The Mighty Van Halen!!!

[I Coulda Hada VH]

How about a thread where we all discuss the real reason we all love Van Halen? The actual music they have recorded from their demo days all the way through ADKOT. What do you love? What do you hate? What resonates with you the way Phoebe Cates did in that red bikini from Fast Time At Ridgemont High? What makes your meat loaf like the thought of Lena Dunham instead of Phoebe Cates in that same iconic scene. Let's talk about the good, the bad and everything in between.

[VH1986]

I love Van Halen because no other music has spoken to me the way theirs speaks to me. When I listen to Van Halen all the cosmic tumblers click into place. Whether I'm listening to Eddie shredding during the early years with Dave growling and bipity, bopity, boopin' or Eddie laying down a smooth melodic keyboard or guitar track with Sammy providing a perfectly melodic vocal, I'm in my element.

[I Coulda Hada VH]

I don't remember who, but somebody once said that the following song was sort of the template for 80s melodic rock. It is one of my all-time top 10 VH tunes and exemplifies how they were the masters of pop/hard rock. I've always loved the little nod to the Beatles at the 55 second mark.

[JUNGLE DRUMMER]

There are things I LOVE on EVERY VH album.

I started playing drums because of Al. He will always be the best to me, playing wise, but he will also never get enough credit for all the unique monster kits that he put together over the years and some of the custom things he did to them. He and Ed are both tinkerers.

[I Coulda Hada VH]

I had VH II blasting away this morning while I was in the shower. I have felt for many years that it is their most underrated album. Big Al absolutely kills on the last track on side one …

[I Coulda Hada VH]

Some love for the Sammy era …

[slowmo5150]

Hopefully this won’t go on too long. Apologies if it does. I discovered Van Halen for the first time in 1999, and I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in the 6th grade and home sick from school and was staying at my grandmas. She had cable and I was watching the Behind the music episode that profiled the 1984 year in music. They had a section devoted to that Van Halen album and they had little snippets of what I later learned was the song “Jump”. That keyboard sound burned itself into my brain and I became obsessed. As if it was fate, a couple weeks later my dad and I had stopped at a truck stop for some gas, and they sold cassettes. I was just looking around and saw that they had 1984. My dad was a single parent, so money was tight but my dad bought me the tape and I thank God that he did, because that started a 20 year love affair with Van Halen that has never weakened in the slightest. This band’s music has gotten me through the good days and bad days, happiness and heartache and everywhere in between. I love ALL eras of the band, and I love Sam and Dave equally. Finally got to see them in Nashville in 2012. Bought my tickets the day they went on sale. When Ed played his solo I cried like a baby, and I couldn’t help it. They’re the reason I play guitar, and the main reason I love Rock in general. I really believe that it was fate and it all started when my dad took pity on me by buying me a $6 cassette in a random truck stop in Mississippi all those years ago.


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[slowmo5150]

I had VH II blasting away this morning while I was in the shower. I have felt for many years that it is their most underrated album. Big Al absolutely kills on the last track on side one …

VH 2 was the first Van Halen cd I ever owned. Probably my second favorite Dave era album.


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[vcooper3]

I love that there are very few “skip” songs on VH albums.

I wish there were more albums Over the past 20 years.

But I’m happy with ADKOT if it is the band’s final album As Is


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[JUNGLE DRUMMER]

I remember when FUCK came out at the end of my junior year in HS. The day the album was released the long defunct 96.5 KXRX in Seattle spent the day playing every track on the album. I can still remember the DJs, when debuting this rocker, saying VH must have been wanting to prove they could still rock when they recorded this tune. My favorite off of FUCK from day 1 and a top 5 Sam era tune for me.

[JUNGLE DRUMMER]

I love that there are very few “skip” songs on VH albums.

I wish there were more albums Over the past 20 years.

But I’m happy with ADKOT if it is the band’s final album As Is


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ADKOT was a blazing way to go out if it indeed ends up being the final album they ever record.

[Glenninaus]

Might as well dump my story of how I found VH.

Growing up in Australia, I had not been exposed to VH at all until 1984 when I was still a kid. At the time I was right into U2. I had just been given what I thought was cool new tech which was a digital clock radio that had a cool feature that you could set the radio as the alarm. I set the alarm on the local Rock station (2MMM for Sydney Aussies) to wake me for school and one morning by alarm goes off loud at exactly the start of the first note of the track 1984. When I woke to those huge swelling keys, i didnt know what the fuck was going on but I loved it. Then of course it flowed straight into Jump and I loved it. I kind of kept a mental note of that song and the band Van Halen but didnt pursue it. I thought they were probably some cool keyboard band.

About 2 weeks later, a friend of a friend jst came back from living in the US, in Cali (in his words, down the road from DLR). He comes back with all this vinyl. At a part he slaps VH1 on. I put the band name together with my early morning awakening and as soon as I heard Eruption I was hooked.

I owned the six pack a month later.

[Railrunner130]

VH really kicked into high gear around the time I became interested in music - 1984. As Dave left and Sammy stepped in, I got into the Sammy era.

When Dave released EEAS, I saw no downside- almost two Van Halens. How could we lose? EEAS was awesome!!!

I'd say I'm more of a Sammy era fan, but as I got into VH, I started picking up the earlier albums. Damn they were all good. One of my friends insisted Diver Down was their best album. It's still debatable today. I have to admire the fact that Jan Van Halen (playing the clarinet on a rock album?!!) played with his sons. But the early stuff with the edgy guitars that seem to defy what guitars can do and Al's drumming. Holy smokes!

Then Sammy left. I gave Gary a shot. I'm probably one of the few people that got it. Gary was trying to bridge the gap. He didn't want any Dave/Sammy era conflicts. There were some good tracks on III. Personally, it was very disappointing to see him go. The road since then has been bumpy, yet triumphant.

It totally get having Wolf in the band. Spending time with your father is priceless and adds a third generation of Van Halens to recorded VH albums. I don't know of any other band that has done that. I wish it hadn't been at the expense of Michael Anthony though.

Hopefully there will be more chapters to follow.

[Ashe]

Quite simply, they make me feel good.

[VH1986]