Oh I forgot about this one! I need to change my previous answer.
As a long-haired teen in the 80s, VH was my favorite band. Looking at my teen years, re-evaluated by aged enlightened grey-haired appreciation:
Roth-era: Mean Streets (present me), Fools (teen me)
Hagar-era: Why Can’t This Be Love (both mes)
DLR - Ice Cream Man
SH - Right Now, though I’m not nearly as big a Van Hagar fan.
Eruption!
What’s that you say, no vocals in that one? Huh, you’re right. Imagine that.
My favorite Van Halen song of all time is…
Ice Cream Man!!
Dammit, you ninja’ed both of mine!
By the way, I loved DLR’s showmanship, and was prepared to hate Van Hagar. But Sammy worked so hard, and added a fresh power and… ok, just now figured it out: he added sincerity. When he sang “Why can’t this be love?” you believed he was trying to convince a woman.
“Ice Cream Man” for me too. Just a rollicking good jam.
“Why Can’t This Be Love” for Sammy’s VH.
Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love followed by And the Cradle Will Rock…
No Sammy for me.
DLR: Ice Cream Man
SH: can’t think of anything, so another DLR is Panama
In my opinion, 1984 was really more of an Eddie album. It’s a banger for sure, but Diver Down was the quintessiential Dave album in my book.
IMO the real problem with Van Hagar was nothing to do with Hagar. He was fine. But he didn’t balance out Eddie’s influence like Dave did. Without that, there was nobody to prevent Eddie from going off the deep end with all the goofy synthesizer shit. Trying to make “Jump” happen again I guess, or maybe it was just the 80’s and everybody was doing synth. Plus Hagar simply wasn’t the sexy rock-and-roll rodeo clown that Dave was, which IMO was a huge part of Van Halen’s appeal.
IIRC, Dave actually named Van Halen. Eddie wanted to call it “Mammoth” or something. To me that anecdote encapsulates all of the VH tension. Dave had a showman’s instinct, he saw what Van Halen was and what they had, even more than the actual Van Halens did. I love Dave’s solo work 10x more than anything Van Hagar ever did, but I wish they’d stayed together.
Agreed. And, weirdly, I have a lot of love for “Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)”. It’s an odd choice for inclusion (although perhaps less so than “Happy Trails”) but I’ve just now read that it was Eddie and Alex Van Halen’s dad Jan playing clarinet on it and now I love it more. Roth (who picked it for the album) clearly has an affection for older stuff, given his later cover of the Louis Prima classic “Just A Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody”.
I can’t say I have a fave Hagar-era song. It’s all fine but nothing grabs me in particular.
It is 50% covers and that was a source of friction between Eddie and Dave at the time. More than 50% if you exclude the instrumentals.
Dave seems to enjoy performing much more than writing. This worked out really well on his first solo EP – which was solid.
Jamie’s Cryin
Poundcake