Van Halen Thread v. Where Have All The Good Times Gone

[bl5150]

A fairly extensive interview here:  https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/2/eddie-van-halens-immigrant-take-on-american-rock-n/?page=all#pagebreak

It's a shame the demo idea didn't get up instead of the live album.

[cramx3]

Thanks for sharing, this question and response makes me sad, not just for VH, but in general for bands of the past that still make new music (and good music too!)

Q: Is it frustrating that when you play a new song, the audience makes a beer run?

A: It’s kind of a double-edged sword. Thank God we have so many career tunes that people want to hear — songs they grew up on and that bring back memories of where they were and what party they were at and what chick they were with.

That’s what they remember and want to get back to. But at the same time, it would be nice to be able to put out new music that people would give a chance. Maybe 10 years from now stuff off of “A Different Kind of Truth” will be considered classic and people will want to hear those.

[hefdaddy42]

He's kind of done that to himself by going 20 years without any new, good music.  He turned them into a nostalgia act, by having all of their good music be from the past, rather than continuing to create it as he went along.

[Tick]

He's kind of done that to himself by going 20 years without any new, good music.  He turned them into a nostalgia act, by having all of their good music be from the past, rather than continuing to create it as he went along.

Exactly! I'll just quote this because its much kinder than what I was going to say.

[Ben_Jamin]

Wow, I didn't think Roth would sound that bad, but he sounds pretty bad.

[TAC]

https://bravewords.com/reviews/van-halen-live-tokyo-dome-in-concert

[bl5150]

If you can survive through Dave's old dad dance moves at the start and some Japanese here and there ,this is a pretty decent piece on VH with modern day interviews with the guys + Ted Templeman etc...

Ted's a bit of a legend - Doobie Bros and then Van Halen 

Long though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OiDGWEG5fIo

[Cyclopssss]

I listenede to it, and to me, it's just Dave being Dave. The band sounds awesome though. Not much to moan about the setlist either, although I'd love Atomic Punk in there.

[KevShmev]

I'll repost here what I said last night in the hard rock thread :

I decided to listen to A Different Kind of Truth on my travels today - I redid my VH mp3 CD for the car right after I got the mp3s of this CD and just threw the whole thing on there since VH doesn't have so much material to where there wasn't room for all of it - and actually enjoyed most of it.  I still think there are quite a few songs that are missing a vocal hook, but they have enough energy and rockingness to where they still didn't sound bad or anything.  Granted, it's not classic VH is swimming in melodic glory or anything, but many of their songs have like one or two lines that are enough of a hook to where the rest of the song basically being one long rocking guitar solo works.  Source of Infection from OU812 is a good example of this, since that song is basically one giant guitar solo, but the "Love is the source..of infection...woahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!" part is enough of a hook to make it work.

Back to ADKoT, I can say I like it a lot more than I did at first, or even 12 hours ago.

The back half of the album is much better than the front half.  The best songs here are The Trouble with Never, Outta Space, Big River and Beats Workin'.

In light of that, I will promote it a bit in my list of VH studio album rankings:

1. Van Halen
2. 5150
3. Fair Warning
4. Balance
5. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
6. 1984
7. Women and Children First
8. A Different Kind of Truth
9. III
10. OU812
11. II
12. Diver Down

[KevShmev]

Hmmm, my bump of this thread was apparently a failure.

I'll try again: I've been continuing my VH listening, and I realized today that OU812 is better than I thought.  I still don't care for the two biggest hits from it - When It's Love and Finish What Ya Started - but Black and Blue is a great rocker, Source of Infection is just smoking fun, Feels So Good and Mine All Mine are good tunes, and A.F.U. and Sucker in a 3 Piece are both fairly enjoyable.  I even don't mind the sound of it.  Yeah, the bass is non-existent, but everything else sounds great. 

