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The Madness of Van Halen 1

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    The Madness of Van Halen 1

    If you don't know, the album starts off with "Runnin' With The Devil" which tells you all about Van Halen straight away. The band's USPs of great musicianship, of course, from the Van Halen brothers and the greatly under-rated Michael Anthony, over-the-top vocals and lyrics that sound like a West End musical plot from DLR and huge huge chorus. It sets the scene of following songs like "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", "I'm The One" "Atomic Punk"

    ...but....

    Van Halen don't follow with those songs which, along with "Jamie's Crying", would make an awesome start to any album even now. No, VH follow with over a minute and a half of a Eddie Van Halen guitar solo and then a cover of "You Really Got Me" which completely reinvents the Kinks. Madness, absolute madness. Any other band deciding the running order for their first album would set their stall out early doors and maybe play around on the second side (which they do anyway with "Ice Cream Man")

    As it is, the then ground-breaking EVH guitar sound is all over the songs and is astonishing as is, the wit and intelligence of the band's songwriting are present throughout the rest of the song, not least in the barber-shop section of "Ain't..." as well. For any established band on their tenth album to say "After song one, we are going to have a guitar instrumental and then have a pop at a Kinks classic" would make managers and record labels cough nervously but this was a bunch of 20 year olds recording their debut album for WB. No wonder they had no problem blowing Black Sabbath offstage at their home ground later on.

    The thing is that it works. Like I say, you could have the album running order without Eruption and You Really Got Me in (or later on in the album) and it would still be a brilliant and audacious start but with those two in, it is like they are saying "Do you know what, not only can we do this and we will do this but we are quickly going to piss around with it as well". I know this as I have just listened to it and, 35 years later, it still works. Indeed, in retrospect, it is even more astonishing. At the time, it sort of just made sense but, now, you wonder what they were thinking at the time (a bit like Gary Glitter and Adam Ant albums). Madness and genius.

    I am nearly 45, have been playing in bands for almost 30 years, am in my second brilliant band, have released a couple of albums and have a bulletproof ego and I still wouldn't start an album like that.

    Anyway, I suppose the premise of the thread is is there a favourite album of yours that you sort of granted at the time but now think "Where on earth did that come from? What were they thinking?"

    #2
    The Madness of Van Halen 1

    I can't believe I'm about to correct you on Van Halen.

    The barbershop section is on "Show your Love", not "Ain't......".

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      #3
      The Madness of Van Halen 1

      Hoist by my own petard. The song is, of course, "I'm The One".

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        #4
        The Madness of Van Halen 1

        You are, of course, correct (second time around) but I mainly thank you for rescuing this from being a nil thread.

        Bloody overcoatted miserabalists, the rest of you

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          #5
          The Madness of Van Halen 1

          It's a fucking brilliant album though. I listened to it again on the way home from work. Twice, actually.

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            #6
            The Madness of Van Halen 1

            My work here is done.

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              #7
              The Madness of Van Halen 1

              Talking of "I'm The One", the intro is just amazing. Never, ever fails to raise a smile. That weird, harmonic drenched run is just.......I dunno. Joy-inducing.

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                #8
                The Madness of Van Halen 1

                Well put Bored. A friend of mine from California told me to get it shortly after it came out and I was blown away by the powerful sound.

                I think of Running With The Devil, Eruption, and You Really Got Me almost as one long song.

                On Fire and Atomic Punk are also amazing.

                The best fan account of early Van Halen. Also the best description of Van Halen's sound

                Some highlights...

                Just ten seconds into “You Really Got Me,” and I knew that we were dealing with uncharted territory. That was the loudest I had ever heard a guitar mixed in relation to the rest of the instrumentation on a record. It sounded like the guy was playing through a dozen Marshall stacks. The solo was a kinetic blitzkrieg of random harmonics and static electricity.

                and

                I temporarily left the store and headed towards the parking lot. A rickety old brown school bus then pulled up and stopped by the mall entrance next to El Fenix restaurant. The first guy off the bus was bassist Michael Anthony, who couldn’t have been an inch over Five-foot-six. (So much for meeting Gene Simmons and validating the Kiss rumor.) Then Eddie, 22 years old with an ashy Marlboro still dangling from his lips, climbed off the bus and gave me a soul brother handshake.

                “Are you the only one here?” he asked. I assured him that all of my friends were big fans, but they were all still at school. “Here, take these,” he said, handing me a fat stack of blue backstage passes, “Give these to all of your bros and come see us tonight. We’re opening for Journey and Montrose over in Fort Worth.”

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                  #9
                  The Madness of Van Halen 1

                  That is brilliant. Thank you, Cal

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                    #10
                    The Madness of Van Halen 1

                    See I know hardly anything about Van Halen, I've just heard one or two of their songs, and this thread has got me curious. But then I see photos like this and I just can't bring myself to go any further:

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                      #11
                      The Madness of Van Halen 1

                      In 2011, most shots of rock/metal bands from 30 years ago look pretty ludicrous. That was the Van Halen look. No big surprise.

