One break, comin' uuuuuup... ILM Artist Poll #75 - VAN HALEN (Voting thread)

http://i.imgur.com/rz6zN8o.png

No need for nominations, just pick your favourite Van Halen tracks from any of the albums or compilations or bootlegs. Choose your top twenty-two (why not?) tracks and they'll score as follows:
1:40, 2:36, 3:33, 4:30, 5:28, 6:26, 7:25, 8:24, 9:23, 10:22, 11:21, 12:20, 13:19, 14:18, 15:17, 16:16, 17:15, 18:14, 19:13, 20:12, 21:11, 22:10.
Please send your ballot to: johnnyilxfever (AT) gmail.com (except obviously without the spaces and using the @ symbol) by May 20th at 7pm EDT (that's a week from Friday).
In the meantime, use this thread for big upping tracks you want people to vote for.

If you're so inclined, here are some optional side polls...

A. Your ranked five favorite Eddie guitar solos

B. Your ranked five favorite Van Halen albums

Wow, I haven't knocked the dust off that email account since the Pixies poll in 2014. SO MUCH SPAM!

Gotta be the first VH poll that didn't acknowledge the lineup changes and ask, who did you prefer?

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Michael or Wolfgang?

Michael. That was easy.

I may have added one or two more of those things than was necessary.

http://i.imgur.com/clP257K.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/clP257K.jpg

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Just like Van Halen with lead singers!

http://www.abalonevintage.com/guitarist_edward_van_halen_1979_vhII_sunset_recording_studio_api_urei_gotham_brown_sound.jpg

This might be my #1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CIE041T954

My conspiracy theory, which I've introduced before: much of "1984" is ghostwritten by ringers. The first album is killer, the second loads on the filler. Then the band goes dark and murky, then comes the more or less dire and definitely inessential "Diver Down," and then ... "1984," the pop masterpiece. Van Halen was in no position/condition to pull off that turnaround, and conspicuously the first pressing of the album does not credit Michael McDonald for co-writing "I'll Wait." Michael McDonald! He quickly got his credit, but maybe the others lacked the standing to get that much?

Anyway, that's my conspiracy theory. Might also explain why they went to Hagar, who was a songwriter/musician. Though admittedly his book "Red" talks a lot about the VH bros going through piles of old tapes for new ideas, which they've done throughout their career (the last album, "House of Pain" on 1984), so who knows, maybe there are tons of gems in there and they found enough of them in time for 1984.

"Hot for Teacher" sounds like studio filler. Crazy it was one of their biggest hits!

(I love hot for teacher. Always wished one of the bands I was in could've done an homage video to it.)

the drums on hot for teacher are insane

Seriously. and the guitar solos too.

I guess it's DLR who sounds a little cashed out there.

that brown sound, man

yay a new poll. though i'm not into this Los Angeles band.

the drums on hot for teacher are insane

― lute bro (brimstead), Wednesday, May 11, 2016 9:35 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"Hot" would be pretty far up my ballot partly for the drums; this is one of a handful of VH tunes that approaches a Who-like intensity.

And regardless of the quality of whatever was surrounding it, Alex's recorded snare sound is as consistently great as any drummer's, ever.

I much prefer his drum sound pre-F.U.C.K.

Ed's guitar sound too, tbh

Got a ballot in! All Cherone songs.

Cherone's a lurker?

My conspiracy theory, which I've introduced before: much of "1984" is ghostwritten by ringers.

There might be something to this theory. However, I'd take issue with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th albums being the kind of drop-off from the debut you'd claim they are. Diver Down is the only one of the first six that really sounds like a band swinging in the dark. VHII, especially, has some of their best early songs ("Somebody Get Me a Doctor," "Light Up the Sky").

There's a pretty direct line from Unchained to Panama, as far as song construction goes, but maybe Unchained was ghostwritten too. ¯\(ツ)/¯

It's not the official name, but realized last night you could call their debut VH-1.

I think for those two very brown albums (Women and Fair), there's a lot of ugliness and filler, with the highlights being clear highlights. I like VHII a lot, but it also sounds pretty packed with second-tier stuff. Keep in mind, all these albums have amazing songs on them, like Mean Streets or Unchained or Dance the Night Away or Beautiful Girls etc. But I still say there's nothing on Women or Fair Warning that indicates they had a 1984 in them.

The drums on Hot for Teacher are insane literally unplayable, as they're overdubbed like hell. I really don't rate Alex as a drummer, but credit where credit is due, there are some insane time signature switches in songs like "Unchained" and "Jump" that I've never been able to figure out. I'm not sure Alex could either, tbh, just he and his brother work well together. Watching him in the "Jump" video, it could be something as simple as the strange placement of his cymbals, heavy on the left side of the kit, by the hi-hat.

Maybe this is challopy and maybe it isn't (I don't hang around on guitar player boards or anything), but OU812 is the best documentation of Ed as a pure hot shit player. Some of the rhythm bits he plays on that album, not to even mention the leads, are finer than anything on the first 6.

the movie reminded me how good "Everybody Wants Some!!" is.

?? "Jump" never changes time, it's in solid 4/4 all the way through. Alex just plays some stuff *around* the beat that makes it sound like it's changing time when it's not.

"Hot For Teacher" drums are eminently playable. You can find countless drummers on YouTube playing them.

Yes, you can find people playing certain Police songs, too, to the best of their ability. But the best you can do is approximate it.

OK, fine, "Jump" is 4/4, but those accents are weird on the bridges and solo. What is going on in "Unchained?"

Also straight 4/4. Bro do you even metronome?

Bridge in "Unchained" is sooooooo not 4/4.

Hmm, solo seems to be in 4/4, but beat is super displaced. But not the bridge, which is just weird. Extra measure of 2?

http://www.drummagazine.com/lessons/post/alex-van-halen-hot-licks/P4/

“Unchained”
If the guitar intro of this great song doesn’t disorient you, this section just might. Van Halen plays a tricky beat that’s phrased in 7/4, but is more easily thought of as being all in 4/4.

http://www.drummagazine.com/images/lessons/040813-avhunchaineddrum-1.jpg

Huh. Just gave it a few listens and I still hear something extra, or less, in the bridges, that budges it away from 4/4. But yeah, I guess it does end up back in 4/4. Playing 7/4 against 4/4? Anyway, just such weird little parts, and still as fundamentally tricky as an odd signature, 4/4 or no.

oh god, here come the drummers.

