Who was the better Van Halen frontman?

[pumpster]

Al, was anyone "normal" in VH? I saw Roth on tv a while back in an interview and all he did was blink. He sure was acting goofy. I get the distinct impression Alex and especially Edward are eccentric.

Listened to DLR almost every day during his recent brief radio tenure here in NY. Very easy to see he'd be a load: overpowering, a little out of control, seemingly with ADD & a little out there-all reminiscent of Tommy Lee. Interesting but exhausting.

Which is exactly why they're both great on stage-the energy can grate in conversation but is perfect for the stage.Got good reviews for this past summer's tour.

http://www.davidleeroth.com/

[natural al]

Al, was anyone "normal" in VH? I saw Roth on tv a while back in an interview and all he did was blink. He sure was acting goofy. I get the distinct impression Alex and especially Edward are eccentric.

if you go to youtube and look for a special they did on mtv called van halen unleashed.  Everybody seemed normal from 86-93, ed seemed normal in all the interviews I've read from him up until 93.  Sam and Mike are still pretty cool when they sit down and talk to an interviewer.  They all acted like best friends up until 95..there is a whole lot of stuff that i could type up here to explain why everything went to shit in 94-95 and then went to complete shit after that.  Ed's fuckin nuts now, he did an interview with stern a few weeks ago and I wanted to punch him in the face.  DAve has been nuts for so long that I don't have a problem with him.  I know wht he's gonna do.  Al is a wierd dude, I'll leave it at that.

here's the first part of unleashed, this is the van halen I know and love...it'll never be like this again

everybody seems totally normal...

[pumpster]

everybody seems totally normal...

On-camera behavior for a few minutes while sober's hardly indicative..

[natural al]

On-camera behavior for a few minutes is hardly indicative..

I'm talking years and years of consistant behavior.  I have hundreds of taped interviews, hundreds of magazine interviews...could they be faking it?  maybe for a little while but for 11 years?  I doubt it.

[natural al]

watch at about 7:30 seconds in...al talks about Sam being discussed as front man for the band back in 78ish....

[pumpster]

I have hundreds of taped interviews, hundreds of magazine interviews...could they be faking it?

Almost all of their problems were back stage or behind the scenes.

[natural al]

Almost all of their problems were back stage or behind the scenes.

not until ed lefler died.  Once he was gone then you're probably right but they were friends up until that point.

[natural al]

http://www.melodicrock.com/interviews/sammyhagar.html

good sammy interview.  He talks alot about the current state of affairs in VH,  Livin it up is a decent CD, not like anything he's ever done before, it's more countyish...it'll make ya smile but I'd rather see him rockin.

[natural al]

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here's ed these days...watch the end and remember he's a total alchoholic and he had cancer..smokin and drinkin...lookin pathetic..very angry dude.

[bmacsys]

Listened to DLR almost every day during his recent brief radio tenure here in NY. Very easy to see he'd be a load: overpowering, a little out of control, seemingly with ADD & a little out there-all reminiscent of Tommy Lee. Interesting but exhausting.

Which is exactly why they're both great on stage-the energy can grate in conversation but is perfect for the stage.Got good reviews for this past summer's tour.

http://www.davidleeroth.com/

Diamond Dave is looking pretty light in the loafers in those pics. Its a far cry from his Van Halen glory days.

[bmacsys]

Van Halen went to shit when Eddie Van Halen got into his keyboard fetish. Van Halen is all about power chords and guitar solos.

[pumpster]

Diamond Dave is looking pretty light in the loafers in those pics. Its a far cry from his Van Halen glory days.

Easy to become an eccentric with money & some degree of isolation from reality. He lives here in Chinatown.

[mar10s]

Van Halen went to shit when Eddie Van Halen got into his keyboard fetish. Van Halen is all about power chords and guitar solos.

Speaking of which, I've read that Ed doing keyboards/synth. was one thing Dave really did not care for...Al, got anything on that?  If I'm not mistaken, I think they were using keyboards as early as WACF...you can hear em' on "And The Cradle Will Rock", towards the end of the first guitar solo.

Hey Al, anyway of sharing etc of any of those demos with "Voodoo Queen" "Leave Me Alone" etc?

[Grundle]

I love Eddie, his music was the soundtrack to my life, but for the record, he is CERTIFIABLE.  He went on record as saying his throat cancer had nothing to do with smoking two packs a day and drinking like a sailor for 30 years, but rather had to do with the electromagnetic field in his studio conducting off a guitar pick in his mouth.  Monster pathological.

[pumpster]

I love Eddie, his music was the soundtrack to my life, but for the record, he is CERTIFIABLE.  He went on record as saying his throat cancer had nothing to do with smoking two packs a day and drinking like a sailor for 30 years, but rather had to do with electromagnetic field in his studio conducting off a guitar pick in his mouth.  Monster pathological.

Talent allows guys who are otherwise 5 years old to thrive. He sounds like a waste of air.

