Poll

Which album do you prefer?

Your favorite from the Sammy era (5150, OU812, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge or Balance)
A Different Kind of Truth

Voting closes: February 05, 2027, 01:30:50 PM

Author Topic: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth  (Read 6439 times)

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Offline KevShmev

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In short, pick your favorite Van Halen they did with Sammy and pit that vs the comeback album with Roth in 2012, A Different Kind of Truth.

As much as I really, really like A Different Kind of Truth, minus Tattoo and the hot mix, I can't put it ahead of 5150 or OU812 (which I go back and forth on for being my favorite with Sammy), but ADKoT was a helluva record.  Yeah, much of it came from demos from the early days, but they still mostly managed to recapture the early vibe on many of those songs. With EVH now deceased, it has to go down as one of the better "last albums" now.

Offline HOF

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I’d put all 4 Sammy albums ahead of any of the Roth albums, so it’s not even close for me. More of a Van Hagar than a Van Halen fan really. Truthfully, I’ve only had maybe half a casual listen of ADKOT but the singles didn’t do much for me.

Offline Mladen

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Even though A Different kind of truth has a bunch of good tunes (As is might be one of my favorite songs by the band), I think I prefer 5150 and Balance. So Sammy era gets my vote.

Offline cfmoran13

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As much of a return to the old sound as ADKoT is, Roth's vocals really hurt it.  I'd take all of the Sammy era over the album.  I'm definitely not a Sammy hater.  So, this really isn't a difficult decision for me.

Offline WilliamMunny

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Even though A Different kind of truth has a bunch of good tunes (As is might be one of my favorite songs by the band), I think I prefer 5150 and Balance. So Sammy era gets my vote.

This.

I'm 40, so Van Hagar was MY VH, or at least, the VH I grew up hearing new releases from.

I hold 5150, in particular, in very high esteem...so much so that I'd probably rank it in my Top-3.

Offline TAC

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I thought ADKOT was way better than I expected. But it's bloated.

This is a tough choice. I suppose I'd take OU812 and F.U.C.K. over it.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline KevShmev

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I’d put all 4 Sammy albums ahead of any of the Roth albums, so it’s not even close for me. More of a Van Hagar than a Van Halen fan really. Truthfully, I’ve only had maybe half a casual listen of ADKOT but the singles didn’t do much for me.

Now that is an opinion you don't often see. :P

If you are not a big fan of the Roth era, then not sure digging any deeper will be worth your while, but while the singles were good from ADKOT were good except for Tattoo, the real magic was in the deep cuts.  Songs like Big River, The Trouble with Never and Outta Space are almost as good as anything from the initial 6-album run, IMO.

Offline TAC

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And Honeybabysweetiedoll. When I saw that title I was like WTF? But it harkens classic VH big time.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline KevShmev

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Yep, that's a good one.  As Is is rad as heck as well.

Offline TAC

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There is no greater compliment than "rad as heck". :lol
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline HOF

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #10 on: April 26, 2021, 07:53:59 PM »
I’d put all 4 Sammy albums ahead of any of the Roth albums, so it’s not even close for me. More of a Van Hagar than a Van Halen fan really. Truthfully, I’ve only had maybe half a casual listen of ADKOT but the singles didn’t do much for me.

Now that is an opinion you don't often see. :P

If you are not a big fan of the Roth era, then not sure digging any deeper will be worth your while, but while the singles were good from ADKOT were good except for Tattoo, the real magic was in the deep cuts.  Songs like Big River, The Trouble with Never and Outta Space are almost as good as anything from the initial 6-album run, IMO.

I certainly enjoy a number of Roth songs, but mostly the hits and those are more songs I think of as fun but don’t take them all that seriously. Not that Van Hagar era was necessarily high art, but I always preferred their personality a little more with Hagar in the band, and they did have some more mature moments there (I still think Right Now is the band’s best song). Like WilliamMunny said, Hagar was the VH front man I grew up with, so I don’t have that sentimental attachment to Roth.