That's the genius ("genius") of the VH brothers -- they can make very simple things sound very complicated! They work together very well to set the listener off-balance as to where the beat is at times. I remember when I first heard "Jump" I was firmly convinced the guitar solo was in 5/4 until I counted it out.

Actually, just to focus on EVH, my guitar teacher has been going through the albums one by one and transcribing the solos (what a nerd thing to do), and he is finding a lot of his stuff even more formidable than he thought. Like, his brain is telling him to play the stuff one way, but a lot of the guitar can only be played some other way. What was this one song he was showing me? Yeah, "Fools," off "Women and Children." It's not a song I've ever really thought about, but he said there's just some bonkers stuff - illogical yet totally EVH logical - going on that just wipe out his hands after a couple of passes. Solo on "Beat It" he says has some nuts stuff in it, too, which he said is a real challenge.

Yeah, I added the guitar solo side poll specifically so I could vote for Beat It.

I just want to share this, one of my favorite musician interviews, from a late 90s issue of Guitar World.

http://www.hsx.com/forum/forum.php?id=3&pid=268235

'Sinner's Swing' FTW.

"When Push Comes To Shove". A bit of a dark horse but also the closest they come to their 70s-rock-band-taking-a-stab-at-disco moment.

This poll oughtta either cement my hazily-held-onto nostalgic love that the part of my heart that still wears a jean jacket with band patches and a turned-up collar still holds for them, or will cause me to dump my collection & just buy a best-of CD for 99 cents.

I really hope people aren't just too exhausted by polls to vote in this one, and/or the VH love on ilm hasn't waned too much as people have come and gone from being regular posters. Slightly worried as only two ballots have been submitted so far, but hey...if there's low turnout, your votes matter even more!

1984 was better because they had a year to make the record. From what I understand, Diver Down and Fair Warning were pretty much done at the last minute with deadlines looming for their next tour to start.

@johnny fever: i'm revisiting the discography before i submit my ballot

like the whole discography

You'll get a ballot from me before the deadline. Just wrestling with the placement of some top fives. Also re-listening to some 5150 tracks to decide if I really like them or am just nostalgic for them.

i'm revisiting the discography before i submit my ballot

I've done that over the past couple days. A Different Kind of Truth really doesn't hold up as well as I'd thought it would, even though half the songs are originally from the 70s.

is Michael Anthony DRUNK BASS SOLO eligible

Also re-listening to some 5150 tracks to decide if I really like them or am just nostalgic for them.

Yeah, went through this too ... and I guess there are actually at least two ways to rock.

hot shoe burnin' down the avenue

David Lee Roth solo material not included in this poll?

i was wondering about that myself but it also makes sense

If we did, would we include Hagar material? Extreme? Montrose? etc.

I mean, I'd be surprised if anyone voted for any DLR beyond 1988 anyway.

not sure if I'll vote tbh but maybe. I really enjoy DLR era VH whenever I'm listening to it and yet outside of the big hits and the covers most of it whizzes by me in an indistinguishable blur. For example, I had no idea what song "Eruption" was for a v long time, even though I constantly saw it referenced. Similarly I cannot recall a single thing about "Unchained" after reading the refs in this thread.

I do have 1984 p much memorized though.

Skyscraper is a fundamental album for me. I was a David Lee Roth fan for years before I ever heard of VH.

freak

Sorry if Just Like Paradise was a better song than Finish What Ya Started.

If you're a Huey Lewis fan maybe.

I will be voting, but I can't pretend to be interested in anything after 1984. Roth was so charismatic, and Hagar........just wasn't.

The first album and WACF will probably comprise most of my ballot. Everybody Wants Some!!

I was a Huey Lewis fan, pplains. I was.

it'll be hard to make any room on my ballot for Van Hagar era but i'll try for a little just for the sake of variety. POUNDCAKE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjLAaE07SW8

There's gonna be Van Hagar on my ballot, but I'll pass on the worst song that incarnation ever made, thanks.

..."When It's Love"?

That's bad too, but Poundcake is a whole 'nother level.

Feels So Good prob the most underrated/underappreciated Van Hagar-era single (and, after Beat It, possibly my favorite EVH solo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bOp8TqPq7c

Listened to VH-1 and Fair Warning tonight in prep for this poll. No surprises so far. Side poll for top five DLR squeak-eruptions?

I'm listening to Gazzaris Dance Contest 11-74+75. Sound is bad but band is good. I'd hoped that they had covered Bad Motor Scooter on there so I could vote for it. They didn't. but I'm having fun anyway.

pound cake no. 1 imo

I agree that EVH guitar work on OU812 is pretty overlooked. Does Black and Blue have the worst VH lyrics? Like AC/DC without the wink, all leer.

Black and Blue was such a weird first single choice for OU812 (and yeah, it's skeezy as hell).

Let me rep for one of my favorite Van Halen songs, the title track 5150. Always loved it.

xxxxpost I dunno, Poundcake is p inoffensive to me (musically at least). the shit like "Dreams" and "When It's Love", the generic AOR ballads, not to mention Hagar's screeching on those songs usually is what turned me off.

I did like "Humans Being" (sans Eddie's corny background vocals) from the Twister soundtrack tho

Sammy ballads are the worst.

I guess they work as a very clear demarcation that This Is New Version Of The Band That Is Older And More Wiser And Shit but bfd.

every one of em sounded like a Coke jingle

even the one on Balance that nobody remembers ("Not Enough"??)

CRYSTAL PEPSI!

seriously - the first time I heard "Right Now" on rock radio (1994 or so) I said "why the fuck are they playing an extended version of the Crystal Pepsi jingle" cos that was all I knew it from

also parts of "Can't Stop Loving You" reminded me of Laura Branigan's "Gloria" (albeit much much shittier)

xp There were so many jokey take-offs of the Right Now video at the time it came out iirc

1991-92 seems like a weird time for VH to get as big as they ever got, but that's my recollection of that time (and I haven't looked at any charts to substantiate that suspicion). They were omnipresent in the culture with the F.U.C.K. album.