[cramx3]

I havent listened to VH in some time so Id have to listen through to give a better rankings, but from what I recall:

5150
VHI
VHII
F.U.C.K.
1984
Fair Warning
A Different Kind of Truth
Balance
Woman and Children First
Diver Down
OU812

VH3 (I've only listened to this once or twice and really can't rank this compared to the rest)

[BlobVanDam]

Hmmm, my bump of this thread was apparently a failure.

I'll try again: I've been continuing my VH listening, and I realized today that OU812 is better than I thought.  I still don't care for the two biggest hits from it - When It's Love and Finish What Ya Started - but Black and Blue is a great rocker, Source of Infection is just smoking fun, Feels So Good and Mine All Mine are good tunes, and A.F.U. and Sucker in a 3 Piece are both fairly enjoyable.  I even don't mind the sound of it.  Yeah, the bass is non-existent, but everything else sounds great. 

I really like 6 of the 10 tracks on the album, but I don't like tracks 1 & 3, or the last two, so it never feels like a good album listening experience for me. And even though I like a lot of the songs, there aren't any clear standouts that I need to listen to. The subpar production also doesn't help.
I'd love for it to get a good remaster some day like the DLR albums have, then maybe I'd listen to it a bit more.

[hefdaddy42]

There is a lot of good stuff on that album.  I agree that the production hurts it.

[TAC]

I'll try again: I've been continuing my VH listening, and I realized today that OU812 is better than I thought.  I still don't care for the two biggest hits from it - When It's Love and Finish What Ya Started - but Black and Blue is a great rocker, Source of Infection is just smoking fun, Feels So Good and Mine All Mine are good tunes, and A.F.U. and Sucker in a 3 Piece are both fairly enjoyable.  I even don't mind the sound of it.  Yeah, the bass is non-existent, but everything else sounds great.

Alright! I feel like I'm the only one that likes this album!
Like I said in Brent's thread, When Its Love blows, but I do like FWYS. I actually heard it the other morning on classic rock radio, and I really enjoyed it. I feel like the lyrics are a little icky, but I love the guitar and the Michael Anthony "Baby come on" background vocals.

[bl5150]

I like it Tim - ranked it 2nd in the Van Hagar stuff and 2 or 3 songs from it made my Top 10..   I even used to play AFU in my band back in the day.    It's the last album where I really liked Ed's tone .

[Kwyjibo]

Finish What You Started is a great song, I really like it. The guitar playing is very strong and shows that Eddie can do much more than his trademark tapping thing.

Overall OU812 is a good album with Source Of Infection being the weak filler track and When it's Love the cheesy ballad for radio airplay. But if the album had more bass it would have sounded so much better.

[cramx3]

I guess I am the only one who likes When Its Love, its definitely not top notch and is cheesey, but I enjoy it a lot.  I guess I like those Hagar love songs.

[TAC]

I feel like with 5150, the band was to formulaic and it feels forced. OU812 feels the complete opposite,. Very loose.
And with F.U.C.K., it feels like the band finally got serious and made a kick ass record.

[King Postwhore]

I've always found F.U.C.K. to be half great and half boring.

[TAC]

I've always found F.U.C.K. to be half great and half boring.

You are right. But I think it's highest highs are Van Hagar's highest highs. There is some suckage on there for sure.

[BlobVanDam]

Overall OU812 is a good album with Source Of Infection being the weak filler track and When it's Love the cheesy ballad for radio airplay. But if the album had more bass it would have sounded so much better.

Source of Infection is my favourite thing on there. Definitely not the filler track.

I've always found F.U.C.K. to be half great and half boring.

It does have several average tracks, although the good songs on the album are easily among Van Hagar's best rockers too, so it balances out for me.

[Kwyjibo]

F.U.C.K. is the f*ckin' best thing they have done, at least for the Van Hagar stuff. No weak tracks on there, just two or three that are just good and not great.

Source Of Infection is just not my song, the music does nothing for me and the lyrics are rubbish. Even the Apolitical Blues bonus track is way better. But to each his own.

[King Postwhore]

Out of the Hagar albums, 5150 and Balance are my favorites.

