“I heard you missed us! We’re back!” Van Halen’s vinyl reissues

December 17, 2010 102 Comments

A few days ago a listener to our Stuck in the ’80s podcast hit us with a seismic question: If you could travel back in time, what band would you want to see perform in its prime with its original lineup? Now, instead of saying the Beatles or Sly Stone or something critic-snobby like Big Star, I blurted, “Van Halen circa the 1984 album!” Reasons for this curious blurtation are myriad, but the main one is that I was a randy teen in 1984 and Dave, Eddie, Alex and Michael were the fun, bawdy embodiment of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll — aka the antithesis of my safe, corduroyed life.

ANYWAY, a few days after this reader question, I received a large box from Rhino Records. Call it serendipity, call it the rock gods doing me a solid, but I was supernaturally gifted with a parcel of remastered vinyl, beautiful recreations of classic LPs. The Stooges’ Fun House was in there, so was Curtis Mayfield’s Super Fly soundtrack. But the best of the bunch were three Van Halen records, all of which Rhino released this week: VH II, Women and Children First (which comes with an original poster of a shirtless, shackled Diamond Dave) and, you guessed it, 1984. The latter doesn’t have any bonus goodies, although the 180 gram vinyl and the iconic cover of that smoking cherub are treat enough. And of course there’s the fun, below-the-belt, burnin’-loins rock. I’ll stir it up and say the best track on 1984 isn’t Hot for Teacher, Jump or Panama; it’s Drop Dead Legs.

All 3 Van Halen vinyl reissues are now in stock and shipping at Van Halen Store. Order by midnight on Sunday, Dec 19th for guaranteed delivery via Priority Mail. (USA customers only).

Remastered from the Original Analog Master Tapes by Kevin Grey at Acoustech Mastering, using Half-Speed Mastering for superior sound. True Audiophile-Quality!
Pressed with more care than ever on high quality 180 gram (180g) weight vinyl for longer life and superior sound
Features all original artwork & packaging

Most experts agree that the richness and depth of the original master tapes is truly captured only on vinyl. These are worth buying a turntable for!

Van Halen II 180-gram RTI Vinyl LP
$24.95

Women And Children First 180-gram RTI Vinyl LP
$24.95
CLASSIC DAVID LEE ROTH POSTER INCLUDED! By photographer Helmut Newton!

1984 180-gram RTI Vinyl LP
$24.95

Set of the 3 new 180-gram RTI Vinyl LPs
$74.94 $64.94
SAVE on the 3 new Van Halen 180-gram vinyls!

Set of All Four 180-gram RTI Vinyl LPs
$99.92 $89.92
SAVE on all 4 Van Halen 180-gram vinyls!

Van Halen 180-gram RTI Vinyl LP
$24.95

Filed Under: Van Halen

http://none 12beerstogo

FAMAC-Drop dead legs and Back in Black were both played thru Marshalls.Similiarities really stop there.Myron T.-Best of Both worlds and Highway to Hell both have the G to G flat or F# chord sequence but the verse and pre-chorus sections of Best of Both are far more intricate than anything in Highway to Hell and pure Eddie for sure.Myron I like your take on analog vs.Digital.I agree the main reason for digital is for the size and time convenience because it sure as hell ain’t for the sound.I actually love VHII and prefer it in some ways to VHI.The guitar sound is basically a cranked Marshall with minimal delay and reverb panned hard right,and the sound is huge.I also have heard Bootlegs from the 1984 tour I thought were better tucked away never to be heard but some other shows were really good.
http://www.ievolvedintothis.com Ken

VH1, Fair Warning, and 1984 are all quintessential Van Halen. Some people hate “Jump,” but literally the only difference between it and a song like “Panama” or “Unchained” is the fact that the riff is on a keyboard instead of a guitar. Transpose it to E, play it on a guitar, and it’s an obvious Van Halen riff.

VH2 and WACF are both pretty uneven, but they both have some of the best tunes on them. I can’t imagine Van Halen without “Light Up the Sky” or “Take Your Whiskey Home.”

