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

[KevShmev]

The bass is lacking when it comes to deepness and sonic punch, but overall it's still a nice sounding album where everything sounds crystal clear, which benefits the more laid back tunes like Feels So Good and Finish What Ya Started.  Those songs wouldn't work with the production of, say, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.

[cramx3]

I'd love for another Sammy/Mikey with VH tour, but I've given up any hope of that.  Im glad I got to see it in 2005.

[hefdaddy42]

I'd love for another Sammy/Mikey with VH tour, but I've given up any hope of that.

Same here.  Then and only then would I be interested in Van Halen again.

[KevShmev]

I'd love for another Sammy/Mikey with VH tour, but I've given up any hope of that.  Im glad I got to see it in 2005.

I got to see it twice in the 90s, and I cannot imagine any reunion tour they might do coming close to how on fire they were back then. 

[SystematicThought]

I would have liked to have seen where the band went after Balance if Sammy stayed in the band. Personally, Balance is top 3 Sammy for me. It's dark, mature, Eddie sounds fantastic, Sober Alex was finding new sounds and styles, and I think they maintaining relevance. Although, I'm sure the infighting aided the darker tone, but I think it sounds fantastic.

[KevShmev]

Balance is quite good, and while it has a nice balance of styles, pun intended, it is lacking any songs I would call really awesome.  It is a collection of good to really good songs. Nothing wrong with that, but most other VH albums have higher highs (except for II, Diver Down and III).

[Imaginos]

Balance is quite good, and while it has a nice balance of styles, pun intended, it is lacking any songs I would call really awesome.  It is a collection of good to really good songs. Nothing wrong with that, but most other VH albums have higher highs (except for II, Diver Down and III).

I'd never thought about Balance like that, but that's a pretty good synopsis of it. Still, Seventh Seal and Feelin almost reach that VH peak I think, and I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I absolutely love Baluchitherium. Eddie's melodic playing is fantastic and I never understood why so many people think it should have vocals. I imagine it would have been pretty forgettable if they had added lyrics and taken out those guitar melody lines.

Also, the b-side from Balance, Crossing Over, is one of their coolest songs ever, absolutely should have been on the album.

[KevShmev]

I didn't know there was a lot of hate for Baluchitherium; I've always liked it. 

And I agree that Feelin' and The Seventh Seal are the best tunes from Balance; I like Take Me Back a lot, as well.

The two big singles, Can't Stop Lovin' You and Don't Tell Me What Love Can Do, are the worst songs on it, IMO.

[bl5150]

Also, the b-side from Balance, Crossing Over, is one of their coolest songs ever, absolutely should have been on the album.

That is a very dark , cool song that I got on the Japanese album release.   Trivia :  Eddie's original demo vocals and electronic drums remain in there on one track of Crossing Over.    And the different Jap cover for the album (without the second "child") made that an even better collectors item.

And I agree that Feelin' and The Seventh Seal are the best tunes from Balance

They were my "go to songs" too.

[KevShmev]

I don't think I had ever heard Crossing Over before, but I just checked it out and it was a good tune.  Bummer that there is nowhere to get it on mp3.

Having listened to pretty much all of VH's material twice in the last couple months (went through a big VH binge a while back and again the last week), I think my updated album rankings would be:

12. Van Halen III
11. Diver Down
10. Van Halen II
09. Women and Children First
08. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
07. A Different Kind of Truth
06. Balance
05. 1984
04. OU812
03. 5150
02. Fair Warning
01. Van Halen

The Sammy material is pretty consistent, in that I could swap the order of the four on any given day, while the Roth stuff is more obvious, with I, FW and 1984 standing far above the other three early ones, while the new Roth one is not as good as the top 3, but better than the bottom 3.

As much as I enjoyed the Cherone album when it came out, yeah, it's not that good.

