Water Under The Bridge, Sand Through The Hourglass, Reflections on VH3...

[theodore templeman]

RELFECTIONS ON VH3...

When Dave announced his defection from the mighty Van Halen money making music machine back in 1985 we saw Sammy Hagar's recruitment as a continuation of the hard rock guitar god bombast as defined by the seven albums of groundbreaking genre-creating brilliance the band ushered in with DLR. And continuation is what we got - we would have been outraged otherwise - albeit with a somewhat more polished, reflective and female-friendly protective jacket. It was a similarly smooth transition and passing of the torch that we expected when Sammy leapt off the saddle of the Van Halen racehorse and handed the reigns over to one Gary Cherone in 1996. However, as much as we the long time fans may have expected such a transfer, with one listen to VH3 it becomes oh so lucidly clear that Edward Van Halen had something else in mind entirely.

The dedicated fan must listen and evaluate VH3 with an entirely objective perspective. VH3 must be absorbed (with a minimum of three listens, I might add) from the viewpoint of the creative work of one of the, if not the only, most important, influential, and innovative guitarists of all time. Consider VH3 as primarily a guitar album, although the contributions of sidemen Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony, and Gary Cherone are miles above the abilities of your average recording artists.

When you listen to VH3 forget that you have ever heard the jungle-howl histrionics of David Lee Roth, or the rock solid journeyman professionalism of Sammy Hagar. Remember only the day back in the late seventies when you went down to the local record store, laid down your six bucks for Van Halen I, went home and tore the vinyl out of the shrink wrap, laid that petroleum pancake on the turntable, and found yourself travelling into the eye of the hurricane of the rock n' roll cosmos when the overdriven chords of Running With The Devil were discharged from your speakers like armour piercing rounds of heavy artillery...

[Glenn]

Off to the Albums forum for this topic. [img]smile.gif[/img]