Offline bosk1

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #11 on: April 26, 2021, 07:55:12 PM »
I’d put all 4 Sammy albums ahead of any of the Roth albums, so it’s not even close for me. More of a Van Hagar than a Van Halen fan really. Truthfully, I’ve only had maybe half a casual listen of ADKOT but the singles didn’t do much for me.

This is exactly me.  Even back in the day, I liked VH I, and didn't really care for much in the Roth era past that, other than the odd song here and there.
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Offline KevShmev

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #12 on: April 26, 2021, 07:56:53 PM »
There is no greater compliment than "rad as heck". :lol

LOL, I would have said the f-word instead of heck, but I try to keep it a little clean.  :biggrin:

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #13 on: April 26, 2021, 07:59:18 PM »


I certainly enjoy a number of Roth songs, but mostly the hits and those are more songs I think of as fun but don’t take them all that seriously. Not that Van Hagar era was necessarily high art, but I always preferred their personality a little more with Hagar in the band, and they did have some more mature moments there (I still think Right Now is the band’s best song). Like WilliamMunny said, Hagar was the VH front man I grew up with, so I don’t have that sentimental attachment to Roth.

In all fairness, I don't think most Van Halen songs are supposed to be taken seriously. :lol ;)  Their music, especially during the initial Roth run, was basically party rock about sex and women and partying.

I am a big fan of both eras, that said, and I do really like some of the mature songs they did with Sammy - I definitely think Right Now is one of their best songs ever -  but sometimes you just wanna rock out and enjoy some mindless rock music, and Van Halen is perfect for that!  :metal

Offline TAC

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #14 on: April 26, 2021, 08:03:57 PM »
It's interesting. VH went form being perhaps the biggest band in the world to literally just another band when Sammy joined. For some reason, the DLR Era doesn't captivate people that weren't there for it the way other bands seem to do. It's odd because the DLR Era was so exciting and fresh. I'm always a bit surprised that people that came after that cannot see that.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #15 on: April 26, 2021, 08:08:00 PM »
It's interesting. VH went form being perhaps the biggest band in the world to literally just another band when Sammy joined. For some reason, the DLR Era doesn't captivate people that weren't there for it the way other bands seem to do. It's odd because the DLR Era was so exciting and fresh. I'm always a bit surprised that people that came after that cannot see that.

I don't know, man, VH was still pretty huge during Sammy's run.  I think all four albums went to number 1, they were still all over MTV, and the rise of grunge and alt rock had no negative effect on VH's popularity.

Offline bosk1

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #16 on: April 26, 2021, 08:11:18 PM »
It's interesting. VH went form being perhaps the biggest band in the world to literally just another band when Sammy joined. For some reason, the DLR Era doesn't captivate people that weren't there for it the way other bands seem to do. It's odd because the DLR Era was so exciting and fresh. I'm always a bit surprised that people that came after that cannot see that.

I can see it.  I just didn't and don't like that era of the band.  To modify your description above, for me personally, they went from a really huge than that was WAY overrated for the mediocre music they were putting out, to something huge, relevant, and a lot of fun to listen to. 
"The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie."

Offline TAC

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #17 on: April 26, 2021, 08:24:27 PM »
I don't know, man, VH was still pretty huge during Sammy's run.  I think all four albums went to number 1, they were still all over MTV, and the rise of grunge and alt rock had no negative effect on VH's popularity.

I had to double check that. I'm shocked that Balance went to #1. I don't remember that album doing anything. Did you just edit wiki on that? :lol

I like Balance, but I always felt like they did nothing after F.U.C.K.




I can see it.  I just didn't and don't like that era of the band.   

Yeah, that's fair. One could always choose not to like it.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #18 on: April 26, 2021, 08:28:16 PM »


I had to double check that. I'm shocked that Balance went to #1. I don't remember that album doing anything. Did you just edit wiki on that? :lol

I like Balance, but I always felt like they did nothing after F.U.C.K.


