Van Halen Podcast

September 30, 2011 89 Comments

This month’s Classic Albums Column focuses on Van Halen’s second album Van Halen II. You can listen to the free 84-minute podcast celebrating the album here. (The podcast can be streamed or downloaded).

Filed Under: Van Halen Tagged With: Van Halen II

http://ievolvedintothis.com/ Ken A

If you ask me, modern metal started with Metallica, and Metallica started with equal parts Motorhead, Iron Maiden, and Van Halen. The influence of each of those seminal bands on what heavy metal is today cannot be underestimated.

Van Halen might be the least “metal” of those groups by today’s standards, but there is no denying that their roots run much deeper than the metal kids today seem to realize. If you play fast, crazy lead guitar and tight, rhythmic riffs, then you were either directly influenced by Eddie or you were indirectly influenced by him. Those are your only options.

Re. Van Halen II: I agree with the people who put “Light Up the Sky” at the top. It’s a great tune, and I think it encapsulates what makes Van Halen unique. The music theory behind the changes is actually kind of weird, and the solo is part traditional, part atonal sound collage. Even so, it still keeps one foot solidly planted in the world of greasy rock ‘n’ roll.

To me, that’s Van Halen in a nutshell. Equal parts musical sophistication and back-to-basics rock guitar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P1d8BVvY-I 5150

Freddiegirl

DOA is awesome! I’ve always believed that the closing seconds was the beginning of speed metal. The intro to Women in Love still gives me chills. Outta love is also a personal favorite…did-ya! But, I cannot overlook Dance the Night Away! That’s my call tone.
McQuestion

Like so many others, I was (happily) shocked to see “Van Halen Podcast”. Then I realized it was nothing by the band itself and just more talking about the past, while all the forward thinking news is about Chickenfoot.

I really hope podcasts about Van Halen’s past are not the only things we have posted on this site about my favorite band in the future. If they don’t release anything by the rumoured 2012 date, then you may as well rename this site the Chickenfoot News Desk, because all hope for Van Halen will be dead, and all discussion will relate to the past.
SPANKED

1 – Fair Warning
2 – Women & Children First
3 – Van Halen
4 – Van Halen II
5 – 1984
6 – Diver Down
http://ievolvedintothis.com/ Ken A

Just checked out Mr. Lorenzo’s comments for myself. I was like this once–didn’t think musicians should smile, thought that everything had to be in a minor key, the more distorted and down-tuned the better, etc.

That lasted for a very brief period when I was 14 and had just discovered heavy metal. Since then, I’ve grown up, broadened my tastes, and realized that not only are there other kinds of music, but that metalheads who take themselves that seriously are nothing but huge douchebags with self-image issues.

I love metal, but it’s a worse genre for having practitioners like Mr. Lorenzo, who shave their heads, get tons of devil tattoos, and have the nerve to say that the guy in overalls looks silly.
Halen High

rsh says:
“VH 2 ,next to Fair Warning, is one of their most underrated albums. It’s got it all. Eddies tone, Mikey’s background vocals,”

Yes it does have it all, including David Lee Roth’s trademark cool lyrics. I love the metaphor of Dance The Night Away, the in-your-face adolescent rebellion of Light Up The Sky and D.O A., and the mischievious charm of Beautiful Girls. The album also features some of his most interesting vocal treatments, particularly on Outa Love Again.
Puka Dog

It does not matter if you wear a goofy smile and overalls on stage if you can play like Eddie Van Halen. Lorenzo is a poser and is misguided in thinking sporting tattoos makes him badass and looking angry makes him a serious musician.
No Mas Tony

(out of the sacred 6)
1 — Women & Children First
2 — VH2
3 — VH1
4 — Diver Down
5 — Fair Warning
6 — 1984

Call me crazy (you’d be right) but 1984 was too keyboardy & commercial for me. “Drop Dead Legs” was the best track on the album, IMHO. WACF is #1 thanks to “In a Simple Rhyme”, VH2 — I thought had better production value than 1, plus it had D.O.A. which is bad-ass. VH1, “Runnin’ with the Devil.”— Dave nailed that in concert every time. I guess it’s nutso to put Diver Down before Fair Warning, but I am a sucker for the lyrics of “Secrets” and “Little Guitars”, which to this day I still sing incorrectly: “etch a sketch” – LOL. Fair Warning is dark and marauding, “Mean Streets” is another one Dave kills in concerts.

