Of course anyone who know's me over the year's, know that this posting/ induction into the "RCJ Music/ Art's Honour Roll Society" is way past due ... but like I say ... better late than never, eh? I mean, I've been asked more than once, why in Hell havent I even had any Van Halen in here ... well ... I just hadnt got around to it, I mean DeeAnn asked me the same shit about Alice Cooper (she dreams of him : ) ... I got alot of shit on my list, man!! : )
But Yes ... Van Halen is one of the commercial music icons that I absolutely enjoyed covering (vocals) as a young gent, Van Halen to me is just some really uplifting and fun tunes to cover ... even to this day ... I was driving down the freeway a couple weeks back, had the stereo/ oldies rock on for shits and grins, "Dance The Night Away" came on, I cranked it and naturally started singing it at the top of my lungs ... I know many of their older tunes note for note to this day. Back in the late 1970's if you played or partied in some biker dive joint like "Nash Street Pub" (anyone older who knows Dallas, probably remembers that joint, or a number of others in the day), knows that two songs in particular that really got the crowd off their ass and pumped up, were "Running With The Devil" (Van Halen), and "Born To Be Wild" (Steppenwolf) ... be careful you dont catch a flying beer bottle in the head :-)
I dont need to say much about this original crew and will let this Wikipedia (Van Halen) shit cover most of that, I knew a few postings back when I highlighted "Diamond Dave" and was talking about this 1978 to 1984 span of the original crew, I had to get to this post soon. Of course back together (Dave, Alex & Eddie ... geeezz, show how old we are, Eddie's son Wolfgang is the new bass player these dayz) as the beginning now in 2012 (they still need a paycheck : ) is great to see, but those golden year's is some of what I wanted to highlight here, when Sammy Hagar later came to the crew after Dave left, I didnt like their composition as much, even though I love Sammy and his solo previous career with his crew, and am old enough to have seen Sammy doing vocal's with Montrose actually (I dont think he was old enough to shave then : ) Between though 1978 and 1984 I seen Van Halen "live" 3X times, all were absolutely explosive show's and on the 1984 tour, checking out their new equipment and stage design, I took a quick count and the back of the stage was lined at least over 20'ft high with over 90 speaker cabinet's, awesome stage lighting and engineering 2nd to none in that show! Yep ... Eddie was still playing that fucked up looking, beat up, Kramer guitar worth about $150 bucks though ... he wouldnt let go of that! : )
Of course these dayz, Eddie is a guitar legend, who is basically self taught, and that's why his particular style is so unique, and remember he was heavy into piano/ keyboard's younger (playing by ear from piano scale expands it) ... but also if I may ... this crew with Alex, Michael, and Eddie worked some excellent harmonizing vocals covering Dave's lead, just a really smooth blend as a whole. For month's I have reviewed so many "live" pieces that really sucked, no insult meant to those who posted them, I am just a picky SOB when it comes to production on audio/ visuals ... they were great and raw, but under-served the crew who I remember well, just technicalities that were very raw and unpolished let's just say, so finding videos suitable was a tad difficult I must say. But managed to select 4 favs here out of several others I love. Other than that, have a great weekend, Enjoy!
***** "RCJ MUSIC/ ART'S HONOUR ROLL SOCIETY" A THRU M
***** "RCJ MUSIC/ ART'S HONOUR ROLL SOCIETY" N THRU Z
Van Halen- Atomic Punk ... Thanx to VANHALEN765
Van Halen Runnin With The Devil US Festival 1983 ... Thanx to gene scott
Van Halen- Sinner's Swing ... Thanx to VANHALEN765
Van Halen- "You Really Got Me"-1978 Japan TV Performance & Interview [HIGHEST QUALITY] ... Thanx to VanHalenVault
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