I expect "Why Can't This Be Love" to do well.

I would have voted for Hagar's "Back Into You" ("all the way inside...every inch this time") because I love subtlety in song lyrics

On Fire is secretly the best song on the debut, btw.

I went with Ain't Talkin' as my #1 purely on sentimental value, but if I could take only one VH song into space on a one-way journey, it might be On Fire.

I'm the One is my jam

GOOD GOD Y'ALL

Xpost Van Hagar was significantly more successful than Van Halen, in terms of sales, charts, etc.

welllllll

Van Hagar had more #1 albums, but under Roth they have two diamond albums.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen_discography

I'd be curious to see a comparison of total sales, or when those albums went diamond.

http://www.guitarplayer.com/news/1024/roths-van-halen-sales-trounce-sammy-hagars-hold-on-there-dave/52326

Regardless, VH would be nothing without the Roth catalog.

Cumulatively the Roth years shifted more units in part because they recorded more albums. The first album was, like the first Cars album, a steady seller for years. Every record between it and 1984 is at least double platinum. The Van Hagar's biggest seller was 5150, which benefited from the 1984 juggernaut + the Hagar novelty + "Why Can't This Be Love." It's shipped six million.

speaking of 5150 they have no New Jerseys in their catalog, right? Every one of the Hagar albums has at least two singles that fans can still hum.

idk if most fans can hum "(Don't Tell Me) What Love Can Do" (tho I could)

but Balance not really a NJ anyway

Van Hagar also helped by (a) CD sales (b) Soundscan.

This "Van Halen vs Van Hagar" podcast from the Yacht Rock guys is pretty ace:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-yacht-rock/id1074528052?mt=2&i=362780678

SALT SHAKA LITTLE LICK O' LIME

the interviews after the Van Hagar split (original) were ace. I think Eddie said the phrase "Next time I see him, he better be wearing a fuckin' cup" at least ten times.

i don't think i've heard "me wise magic" before today. that's a pretty good song!

yeah taht was the better of the two 'new' songs for the greatest hits

preparing to apologize to my roommates for deliberately listening to the post-5150 hagar records

Me Wise Magic almost made my ballot, but I slipped Push Comes to Shove in at the last minute.

My five favorite tracks from the 78-84 albums that no one ever talks about (and I voted for all of them)

Somebody Get Me a Doctor
Light Up the Sky
In a Simple Rhyme
Hang 'Em High
The Full Bug

In an alternate universe, they could've all been as big as Unchained or Panama, but ¯\(ツ)/¯

Okay, maybe not The Full Bug.

i loooove "light up the sky"

I love the drum break in "Light Up the Sky."

The thing about Van Hagar for me is that, while they certainly had their moments, oftentimes I've listened to a Van Hagar record and felt like just watching an '80s David Lee Roth interview instead.

I'm listening to "Dreams" and keep hearing the aural equivalent of poppping hemorrhoids.

a different kind of truth really doesn't hold up, huh. the song i remember liking the most ("china town") i don't even like that much anymore?

although this time around i ended up really falling for "you and your blues" (great dave vocal) and "as is" (that riff!)

i like "dreams" a lot more than "love walks in," but i don't even know what "like" means in that clause

as said upthread though the title track of 5150 is awesome

holy shit i had no clue "finish what ya started" was a van halen song

that song rocks!

This 1996 interview priceless. EVH does his impression of DLR, uses the "better wear a cup" line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqUJ9Vdjs88

http://i.imgur.com/Za7Xv8u.gif

Something very Henleyesque about repeatedly making bold threats to fuck up someone's genitals.

ou812 is mostly really dull but "mine all mine" is fucking amazing

also i find "cabo wabo" really fascinating, i have no idea why a song about sammy's fav vacation spot is seven minutes long but i sort of get hypnotized by it anyway

Xpost that one rocks.

ou812 is mostly really dull

Guitar-wise, it's not.

"mine all mine" is fucking amazing

You are correct.

Can there be a sub-poll created just so I can vote for No Holds Bar-B-Que?

"On Fire," "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and "Atomic Punk" are all battling for #1 on my ballot. The last one is inching to the top...

Also, Fair Warning sounding great this week...about equal with WACF.

Guitar-wise, it's not.

you have voiced this opinion elsewhere here and i don't really hear it

I know, I tend to repeat myself a lot on ilm (I've been saying the same thing in VH threads for years).

There's just a lot of interested textures he plays with on this record that go well with his early years "classic" tone, but not yet switching over to whatever he was doing from F.U.C.K.-onwards. Also, a lot of neat little non-recurring riffs (like the diverging few measures in "Sucker in a 3 Piece" and "A.F.U.") that are unexpected and wonderful.

"On Fire," "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and "Atomic Punk" are all battling for #1 on my ballot. The last one is inching to the top...

OTM

There's just a lot of interested textures he plays with on this record that go well with his early years "classic" tone, but not yet switching over to whatever he was doing from F.U.C.K.-onwards. Also, a lot of neat little non-recurring riffs (like the diverging few measures in "Sucker in a 3 Piece" and "A.F.U.") that are unexpected and wonderful.

huh! i'm gonna relisten with this in mind

"Dance the Night Away" is my favorite call back to "Be My Baby" in rock.

"Dance the Night Away" is my favorite call back to "Be My Baby" in rock.

This is off topic, not to mention embarrassing, but it's only been in the last couple of years that I picked up on the fact Eddie Money actually incorporated "Be My Baby" into "Take Me Home Tonight" (besides just giving Ronnie a vocal feature).

idk if i've van hagar'd myself out but f.u.c.k. is so exhausting. i think i enjoyed "pleasure dome"? is this the singlemost unappealing-looking tracklist in music?

It's my least favorite VH album (VH3 doesn't count, bc who's got time for that?).

