Roth rejoins Van Halen

[shock the monkey]

It's Wolfgang Van Halen playing bass for them. Interesting to see if he can handle Mike's trademark high backing vocals. I suppose MA didn't help his cause by touring with Sammy Hagar on Hagar's solo tours.

Van Halen 78-1984 is almost perfection. Better than Led Zeppelin or The Rolling Stones, without doubt.

Eddie is a heavy drinker and Dave is an egomaniac whose voice was wavering in 1988. They should let it be.

[c.j.jaxxon]

Yep! That's what I heard. Wolfgang's playin bass for'em. Just an opinion though, I think Michael ain't gonna miss playin with'em. He's been playing with Sammy for the longest. Van Halen was one of my influeces on the rock side of music for me since I played drums.

[mike johnson]

OK, doubt if anyone is interested in my opinion, but I never thought Van Halen was any good at all;maybe they put on a good show from what ya'll say, live. But I tend to think they stood out simply because late 70's rock was overall so godawful.Bad Company,Styx, Foreigner, Foghat...only decent band I can think of from that era was Cheap Trick.But a bunch of people simply don't know any better....

[c.j.jaxxon]

I thought it picked up around the late 1970s because that's when I really started listening to rock real heavy then. Shoot, you had the southern rock bands kicking tail after Lynyrd Skynyrd had their plane accident. The second british invasion was about to start and if it weren't for James Y Young and the other guitar player they had Styx wouldn't have been as good as they were. Bad Company was good as was Foghat but they were blues based groups. Foreigner I thought looked better live and Cheap Trick was better over all.

[mike johnson]

Well, it is all a matter of taste, but I would say, go back & look at the groups extant, both British & American, at the beginning of the 1970's, & those around at the end of the decade, & there is no comparison; it is like Vermeer vs. Andy Warhol.
But then, I am getting to be an Old Fart, so what do I know??

[Deano!]

IdolDroog wrote:


> I guess you can't judge a person by the cover they convey.

The word 'judge' reminds me of a doco about a court case in the U.S. regarding 'satanic music' causing some poor kid to commit suicide. The lead singer of the band was being sued by the parents for this. His on-stage guise was all about electric shock hair, stack-heeled boots, wild make-up and lots of pyrotechnics. In real life he was happily married and looked like an accountant. When he turned up in court in a plain shirt and trousers without all the trimmings, the judge needed convincing it was really the accused - as if he would appear in a bang of red smoke and proceed to spit blood on the jury while playing an ear splitting guitar solo.

I felt sorry for the judge. It must have been like finding out Father Christmas is just your dad.

[Ace]

mike johnson wrote:

...only decent band I can think
> of from that era was Cheap Trick.


Agreed Mike, Cheap Trick were and still are a BRILLIANT band. OK, Rick Nielson might not do the fancy hammer on/pull offs ala Eddie VH, but his riffs are brilliant.
Great band, great image, excellent music

[Ace]

It had disaster written all over it from the word Go!