so $#@!'n good ,so sexy and so frail....Somethin's got the bite on me, I'm goin' straight to Hell.

Jor-L5150

i agree with the consensus here,

1) leffler was brilliant at " handling" the band. VH was lucky as hell to have TWO of the best front men and TWO of the best managers.

they also had a good, but mismatched frontman and a terrible handler.

2) sam had to another geffen record. he was under geffen contract when he joined van halen and " i never said goodbye" was put together right after 5150 and leffler admonished sam to include eddie to reassure everyone that 5150 wasnt a one-off.

3) ed was/is very inconsistant about side-progects. not saying sammy wasnt a tool sometimes but ed always did side-stuff and no one bitched.

4) Unboxed was ok- the extra tracks were leftovers from F.UcK if i rememeber correctly.

question:
does anyone have the youtube or other source of sammy on letterman promoting unboxed?

Bad to the Bone

agreed. Ed did his fair share of side projects-he produced the private life cd's with Ted Templeman, worked with Thomas Dolby, Brian May, Jackson....and I know there's more that I can't remember.

if it suits Ed in his mind it's fine, if it doesn't directly make him $$$ he's againts it.

dude turned into a prick, I used to blame daniels but he's been gone for along time and ed's continued to be an ass.

SLEEPER5150

There was a time where Ed was in kind of the same boat with Dave for his projects. That's what always surprised me about his reaction to Sammy doing the whole Unboxed thing. Ed did some side projects during the Dave era, most notably Beat It, where he did'nt tell anyone until it came out, but he had received some flack from Dave about doing side projects. Kind of a dumb thing to bicker about. I can understand if you had prospective band material, and you worked on it with someone else. That would be a shithead move, but if it's just you doing a cameo on someone elses material and album, I don't see the problem. If anything, it raises the exposure.....However.....
You mentioned that the extra tracks on Unboxed were leftovers from FUCK. That's interesting. I'd never heard that before. If that was official band material that was sidelined for say, not having enough room on the CD or time constraints(I remember an interview saying there was the potential for FUCK being a double CD but that was nixed for time constraints between album release and tour....they were very close.), then that may be considered a conflict. Point being, if he's getting sole songwriting royalties/credit for something that was worked out as a band; ie the melodies, and what not, then I could see a stern businessman like Daniels, or the brothers crying foul. Hmmmmm. That's a tough one. Is there any credit to any VH members on those leftover tracks on the jacket? Just asking 'cuz I don't have Unboxed. This is an interesting discussion all of a sudden.

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She looks so $#@!'n good ,so sexy and so frail....Somethin's got the bite on me, I'm goin' straight to Hell.

Fontcow

I remember Sammy saying that he submitted those songs as possible Van Halen songs and they were vetoed. Whether or not they were in the form they ended up being on the Unboxed set is questionable, but I'm sure what he meant was that he probably threw them into the ether as possible riffs/songs and the brothers didn't like them so he saved them for solo songs.

SLEEPER5150

I'd assume that's probably the case. I guess the real question is at what point did the brothers or Ray at the time consider material submitted, VH exclusive material. Those songs to me sounded way more solo Sammy than VH anyhow. Interesting nonetheless.

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She looks so $#@!'n good ,so sexy and so frail....Somethin's got the bite on me, I'm goin' straight to Hell.

vhin04

High Hopes was for sure presented to Eddie and it was rejected. Sam was pretty clear on that in a later interview. Too bad because that would have been one hell of a VH song.

Jor-L5150

^^^
yep.

and, some of sammy's post-vh tracks ( this is love etc ) were things he tinkered with while in VH but they had no interest.

btw- eagles fly was one of the first songs sam pitched to ed and al- but on acoustic they hated his original lyrics and he made the official version electric, then almost always played it acoustic.

btw- the "new" BOV1 tracks w/dave WERE put together at the end of balance sessions, held over for the next ( never materialised van hagar ) record. sam threatoned ray daniels for royalties and daniels payed sam a lump-sum to drop it.
which reminds me- wasnt one of the 5150 music tracks something pitched to dave just before he left? back in 85, if i remember dave had a music-only demo that ended up on 5150.

Metal Marc

I think Ed L. would have let Sammy do Unboxed, convinced Ed and Al that it was the right thing to do, and everything would have been happy in Van Halen Land.

Wasn't it "Good Enough"?

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Vince G.

You are correct, sir.

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"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

"This is a lttle prayer dedicated to the separation of church and state. I guess if they are going to force those kids to pray in schools they might as well have a nice prayer like this: Our Father who art in heaven, and to the republic for which it stands, thy kingdom come, one nation indivisible as in heaven, give us this day as we forgive those who so proudly we hail. Crown thy good into temptation but deliver us from the twilight's last gleaming. Amen and Awomen. ."

"I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."

-George Carlin 1937 - 2008

BlindtotheWorld

Any idea if any of Sam's lyrical melodies or lyrics themselves were used. (They sound very "Dave" to me). If not, does a singer get writing creds even if his lyrical contribution isn't used?

Vince G.

I know one of the tracks supposedly worked up with or for Dave was "Summer Nights". I forget what the other one was.

And, thank you. I thought Iwas the only one who ever clearly remembered reading, and hearing, Sam mention in interview after interview when he left/was fired that not just "CGTSNM", but "Me Wise Magic" was one of 2 songs they had rough demos of in the can for the follow-up to "Balance".

Given the fact that they really changed their sound for "Humans Being" (because nothing on "Balance" comes close to sounding like "Humans Being"), I firmly believe that "Me Wise Magic" was definitely something they had set aside for the next album.

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"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

"This is a lttle prayer dedicated to the separation of church and state. I guess if they are going to force those kids to pray in schools they might as well have a nice prayer like this: Our Father who art in heaven, and to the republic for which it stands, thy kingdom come, one nation indivisible as in heaven, give us this day as we forgive those who so proudly we hail. Crown thy good into temptation but deliver us from the twilight's last gleaming. Amen and Awomen. ."

"I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."

-George Carlin 1937 - 2008