Oddly, the only times I ever saw VH live were on the FUCK tour.

ah, the FUCK tour

they jettisoned the synths and became 100 percent joyless

having said that i really like "top of the world" which is maybe the only time i've really felt a roth-era effortlessness in the hagar era

My dad threw away my concert shirt because he picked up on the acronym which I knew about but thought he was too dumb to figure out.

xp Top of the World is based on the outro riff of Jump.

no wonder it's somehow good

Just watched a bootleg VH video from 1982 (Largo, MD) and was surprised at how awesome the band was vs. how sloppy Roth was. He was good as a ringleader or emcee, but very wanting as a singer, and I could finally understand why they would want to bring in someone like Sammy Hagar.

I can't even really think about Van Hagar as the same band. It's just NOT.

Thing I dig now listening to the original Van Halen is that they had riffs and grooves a boodle. Screw the tapping, Eddie Van Halen could get funky as hell. You can hear Black Oak Arkansas, Billy Gibbons, Sabbath and Play that Funky Music in their grooves. I think the Van Halen brothers daddy's jazz influence shows up a bunch too. Sinner's Swing, Little Guitars, Dance the Night Away and many tunes swing pretty good for rock and roll.

TUNES:
Ain't Talkin' Bout Love
Unchained
Somebody Get Me a Doctor
I'll Wait
House of Pain
Atomic Punk
Take Your Whiskey Home
And the Cradle Will Rock
Light Up the Sky
Everybody Wants Some!!
DOA
Mean Street
Dirty Movies
Hang Em High
Drop Dead Legs
Panama
Girl Gone Bad
Little Guitars
Sinner's Swing
Dance the Night Away
Jump
You Really Got Me

Van Halen albums
1- Van Halen
2- 1984
3- Women and Children First
4- Fair Warning
5- Van Halen II

Is that a ballot? Would you like to email that? Or should I just add it to the pile myself?

Note to everybody else: plz don't vote in the thread. ;)

i'm not doing the guitar solo side poll but if i were i'd prominently vote for "big fat money" lol

GW: What were some of the more nagging issues?

EVH: Well, in the last couple of years Sammy went through a lot of changes. He divorced his wife of 23 years and, possibly because of that, he stopped being a team player. He was especially irritated by the fact that I began to get involved with the lyric writing, Sammy would say, "You never complained about the lyrics before!" Well I wasn't sober before, and I wasn't even listening to the lyrics! It's not like I suddenly wanted Sammy to be my puppet or anything, but once in a while I would take issue with a specific lyric or line. For example, I always hated the words to "Wham, Bam Amsterdam," from Balance, because they were all about smoking pot-they were just Stupid. Lyrics should pland some sort of seed for thought, or at least be a little more metamorphical.

Metamorphical...?

It's a perfectly cromulent expression.

tbh "metamorphical" would be at least as good a song title as "humans being"

I want to eavesdrop on a writing session in which Eddie van Halen and Sammy Hagar disagree about the metaphorical implications of "Wham bam Amsterdam."

In the interviews leading up to VH3, Eddie was talking about how much better the lyrics on that album were than lines like "1-900-Spank"

spunk?

Sammy's book is worth a quick read. His portrait of the VH bros and their massive problems with alcohol is not surprisingly pretty unflattering. Like, AVH needing to chug bottles of booze just to fall asleep, or placing a trash can by the drums to barf into. And Eddie just being such a mess that it sounds like the Red Rider was brought in to provide stability (musical, creative) as much as anything else. I kind of felt bad for everyone.

Eddie ranting about how they were doing the Twister soundtrack and he told Sammy not to make the song thematically related and how he came back with lyrics about tornados and shit in the first draft and how he was pissed off about it. This was in Guitar magazine.

it was an entertaining read because Eddie came across as a pedantic, humorless buttnugget.

Sammy equally humorless though, considering his lame reaction to Nerf Herder's "Van Halen"

(he called them "faggots" iirc)

"House of Pain" was a dope song

headed 4 the suck zone

Hagar claimed that lyric had nothing to do with tornadoes. so perhaps, in that light, it was Hagar's attempt at a Roth lyric.

lol oh man

http://www.vhnd.com/2012/12/05/winner-of-mtvs-lost-weekend-with-van-halen-tells-his-story/

I can't believe I read so much of that.

some of that story's in I Want My MTV.

1. this book "van halen rising" came out last year: it's an exhaustive account of the band's history up to touring for VH!. Principally, it's hugely interesting re: the band coming up playing backyard parties in the valley, wasted teens before just say no. The author talks to everyone who could possibly have insight, except Los Bros VH and Roth, like Anthony, seemingly everyone who saw them in the 70s, Ted Templeman, etc. Surely many of you have spelunked what the band would play in the 70s at like wet t-shirt contests, like they did "man in the silver mountain" and Billy Cobham AND JB and Kool & the Gang. if you haven't, you should.

2. book also shows that EVH was a hard rock and roll scholar, albeit the "muso" variety; he was dismissive of stuff that didn't have hot licks. Its well known that Roth had them play top 40/r&b, and god bless him, as that helped them become the party band nonpareil and to provide template for fun, non-sludgy sunset strip metal. Its illuminating that, like most musicians and most music fans hitting their mid 20s, EVH stopped taking in new ideas almost immediately; he has said for years that the last record he cared about was Peter Gabriel's So. Last year, he sneered at Roth for being interested in music outside of hard rock. He's not unlike Michael Jackson inso far that he's been hideously spoiled for almost 40 years/the overwhelming majority of his life, told he's a genius and therefore no one can say no to him. His brother likely is the only one who could, but he evidently never has, and everyone who challenged him has been systematically kicked out. Seems the only reason he's doing the band in any high profile way is that he's doing it through the eyes of his son, for whom the Roth era is exotic, being that he had been around Sammy for most of his life.

