(Roth-era) Van Halen or Guns N' Roses?

[Trav86]

Van Halen by a few miles.  I could make one solid album out of all of GnR's material.  They were playing a massive stadium reunion tour, and half of their set are covers and solo spots.  That should tell you something.

[The Walrus]

Van Halen by a few miles.  I could make one solid album out of all of GnR's material.  They were playing a massive stadium reunion tour, and half of their set are covers and solo spots.  That should tell you something.

Setlist.fm only shows 9 covers in their last show which was 31 songs long, and only one solo which was Slash's. Of the covers, one is a Velvet Revolver tune which makes  sense because Duff and Slash are there, and Slash is also doing his Godfather cover like usual. Then you have LALD, KOHD, and Attitude which are famous GnR covers and staples in their set. So it's not THAT bad but a far cry from being half their set and at least some of them have a history with the band.

[Stadler]

Yeah, I didn't see the recent reunion, but I saw the Chinese Democracy show at the Electric Factory in Philly, and it's a similarly constructed show.  Believe me, it does NOT seem like a "covers heavy" show at all in the moment.   The show I saw was three FULL hours, and Axl was out there for all but maybe 10 minutes.   

[Architeuthis]

Okay, I'm genuinely curious why people voted Van Halen. I'm not trying to be rude and it's fine if you like them but they are just so freaking corny to me!

They've written alot of 'fun' songs that still rock at the same time, such as Ice Cream Man, Hot for Teacher, Unchained -- "Have you seen juniors grades" ?
 Not to mention Eddie Van Halen is one of the most innovative guitar players of all time! 

[Dave_Manchester]

To an earlier point - to disparage Guns for playing Live and Let Die and Knockin' On Heaven's Door would be to take issue with Hendrix for playing All Along The Watchtower. They're such unique versions as to be new songs, and have been staples of Guns' live shows for close to 30 years.

I was about to reply to this thread until I saw it's an old one that I've already replied to. But just to reiterate my vote: Gunners. Absolutely fantastic band. Estranged, Coma, November Rain and Civil War are 4 songs that, if put together, are longer than any of Van Halen's first five full-length albums (if amount of original material is the issue) and for me they are 4 of the greatest songs ever written.

[bosk1]

To an earlier point - to disparage Guns for playing Live and Let Die and Knockin' On Heaven's Door would be to take issue with Hendrix for playing All Along The Watchtower. They're such unique versions as to be new songs, and have been staples of Guns' live shows for close to 30 years.

Or...perhaps closer to home for this thread, it would be like disparaging Van Halen for playing You Really Got Me or Pretty Woman. 

As for the bigger topic, I never voted and don't intend to.  Both are highly influential.  Both were very good at what they did (and I would argue that despite relatively recent "new" releases, neither is particularly relevant today).  VH was incredibly influential on the '80s hard rock scene.  They were very influential in forming my musical taste and direction, and I know that is true of countless others who grew up in my time.  GnR were influential for carrying on and developing the hard rock scene in the late '80s and early '90s.  And although both bands have fallen out of favor with me personally, I cannot deny the impact they had on the music of their era and on me personally. 

[Architeuthis]

Even though I voted for VH, I like alot of GNR's stuff.  I like VH covers better than GNR, Pretty Woman, You Really Got Me, Dancing in the Street, are all fun covers.
 GNR's covers are pretty boring, especially Knocking on Heavens Door which is a major snoozfest and buzzkill at their concerts. It drags on for way too long and over stays it's welcome..  Patience, is another good song for a bathroom break.  Live and Let Die, on the other hand is an exception and rocks pretty good! 

[bosk1]

I just did a fun little exercise of creating a GnR "greatest hits" for the songs I like of theirs.  The only album I currently have of theirs is their Greatest Hits CD.  Using that as a model, I cut 7 song from it, and added two (both from Appetite).  So my complete "greatest hits" from them would look like this:
-Welcome To the Jungle (great song)
-Sweet Child O Mine (yes, it's overplayed and sappy, but when you cut through that, it's still solid)
-Paradise City (arguably, best song they've ever done)
-Civil War
-You Could Be Mine (in my top 3 of theirs)
-November Rain (not a favorite, but it would be shame to not include; it's very well done)
-Live and Let Due (great cover)
-Mr. Brownstone (funky, rocking, and cool)
-Rocket Queen (sounds more like "typical '80s rock" than most of the rest of the album, but very well done)

No desire to hear anything else from their catalog.  Oh, and I've never heard Chinese Democracy, which is why there are no songs from that one included.

My Van Halen "greatest hits," if I did one (which I now feel compelled to do), would be a lot longer.

[Max Kuehnau]

Voted for DLR Van Halen (excluding the Tokyo Dome live album where DLR just ruins everything, so many wrong notes, a pain to listen to), but I actually like all the other eras of Van Halen too and all their studio albums. Not much of a GnR fan myself, but if anyone here is, great.

[bosk1]

OK, Van Halen greatest (I couldn't let it go):

-Runnin' (when I got the tape and pushed play, this was the first hard rock song I think I ever heard; game changer)
-Eruption (how could I not?)
-You Really Got Me (hasn't aged all that well for me, but it's a classic)
-Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love (perhaps their best song)
-I'm the One
-Atomic Punk
-Little Dreamer
-On Fire (yeah, I have a LOT of songs from the first album)
-Somebody Get Me a Doctor
-And the Cradle Will Rock...
-Everybody Wants Some!!
-Unchained
-Happy Trails (yeah, I included this one; and, yeah, it is the ONLY song I included from Diver Down; I like it)
-Panama (the lyrics on the two songs from this album are SO bad, but I couldn't omit them)
-Hot for Teacher
-Why Can't This Be Love (first taste of Sammy-era sappines...and it works)
-Dreams (same)
-Summer Nights (perhaps my favorite from this album)
-Best of Both Worlds
-Love Walks In
-5150 (yes, this album and I dominate--and I was tempted to include Inside as well)
-When It's Love (the trend continues...they just wrote great ballads with Sammy)
-Judgement Day
-Man on a Mission
-Right Now
-Top of the World
-The Seventh Seal (I don't remember how this song goes at all, but I remember really liking it)
-Humans Being
-Me Wise Magic

I haven't heard the most recent album, so nothing from that one.

