16 Things You Might Not Know About Van Halen's 'Diver Down'
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    Default 16 Things You Might Not Know About Van Halen's 'Diver Down'

    16 Things You Might Not Know About Van Halen's 'Diver Down'

    By Dave Basner

    April 14, 2021

    On April 14th, 1982, Van Halen released their fifth studio album, Diver Down. To celebrate its 39th anniversary, here are 16 things you might not know about the record:

    1. After the band put out their cover of Roy Orbison’s“(Oh) Pretty Woman,” it became a hit, so their record company wanted to jump on that momentum and had them record an album featuring more covers.

    2. The album is one of Eddie Van Halen’s least favorites because it features five covers. He once said, “I’d rather have a bomb with one of my songs than a hit with someone else’s.”

    3. Diver Down opens with a cover of The Kinks’ “Where Have All the Good Times Gone,” Van Halen’s second time doing a Kinks cover – their first was “You Really Got Me” on their 1978 debut. David Lee Roth said the group could have done any number of Kinks songs since they knew tons of them and played them nightly when they had club gigs.

    4. Dave once said “Hang ‘Em High” was like a Western where you hear a harmonica and know the hero is coming to town or something terrible will happen.

    5. Eddie thought “Cathedral” sounded like a Catholic church organ, so that’s how the song got its name.

    6. The video for the band’s cover of “(Oh) Pretty Woman” is one of the first to get banned by MTV. The network shunning it because in it, two little people appear to molest a woman, who is actually a drag queen.

    7. The instrumental track “Intruder” was written as a kind of filler. The band put together the video for “(Oh) Pretty Woman” but the clip was too long so the band added “Intruder” to put before “(Oh) Pretty Woman” and run at the beginning of the video so the film they made would fit.

    8. David Lee Roth got the idea to do the cover of “Big Bad Bill.” He heard the song on a weird Louisville, Kentucky radio station he picked up with an antenna at his father’s house. Roth recorded the song with a Walkman and played it for the band who laughed at it and decided to do it.

    10. The lyrics to the song “Secrets” came from greeting cards and get-well cards that David bought in Albuquerque, New Mexico that were written in the style of American Indian poetry.

    11. “The Full Bug” got its title from a saying that originates from killing a cockroach by stepping on it. The goal is to step on the whole thing, to get the “full bug,” and according to Roth, it means to make the maximum effort.

    12. Roth said that “Happy Trails” was included in the album because they wanted to do “something wonderful and different.”

    13. The cover art for the album features a “diver down” flag, which is used when a scuba diver is underwater in the area.

    14. David Lee Roth once explained that the title of the album and the cover art was meant to imply “there was something going on that’s not apparent to your eyes… A lot of people approach Van Halen as sort of the abyss. It means, it’s not immediately apparent to your eyes what is going on underneath the surface.”

    15. The photo of the band on the back cover of the album was taken while they were on stage at the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando on October 24, 1981. During that time they were the opening act for The Rolling Stones.

    16. The album spent 65 weeks on the Billboard 200 and by 1998 had gone four-times platinum for sales in excess of four-million copies.
    Nature's intent is neither food, nor drink, nor clothing, nor comfort, nor anything else in which God is left out.

    Whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, secretly nature seeks, hunts, tries to ferret out the track on which God may be found. . .

    - Meister Eckhart,
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    🙏🪷🕉

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    Interesting.

    Like a lot of VH mysteries there seems to be no footage of opening for The Stones.

    I don't think I've ever seen any other pics of that day besides the back of the album. Is there audio?

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    Here's the Stones full set...
    Nature's intent is neither food, nor drink, nor clothing, nor comfort, nor anything else in which God is left out.

    Whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, secretly nature seeks, hunts, tries to ferret out the track on which God may be found. . .

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    14th Century Mystic
    🙏🪷🕉

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    Quote Originally Posted by CaboChris View Post
    Interesting.

    Like a lot of VH mysteries there seems to be no footage of opening for The Stones.

    I don't think I've ever seen any other pics of that day besides the back of the album. Is there audio?
    Here you go, Chris!

    https://www.vhnd.com/2014/10/29/a-we...olling-stones/

    A Night At The Tangerine Bowl, 1981

    ”The front rows in Orlando were filled with these 12- or 13-year-old girls, some of whom were making the most unseemly suggestions.”
    - Mick Jagger, the New York Times, November 4th, 1981.

    In the fall of 1981, the Rolling Stones were touring behind Tattoo You, released that August.

    It would be the largest Stones tour to date, breaking ticket sale records and raking in millions.
    Van Halen, on the road supporting Fair Warning, ran into the Stones in Orlando, Florida.

    They would serve as opener for both shows, marking the only time these bands would ever share the same stage.

    From the desk of Rock File contributing editor Mac Cancribbe comes first-hand snapshots of the Rolling Stones and Van Halen live at Orlando’s Tangerine Bowl, October 25th, 1981.

    A Seminal Rock Event to say the least.

    It was my first real rock concert. I was 15. Most of my family had gone to New Jersey to attend my uncle’s wedding. My brother John and I stayed in Orlando to go to the concert.

    We bought 20 tickets, 10 each, the maximum you could get. They cost $16.35 a piece and we sold them to friends for $20.

    Not much of a scalp.

    The Henry Paul band opened for Van Halen, who were supporting the Stones. Only later did I learn that Van Halen opened the two Orlando shows. That was it.
    Halen and the Stones, two nights only!

    A few songs into Van Halen’s set, David Lee Roth, speaking to the press box down front, shouted, “Do you know what the first thing the newspaper critic with the Elvis Costello haircut is going to write about this show in tomorrow’s paper?

    How fucked up Van Halen was!”

    The crowd cheers.

    “And you know what the second thing they are going to write is?

