Is Hagar's Best Work in VH

**dog** · 12.13.01, 10:52 AM

Greetings,

I recently purchased the first Montrose album. I was very impressed. Honestly I think it ranks up there with any of the Sammy VH albums. It may even surpass them. Also I feel that Marching to Mars and Ten 13 are also excellent albums. Red Voodoo was just average. So I guess my question here is , is Sammy era VH really indictive of what he can do.

**79th and Sunset** · 12.13.01, 11:47 AM

IMO, Sammy's best work is as the Red Rocker.

Danger Zone, Red, 3 Lock Box, 9 on a 10 Scale, etc.

**Rikk** · 12.13.01, 12:03 PM

MONTROSE is actually pretty good. Don't like any of his solo stuff, so my vote would still be for Van Hagar in terms of his career high.

**YankeeRose** · 12.13.01, 01:51 PM

Yes Sammy's albums with VH is his best work!

But Ten 13 comes in as a close second. All that album is lacking is better guitar solos IMO.

[ December 13, 2001 at 01:54 PM: Message edited by: YankeeRose ]</p>

**Glenn** · 12.13.01, 01:55 PM

I don't have the Montrose albums, so I can't really comment on where Sammy was at that time. I definitely prefer the VH albums with Sam to his solo work, but I will say that his post VH solo albums have a cohesion that I think is missing from the four studio albums he did with VH.

Marching to Mars is an awesome album, and Ten13 is really good too. Both are very high quality albums that I wouldn't have frankly expected from Sammy from what I'd heard of his pre-VH solo work or even I Never Said Goodbye. Sammy has further proved himself to be a major talent with his work since leaving Van Halen.

**jrk5150** · 12.13.01, 01:57 PM

Standing Hampton is up there just because of Heavy Metal and One Way to Rock, two of the most ass-kickin live songs in the world. Overall, tough to beat his body of work in VH. His solo stuff had a couple of good songs per album, his VH work had a couple of bad songs per album. Embarassingly, I don't know his Montrose stuff, yet. Gonna have to fix that.

**dog** · 12.13.01, 02:57 PM

Glenn and IED I recommend the first Montrose album highly. As far as Hagar's pre VH solo work ,I only own Unboxed. I would like to hear from the Up Front Fanatics their opinion on this issue. How does the Sammy era VH compare to his post VH solo work. I am not posing this to downgrade Sammy era VH, which I enjoy. However I think the angry Blues of Marching to Mars, and the almost Tool like metal sound of Ten 13 compare to anything he did in VH. Red Voodoo is average at best, but Hagar seemed to want to return to the good time feeling, after the anger of MTM. The result is more of a cliched album. Mas Tequila is fun, and right on right chugs, but only song that from that albun that really compares to the other two is Lay your hands on Me.

**jrk5150** · 12.13.01, 03:35 PM

Thanks for the Montrose pointer dog, I'll check it out. I agree that, for the most part, his post VH stuff is good, better than pre VH. Ten 13 was kickin. I find it very difficult to separate him from VH, meaning my opinion of his VH work is colored by the superior music he was working with. Hard to compare a painter's work on canvas vs. the side of a building, ya know? If I try, I would say pretty close. Little White Lies was as good as anything with VH, but, again, how do you separate lyrics only vs. lyrics and music? Nahh, I just backed off and thought, and I still think his VH work as a whole superior.

**Dan Halen** · 12.13.01, 03:37 PM

I like Sammy in Van Halen the most. Then it's solo pre-VH, Montrose, and then solo post-VH. What I like about his albums after Van Halen are that they don't sound much like Van Halen. He experimented with some different musical styles as well as musicians, and the songs have a lot of emotion. Red Voodoo seems like one of his albums from the 70's--just an album of party tunes that he can play in concert. It's not as good as MTM or Ten 13.

**Mario VH** · 12.13.01, 04:31 PM

Sammy has definately done some good work without Van Halen but his best work was with Ed, Al and Mike.

**(DEJA VU)** · 12.13.01, 05:36 PM

MTM IS A CLASSIC RED VOODOO IS OK HIS BEST STUFF IS WITH VAN HALEN AND THE FRIST MONTROES IS RELLY GOOD THE 2ND IS ALL RIGHT THE STUFF BETWEEN MONTROES AND VAN HALEN IS HIT AND MISS. [img]graemlins/bounce.gif[/img]

**Rokgtar** · 12.13.01, 07:37 PM

I prefer Sammy's solo work before Van Halen, and what I have heard of Montrose, to anything he did in Van Halen. I haven't heard much of his work post VH...

My favorite solo Sam songs are:

I'll Fall In Love Again
Two Sides of Love

**Wolfman** · 12.13.01, 09:26 PM

Since this isn't primarily about VH songs, I'm gonna move this over to opinions. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Nice topic though, dog - I prefer Sammy's pre-VH solo work, personally.