The only Dave era album I don’t give a lot of time to is Diver Down. It’s really gimmicky. “Here’s Van Halen doing Roy Orbison.” “Here’s Van Halen doing flamenco.” “Here’s Van Halen doing quartet-style vocals.” I prefer Van Halen doing Van Halen.
fish

Myron, no, the SH-era remasters (Forever Young) are not HDCD encoded.
jb

Diamond dean I think youhave a point there,but I dont think its the quality of the material.I think those are some great tunes but the recording is weak.The whole sound and mix on #2 is nowhere near as good as on #1.In fact Eddie said he didnt feel comfortable in the studio they used.Inconsistant recording quality is a problem that has seemed to plaque the band their whole career.I cant believe Ed would even release a record with OU812 soun quality
gadal595

That’s amazing how I tend to agree with the VH fans here who write the 1st comments and kind of disagree with the latest comments.
Seems to me that the strongest fans post their comments first (and I enjoy these a lot). They usually like Dave era better, which I prefer too, then later on we get comments from the Van Hagar fans that I have a hard time to agree with. I almost never listen to 5150 and ou812, they don’t sound like the VH I liked at this time. I felt that the band was back on track with FUCK (especially) and Balance, which is not that strong but you can hear that the band was at its best.

Yesterday I came home, my wife was still at work so I put the 1984 CD, which I hadn’t listen to in months and turned on the tubes, picked up my FrankenStrat and played along with our Gods.
I really enjoyed relearning Panama, Girls gone bad, Drop dead legs and House of pain. I love these and I agree they make the album better than Jump. I played VHI and II so much that I don’t forget the licks anymore but the ones from 1984, I have to get a refresh once in a while. Except for the intro of DDL. Love the 1/2 volume intro (similar chords in 316 BTW) slightly crunchy tone then full throlle A, D, little lick, whammy…B, A, D chords. Just love it, sorry. Somebody likes VHII the least? really? Listen to it carefully and you’ll realize that they were better than on VH1, especially Alex. Fine fine musicians and more subtle songwriting. Women in love is my favorite to play, very challenging to play the tapping intro as fast and clean as Eddie does. That’s when you realize the guy was a GOD.
Anyway I feel like an old fart when I read the posts from the people who say the LPs sound better, because I agree. They sound smooth, warmer, the same difference between a tube amp (LPs) and a good solid state (CDs).
I just thought nobody listened to LPs anymore. Some friend made fun of my Luxman turntable (made of wood) and that was 5 few years ago. He had no clue how good these were.
I think I even read here some young kid saying: “who’s buying CDs anyway?” I do.
Despite the bad comments I listened to the “Chinese democraty” recently and I think it’s actually pretty good (putting my hands over my hears). OK, you yell at me now…
VHJ

Diamondean,
Myron T beat me to it, best of boths and highway to hell do use the same chords.
I don’t think it’s an inspired by thing though, more coincidence.
Tommy Boy

Myron T. Philpot…I stand corrected. I’m beating senseless the recording engineer who told me that lie years ago. I’m such an idiot and you’re a god of information. Thanks. I feel so small…thanks to you. You’re amazing.
SCAR

VH4, C’mon man really??? VHII fucking rocks!!! Shit there’s DOA, Outta Love, Bottoms Up, Light up the sky, Beautiful Girls………….
Myron T. Philpot

Did some research on the Forever Young “remastered” CDs of SH-era VH on both VH Links and Steve Hoffman forums. Lots of good information, not only on those but also the DCC 24k gold CD of VHI along with copious opines of the original WB vs. remastered six pack. Only two definite conclusions can be drawn from all of that:
1. The FY CDs of 5150, OU812, F#@K, Balance and III do not have HDCD encoding.
2. There is much dissent whether the six pack remasters actually sound better than the original WB releases due to high digital compression. There is also much discussion/debate whether any of the CD releases sound better than the LP pressings. The only CD that seems to hold on its own is the DCC of VH1.
ted

Thanks for the news, one of my favorite vh songs is in a simple rhyme.
http://vhnd.com VH4

@SCAR, when you put it like that…I guess it`s just “You`re No Good” that gets things off on the wrong foot for me. If they`d opened with “Light Up The Sky” instead…
I still don`t listen to it as much as FW, WACF, 1984 and VH1. I never have! Sorry if that offends anyone!
Nat

Drop Dead Legs and House of Pain are my two favorite tracks on 1984. And I think Jump is the only Van Halen song that I actively hate – I’ll turn it off when it comes on the radio.