    How fucked up the audience was!”

    The crowd goes nuts.

    “Well, this one’s for the press!” Roth moons the press box, and the band kicked into “So This Is Love?”

    The stadium played “London Calling” by The Clash a few minutes before the Stones came out, switching to Duke Ellington’s “Take the ‘A’ Train” as the band finally took the stage:

    Mick Jagger in orange football pants, an orange tank top, an orange button-down shirt (completely unbuttoned) and pointy white shoes; Keith Richards in a short leopard coat; Bill Wyman in a yellow suit, standing still the whole time.

    I had wriggled my way down to the 30-yard line just before the Stones went on. They opened with “Under My Thumb.” I could only catch glimpses of Mick because everyone else was taller than me.

    When the song was over, I ran back to my end zone bleacher seats to enjoy the rest of the show.
    - Mac Cancribbe, concertgoer

    It would be another eight years before the Rolling Stones returned to tour America. Van Halen was three years away from releasing the best-selling album of their career, 1984.

    Their paths would never cross again, but for two nights in Orlando in the fall of ‘81, the Rolling Stones and Van Halen rocked the Tangerine Bowl, and it was good.


    Van Halen Setlist at Citrus Bowl, Orlando, FL, USA October 25th 1981.
    1.On Fire
    2.Sinner’s Swing!
    3.Drum Solo
    4.Hear About It Later
    5.So This Is Love?
    6.Jamie’s Cryin’
    7.Bass Solo
    8.Runnin’ With the Devil
    9.Dance the Night Away
    10.Sunday Afternoon in the
    11.Romeo Delight
    12.Everybody Wants Some!!
    13.Ice Cream Man
    (John Brim cover)
    14.Mean Street
    15.Guitar Solo
    16.Feel Your Love Tonight
    17.You Really Got Me
    (The Kinks cover)
    18.Unchained
    19.Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love
    Last edited by James in New York; 04.14.21 at 06:56 AM.
    Nature's intent is neither food, nor drink, nor clothing, nor comfort, nor anything else in which God is left out.

    Whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, secretly nature seeks, hunts, tries to ferret out the track on which God may be found. . .

    - Meister Eckhart,
    14th Century Mystic
    🙏🪷🕉

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    Man, that's a big setlist for an opening act.
    If I don't respond to you it means I have you on ignore, which means you are a douchenozzle.

    Emperor Brett - "I can't believe you guys are analyzing song-by-song Van Halen III? What next, analyzing the script of Stroker Ace looking for some shred of Citizen Kane?"

    David Lee Roth did the impossible. He made Van Halen better. Deal with it!

    A man's rights rests in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box

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    I actually knew all 16 of those little known facts.
    "It's so lonely at the top because it's so crowded at the bottom" - Diamond David Lee Roth

    "The truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth" - Todd Wagner

    "Women and Children First ... The REAL Van Halen III"

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    Quote Originally Posted by I Coulda Hada VH View Post
    I actually knew all 16 of those little known facts.
    Almost all of that is taken from the Wikipedia page of Diver Down and two interviews about the album, one by Dave, one by Ed.
    If I don't respond to you it means I have you on ignore, which means you are a douchenozzle.

    Emperor Brett - "I can't believe you guys are analyzing song-by-song Van Halen III? What next, analyzing the script of Stroker Ace looking for some shred of Citizen Kane?"

    David Lee Roth did the impossible. He made Van Halen better. Deal with it!

    A man's rights rests in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box

    Hurricane Halen - Let's all gingery touch our sword tips!!!

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    Quote Originally Posted by I Coulda Hada VH View Post
    I actually knew all 16 of those little known facts.
    Know it? You wrote it!

    This list has your name all over it...!
    Nature's intent is neither food, nor drink, nor clothing, nor comfort, nor anything else in which God is left out.

    Whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, secretly nature seeks, hunts, tries to ferret out the track on which God may be found. . .

    - Meister Eckhart,
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    🙏🪷🕉

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    Awesome set list!!
    Remember the Heroes - 9/11/01

    In 2012, the phoenix has risen!!

    "High speed, low drag."

    "Look at all the people here tonight!!!" - 10/5/07, 5/20/08 Mohegan Sun

    Congratulations to Van Halen as part of the Class of 2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

    Cinco de Cabo @ Foxwoods: "A giant party with live music" - S. Hagar

    got tequila?

    http://keepitaliveforever.com

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    You are the man
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    Had no idea VH opened for The Stones in '78.

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    Quote Originally Posted by CaboChris View Post
    Had no idea VH opened for The Stones in '78.
    It was in '81, if you want to get technical.
    "People ask me how far I've come. And I tell them twelve feet: from the audience to the stage." - David Lee Roth

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    Quote Originally Posted by KS 5150 View Post
    It was in '81, if you want to get technical.
    The article said the first time was at the New Orleans Superdome in '78.

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    Quote Originally Posted by I Coulda Hada VH View Post
    I actually knew all 16 of those little known facts.
    Me too.
    Dave
    VH FOREVER!!!!!!!

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    Quote Originally Posted by CaboChris View Post
    The article said the first time was at the New Orleans Superdome in '78.
    If memory serves, DLR talked about the 78 show in his book. That Mick Jagger took one look at Ed's bomb holding some of his effects and said "that can't be on the stage".

    That being said, I might be pulling a GWB and "misremembering".
    If I don't respond to you it means I have you on ignore, which means you are a douchenozzle.

    Emperor Brett - "I can't believe you guys are analyzing song-by-song Van Halen III? What next, analyzing the script of Stroker Ace looking for some shred of Citizen Kane?"

    David Lee Roth did the impossible. He made Van Halen better. Deal with it!

    A man's rights rests in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box

    Hurricane Halen - Let's all gingery touch our sword tips!!!

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