I love the covers too, and I hope they do one or two on the new album.
Sparks

My second all time favorite VH tune (behind Hear About It Later) is DOA. I always loved the way drops in with the toms in the begining. Also love the line “I’m a spark on the horizon”. I took the handle of Sparks on the Horizon because of that and the fact that with Dave and Ed back together again, the bands future looked bright. Unfortunately, in the song, the line refers to the subject leaving, not approaching. Perhaps I should change my name.

I too fell out of my chair when I saw Van Halen podcast.
Curly

I agree with many, Van Halen II is one of the best sophmore albums ever and that says a lot when they already put out the best album ever! As far as songs I don’t think anyone mentioned Bottoms Up. That song always puts me in a good mood, of course Beautiful Girls is the one that life is all about, put Beautiful Girls on then Bottoms Up and you can’t beat that combination-lol. I agree with the person who said that Roth was at his best on VH II I also like the remake of “You’re No Good” The best thing about VH covers is that they make it their own! How many bands can you name that on their first 2 albums had yet to record a bad song, I can’t think of any and they put these 2 amazing albums out a year a part.
MICAL VEE

Let me just say…..Eddie got all the credit he deserved back in the day! He won best guitarist 7+ years in a row!!!!!!!!! Voted in by who? The FANS!!!! The real voice that counts in ROCK N ROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
danielsan

@ spanked: I like the order- do this again in the hopefully not-so- distant future and see where the 7th fits in. If you’re anything like me,it will probably be #1 for a while! I can’t wait to see what everyone thinks when that glorious dave,er I mean day arrives!
Halen High

I read somewhere that Outta Love Again is one of the oldest Van Halen songs, originally written by Eddie and Dave as early as 1974, just before Mike joined later that same year to complete the original line-up. Has anyone heard an early demo of this song?
dan slaughter

VH II was the one that got played the most in my friend Jason’s boom box. BOTTOMS UP was just the best drinkin’ tune and the sound of Mike’s bass at the beginning of YOU’RE NO GOOD is just killer. WOMEN IN LOVE was such an underrated tune…awesome groove and cool vibe…and Eddie’s clock chime tap harmonics. Agree 100%…LIGHT UP THE SKY is the perfect spot for Alex’s drum solo on the next tour…right at the spot in the song where the breakdown is and when the solo is finished..play the exact drum parts to lead into the end of the song. SPANISH FLY the track I have played over and over the most…to think he came up with at Ted Templeman’s house New Years Eve 1978!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kalen

Van Halen II has always been my favourite album by Van Halen. It was layered, and rich with bass, lyrics and of course, guitar.

In 1985, when I was 16, I was walking through the airport in Toronto to pick up my father from a trip to Africa. As I navigated the busy terminal, listening to Van Halen II on my walkman. I noticed a familiar figure. It was the guitar player from this long forgotten Canadian band named, Honeymoon Suite. I took a double take and had a huge surprise; Eddie Van Halen was walking beside him. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It gets better, I look to the left and there’s Alex Van Halen trying to keep a handle on a few large bags. Alex’s wife at the time was from Toronto, and me and my buddies had heard they were in town, and even made an unsuccessful venture to downtown Toronto to see if we might spot them.
You can imagine how jealous my buddies were as I told them how I approached Alex Van Halen first, because I was to nervous to come up to Eddie. He was totally nice, and shook my hand. He wore a Miami Vice like ensemble, complete with pink shirt and Bandana.
My mother was with me, and she approached Eddie on my behalf to ask for an autograph. He smiled and signed his autograph on the back of a photograph of something my mum had in her purse. I shook his had and told him how crazy it was to meet him and that I was listening to Van Halen II at that very moment and showed him the tape turning in the walkman. He chuckled about it. I didn’t bother them to long. They were at the height of there popularity then, and I stood with some other people just kinda observing them checking in. It was 1985, right about the time the rumours of their break up with Roth had started.
So for me Van Halen II will always “light up the sky” for me.

