Van Halen POLL: Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love or Unchained?

[WildRanger]

Two of the most popular and beloved VH tunes.

What you like better?

[Adami]

If I had to pick? Ain't Talkin' bout Love.

Unchained is good, but the chorus starts to bug me after a while.

[HOF]

Unchained

[El Barto]

Pretty tough call. ATBL is probably the better song overall, but the opening riff to Unchained is one of Ed's finest, which is really saying something, and possibly the best example of the band's sound. It's not VH's best song by any means, but it might be the most exemplary.

[cramx3]

Aint Talkin

Unchained never clicked with me until I saw Sammy sing it the one time I saw him perform with VH.  It was a surprise to see him sing a non hit DLR song, but damn was it awesome.  Went back and realized the song is really awesome and not sure why I didn't initially connect with it.  Having said that, Aint Talkin is a top VH track for me.  Also done well with Sammy on vocals.

[The Walrus]

Tough. Van Halen is all about killer riffs and great vocal parts, to me, and these are two great examples. But Unchained doesn't have "semi-good lookin'" (an awkward, weird rock lyric imo) and ATBL's bridge is annoying to me. So... Unchained, but it's close.

[Adami]

Tough. Van Halen is all about killer riffs and great vocal parts, to me, and these are two great examples. But Unchained doesn't have "semi-good lookin'" (an awkward, weird rock lyric imo) and ATBL's bridge is annoying to me. So... Unchained, but it's close.

One break....coming upppppp

[The Walrus]

Tough. Van Halen is all about killer riffs and great vocal parts, to me, and these are two great examples. But Unchained doesn't have "semi-good lookin'" (an awkward, weird rock lyric imo) and ATBL's bridge is annoying to me. So... Unchained, but it's close.

One break....coming upppppp

Oh man, I just remembered Unchained has "you'll get some leg tonight FOR SHORE!"

I change my answer: ATBL.

[Stadler]

See, that's the part of Van Halen that I really fell for.    Most rock songs were about how smokin' HOT some girl was, and how the singer was in LOVE because HOT, and LOVE and HOT!   And Dave comes along and says right up front, I ain't talking about love, and you're only semi-good lookin', but here I am, Diamond Dave to the rescue.  That was bad ass (though I'll be honest; I didn't give it that level of thought at the time).   

I also like the "I been to the edge..." breakdown; the "Gimme a break, Dave..." thing was cool the first 15 times I heard it then sort of became a bump in the road. 

I do agree with El Barto about the place of Unchained in the catalogue (it's also from my favorite VH record; that side one is all killer no filler). 

[The Walrus]

Rescue from what, though? The sunny California beach? The overabundance of perms?

[Stadler]

Rescue from what, though? The sunny California beach? The overabundance of perms?

Well, clearly from losers like me that were part of her daily existence. 

[wolfking]

Unchained.

[pg1067]

Unchained is overwhelmingly my favorite VH song, so this was easy (although I like ATBL a lot).

By the way, is ABTL the only song with three consecutive words with apostrophes?

[HOF]

By the way, is ABTL the only song with three consecutive words with apostrophes?

Run it through the 12 song album game thread and see what people come up with!

[jjrock88]

Both are in the top three all time VH for me, but I’ll go with Unchained. Very close though

[hefdaddy42]

ATBL

Unchained has a fantastic riff, but a little too much silliness.

[bosk1]

a little too much silliness.

What?  In a Van Halen song?  You must be kidding.