[devieira73]

Finish What You Started is a great song, I really like it. The guitar playing is very strong and shows that Eddie can do much more than his trademark tapping thing.

Overall OU812 is a good album with Source Of Infection being the weak filler track and When it's Love the cheesy ballad for radio airplay. But if the album had more bass it would have sounded so much better.

I agree with  the lack of bass in the mix, but sometime ago, seeing a live video of Mine  All Mine (IMO one of the greatest VH songs),I discovered that intro, it's not a keyboard, it's actually the bass with distortion! Very cool bass line on that song!

[hefdaddy42]

I guess I am the only one who likes When Its Love, its definitely not top notch and is cheesey, but I enjoy it a lot.  I guess I like those Hagar love songs.

Nope, I like it a lot, as well.  The one that I can't stand is Why Can't This Be Love.

I feel like with 5150, the band was to formulaic and it feels forced. OU812 feels the complete opposite,. Very loose.
And with F.U.C.K., it feels like the band finally got serious and made a kick ass record.

Not sure how 5150 sounds formulaic.  To me, that is the loosest album that the Hagar lineup made.  Sounds like they are just going for it and jamming out. 

I think ALL of the Hagar albums are kick-ass records.  OU812 is probably my least favorite of that bunch.

Out of the Hagar albums, 5150 and Balance are my favorites.

Same here.

[cramx3]

I feel like with 5150, the band was to formulaic and it feels forced. OU812 feels the complete opposite,. Very loose.
And with F.U.C.K., it feels like the band finally got serious and made a kick ass record.

Not sure how 5150 sounds formulaic.  To me, that is the loosest album that the Hagar lineup made.  Sounds like they are just going for it and jamming out. 

Agreed.  While I was not listening to the album when it came out (I was just a baby), the album sounds very loose and fresh compared to the albums before it. It also gives off a "fun" vibe IMO.

[TAC]

Inside is pretty loose. I'll give you that.

[KevShmev]

Well, fun is a vibe you pretty much get from VH in general, IMO.

Regarding Carnal Knowledge, as much as I like it, the sound is a bit different for them.  Most of their albums sound very warm, often aided by EVH's classic brown sound, but F.U.C.K. really doesn't. The guitar sound is harder and more edgy, and the drums are very loud and really hit you in the face. 

I guess that is why I am not bothered by the lack of bass on OU812.  The overall sound is, again, very warm, and given the vibe and pace of songs like Feels So Good, Mine All Mine and even Finish What Ya Started, the production really works.  Put those songs on F.U.C.K. with its production, and they probably wouldn't work nearly as well; they'd sound limp and kinda lifeless.  On the flip side, the production still benefits a hard rocker like Black and Blue. 

[TAC]

https://bravewords.com/news/sammy-hagar-responds-to-david-lee-roths-jab-over-van-halen-tour-setlist-definitely-a-quality-issue

[TAC]

I guess that is why I am not bothered by the lack of bass on OU812.  The overall sound is, again, very warm, and given the vibe and pace of songs like Feels So Good, Mine All Mine and even Finish What Ya Started, the production really works.

I agree.

[jjrock88]

https://bravewords.com/news/sammy-hagar-responds-to-david-lee-roths-jab-over-van-halen-tour-setlist-definitely-a-quality-issue

The feud will never end

[Kwyjibo]

As long as it creates media attention why should it end? There's a definite plan behind it.

And Roth has problems singing Roth tunes, there's no way he could sing Hagar tunes, so Hagar is not really wrong here.

[TAC]

And Roth has problems singing Roth tunes,

No doubt.

[bl5150]

Name me a 60 year old rock/metal singer who doesn't struggle with material from 30-40 years ago.  The only one I can think of is Steve Tyler and perhaps Alice Cooper , whose material isn't the most trying.   Either way he's not alone in that department and tbh I'm not expecting great things from Paul Stanley when I see KISS later in the year. Par for the course.

[TAC]

True. But Alice Cooper couldn't sing in the first place! And I LOVE him.

Actually, the most impressive "old" vocalist still going is Biff Byford.