3. Last year, my wife and I were visiting LA. Listened to the radio, and kept hearing about VH playing on Sunset Strip. The band was to play outside Jimmy Kimmel Show, and so I had never seen any version of VH, so I wanted to see them near Gazzari's, Whiskey, etc. my wife likes 80s hard rock, but oddly doesn't like VH; she would have been much happier seeing Poison or GnR. It was not very good, principally cuz the buzz was killed when the band came out 2 hours late, went into "panama" and Roth did his sabre dance and promptly smacked his nose with the sword and left the stage, leaving the VH family to pedal around the "reach down between my legs" breakdown for 10 mins, EVH skree-skrawing away. Then Roth comes back, and they started over and did the state fair set of obvious hits for 30 mins.. Maybe too much time has passed, but it was not fun. As much as I have complained about EVH, he's still in a place performance-wise you'd want him to be; not true for Roth, who dodders around somewhat embarrassingly.

where's that video of them playing Jump where the keyboard is a quarter tone too sharp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXPM6d9IdiY

Trying to remember what rock memoir I just read that had a surprise appearance from Van Halen. Maybe the Elvis Costello? I think that was it. He talks about how hard it was to get gigs, because the industry did not know where to slot him. Punk? Singer-Songwriter? But then he was in LA and he noticed that Van Halen was basically going full DIY, playing any gig they could get, from backyard parties on down, with flyers pasted to every post or wall. The strategy he realized was to build up enough of a fan base and reputation (and chops) until the clubs and labels could no longer ignore them.

i played 'panama' on the pa at fenway saturday and it sounded grrrreattttt

xxpost lol god that is grating as Hell. i'd take a piss break if I heard that live.

Wow

Also, I'd forgotten how bad that live "Jump" performance was. I might have left the arena until it was done if I'd been there.

disappointed that Eddie didn't start re-tuning his guitar midsong

http://www.ew.com/article/2007/10/29/van-halens-jump

haha, literally just finished reading that.

I don't know anything about locking nuts and locking trems and I don't know who Floyd Rose is, but supposedly those things make tuning on the fly impossible. I once filled in for a band's bassist and the guitarist was out of tune, but kept saying, "Sorry, I can't fix it until I get my hands on a hex wrench." I was like, what, you can't just tune using the tuning pegs? He was like, "Nope, that'll mess it up more." No idea how that works/why that is.

i'm sure Eddie has a hex wrench in his pocket at all times.

http://media2.giphy.com/media/Kbfy8Ovgn86go/giphy.gif

with long hair, Eddie looks like a rock star.

with short hair, he looks like an air conditioning technician

well i just finished listening to van halen iii for the first time

hhahahahahahhahahahahahahaahhahahaahaahaha

How manyyyyyyyyyyyyyy say I

lol at "One I WAnt", I forgot this was their attempt to be the Shit Police

"Without You" is basically III Sides to Every Story Extreme

brad: please tell everyone what you think of "How many Say I." that's a great example of no one saying no to EVH, although its so ridiculous that I'm grateful that it made the record.. also the song "once": VH III was "produced" by Mike Post, composer of TV themes for Law & order, Hill St. blues and tons of other shit…makes a lot more sense if you imagine him saying "c'mon ed, do a song like this."

MBJ: "I don't know anything about locking nuts and locking trems and I don't know who Floyd Rose is, but supposedly those things make tuning on the fly impossible."

absolutely true: if you have a guitar player in your band whose entire style is based on EVH, like I did for 15 years, forget about him/her doing a drop D or any other relatively easy tuning that's on the fly.

yeah, xp - traditional floating bridge guitars like stock stratocasters go out of tune pretty easily if you use the whammy bar a lot, as eddie does. this is easy to hear eg on hendrix live recordings. floyd rose locks the strings down at the bridge and the nut to maintain consistent tension for accurate tuning, allowing you to execute eruption dive bombs to your heart's content. downside is you lose the ability to retune at will. there are little tuners at the bridge that allow you to nudge each string, but probably not far enough to salvage the mismatch in that jump performance.

In other words: Eddie knows his guitar is out of tune, keeps playing out of spite.
^^seems like the most plausible explanation

iii also suffers from a lack of michael anthony, the backing vocals are all buried and tuneless

i don't have much to say about "how many say i" other than like many things about this record it makes almost no sense

also something about the production/mixing makes it sound as if gary cherone is singing to entirely different songs than what ended up on record

in my imaginatioooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon

"Dirty Water Dogs" isn't bad

made the mistake of looking up the lyrics to "one i want"

poorman, he just want a little
richman, want a little bit more
superman, he looking for lois
salesman, try and sell you his soul
fatman, he's ordering seconds
pizzaman, just wanna slice

remember this is the sophisticated, grown-up album EVH always wanted to make, and then read those lyrics.

Gayman, looking for another

Hooperman, wants a better timeslot
Pacman, wants to eat little dots
Hungry Man, comes in many delicious flavors
Stickman just wants a neck

oh also i kinda like balance! nothing from there i'm especially hyped to vote for but it's prob the most consistent van hagar album?

Seventh Seal pretty good

Always worth a read. Within it is what appears to be a rare clip of Cherone with the band live, which I'd never heard:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/gary-cherone-reflects-on-his-three-year-stint-in-van-halen-20120210

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YqOXtcn8fs

I know I'd said upthread that A Different Kind of Truth ended up being a dud four years removed, but after listening to Balance and, especially, VHIII this morning, it sounds like a masterpiece.

cherone sings "panama" pretty well! unfortunately he seems to being a long horrible hagar impression on vhiii

er... "he seems to be doing a long horrible hagar impression on vhiii"

grabbing another cup of cof

oh ofc

"Vocally, the Sammy stuff was very challenging. He is a great singer and has a higher range than me. When we were writing Van Halen III we were writing songs that seemed like they were in the Sammy key. So I was reaching for notes I would have never done with Extreme. I think it made me a better singer."

Are we combining "Eruption" & "You Really Got Me" and the other linked tracks as single entries?

As it appears on the album tracklist imo

ballot sent!

i already regret not voting for "d.o.a."

lol I regretted the SAME omission!

every time people say VH3 I keep thinking WaCF and not the Cherone album

i never realized that Ted Templeman produced all the Roth era Van Halen records, i always associate him with Little Feat and Doobie Brothers, very different kinds of bands.

it's crazy that "Right Now" was the 5th single from For Unlawful, like how often is the 5th single from an album the big enduring one that everybody remembers decades later.

also funny because the album where VH covered Little Feat, OU812, is one of the few Templeman had nothing to do with

I always associate templeman w beefheart tbh

When VH decided to cease working with Ted, he snatched up the Bulletboys and produced their first two records in a very obvious VH mold.