So this album is a bit of a mixed bag for me, but there’s far more good than bad
Tommy Boy

Scar, my sentiments exactly on that post.
freddiegirl

Scar..I agree, I love VH2! I don’t understand the dislike…and ‘You’re No Good’ is a bad-ass cover. Just my opinion.
freddiegirl

VH4…Not offended at all, just personal preference but maaan…DOA is just one of the best VH tunes ever!
SEAN

I’m glad to see there are others who favor “Girl Gone Bad.” To most…a side 2 throw away. This is the most underrated song on 1984. And it simply rocks.

Also, Van Halen II the weakest album? Production woes aside, this might be my favorite.

OU812 kicks ass as well.
eddie lee halen

I’d rather see them in the late 70′s cos they play their more rocky tunes
http://www.danwilhite.com Dan

Yeah…Drop Dead Legs, in my opinion is one of their best! Heard they only performed it once…hope they break it out for the next tour. I may have to actually have to break down and buy a record player.
Tater Salad

Diamond Dean: I agree completely! 1984 was the first Halen album I got. I downloaded it on Napster and I had to get a hard copy of it asap cause it was awesome. I was stunned because I liked every song on that album and it wasn’t a greatest hits album. Jump is often overlooked by many hardcore fans, but it’s a really awesome song. Everybody knows and loves that song. I will always love that album because it’s what turned me on to Van Halen and classic rock in general.

Freddiegirl: WACF is an amazing album! I love the variety of songs on it. ‘Take your whiskey home’ is awesome…I love it’s blues sound. ‘Loss of Control’ is great too, particularly when you’re finding it very difficult to wake up lol.

VH4: I like ‘Youre No Good’. But then again I like every classic Van Halen song! Granted, there are other better songs they have done. But liking an album or not is a matter of opinion lol.
jeff adams

VH2 is badass, and “Your No Good” is one of my favs along w/ “Women in Love” “Outta Love” “Light up the Sky” and all the rest. VH2 was the hang out @ the beach w/ drink in hand and toes in the sand kinda album.
KTC5150

After reading the previous 64 comments, I have the following comments…
- I am SHOCKED nobody even mentions that Jump was the band’s ONLY #1 hit
-I also am shocked how NOBODY really mentions the sonic quality of WACF!!!! THAT was the “Brown Sound”!!!
-VHII had a wonderful mix of pop(re: Dance the Night Away, Beautiful Girls, You’re No Good)and hard rock (re: the REST of the album)
-I need to lump Girl Gone Bad, House of Pain, Drop Dead Legs & Top Jimmy together as one group, 1984, Jump, and I’ll Wait together, and then Panama & Hot for Teacher together…
- =VH= is absoutely THE BEST DEBUT ALBUM EVER!!!!
KTC5150

P.S.
I wonder why Diver Down & Fair Warning were omitted? Any answers?
Myron T. Philpot

Tommy Boy, I was being sincere in my response so no need for the snarky retort from you. Your original comment on digital audio was blatantly wrong and you were corrected by someone in the know. Grow up if you cannot handle that.

Fish, yeah, I noticed no HDCD after reviewing the product descriptions at CDJapan. (Strange, I’ve got a pic of the FY version of 1984 which clearly features the HDCD logo on the obi.) Still, there is much discussion on Steve Hoffman’s Web site whether these are worth it or not compared to the vanilla WB releases.

12beerstogo, yeah, I way over-simplified the BoBW and HtH similarities. They are quite different when taken as a whole. I learned Highway first and was fooling around with the intro chords when, all of a sudden, there was BoBW’s main chorus. Sorry to imply they were more similar than reality.
Joe

Grow up tommy boy you sound like you’re really thinned skinned
Shyboy

Drop Dead Legs has got such a kickass groove to it and is one of my fav’s…Girl Gone Bad and House of Pain is right there with DDL…I love the drums on I’ll Wait…man i’m going to have pull this CD out and rock it tonight!!!!
John

Yup. Agree. Drop Dead Legs is awesome. Girl Gone Bad, too. Ed really plays on that. I think 1984 stands up really well. I’ve been listening to it quite a bit in the last year or so. What strikes me is that a lot of 80s records do sound very 80s – synths all over the place; drums in your face, etc. But although there are synths on 1984, it”s not in that kinda background way where they fill up the gaps in the sonic spectrum.