[natural al]

Speaking of which, I've read that Ed doing keyboards/synth. was one thing Dave really did not care for...Al, got anything on that?  If I'm not mistaken, I think they were using keyboards as early as WACF...you can hear em' on "And The Cradle Will Rock", towards the end of the first guitar solo.

Hey Al, anyway of sharing etc of any of those demos with "Voodoo Queen" "Leave Me Alone" etc?

the entire main riff for cradle is done on keyboards through eddies old marshal stack, don't ask me how they did it but that's what it is.  A couple of songs on Fair Warnings were written on keyboards and played on guitar.

I can't go into alot right now, gotta get the kids to bed but Dave did not like the keyboards, the band in reality only recorded a handful of songs with keyboards but those were the ones that got put on radio so that's what everyone associates Van Hagar with, they only recorded like 8 keyboard songs...

I tried to upload a couple of mp3's earlier but it wouldn't let me....

[windsor88]

hey al,  you got a link for that Eddie interview with Stern from a few weeks ago? 

Thanks man.

[Debussey]

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here's ed these days...watch the end and remember he's a total alchoholic and he had cancer..smokin and drinkin...lookin pathetic..very angry dude.

That was some terrible guitar playing.

[njflex]

I flipped around some of those u tube's .some classic live track's with dlr,he was talking and not singing half of the time and that was at his peak,but a great showman,ed's solo's are insane,check out the ou812 solo from tokyo

[windsor88]

hey al,  you got a link for that Eddie interview with Stern from a few weeks ago? 

Thanks man.

Nevermind I read a few articles.

The thing about Dave coming back will not last.  Hell,  it was bad enough with the 2 brothers...now you got all three blood related. And Wolfgang aint gonna have no balls so he will be daddy's bitch.   Shit man..forget about it.  Wont make it past rehearsals. 

[natural al]

hey al,  you got a link for that Eddie interview with Stern from a few weeks ago? 

Thanks man.

I don't have one anymore, I deleted my mp3.  It might not mean much to a casual fan but he said some stuff that was just out of line about Mike.

BTw-and the cradle will rock is a wulitzer electric piano through eddie's old marshal amp.  Dave was so stressed about Ed playing keyboards that they used to have Mike play it in concert, there are a couple of video's of them "performing" it on tv and they are lip synching..it's pretty bad.

[Grundle]

I don't have one anymore, I deleted my mp3.  It might not mean much to a casual fan but he said some stuff that was just out of line about Mike.

BTw-and the cradle will rock is a wulitzer electric piano through eddie's old marshal amp.  Dave was so stressed about Ed playing keyboards that they used to have Mike play it in concert, there are a couple of video's of them "performing" it on tv and they are lip synching..it's pretty bad.

Al,

have you heard eddie's recent comments? I love the man for the brlliance he produced, but the fuggen dude is out of his mind.  For years I didnt know who to blame the breakup on, conventional wisdom was that Dave was a dick. But it is clear now, (if it wasnt before) that Eddie is absolutely insane and no one could possibly put up with it forever.

[Bindare_Dundat]

I use to love old Van Halen but their time has come and gone. You can't pick up where you left off 20 years ago. Dave's voice is dead, the old yelps and screams sound like lame weezing now. Eddie is definatly out of his mind, the booze has mashed his brain into pudding. Basically, Van Halens whole routine didnt change after 1980, the guitar solos all sound the same, Dave's comments were getting old and so forth.

I got a chance to see Van Hagar and it was without a doubt the lamest show I ever saw. The sound was so low I could whisper to my buddy without a problem. There was no big light show, Sammy bored the audience to tears with his solo tunes and overall the energy coming from the guys was at the nill level.

Its great to still hear their old stuff but a reunion with Dave is nothing more then a cash grab and I think the result will leave fans dissappointed, much like the Sammy reunion tour did.

[natural al]

Al,

have you heard eddie's recent comments? I love the man for the brlliance he produced, but the fuggen dude is out of his mind.  For years I didnt know who to blame the breakup on, conventional wisdom was that Dave was a dick. But it is clear now, (if it wasnt before) that Eddie is absolutely insane and no one could possibly put up with it forever.

yeah, i heard all the stuff ed is saying now.  Ed didn't start getting really wierd until Ed Lefler died in 94.  Lefler was the bands manager for most of the Hagar run.  Once Lefler died they got a guy named Ray Daniels..if you even say his name on VH message boards people loose thier minds.  he's credited for destroying VH, he drove Sam out, messed with DAve and brought in Gary.  After VHIII failed ed went really nuts.  What he was saying on stern pissed me off pretty bad, I don't know why but refusing to refer to mike as Mike Anthony and calling him sobeliewski-sp-really pissed me off.

[natural al]

cool rockin song from the sammy era:

and an old unreleased song:

I think this is from the 25 song demo they did for warner right before VH1 was released.