Great times!

Kalen
chrisom

Take me back to 1979 and drop me off! Yeah! Great podcast!
Lord Sausage

The Host of this podcast is the absolute worst. Couldn’t listen to it all. He bored me to tears and it was like he didn’t know what he was doing.]

By the way get over doing lists of your favourite VH albums. No-one cares. It won’t influence anyone!
http://marsattacksradio.com Victor M. Ruiz

Thank to VHND for reposting this, and for all of you that have posted on here, good, bad or indifferent. I wish the episode could have been about the new album like the rest of you, but it is what it is.

The purpose of this column is to discuss albums that have impacted hard rock and metal. Have people revisit the albums, people discover them, or discover the people commenting on the album. To be honest with you the debate was whether to go with this album or Fair Warning. The reason we went with this album is because people (radio would be more accurate) have forgotten about this album all together. You hear things off of every other VH album on the radio, even off of Diver Down, but not this album. To me that’s a crime. This album and the band has influenced so many artists (not telling any of you anything new).

With regards to Dan, he’s a great guy, he’s been one of my biggest supporters from the start, and yes he likes to stir the pot. He’s entitled to his opinion, and let’s face it not all of us agree on what we like, and what we don’t like, if we did, well things would be boring. I didn’t want every comment to be positive either, that said I didn’t look for a person to give a negative comment, whatever they provided me I used. Dan’s more of a Black Sabbath, Kiss, and 70s Aerosmith type of person, and was there with his band Hades when the thrash scene first exploded. He never shaved his head as someone mentioned, and is the first to criticize himself.

Do I agree with what he says? With regards to this album, no, but also realize that there are a lot of other people that share his opinion, and a lot of you that don’t.

Thanks for reading/listening, hope you comeback and check out other shows.

-Victor
http://Vanhalennews TopJimmy

Highlight for me on VH2 is Alex’s drumming. Absolutely incredible. Listen a little closer to the songs drum tracks and you’ll fall in love with it again. Its a little looser, more spontaneous sounding than any other vh album.
If you are like me, there is no CVH album, that is the best, they all have their moments of being my favorite, for the past 30 years!
McQuestion

Finally took the time to listen to this today. Over 10 minutes into this crap and there’s nothing but a TINY bit of commentary on VH, the song D.O.A. and tons of mentions of his twitter account and plugging websites and twitter feeds and crap. How incredibly boring. Do that at the end, you idiot! How insufferably boring the first 15 minutes were! They spend far more time just playing the tunes than they do actually discussing them. If I want to hear Van Halen II, I can just listen to it. I have it right here on my computer! This was essentially a promo for the various people who gave very quick (and meaningless) snippets of info in between the playing of the Van Halen II album. One of the worst podcasts I’ve ever heard. 90 percent of it is about the guys in the podcast, not VH. I really wish I could get that wasted time back.
Wilkster5150

@Kalen-Absolutely awesome story and thanks for sharing it! You are one lucky dude.