And let me be the first to say it – Madonna’s ‘Like A Virgin’ sounds a bit like ‘I’ll Wait’ (listen closely), produced by Dave Roth’s mate, Nile Rodgers AFTER ’1984′ (which people tend to forget was recorded in April-Sept 83)

Also agree with motorscooter – Big Star are also awesome! Good to see other VH fans like ‘em, too.
Just Some Dude

@ Freddiegirl, hell yes! WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST. Deffinitely the best of the classics.

I love my vinyl VH collection. But I wish they had a couple of the ‘picture albums’ available. Roth had a cool “Yankee Rose” single… and VH 5150, “Dreams” had a jet shaped album… maybe it was a more late-80′s early-90′s thing so the Roth-era VH missed out on it?
hoosierbrent

Just wondering if anyone has listened to and compared the new 180 gram lps vs. the old versions. $24.95 +shipping is a quite a pop for something I already have bought on lp, cassette, and cd twice (I was not impressed with the remasters)! Can you hear something buried in the mix that wasn’t noticeable before? Can we hear Mr. Anthony?
I hate to say it, but I am surprised that Wolfie hasn’t rerecorded all the bass parts for all these reissues!
ringostore

True VH fans speak! Picking Jump for best song would not be a real fan.

“Outta Love” The pause break and then the solo Ed lays out, it just spine chilling!
http://VHND HIKER MAN

BLACK AND BLUE HAS SOME GREAT GUITAR AT THE END OF THE SONG, MINE ALL MINE ALSO HAS A LOT OF GREAT GUITAR ON IT. OU812 WAS PROBABLY THE BEST VAN HALEN RECDORD EVER MADE!!!
Karl

That’s right, there’s only certain songs you’re allowed to like if you want to be called a ‘true’ fan! Good to see VH fan snobbery is live and well.
keith

wow do you all get off topic fast. and whats with the stories. hint. keep it short, sweet, on topic please.
jeff adams

Agreed ringostore, “Outta Love” is such a cool song. I also agree the break before Ed’s solo (you said it perfectly) spine chilling. “Women in Love” vocals, music, groove, man that song is truly one of my favorites. “Your no Good” the boys Van Halenized that song, and beatifully done live.
Tater Salad

Ringostore: Dude, Jump is an awesome song! The only reason you don’t like it is because it has keyboards. I have a feeling that comment was directed at me because of my previous post…but judge me however you want buddy haha
dean65

I think it’s cool to reissue the LPs, if you’re old enough to remember records, then you’ll remember the thrill of going to a record store, flipping through the selection and finding the latest record that came out. More importantly, to see the art work on the album cover to tie in the visual aspects to the music, to listen to the songs (which are in order they play for specific reasons), all these things add up to why records held an important role in the music industry as the music. Now to complain> perhaps today’s yuppies can download their 10,000 songs or only certain ones, and gain zero appreciation for the music. Perhaps we should wait for the next overnight group to gain quick fame and fade away equally fast.

For those who doubt the importance, pick an album from back in the day you don’t know, ie an old sabbath or acdc or van halen, kick axe, ozzy, and play it on a record player and see if you gain more out of it than simply downloading your hit radio friendly songs for $9.95 per month.
DiamondDean

Whoever thinks ou812 is great , what r u on maaannnn???

JUMP, its hard to understand a VH fan who doesnt like JUMP, sure it gets played to much n GLEE has covered it , but that just shows what a great song it is , it has every element of VH and it will alwaya be their pinnacle of song writing

BLACK N BLUE lyrics are probably the worst of any VH song(maybe any band??) , it makes AMSTERDAM look poetic.