[Mosh]

Fair Warning
VH
1984
5150
OU812
Diver Down
FUCK
VHII
Women and Children
ADKOT
Balance
VHIII

[SystematicThought]

1. 1984- Christmas 2000, I was 6 years old and my parents got this album for me because I liked the song Jump. I remember playing it so often when I was little and especially when we moved to our new house a few months later. I would play it as I unpacked. Very influential album for me.)
2. 5150- Favorite Sammy album--especially Love Walks In. The only VH song to make Eddie cry.
3. Van Halen
4. Van Halen II
5. Balance
6. OU812
7. Women and Children First
8. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
9. Fair Warning
10. Diver Down
11. A Different Kind of Truth
12. Van Halen III

Crossing Over was a really good track. Cool one too, I didn't know about the left and right channel mix. The left channel is the original track by Eddie in 1983 with electronic drums and the right channel is the track as recorded by the whole band

[Stadler]

I'm not even sure I could rate them, to be honest.    Album by album, I generally like the Roth albums better than the Hagar ones (more skippable songs on the Hagar ones, even if the high points are as high or higher than the Roth stuff).   

TOP NOTCH
Van Halen
Fair Warning
1984
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
Balance
A Different Kind of Truth
("Me Wise Magic")

PRETTY DAMN GOOD (Would be Top Notch for any other band)
Van Halen II
Diver Down
("Humans Being"; "Crossing Over")

DAMN GOOD (But I Wish There Weren't So Many Songs I Wanted to Skip...)
Women and Children First  ("In A Simple Rhyme" is perhaps my favorite VH song)
5150 ("Summer Nights" is perhaps the quintessential VH tune; even my kid likes it!)
OU812 ("Cabo..."!)
(All three Sammy Songs from "Best of Both Worlds")

INTERESTING (But You'd Expect A Lot Better From Legends Named "Van Halen"
Van Halen III
("Can't Get This Stuff No More")

[hefdaddy42]

I like the original Roth albums, but I much prefer the Hagar era.  5150 is one of my favorite rock albums of all time.

[cramx3]

5150 is definitely my favorite VH album, but not entirely sure how I'd rank the discography.  It would be a mix of Sammy and DLR albums at the top, with Diver Down and VH3 at the bottom.

[hefdaddy42]

Diver Down and VH3 at the bottom.

Same

[jjrock88]

I actually only own the DLR era Van Halen albums.  I respect the Sammy era and am definitely a casual fan, but never bought any of them.  And I didn't mind VH3.

But when it comes to the DLR albums, there is no question in my mind that Diver Down deserves the bottom spot.  But I still enjoy most of it, but only listen to it on occasion.

[cramx3]

I don't really think there's a bad album in the discography.  It's just that two of them stick out the most to me as my least favorite.  ACtually OU812 is probably easily my third least favorite too.

[Stadler]

I do not get the hate for Diver Down.

Yes, it's short.  Yes, it has covers on it (five out of twelve songs).   Yes it has three instrumentals (but two are really intros to the songs that follow). 

But I'm sorry, Little Guitars is excellent, The Full Bug rocks as hard as any DLR VH song, and it's not like the covers are shit; The Kinks and Roy Orbison are nothing to sneeze at. 

[hefdaddy42]

I wouldn't call it "hate" for me.  It's just less-well liked than most of the others, primarily due to the covers.

But The Full Bug definitely rocks my face.

[cramx3]

I wouldn't call it "hate" for me.  It's just less-well liked than most of the others, primarily due to the covers.

But The Full Bug definitely rocks my face.

Yea, not sure anyone said they hate it, just the least favorite.  It's not a bad album by any means.  I wish it had more original songs.

[Kwyjibo]

No hate here, I think it's good but most of the other VH records are great. Little Guitars, Secrets and Cathedrals are my faves, never really cared for The Full Bug.

[jjrock88]

Definitely no hate

[SystematicThought]

I do not get the hate for Diver Down.

Yes, it's short.  Yes, it has covers on it (five out of twelve songs).   Yes it has three instrumentals (but two are really intros to the songs that follow)

For me, you can't have Pretty Woman without Intruder. Some stations are Sirius XM play them together, which I prefer. I joined them together on my iPod.

[Mosh]

I do not get the hate for Diver Down.

Yes, it's short.  Yes, it has covers on it (five out of twelve songs).   Yes it has three instrumentals (but two are really intros to the songs that follow). 

But I'm sorry, Little Guitars is excellent, The Full Bug rocks as hard as any DLR VH song, and it's not like the covers are shit; The Kinks and Roy Orbison are nothing to sneeze at.

I'm with you there. The covers are fantastic, the instrumentals are all cool (and short) and the original tunes are among VH's very best.