@TopJimmy-I couldnt agree more. Al really got to shine a lot more on II than he did on I. To this day, he is still vastly underrated and underappreciated by a lot of people! He will always be my personal favorite and was the reason I started playing in the first place.
http://www.WRSounds.com Daniel Wissert

I love Van Halen no doubt & always will, But all that gets talked about is the old albums & still nothing new. Yes they did great music with Dave & Sammy both, But if nothing new is in the air, Then why ramble? At least Sammy Hagar made plenty of albums with The Wabos, Chickenfoot & more. There was supposed to be a Australia show, Now thats cancelled and now instead of a new album in 2011, Now they say 2012. I love being a Sammy Hagar fan. I love Dave with VH or Solo, But he’s being made out of an A** waiting for the VH brothers. I will always say that EVH is the best damn guitar player ever, Because he is, But pisses me off with all these delays. Danny “The WissRat”
SPANKED

“danielsan says:

October 1st, 2011 at 9:29 pm
@ spanked: I like the order- do this again in the hopefully not-so- distant future and see where the 7th fits in. If you’re anything like me,it will probably be #1 for a while! I can’t wait to see what everyone thinks when that glorious dave,er I mean day arrives!”

Thanks! The new album is always a favorite right off the bat.

As mentioned, the MVP’s of VH2 were Alex and DLR.

Probably my fave performance by both of them of the 6 pack.
Bluesbro

“Meet the band in the future not the pasture”
Skibble5150

Podcast??? Hmmmm.
DiamondDean

VH2 is my least fave CVH album . Just doesnt do much for me , YOURE NO GOOD at the start was a mistep for sure. Its not all bad but i find it the least entertaining out of the CVH , i still find balance 3 n ou812 worse

The tracklist

LIGHT UP THE SKY
DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY
D.O.A
BEAUTIFUL GIRLS
OUT OF LOVE

YOUR NO GOOD
SOMEBODY GET ME A DOCTOR
SPANISH FLY
BOTTOMS UP
WOMEN IN LOVE

thought that wld of been better?
Sparks

@Bluesbro- My thoughts exactly. A Dave-ism that the band must start living by. Hey Dave! We is READY!!!!
mrC

Thanks for the podcast.

A few pointers:

This could have been a much shorter podcast. Too much extraneous info.

When you say someone is going to comment… please tell us who they are, and why they are speaking…

I didn’t know most of the guys who spoke… or why they were on the show.

I appreciated the passion and at least the sound quality was good.

Tighten up the dialog.. eliminate what’s not necessary… and you’d be rockin’

Thank you for the great effort.

Wish there were more podcasts on this topic.
ArmyMedic

Awesome album…all the energy of VH I with the studio experience they picked up.

Alot of metal thrashers will acknowledge Eddie Van Halen as an individual, just not the whole band’s collection of music. A great many of them also really know VH because of the hits in rotation, not necessarily the B-sides or deeper cuts. Lets face it…what was harder than “atomic punk” when it came out?

VH II always feels like a sophmore album that wasn’t, like maybe they’d recorded both VH I and II together, and planned to market them like that. A great way to start up a legacy.
swingin sinner

ughhh this teasing is giving me blue balls, every cvh albu is awesome nuff said
http://ievolvedintothis.com/ Ken A

VH2 falls short of 1984, Fair Warning, and the first album to me, but it’s still rock solid. Old VH was never anything less.
Michael C.

(cough, cough) I’m sick of discussing ancient VH news. Really. I am. We all know the greatness that we were exposed to. It’s over now. Gimme something interesting and relevant. I hate to say it, because I have been a proponent of NOT comparing Chickenfoot an VH. They are two different bands with different agendas. VH has a chip on their shoulder (which they created by not staying in the public’s eye for a while)and Chickenfoot is just creating music to have fun and tour. I truly believe VH is wasting time trying to create something “groundbreaking” or “extraordanary” when, at this point in their careers they should just be making music because that’s what they love to do and the fans still want to hear it. But we just can’t get inside their heads (not that they owe us that, but we are the reason they are making music and that should be at the forefront of their minds)We bought their albums and made them relevant. No matter how awesome they are as a band…they wouldn’t have amounted to shit without the fan base. In the end the fans have always made the difference. I just hope that they come out with something that will justify their lack of communication (although there is nothing I could think of that could do that). All of the fans who say “well, that’s just how VH operates” are wrong. They weren’t like this in the 70′s or 80′s. I know. I was there as a fan. They’ve changed. I don’t know why, but they better justify it with a kickass album, because they have nothing else to stand on. All other bands have public relations that could keep fans pacified and understanding. If this album is below par, VH will have no recourse. They have burned all bridges other than their music. That’s some serious pressure for Ed. I hope he doesn’t disappoint us like he did on VH3.
whispergirl

