Yeah Sammy needs to drink prune juice......
Yeah Sammy needs to drink prune juice......
Really love the cover of Pretty Woman off DD. Sorry guys, I love all the VH cover songs. Those guys paid a hell of an homage to early 60s Rock and Roll.
So do I. I think 1984 was the first Van Halen album I had, and Diver Down was the second. There's some good songs on Diver Down, like Secrets and Little Guitars, and I also dig the cover tunes on it, too. VH's version of Dancing In The Streets certainly beats the pants of the Grateful Dead's version (or at least, the version that's on Terrapin Station).Originally Posted by Library Jon
And I know I've said this before, and I know I'm the only person around here who gets it, but I still love the Diver Down cover.
Regarding Diver Down, wasn't that whole album kind of a forced issue by the record company? I think VH made some singles and perhaps were thinking of releasing an EP, but their label insisted on releasing a whole album. Which would explain all the covers. I remember getting the 7" of Pretty Woman before the album came out. The "B" side was Happy Trails. After being disappointed that it wasn't anything more than a novelty, I remember thinking that at least I'll have a non-lp track, because there was no way Happy Trails would end up on the album. Once the album came out, I was flabbergasted that Happy Trails was on it. But if you look at the total time of the record, you can figure out why: without it, the album wouldn't even be 30 minutes long. Which is why I wish the remasters had at least a few bonus items, like some live tracks from that era.
IIRC, EVH said in an interview that he hated doing all of the covers, and that for at least one of them (forget it it was "Dancing in the Street" or "Pretty Woman"), he was working on something that he was very excited about, but DLR and Ted Templeman heard him working on it and commandeered it for a cover. It pissed him off, but he was outvoted/persuaded.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
That's interesting. Especially, considering that the band is his name. I always considered some of their covers a bit silly. Sure, "You Really Got Me" was pretty hot. Rick Derringer thinks they got that idea from him, since he was playing that regularly in his sets and I am pretty sure they opened for him.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
I do remember one interview in Guitar Player where Eddie said doing covers was frustrating because you put as much effort in making a cover sound unique as you did in writing a new song, and at least at this time (circa Diver Down) I got the impression he would have written spent the time/effort working up more original material. Given the relative dirth of covers in the VH catalog post-Diver Down, I imagine Eddie pretty much got his way eventually and has maintained that point of view.
I remember one interview where he mentioned how many original songs they had written by the time they made the first album, far more than what was on the record. I gather many or all of these exist somewhere in demo form. Anyway, in this one interview, I think during the space between Van Halen and Van Halen II, he was asked if any of the unused songs from before the first album would get used on the second one, and he said something like, "No, I keep coming up with new stuff all the time".
Another thing I remember reading was that Eddie came up with at least some of what we now know as Jump in like 80 or 81, but for whatever reason, it took a couple years before it to get fleshed out into a proper song. I think I read Eddie initially didn't bring it to the band because he felt it "wasn't right for the band", but once Dave heard it, he started pestering Eddie about the band doing it.
I also remember Eddie saying there were occasions where he'd wake up in the middle of the night with a riff in his head, so he'd grabbed his Walkman (one of those ones with the mic built in) and go into the closet, and sing the riff into the tape deck so he wouldn't wake Val. Another story I remember him telling was being out and about somewhere, and he didn't have his Walkman with him so he called the house and sang it into the answering machine!
So between all of that, the insinuation I get is that there's a huge backlog of stuff that never appeared on the albums, though one imagines at least some of that is just riffs that Eddie came up with at some point that were never developed into proper songs.
Eddie first played it for Gene Simmons, who at first thought it was something that would later be recorded with a guitar. Eddie purportedly called Gene on more than one occasion when he was frustrated and entertaining leaving VH, but Gene talked him out of it (don't know if that last part is true, but it could be).
There are some VH songs on YT that date back to pre-'78 days.
Another vote for Diver Down over any Van Hagar. Love that album! VH's covers were always better than the originals.
Yeah, there's a bunch of stuff that's circulated on bootlegs for years. I think I've got one or two of them on the computer, that I got off Dimeadozen.
Years ago I downloaded a bunch of VH demos off of a site called ClassicVanHalen.com. They were offering them for free. I ended up deleting a lot of the tracks because the recordings were so bad. I kept probably about 6-8 tracks. A few ended up in A Different Kind Of Truth.
I have an extensive amount of VH demos; many near-CD quality thanks to an official project I was involved with. Years ago, I asked Eddie Van Halen about specific demos and if they would eventually see the light of day in some form. He said he would love to (and has attempted to) re-record/revisit some of the demos that I named, but he has not been able to replicate his sound and therefor is not happy with the end result.
I wish they would release some of these demos from their heyday. I understand what Ed is saying, but I think they would make a killing off of these demos alone. Van Halen is another great band that have many demos that were multi-track recorded. The Gene Simmons-produced demos alone would sell to VH and KISS fans, not to mention classic rock and casually interested fans. There are also the KISS demos that Eddie & Alex Van Halen played on. Those were on a few Gene Simmons demos for the Love Gun album, but have never been released to the public. All of these demos exist with amazing sound. Hopefully, a commercial release will happen in our lifetime...
It's strange how even though they are older the six original Roth albums all still sound pretty fresh and tight where much of the Hagar era music seems so dated and bloated.
"It was a cruel song, but fair."-Roger Waters
Opposite for me, the Roth era albums have that dated 80's hair metal sound and production!!!
Maybe Spammy made the whole band need prune juice.
Maybe both camps are holding this stuff as their "ace in the hole" when it's time to retire.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
They may be waiting too long considering the shrinking market for CDs. Hell, even ten years ago a compilation of those demos would have been guaranteed platinum. Now days they'd be lucky to break 50000 the first week.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Anyone like solo Dave? Just heard a DLR song called "A Li'l Ain't Enough." Sounds like Van Halen.
That song's from his third solo album. It's crap. Only his first album is any good.
Not much for Dave's solo stuff but I do like "Sensible Shoes"
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Totally agree, though it's obvious why- the Hagar era (though I know the hits only...never bothered with the albums) went overboard with the keyboards and also that big reverb-y sound. I hear a track like 'When It's Love' and that could be any number of big hair bands IMHO.
But this I don't get. '1984' aside, where the keyboards crept in, most of the others are just guitar/bass/drums in terms of instrumentation.
I'm not following the band, but I really enjoyed this informative conversation with EVH that took place a few days ago. He talks about his entire life and career starting with his childhood in Holland.
Actually, the keyboards had been there for awhile before 1984. There's synthesizer on Intruder and Dancing In The Streets on Diver Down, and there's electric piano on, I think, The Cradle Will Rock.
"Sunday Afternoon in the Park."
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