There was a time I thought Marq Torien would be a great hire for VH, but his voice is even more shot now than Roth's.

a goon shaped tool (some dude)
Posted: May 16, 2016 at 7:45:45 PM
also funny because the album where VH covered Little Feat, OU812, is one of the few Templeman had nothing to do with

Say what?

Templeman is probably the source of the Michael McDonald collab.

A Apolitical Blues was a cd-only track (and also the b-side of Black and Blue—I remember because I had the cassingle!) xp

oh wow

Hate to nag, but we've only got 7 ballots so far (including my own). I probably won't say anything about it again until Thursday, but even if you don't want to submit a full 22, vote for what you like. :)

Templeman produced Montrose, didn't he? Would explain the infatuation.

Don't know how many know these exist, they are definitely worth hearing if a fan of the original band. There seems to be debate whether or not these are the infamous Gene Simmonds recordings. Pretty good sound for demos, kinda like Van Halen if recorded by Spot for SST.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODKt0d44jZk

Little Guitars so tight, joyous and wistful

Hate to nag, but we've only got 7 ballots so far (including my own). I probably won't say anything about it again until Thursday, but even if you don't want to submit a full 22, vote for what you like. :)

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Monday, May 16, 2016 8:18 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Aware I said I wouldn't nag again until Thursday, but it's Wednesday now and we still only have 8 ballots. Hoping to get at least 20.

Make that 9 ballots. Thank you, voter.

Just sent in a mini-ballot based mostly on their hits. I tried slogging my way through the albums and looking for lost classics, but I really didn't have the energy this time around.

It's been raining for weeks here. Bad weather for Van Halen.

Weird how weather patterns will affect things. It's been generally sunny and warm here, so it's been perfect VH weather.

MIKE: Hey, Sammy. Great take on that new one back there. Got a minute?

SAMMY: Sure, Mike! Pop a squat, tell me what's what.

MIKE: That Cabo Wabo bit about the white sand, pretty girls by the dozens... is that all true?

SAMMY: *leans over, plants palm on Mike's knee* Mad Dog, you don't know the half of it.

lollll

Sowing the seeds of Chickenfoot right there.

Chickenfoot origin story, wherein our heroes meet the Silver Surfer and the Incredible Chad, then join forces to protect the world from ambition.

MIKE: Pretty wild, huh Dave? You being back with the band and everything.

DLR: HA HA HA, You shoobadoobaly right about that! HA HA! You ready for JAMIE'S CRYIN, you WILD THING you!

MIKE: Ready for just about anything, heh. Say, when you were solo, did you ever go to a place called "Cabo"?

DLR: CABO? LIKE UH CABO CALLOWAY? HEH HEH MIGHT AS WELL JUMP AND JIVE, that where you gettin' at?

MIKE: Nah, but it's ok. *kicks can down stairwell*

fwiw i'm definitely voting but i'm gonna be listening and adjusting my ballot til the last minute.

Okay, this might sound as heresy to some of the guys here, but aside from the big hits I'm totally unfamiliar with DLR fronted Van Halen, whereas when I grew up in the early nineties there was a lot of Van Hagar on the radio and MTV, so I'm much more familiar with that version of the band. I thought they were great band. Up until 1995/1996 they were still considered a legitimate force, especially to an aspiring guitar player like I was.

Sammy with his toes in the sand and a drink in his hand in Cabo belongs in the "people who have figured out how to live" thread

Actually, Eat Em and Smile was one of my favourite guitar records ever (I was a big Vai-fanatic as a youngster). I liked that one even more than Van Halen.

Sammy sold his Cabo Wabo tequila brand to Campari for I want to say $100 million. That's why he's always smiling.

Hasn't he said that he's made exponentially more money from tequila and his restaurant/bar ventures than he ever did in music?

Also: leaving this here...http://www.avclub.com/article/david-lee-roth-13772

I just had to give Fair Warning a spin after reading through this thread. Excellent record, easily my favourite of theirs.

"Yankee Rose" is as good as any VH imo

I will be voting, but I can't pretend to be interested in anything after 1984. Roth was so charismatic, and Hagar........just wasn't.

― lingereffect (Kent Burt), Saturday, May 14, 2016 12:53 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I totally agree with every word of this.

One of my favourite Roth quotes of many:

"'DLR Band' means Dave, Lowery, and Ray. I named it that because it sounds more like a band then 'David Lee Roth,' which just sounds like a person. When you hear 'David Lee Roth'--you think of a person. When you hear 'DLR Band'--you think of a band. Just like when you hear 'Eddie Van Halen' you think of a person, and when you hear 'Van Halen'... you think of David Lee Roth."

This 1996 interview priceless. EVH does his impression of DLR, uses the "better wear a cup" line.

― pplains, Sunday, May 15, 2016 8:37 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Roth's response to this was, typically, hilarious...

"The violence and everything and Eddie Van Halen constantly calling me out, screaming into a camera lens from three thousand, two hundred and twenty six miles away, 'I'm gonna kick you in your nuts! You better wear a cup. You better watch your balls.' This causes me to ask, because we're talking to a very articulate magazine here, with an articulate audience readership, and an entirely articulate interviewer here. What kind of balls is he imagining? What kind of testicles are haunting Eddie Van Halen's sleep? Are these giant turbo-prop monster truck nards that smash Chevies and Buicks and are now rolling over his front gate right now up there at 5150 and crushing his designer sports car and the family pet as it squeals a short, brief, glorious warning? Or are these highly trained, super-mobile, small, but highly maneuverable Belgian assault nards that even now are swarming under the gates and are about to sail into the nerve center of the gangland stronghold! The mind fairly reels, sire."

Roth is on the top of my interview wish list. Unfortunately, he hasn't done anything musically that I'd want to talk to him about in 30 years.

I dunno what Roth reads, but his interviews are a bit like Chuck Berry's prose in his autobiography: just when you think he has no idea what he's saying, he floors me with an unexpected metaphor.

I dunno if Roth can read.

Roth has always struck me as a sneakily literate guy

(and yes I own a copy/have read Crazy from the Heat)

Roth is a very sharp dude. (Little known fact: Henry Rollins helped him with the autobiography, but I'm not sure whether it was as uncredited co-writer or just editing the manuscript down to a manageable size.)