[KevShmev]

Little Guitar stands out to me as the best song from Diver Down. Really good little tune.

Good to see some love for Summer Nights.   

The studio version of Best of Both Worlds is still such a disappointment to me.  I knew that song for years from the Live Without a Net version, which MTV played the shit out of, so by the time I finally heard the studio version, it was a complete and total letdown.

[SystematicThought]

I have the Live Without A Net version on my iPod. That middle part with the crowd chanting Eddie is really cool. My name is Edward, so it's cool to hear my name chanted 

How would you guys rank the 3 Sammy songs from Best of Both Worlds? For me personally, it goes
1) Up For Breakfast
2) It's About Time
3) Learning to See

Learning to See is last only because I forget about in that batch. It's not bad, it's just not the most memorable

[BlobVanDam]

I love It's About Time, and Up For Breakfast is pretty cool. Learning To See is ok, but not one I revisit a lot.

[cramx3]

I love It's About Time, and Up For Breakfast is pretty cool. Learning To See is ok, but not one I revisit a lot.

That's about the same as me.

[Stadler]

I know I'm weird on this, but lyrics don't matter to me much, but titles sometimes do.  I love the epic-ness and majesty of titles like "Stairway to Heaven", and "Achilles Last Stand", and "Diary of a Madman", and "Runnin' With The Devil".   I mean, in the metaphorical sense, who didn't want to be on that bandwagon?  Devil may care, gimme another bottle of Jack, lose the shoes, keep the stockings...   

For some reason, "Up For Breakfast" bugs the shit out of me.  Love the music, but the lyric ruins it for me.  "Put your cream on my bananas"?  Wha?   And interestingly, that's the SECOND song ruined by "breakfast".    Deep Purple, Slaves and Masters.  Now, I actually LOVE Joe Lynn Turner (Bent Out Of Shape is one of my favorite albums of all time, and "Fire Dance" is one of my favorite Blackmore tunes ever) and so when he joined Purple it was a good idea from my perspective.   "King of Dreams" delivered on that.  BUT... then you get the amazing musicality and absolute horrid lyrics of "Breakfast In Bed".  Embarrassing.   

And the funny thing?  I LOVE me some breakfast.  Two eggs over medium, hashed potatoes, corned beef hash, wheat toast, coffee...  best non-sexual start to a day you can ever have (and better than a couple of the sexual ones I've had if I'm being honest). 

[bl5150]

For some reason, "Up For Breakfast" bugs the shit out of me.  Love the music, but the lyrics ruins it for me.  "Put your cream on my bananas"?  Wha? 

Ditto.  I normally take little notice of lyrics (and am a rather huge VH fan) but I cringed the first time I heard that and never went back for more (breakfast)

[Stadler]

I just went back and listened to "Crossing Over" with headphones, and man is that interesting.   What a good track; it amazes me to think what Eddie could do if he wasn't so much a slave to the "Van Halen Machine".   I'd love for a record from him like Slash's "Slash" LP, or better yet, something under a different name like McCartney's "The Firemen" thing.   Just 50 minutes of whatever comes to mind without worrying about "4:30 songs, and a guitar solo".   As great as he is, and as great as his catalogue is, Eddie Van Halen is in my top five "under-utilized talents" category.

[cramx3]

Definitely under-utilized. I can't imagine what amazing music he'd create if he had the drive of like a Mike Portnoy.

[SystematicThought]

 
For some reason, "Up For Breakfast" bugs the shit out of me.

I think the thing that is funny to me is that Sammy is very critical of Diamond Dave's lyrics for being dumb and "not Sammy's style", which I agree, it doesn't sound right having Sammy sing some of Dave's stream of consciousness lyrics. However, Up For Breakfast has lyrics that sound like they could have been written by Dave. In fact, I think Dave could do it himself and it would sound natural.

I agree though on Eddie being under utilized. Alex as well, especially considering he's never done anything away from Van Halen. Not to my knowledge at least. Both brothers are very talented musicians. Alex plays piano/keyboard as well. Respect The Wind[/I, from the Twister Soundtrack is a good example. What a dark and moody track by those two

[bl5150]

I think Dave is massively under rated as a lyricist.  Like I said - I rarely take much notice of lyrics but some of the things he writes are very clever and on another level to Sammy IMHO.   Some of his best work is on ADKOT actually.