This topic seems to be a discussion of which is the fav album/song. While I certainly have songs that I go to a lot and ones that even saying the title makes me think “LOVE that” (with you Freddie girl on DOA which is nothing short of ballsy), today I’m feeling like a good pet owner (or wanna be mom). I just cannot love any of my VH pet-songs/albums more than any other. I love them all the same (at least today). As I said before though because VHII was my only cassette tape in my car during freshman year of college, I will always think of this as the soundtrack to the year that I escaped my pink room and became my own person (off at college on my own). Thank you VHII!!
strikethatpoorboydown

VH II is my personal fav. it has all the spirit and energy of the first with the cockyness(?) of a band about to start their first world tour as a headlining act!! Remember they got kicked off the Journey tour çause they SLAUGHTERED them every night, then the Sabbath leg which Ozzy himself admitted defeat to the hands of the mighty VAN HALEN!!

OUT!!!
whispergirl

@Leaps: second your comment about that Dan Lorenzo cat. Did you notice that guy says: ” “Dance The Night Away” is a nice enough song..if you’re a girl”.

Well, Lorenzo. I am a girl, and you are completely clueless. Dance the Night Away is a great song. It typified VH’s “danceability”. And girls (especially this one) like to dance. A certain “boy” named David Lee Roth does too. If you ask me, Eddie is a genius for making a real rock song danceable. And David delivers this song beautifully. Plus, (and I can say this because I am a girl)Eddie looked good in those overalls. But that aside, and even without the girl comment on the overalls, would Eddie have been a better guitar legend if he had a different outfit, was not cute or exhibited unhappiness instead of his wonderful smile? Mr. Lorenzo, the only conclusion I can make is that you cannot figure out how to have your rock AND your girl. Too bad, but the VH boys here CAN. To all of you, VHND boys, don’t worry about this guy. You had him beat with girls when you uttered your first cry to your mommy. Somehow he is taking his problems with girls out on VH. Real girls understand; real girls rock, and real girls love Eddie, love VH and love Dave!! Real girls like these songs AND they like the heavier one (like DOA) too. (Back in the day, I turned up DOA the loudest singing “dirty faced kid in a garbage can” and even singing the guitar parts.) In fact, this girl is going to get in her girl car (one guess on what that is), drive home, and play Dance the Night Away (and DOA) extra loudly in tribute to being a long-time and forever girl fan!! Rock/Dance on VH.
rocknroll\m/

I was like “YES! About time!” then it was “oh” :_(
freddiegirl

whispergirl-damn straight! Ed was adorable in those overalls.. Rock on! I think I’ll join you and play VH2 on the way to work today!
whispergirl

@freddiegirl: be sure to turn up REALLY LOUDLY the songs like DOA that surely aren’t “girly” so that WE VH GIRLS can show how much we really like to ROCK. Bring it Freddiegirl. Oh, and I CAN dance to DOA.
Valen

VH 2 has got some Kick Ass Tracks, D.O.A, Somebody Get Me A Doctor, Bottoms Up, Outta Love Again, Light Up The Sky however it not on my Top 3 like Fair Warning, 1984 and VH 1. I also hope the new CD will Rock to a point of outselling all of Van Halen’s Albums (CVH, Hagar and VH 3). The Nation Awaits the Mighty’s New Tunes.