Can't say Dave's approach suits the song, but points for trying...
https://youtu.be/G59uyhcIhSI

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FrurVxb6GMA/hqdefault.jpg

feel kind of bad posting this, but hey, that's Sammy, so

http://www.vhnd.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Cabo_Wabo_grand_opening_1990_Sammy_Hagar_Van_Halen_VHND_6.jpg

http://www.vhnd.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/1988_2.jpg

this one is just embarrassing

http://www.vhnd.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/1988.jpg

smiles all around

http://www.photofeatures.com/vanhalen/images/prevs/van-halen-85-017b.jpg

beard phase

I got to say, I really like Sammy Hagar's solo music better than his Van Halen. Standing Hampton is a better listen than any of the Van Hagar records and pales to the first Montross album.

Hagar was a lifer though, after the early success with Montross it took him a long time to really become popular as a solo artist then finally hit the big bucks joining Van Halen. Hagar's 'I Can't Drive 55' being kinda 'bogus' was a direct reason that The Minutemen titled the record Double Nickels on the Dime.

http://madartlab.com/files/2014/03/4614401_orig.jpg

the last days of disco

http://www.vhnd.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/1988_ed.jpg

salad days

http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/images/g/cTsAAOSwubRXJtJ7/s-l225.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/F34AhHH.jpg

The Fuck...

Is this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RyjtXRVOfQ

Crazy From The Heat is a fantastic read. i wish i still had my copy to crack open this week.

tonight on the ride home I heard "Jump" (which I didn't think I was voting for, but for a band's bland synth pop megahit it really does have a lot of cool instrumental flourishes) and then changed the station and heard "Why Can't This Be Love" (which I probably will also vote for, love the synth sound on that song and once stumbled upon a similar sound in the studio and was like yes, i'm totally throwing the "Why Can't This Be Love" synth sound into this song).

a few years ago I finally learned how fucking rich Hagar is, thanks to his tequila. Is it any good/

The drinking habits and net worth of aging rock stars fascinate me:

As a passionate wine collector for 40 years, Hagar, who has 10,000-plus bottles in his cellar, no doubt possesses a more refined palate than his endearing party-animal public persona might suggest. He also clearly knows that a good story can help improve the flavour in consumers’ mouths. And so a reporter is treated to the product’s high-grade features, which include the use of expensive Maui Gold sugar cane (harvested at the likely more flavourful age of two years versus the standard one year) and single distillation and filtration (versus the heavier-handed processing of most big brands).

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/wine/former-van-halen-front-man-sammy-hagar-delivers-a-white-rum-with-rock-star-pedigree/article19824689/

the only Sammy post-VH solo single i have any memory of hearing on rock radio is MAS TEQUILAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Same.

As a passionate wine collector for 40 years, Hagar, who has 10,000-plus bottles in his cellar,

Yep, fellow wine collector John Entwistle used to hang with Hagar...although Entwistle just went with whatever wine was the most expensive which, according to Townshend, would usually be the consistency of mud.

one thing this poll made me realize was how much I love jump

I got my back against the record machiiine

man i really love some of their instrumental intros and think of them as part of a whole (Eruption->You Really Got Me, Sunday Afternoon in the Park->One Foot, Tora! Tora!->Loss of Control, 1984->Jump) but I don't think I can waste a vote on any of them

except Sunday. that shit is rad

Baby how you been?

I really can't get it up to slog my way through the catalogue rn (I crap out about halfway through a side each time I try), but I'll put together a half-assed ballot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNWFokIw4sY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9GmDisoEQo

Boy, Dave really blew the Clash's cover there. The Clash had spent a solid seven years cultivating a self-image of hard-partyin', hard-drinkin' hell-raisers, and with a single utterance Roth completely took the wind out of their sails.

All those Clash shows where they proudly swigged from Jack Daniels bottles...only to be revealed as frauds. Such a waste.

man i really love some of their instrumental intros and think of them as part of a whole (Eruption->You Really Got Me, Sunday Afternoon in the Park->One Foot, Tora! Tora!->Loss of Control, 1984->Jump) but I don't think I can waste a vote on any of them

― rmde bob (will), Wednesday, May 18, 2016 11:40 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, in the classic rock poll i put songs that were always played together as a pair as one ballot entry on the nominations list, including "Eruption/You Really Got Me," i thought about suggesting that here but by the time i saw that this poll was going it had already been a couple days, so too late oh well etc. it would be wrong for this poll's results to not have "Eruption" on them but i could see a lot of people not making room for it on their ballot, i'm still not sure if it'll be on mine.

a few years ago I finally learned how fucking rich Hagar is, thanks to his tequila. Is it any good/

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, May 18, 2016 9:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I like it a lot. Much better than Cuervo (a low bar to clear) or Patron.

Man, Eruption is one song to me, separate from You Really Got Me.

That said, I did cast a singular vote for Intruder, and that one definitely needs Pretty Woman to follow it.

Yeah, "Eruption" is absolutely its own thing - it fades down to total silence, and there's a pause, before "You Really Got Me" starts.

Eruption has always been its own thing in my mind, too. Some of the others are less autonomous, most of all Intruder.

I can't listen to Big Bad Bill without also getting Tom Bodett's Motel 6 commercials in my head. It's not the same piece of music, so it must just be an association thing.

as much as I love Nirvana, there's no denying Van Halen got their first.

yep y'all are totally right and for some dumb reason I think I was getting the two instr/ classic 60s covers totally confused

another dece sub-poll: best VH covers. I really like all of em to varying degrees.

They stopped doing covers after Diver Down, right?

Nope, they did Little Feat's "A Apolitical Blues" on OU812 (and an awful cover of "Won't Get Fooled Again" on the live record, but dunno if that counts).

