I would garentee that I know more about VH than anyone on this site. I've got stuff from them as far back as 1974 when they played the starwood and the whiskey. I've got the demos they did with gene simmons, I've got the 25 song demo they did for warner bros. I've got the last concert they did before VH1, I've got about 150 shows on cassette from 74-95. I've got stuff sammy did with montrose for a radio broadcast in 73 and 74, I've got the 5150 demos at least 100 videos...I've got almost everything a VH fan could want.
Both guys are great, Dave was an incredible showman but he was a gigantic ego maniac at the end. He did a 10 or 15 minute Ti-Chi solo on the 1984 tour-BTW the backing music for this turned out to be Mine all Mine from OU812. The boots from 84 and almost unlistenable, they sound terrible, DAve does not sing anymore he "talks" all the words. His albums he did were classic, I won't take it away from him.
Sammy's stuff is "different" alot of different things happened when Sam came along. Eddie wanted to do keyboard songs and sam could do em. 5150 and OU812 are great records but they're not as rockin as Dave's stuff but I still think they're great records. 5150 is great from begining to end, incredible music. OU812 is very diverse but it has some filler. FUCK and BAlance are both really good, FUCK being my favorite VH record..period.
I've seen VH about 8 times, Sammy about 7 and Dave 4 times.
In my opinion...I like Sam better but I would never take away what Dave did with the band.
David Lee Roth IS Van Halen
not really. If that was the case he'd have been a popular solo artist and he couldn't sell shit as far back as 88. VH was still one of the biggest bands in the world all the way up unitl the minute Sam got the boot in 96.