                      Let's get back to the topic at hand - Van Halen I.

                      As a then 14 yr. old, the cover got my attention:


                      As Bored stated, VHI is one of the most brash, ballzy, and powerful rock albums you'll ever hear. Their second album, VHII was inconsistent and not nearly as good. Women and Children First was better thought out, but not at the level of the first. Fair Warning was ok - some decent songs, but one could see that the energy and hunger of the early days was over. Diver Down is pretty much a throwaway covers album. I got my hopes up for 1984 but never really liked it as it was hard to not get the ghastly Jump out of my head. MTV had permeated the US, and Van Halen (mostly David Lee Roth) ate it up.

                      Van Hagar was godawful.

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                        #12
                        The Madness of Van Halen 1

                        Everything Cal said.

                        Give it a go, historyman. Ignore the pictures, the music speaks for itself. As I said above, if the intro to I'm The One doesn't make you smile, I'll give you your money back.

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                          #13
                          The Madness of Van Halen 1

                          Diamond Dave deconstructs VH much better than I ever could. Of course

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                            #14
                            The Madness of Van Halen 1

                            The accompanying piece is also ace

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                              #15
                              The Madness of Van Halen 1

                              Hold on, did Dave ever play "the part of a grouchy cook in the new Sesame Street film"?

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                                #16
                                The Madness of Van Halen 1

                                historyman wrote:
                                See I know hardly anything about Van Halen, I've just heard one or two of their songs, and this thread has got me curious. But then I see photos like this and I just can't bring myself to go any further:

                                Photos like that should make you RUN and SEEK OUT this crazy loud funny band.

                                David Lee Roth - the all-time number one ROCK STAR.

                                Eddie Van Halen's son is called Wolfgang.

                                That is all

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                                  #17
                                  The Madness of Van Halen 1

                                  Well said, especially from a man whose favourite album is The Queen Is Dead

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                                    #18
                                    The Madness of Van Halen 1

                                    Pasadena's greatest gift to the world. Quite possibly the best band from LA. If not, then easily in the top 5.

                                    Van Halen are doing an arena tour, with Diamond Dave back in the fold.

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                                      #19
                                      The Madness of Van Halen 1

                                      Preaching to the converted somewhat there, Inca, I feel but maybe historyman has been covnerted by now

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                                        #20
                                        The Madness of Van Halen 1

                                        Incandenza wrote:
                                        Pasadena's greatest gift to the world.
                                        They're not even as good as The Pasadenas.

                                        I know rock'n'roll is inherently ridiculous, and Van Halen always were, but why the hype? They're no AC/DC, they won't sell significant amounts of records in the 21st Century.

                                        The back cat doesn't sell, which indicates there isn't a huge latent market for new material.

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                                          #21
                                          The Madness of Van Halen 1

                                          The tour will be enormous, the album will do better than Diver Down or Fair Warning and will probably lead to a spike in sales of the first two albums and 1984.

                                          My band will record an E.P of new songs as soon as we sell the 200 copies of our album that we made two years ago and we are playing an all day festival in Trowbridge tonight. I have a cold.

                                          I know why Van Halen are doing it.

                                          If you read that interview, you will see the hype. Have you read any interviews by The Killers or Lana Del Ray? We are living in times when Noel Gallagher is regarded as an interesting interviewee

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                                            #22
                                            The Madness of Van Halen 1

                                            I remember when Jump came out, about 1984 or so, I thought it was the MUSIC OF THE FUTURE. I still love that song, not least because Alex Van Halen is such a magnificent drummer. The closing part of the middle eight is just extraordinary, and what I enjoy about it most of all is that you can so clearly hear the snare drum cutting through the other instruments, while the cymbals are so crystal clear. It's like being in the room with them, and is the reason why I have never bought a cymbal that wasn't made by Paiste.

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                                              #23
                                              The Madness of Van Halen 1

                                              Jesus Ian, "Jump" was just about the worst song from the 80s, but I guess you hear it with a drummer's ear, to each his own...

                                              I just listened to "I'm the one", it sounds a bit like if you wrapped in spandex and dulled down the worst song on a Motorhead album (it's actually not a total putdown because Motorhead is a great band). Interestingly enough, it seems like "Jump" came out a a spinoff of this song.

                                              I kind of liked VH enough back when I was 12 or 13 to buy a 45 of the Cradle Will Rock, but even in my acne days I thought they were several notches below Motorhead or the Ramones. They wouldn't crack my top 100 bands from LA (there's an interesting thread of its own).

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                                                #24
                                                The Madness of Van Halen 1

                                                To each their own, Linus. Sure, it's dated now, but I still really like "Jump."

                                                Did Eddie VH get royalties from "Beat It"? I imagine that would be enough to make someone very successful.

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                                                  #25
                                                  The Madness of Van Halen 1

                                                  "Jump" was just about the worst song from the 80s
                                                  Good grief, that is the wrongest statement made in a long long while.

                                                  I would put VH several notches below Motorhead and the Ramones as well but that is still a pretty good place to be

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