I don't think I even remember how to edit on wiki. :lol

Everyone I knew at the time was big into Balance.  My regular set of friends, work friends, cousins who are diehard VH fans...everyone was big into it and loving it. Anecdotal, but just relaying how it was in my various circles.  It helps that I live in STL, and our main rock radio station is one that Sammy still genuflects to since they were a station in American that played his solo material when many others did not.

Offline TAC

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #19 on: April 26, 2021, 08:33:10 PM »
1995 was a weird year for me, and I am prone to suffering from selective amnesia during that time period.

Looking at my list of shows, I did manage to see VH the two times they passed though here in 1995.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #20 on: April 26, 2021, 08:37:26 PM »
1995 was a good music year for me.  I was still listening to my favorite 1994 releases like crazy - Awake, Promised Land, Talk (Yes) and The Division Bell (Pink Floyd) - and then 1995 came around and gave me new VH and Ozzmosis.  :coolio

Offline TAC

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #21 on: April 26, 2021, 08:40:38 PM »
1995 was a good music year for me.  I was still listening to my favorite 1994 releases like crazy - Awake, Promised Land, Talk (Yes) and The Division Bell (Pink Floyd) - and then 1995 came around and gave me new VH and Ozzmosis.  :coolio


I'll have you know that I introduced myself to the future Lovely Mrs TAC on January 20, 1996, the same day I saw Ozzy on the Ozzmosis tour.  :coolio :coolio

Seeing DT on the ACOS tour..!

I can't say I was a fan of Promised Land, but I saw that tour, and holy crap, the show was incredible.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #22 on: April 26, 2021, 08:43:34 PM »
Nice!  :coolio :coolio

Offline HOF

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #23 on: April 26, 2021, 08:58:26 PM »
Balance is a great album though. I love that meaty guitar tone Eddy has on it. I love the ballads, I love the instrumentals, I love the darker, heavier feel to several of the tracks. It’s got a little bit of everything and a few things that they really hadn’t done much before.

Also, as to whether VH was still a big deal with Hagar, I remember this performance on Letterman from 1995 (the back end of the Van Hagar era and not necessarily their peak popularity wise). Half the time the musical guests on Letterman would get some polite applause but it was rare (as far as I can recall) for a band to just electrify the audience the way they seemed to here. They just seemed like they were still a big deal. I remember seeing Eddy come out with the short hair and thinking he looked so happy and healthy (they had made a big deal about him being sober for this album).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rehEj-WIjf4
« Last Edit: April 26, 2021, 10:36:43 PM by HOF »

Offline King Puppies and the Acid Guppies

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #24 on: April 26, 2021, 10:35:29 PM »
but I always felt like they did nothing after F.U.C.K.
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Offline WildRanger

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #25 on: April 27, 2021, 07:13:19 AM »
Not a Van Hagar fan (Roth-era VH is much more rocking to my ears) and not a fan of any album in this poll. ADKOT is mediocre to me, but 5150 is definitely better than it, so the first option gets my vote.


Offline hunnus2000

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #26 on: April 27, 2021, 07:34:31 AM »
Sammy - it's not even close. When ADKOT first came out, a friend of mine gave me the ripped .mp3s and after awhile I deleted them. My friend deleted them too. I just felt like it was a lazy effort and I skipped that tour.

Offline Stadler

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #27 on: April 27, 2021, 08:41:16 AM »
It's interesting. VH went form being perhaps the biggest band in the world to literally just another band when Sammy joined. For some reason, the DLR Era doesn't captivate people that weren't there for it the way other bands seem to do. It's odd because the DLR Era was so exciting and fresh. I'm always a bit surprised that people that came after that cannot see that.

I don't know, man, VH was still pretty huge during Sammy's run.  I think all four albums went to number 1, they were still all over MTV, and the rise of grunge and alt rock had no negative effect on VH's popularity.

