This is from Woman and Children First, which, unless you don't own I doubt you ever heard this song. This is the first time Eddie Van Halen ever used a slide! What is amazing is what fine blues playing comes forth. Really good slide work. This may not be howling Wolf, but it is pretty darned good:

A lot of Van Halen fans hated this song because it is so different and not metal. I always liked it. One of my faves.

Fuck it, I'm eclectic.

More Halen acoustic:

i've heard the song. i love van halen, i have all of their songs. they're my dad's favorite lol so i was exposed through him. eddie's a really good guitarist.

I did. Nearly 10 years ago

It's the highlight of Women and Children First, in my opinion, I was never a big fan Everybody Wants Some or The Cradle Will Rock... so it's my fav classic off that underrated 1980 album...

Van Halen could do no wrong during the DLR era. They had filler, sure, like everyone else, but still the most important american rock band of the 78-85 era...

I've heard that song a million times, it's good. My favorite VH song is on the same album - Romeo Delight.

Man, the Roth years...I'd be hard pressed to find even one song I'd call "filler". Seriously. They were that good, all those years. And Roth fucked 'em over at exactly the right time, before they would ruin it all

abigail05 said:

I've heard that song a million times, it's good. My favorite VH song is on the same album - Romeo Delight.

Man, the Roth years...I'd be hard pressed to find even one song I'd call "filler".

well, Fire Warning and Diver Down are not exactly solid albums in my book...

Fair Warning's a masterwork. Jerk..lol kidding

It's been years since i heard that song, it does have some good slide on it. Women And Children First is definitely their most underrated album. In A Simple Rhyme is my fave off there.

[Edited 2/21/11 8:34am]

2freaky4church1 said:

Fair Warning's a masterwork. Jerk..lol kidding

Agree 100%

Love VH with DLR. I played those albums out so much it's still hard to this day for me to play some of them. Lol. And FW is my fave VH album. And even without Michael Anthony involved, I'm still interested in what VH will release with DLR this year.

That DLR is still in the band is an amazing thing. Maybe certain wisdom comes with old age. Or Eddie is just a greedy fucker..lol

I love "Could This Be Magic" and never considered Van Halen a metal band. They're grooves are more funky than most metal. Eddies rhythmic playing isn't metal. I don't think he's ever played a bar chord. To my ears they're more like Beach Boys vocal pop with an 'out of this world' guitar sound and hard John Bonham style beats! Van Halen was a very eclectic band with DLR. Eddie didn't listen to other rock music. He was into fusion stuff like Brand X and Billy Cobham. Check out "Quadrant 4". DLR was into Ohio Players and James Brown. Michael Anthony was into Disney stuff and Alex liked rock!

Even songs that most consider filler tracks were more interesting than most arena rock bands from 1978 - 84. Live they had no peers!

[Edited 2/21/11 11:48am]

I'm honestly a little afraid for what the new record will sound like...but we'll give the guys a break, everybody gets old. It's more the production I'm worried about really. I don't want it to sound like a suck ass 2011 hard drive recording.

Hopefully the Holy Head (Marshall) will be represented as well as the Frankenstein strat, and none of that Peavey Wolfgang and 5150 nonsense. Too bad the kid can't possibly hit those high harmonies like Mike Anthony

JoeTyler said:

I did. Nearly 10 years ago

It's the highlight of Women and Children First, in my opinion, I was never a big fan Everybody Wants Some or The Cradle Will Rock... so it's my fav classic off that underrated 1980 album...

Van Halen could do no wrong during the DLR era. They had filler, sure, like everyone else, but still the most important american rock band of the 78-85 era...

Sure, but that's a very shallow talent pool to draw from.

abigail05 said:

I'm honestly a little afraid for what the new record will sound like...but we'll give the guys a break, everybody gets old. It's more the production I'm worried about really. I don't want it to sound like a suck ass 2011 hard drive recording.

Hopefully the Holy Head (Marshall) will be represented as well as the Frankenstein strat, and none of that Peavey Wolfgang and 5150 nonsense. Too bad the kid can't possibly hit those high harmonies like Mike Anthony

theyre making a new album? lol

JoeTyler said:

abigail05 said:

I've heard that song a million times, it's good. My favorite VH song is on the same album - Romeo Delight.

Man, the Roth years...I'd be hard pressed to find even one song I'd call "filler".

well, Fire Warning and Diver Down are not exactly solid albums in my book...

I can see the Diver Down criticism but Fair Warning? That's one of their best imo. Its such a sleeper album to me.

i think both the albums are good. theyre just.. different lol fair warning is darker and heavier, and diver down is lighter and more lively. only problem with diver down is that theres like only 3 or so original songs, aside from instrumentals. its all covers =p but i think it was cause they were rushed to make the album.

That whole album is incredible from the opening And The Cradle Will Rock to Fools To Loss of CONTROL ORGASMIC!!!

Fair Warning is my fav with Roth though

Fair Warning is my fav with Roth though

Yes this was Ed's album. Guitar mixed in your face! I read that he even played bass on some tracks. The 'brown sound' at it's best on this joint!

i can't believe the love for Fair Warning, that album was absolutely full of filler

that album was so bitter, dark & twisted that they basically needed a light covers album (Diver Down) before getting back on track with 1984...

and don't get me started with "Sunday Afternoon in the Park" ...

[Edited 2/22/11 3:09am]

JoeTyler said:

i can't believe the love for Fair Warning, that album was absolutely full of filler

that album was so bitter, dark & twisted that they basically needed a light covers album (Diver Down) before getting back on track with 1984...

and don't get me started with "Sunday Afternoon in the Park" ...

[Edited 2/22/11 3:09am]

Um the dark & twisted is what i love about it baby

VH is usually never like that, it was a total departure. I mean after that was the so so Diver Down & the HUGE 1984, 1984 was a masterpiece but very light on subject matter.

The only thing missing from the classic VH era is a live CD and DVD, yet the Hagar era had 2 videos and a live album. PLUS Hagar singing Dave's songs on "Best of Both Worlds". They should've revamped "The Videos" DVD with more classic era footage, instead of just the 3 for "1984".

Dave co- directed and produced all of their videos with their band manager at the time. That was also a time when they had no money to make a big budget music video.

Here's the Van Halen video you may never have seen before.. but you prob have. Dave's dad was a doctor, which explains a few things in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXqoVBTiO58&playnext=1&list=PLE97A02E67B6F73D2

It's too bad Mike's not a part of the band. Ed and Alex were sneaky bastards in taking the recordings from different shows of Mike's voice and having Wolfgang lip sync to them. He gets his royalty checks from them for the rest of his life, and if they ever put out a live CD or DVD, he gets money from that.

I don't think Van Halen III or DLR Band were horrible (just go on You Tube and listen to "Black Sand" vs "How Many Say I" ) , but if they had patched things up at the time, it would've been a "comeback" album and done well. There's good songs on both, but there's also songs on both that would've been tossed in the scrap pile.Dave did a covers album around 2002 and was covering stuff ranging from Beatles to Chemical Brothers. I think if you've listened to his solo stuff (although Skyscraper overdid it with the keyboards, Dave said one day he'd remix that one), he's taken a lot more risks than Van Halen have with music.

Ed and Dave write well together, and I do think they're going to go for the spirit of what made the classic VH sound work. Just like U2 wound up going back to their origins and stealing from themselves over the past 10 years. If anything, the songs should be better, tighter, and coming up with stuff on guitar no one's heard before.