9 GnR songs.  29 VH songs (if I counted right).  So I guess I really do have to vote for VH (EDIT: well, I guess only 14 from the DLR era, which is what the poll was specifically asking about, but still)? 

[Architeuthis]

Nice list Bosk!  Me Wise Magic is a very awesome song, one of their best modern songs.
"Humans Being" is another good one from the soundtrack of the movie Twister.

[cramx3]

Nice list Bosk!  Me Wise Magic is a very awesome song, one of their best modern songs.
"Humans Being" is another good one from the soundtrack of the movie Twister.

Yea two solid non album tracks.

[Dave_Manchester]

Gunners' best? I'm game:

Welcome To The Jungle
It's So Easy
Nighttrain
Out Ta Get Me
Mr Brownstone
Paradise City
My Michelle
Sweet Child O Mine
Rocket Queen
Patience
Don't Cry
Bad Obsession
Double Talkin' Jive
November Rain
The Garden
Bad Apples
Coma
Civil War
14 years
Yesterdays
Breakdown
Locomotive
So Fine
Estranged
You Could Be Mine
Chinese Democracy
Street of Dreams
There Was A Time (charming acronym)
I.R.S
This I Love
Prostitute

Now there's a 'coverless' live show, clocking in at the length of a Wagner opera.

[Max Kuehnau]

OK, Van Halen greatest (I couldn't let it go):

-Runnin' (when I got the tape and pushed play, this was the first hard rock song I think I ever heard; game changer)
-Eruption (how could I not?)
-You Really Got Me (hasn't aged all that well for me, but it's a classic)
-Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love (perhaps their best song)
-I'm the One
-Atomic Punk
-Little Dreamer
-On Fire (yeah, I have a LOT of songs from the first album)
-Somebody Get Me a Doctor
-And the Cradle Will Rock...
-Everybody Wants Some!!
-Unchained
-Happy Trails (yeah, I included this one; and, yeah, it is the ONLY song I included from Diver Down; I like it)
-Panama (the lyrics on the two songs from this album are SO bad, but I couldn't omit them)
-Hot for Teacher
-Why Can't This Be Love (first taste of Sammy-era sappines...and it works)
-Dreams (same)
-Summer Nights (perhaps my favorite from this album)
-Best of Both Worlds
-Love Walks In
-5150 (yes, this album and I dominate--and I was tempted to include Inside as well)
-When It's Love (the trend continues...they just wrote great ballads with Sammy)
-Judgement Day
-Man on a Mission
-Right Now
-Top of the World
-The Seventh Seal (I don't remember how this song goes at all, but I remember really liking it)
-Humans Being
-Me Wise Magic

I haven't heard the most recent album, so nothing from that one.

9 GnR songs.  29 VH songs (if I counted right).  So I guess I really do have to vote for VH (EDIT: well, I guess only 14 from the DLR era, which is what the poll was specifically asking about, but still)?

I have it and I love it. If you like all the albums up to Fair Warning, you'll like A Different Kind Of Truth. It also picks up some of where 1984 left off too.

[bosk1]

I get that.  But I still won't buy it.  I don't even have anything in my VH collection anymore, other than 5150, and I don't plan to add to it.  Even if it sounds like the stuff I used to like, I've just kind of been "over" VH for awhile, if you know what I mean.  And that kind of applies to both bands, which is what I was trying to say above about why I can't really vote for them.  I respect their place in rock history, and I like some of their output.  But I've moved on.

[Stadler]

Not much to add other than "Me Wise Magic" is a top ten, maybe top five VH song.  Yes, I love it that much.    And "A Different Kind of Truth" is an excellent record, and I probably like it more than any Sammy era album (though that's a tough thing to say; the VH catalogue is one of the hardest for me to rank, in my opinion). 

[jammindude]

A Different Kind of Truth only suffered from being released during a time when music sales in general are completely in the toilet.   If that album is released in the golden age of CD sales, it would've been one of VH's top selling albums.   

I bought it with extreme skepticism...especially after I heard that there was almost no "new" material on the album.   But the final product was amazing.   I would go so far as to say that it is a grossly underappreciated album.

[TAC]

Easily 8 songs deep of excellent material.

[KevShmev]

For sure. I was initially turned off by the first single, Tattoo, which is pretty crappy, but once I heard the whole album, I was stunned by how good most of it was.  Songs like Big River, Trouble With Never and Outta Space can stay shoulder to shoulder with just about any song from the classic Roth era. I just wish it had been mixed to sound as warm as those early albums, instead of being somewhat of a victim of the modern day loudness wars.

[Stadler]

I even like Tattoo in the context of the album (I hated it when I first heard the early release).    The "not new" material didn't faze me since they did that on every record (and there was some new stuff, too).  The interesting thing is, if you go back to the early demos, for all the nonsense about Roth's singing, they did the parts at the same tempo and in the same key as the early versions.

[TAC]

I must say that when I saw a song called Honeysweetiebabydoll, I was like WTF, but holy shit does that song kick ass.