But it wasn't the same.   I've written about this before.   VH with Sam was a rock band.  I have all the albums, they're good, but they're a rock band, albeit one with a pretty good guitar player.     VH with Roth was a thing unto himself.   Maybe it was my East Coast upbringing, but Van Halen were Gods among men, very similar to the way Kiss was in the early days.   It's not a coincidence or a random thing that the grunge movement was predicated on simply walking on stage in your street clothes.    There was nothing about David Lee Roth that was "street clothes" in any sense of the word.   I know as a young kid picking up a guitar, I could plunk out Smoke On The Water.  Or Detroit Rock City.  As I got better later, I could even play those songs all the way through, and make them pass.  To this day, I can play snippets of Van Halen, but I don't, because I don't have that attitude, that swagger, that punk.  They were one of the few bands - the VERY few bands - that appealed equally to men and women; the guys all wanted to be Dave and Ed, and the girls all wanted to be WITH Dave and Ed.   

I was at a party once in Brigantine New Jersey, and the dude had set up his stereo with one speaker on each side of the room.  The early Van Halen was panned really wierd, so you could walk to one side of the room and hear almost an isolated guitar track and walk to the other side of the room and it was a working dialogue from the Master Of Ceremonies, David Lee Roth.  It's hard to talk about becuase that SOUNDS absolutely horrendous, and it was in a sense, but it was so illuminating, because you sort of got this "essence" of Van Halen that couldn't be duplicated.   

My answer:  A Different Kind Of Truth.   It's my second favorite VH record (behind Fair Warning), and I think it was a crying shame that there was nothing that came after.  That is a BRILLIANT record.

Offline EPICVIEW

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #28 on: April 27, 2021, 08:58:21 AM »
I love Sammy   I saw him in 1978   loved him in Motrose etc  BUT  in VH to me IMO it never felt right ever. 
for that reason a ADKOT  wins
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Offline hunnus2000

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #29 on: April 27, 2021, 09:22:50 AM »
I found it interesting that Ted Templeman briefly considered approaching Sammy to replace Roth as far back as 1977.

Offline HOF

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #30 on: April 27, 2021, 09:42:12 AM »
I love Sammy   I saw him in 1978   loved him in Motrose etc  BUT  in VH to me IMO it never felt right ever. 
for that reason a ADKOT  wins

What’s funny is I’ve never cared for Sammy’s music outside of VH. I think he was great for VH, but he needed to be paired with Eddy to be interesting to me.

Offline EPICVIEW

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #31 on: April 27, 2021, 09:49:01 AM »
I love Sammy   I saw him in 1978   loved him in Motrose etc  BUT  in VH to me IMO it never felt right ever. 
for that reason a ADKOT  wins

What’s funny is I’ve never cared for Sammy’s music outside of VH. I think he was great for VH, but he needed to be paired with Eddy to be interesting to me.

I can understand that as Sammy after Montrose really was just a "rock and roller"  his live shows back in the late 70s were a lot of fun he was the Red Rocker,  his songs I agree are just sorta "meh"  but he had a great attitude and fun on stage,  I had  a Trans Am so I had to be a fan LOL
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Offline Grappler

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #32 on: April 27, 2021, 09:58:38 AM »
ANY Sammy album is much better than ADKOT.

I have always been really turned off that Van Halen used old demos from the 1970's and put them out as "new" music with DLR on that album.  I just can't get past what I feel to be a very contrived nature of wanting the record to sound like classic Van Halen to the point of reusing 40 year old material. 

Offline TheCountOfNYC

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #33 on: April 27, 2021, 09:59:36 AM »
ADKoT. I will never acknowledge Van Halen without Roth.
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Offline hefdaddy42

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Re: Van Halen poll - Your favorite Sammy album vs A Different Kind of Truth
« Reply #34 on: April 27, 2021, 10:20:30 AM »
Sammy, easy peasy.
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