The DEF LEPPARD&WHITESNAKE remasters were done a million times better you got extras , differant packaging , they actually put effort in to it , unlike the VH which came with ” original liner notes” wow!!!
Tater Salad

Dean 65: that’s what I’ve always done. I don’t like to download music…when you do that you miss part of the experience. As far as I’m concerned about the music my friends listen to, they can call me back in 20 years and we’ll see if Ke$ha is relevant.
Art

I have read some comments on here about how 1984 has aged well, and I would agree, I tend to like it a bit more now days. I was a teenager in the early 80′s and VH was THE band! VH1- Diver Down are like the soundtracks to my teenage years. Every keg party I ever went to had VH blasting out of the stereo. The teenage party crowd all jammed to VH. Us roudy party kids who snuck out of class to go smoke a fatty… VH was our band. But, when 84 came out it all started to change. The dork’s and the nerds started to jump ( might as well) on the VH bandwagon. The same crowd who bought Rick Springfield records, or worse yet Thriller where now moving in on our band. It started to be Un-cool to like VH ( actually this started to happen around the time of Pretty Woman and Dancing in the Streets ) But the danger factor so to speak of the first 4 VH albums was clearly gone. VH had sold out BIG TIME! then later when Roth put out Crazy from the Heat the party really was over for good. In my Opinion VH peaked with Fair Warning. To this day I still love VH and like everybody else I look forward to hearing some new music and really hope that they can recapture some of the glory of those early albums.
phillster

Cool
http://VHND HIKER MAN

DiamondDean I’m right, OU812, AND BALANCE WERE THE BEST VAN HALEN MUSIC, 84 IS GREAT TO
http://www.ievolvedintothis.com Ken

I’m not a big fan of “extras” that come with some reissued CDs, unless they’re on a separate disc. A lot of albums are at their best when you consider them to be a complete piece of music.

Tacking extra crap onto the end can seem like more value for your money, but it also disrupts the natural structure of the album. It’s like, “Hey, we heard you like The Godfather, so we released a new version with a bunch of new scenes added to the end!” Sometimes, the ending is the ending for a reason.
Roth_Brutha

” OU812 was probably the greatest VH album ever made ”

I’ve heard some really dumb stuff over the years from alleged VH fans…..but that one takes the cake!
Roth_Brutha

” Jump ” has always been an enigma to me — mainly because Dave always brought the pop sensibilities to Van Halen with tunes like “Dance the Night Away” and “Pretty Woman” (well pretty much the entire Diver Down album was likely Roth’s love child)…..BUT he tried very hard to prevent Jump from being recorded at all. Everyone knows his famous quote — “You’re a guitar hero [Eddie] and nobody wants to see your ass playing keyboards”. Eddie was the impetus behind Jump becoming VH’s biggest radio hit. Funny how that worked out.

That’s why I love VH so much — contradiction and contrasts produces genius music!
chriso

VH1 thru Fair Warning WAS Van Halen; Everything afterwards was something you settled for since “You Can’t Get That Stuff No More”…

Some of the stuff settled for afterwards was cool too, but the first four LPs really defined the band- but hey, nothing lasts forever…
SCAR

Bottom line here folks, is that VH fucking Rocks!!!!!!!!! Happy Holiday’s party people!!!!! For all you haters out there, Santa has a lump of coal just for you!!!!! Light em up…………….
ringostore

No Tater, I didn’t even read your other post. I love keyboards. I love it when Ed plays them too. I was just giving appreciation as a true VH fan for the B side of their albums. Because the pop-culture won’t in any day.
Tater Salad

Ringostore: Thats true. It’s exactly why I crank up Fair Warning(this is why I have almost every classic VH song on my phone) every time my freinds start singing Taylor swift and Ke$ha songs. So in that case I agree with you.
DiamondDean

HIKER MAN ?????????? seriously ou812 its terrible , its comperable to 3 but with worse production

Roth_Brutha, mate you are right thats probably the most stupid thing ive heard there is such a big differance between 5150 which is a great album to their worse ou812
DiamondDean

Has anyone ever wondered what jump wld of sounded like on just guitar???
http://VHND HIKER MAN

DIAMOND DEAN, I,M A BIG FAN OF VAN HALEN AND LIKE ALL OF THERE MUSIC, I JUST THINK BALANCE OU812 ANDFAIR WARNING ARE ALL GREAT WITH OU812 BEING THE BEST