You Really Got Me
Ice Cream Man
You're No good
Where Have All the Good Times Gone
(Oh) Pretty Woman
Dancing in the Street
Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)
Happy Trails
A Apolitical Blues

i should say i like all the Roth-era covers. i really don't fuck with Hagar at all. and i love that Little Feat record but don't much care for Apolitical.

i think VHII is actually p damn strong and I probably listen to it more than VHI these days. might be my 3rd favorite after FW & '84. otoh W&CF has lost some of its luster for me. i still rate it over DD, but i think the latter actually had more entries on my ballot.

the only two Hagar songs i don't switch immediately are Poundcake, maybe Black & Blue. i like "5150" (song) and i think some of the other album tracks from that one, mostly out of nostalgia i guess. i'd still vote "Me Wise Magic" over any of them and it might have made my ballot if they had edited it down some. too much rambling in the verses and not enough chorus imo.

14 ballots now. The goal is at least 20, so 6 of you are now the most desirable people on ilm.

Another favourite Roth quote of mine:

"I don't really have musical influences as such. My influences are more people like Napoleon and Genghis Khan or the guy that invented McDonald's hamburgers."

ugh... i really want to throw a ballot together and i've just been slammed irl

but i have like 24 hours right?

Yeah, tmrw night

Fave Roth quote from a Circus magazine interview during 1984 tour: "I'm a real family man, I've started three or four this year alone." C'mon people get those ballots in or ya get the ILX brown sound curse!

What is the best cover of a VH song? I can only think of two, the Minutemen, Ain't Talkin Bout Love and Aztec Camera, Jump.

xpost:

What about "most music critics like Elvis Costello because most music critics look like Elvis Costello"?

Gigolo Aunts have a nice cover of Why Can't This Be Love. xp

Listening to 5150 again. I wish I would've voted for Get Up. Not only is it a pummeling monster song, but the way Hagar sings the word "bullshit" is so fantastic.

Also, Inside is maybe the weirdest VH song there is, at least in the 80s.

i nearly voted for "get up"! "inside" is weird but also imo it kinda sucks

CATCH AS CATCH
CATCH AS CATCH
CAN

The 1983 clip is good but needs more jumping

17 ballots in as of this morning. :D

On Fire is secretly the best song on the debut, btw

The way they sing "fire" in the chorus reminds me of the Runaways' "I Love Playing with Fire" - wonder if that was a little LA shout out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9L8_kgIBKU

Voted. Did you get my ballot?

Sent!

You were #20, so thanks!

Voted. Did you get my ballot?

Indeed.

First time voting in a poll. *makes ou812 two-hand gesture*

ugh... i am not going to make the deadline. just too slammed IRL.

Deadline is flexible-ish through Saturday am if that works.

For anybody on the fence, just remember that it takes less than four hours to listen to the whole DLR era.

Just sent a hurry-up late ballot :-/
Just 22 songs. No Van Hagar. No 'Rone Halen.
I don't feel tardy.

For anybody on the fence, just remember that it takes less than four hours to listen to the whole DLR era.

― Now I Know How Joan of Arcadia Felt (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, May 20, 2016 5:33 PM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i only had time to get in maybe 90 minutes of VH listening this week, unfortunately. but i'm glad JF has extended the deadline, it'll help!

Little Guitars is going to crush this

but i'm glad JF has extended the deadline, it'll help!

Glad it helps. I'm gonna say that the firm cutoff is 8:30am EDT tomorrow (Saturday) morning, which is about when I'll get up for the day.

i voted mostly on tap harmonics

i voted mostly on brownness

solid criterion

i voted mostly high af

Sent my ballot last night.

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view3/2061126/eddie-van-halen-o.gif

hot licks

weird that eddie didn't use pitch wheel on jump synth solo

HAVE U SEEN JR'S GRADEZ?

SENORITA

How have I never watched that Stern clip before?

A few years ago I was on the same flight as Roth from Tokyo to New York. Dude flies 1st class.

I didn;t get to send my ballot, but FWIW I would have voted for two songs from 5150 and everything else DLR era.

Voting is still open until tomorrow morning if you wanna.

OH GOD THE PRESSURE

the real pressure is on JF to choose an appropriate POLL reference

POLLing With The Devil

I'm probably not going to get a ballot in in time, sadly, but I'm hoping to see my Fair Warning favourites fare well on this.

It might even make me enthusiastic about some Van Hagar stuff, but we'll see!

xp no

Get, get, get, get, get out and POLL!

ban turrican

oh shit this is gonna be easier than i thought... I can fill 6 or 7 ballot slots just off VH1 and no court in the land would convict me

NOW GIMME SOMETHING TO WRITE ON!

not a category in the poll, but hmm which track is the very brownest?

will vote tomorrow, since you're offering the extension

VERY early cutoff, just keep that in mind.

which track is the very brownest?

I'm thinking Mean Street or Runnin'.

Dirty Movies

ain't talkin' 'bout love is the brownest

honorable mention: i'm the one, unchained

oh hmm panama is pretty brown too

My impression of the brown sound was always their more shadowy, sinister side. Have I been wrong?

Not gonna make it. Tried v hard to get into this but the lack of involving deep cuts scuttled my enthusiasm. Only the hits have wiggled my ass at all in the few hours of running w/the devil through their back catalogue. I have a huge embedded nostalgia for VH and could probably write a reasonably convincing article on their impact & enduring importance or something, but what once seemed fun about them now feels super-tryhard ("Beautiful Girls" OMG kill me now) and the non-fun stuff just hits me like a wet dishcloth. Probably my state of mind more than anything; maybe a new era will dawn (or the meds will kick in) where their brand of whatevs can rock me again, but that time ain't now. Still, "You've got to roll with the punches to get to what's real" is one of the best lyrics ever, and I can't bear how great it is when DLR trades vocal squeaks with EVH's false harmonics.

My impression of the brown sound was always their more shadowy, sinister side. Have I been wrong?

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Friday, May 20, 2016

"brown sound" refers to EVH's trademark squishy humbucker/marshall crunch tone.

google will take you down a rathole of guitar nerd discussions of pickups, amps, pedals, settings etc etc but f all that you can hear it immediately.

VH1 remains the gold standard for the brown sound but this guy working "unchained" does it pretty good

http://youtu.be/7-g7xaVa4qI

okay, but what aspect of that very distinctive sound is the word "squishy" referring to?

i mean, yeah, the squishy one, but but but...

lol i knew that was coming. it gets into guitar nerd synesthetic vocabulary really quickly. dancing about architecture maaaan. unchained has some dope stuff going with a flanger too...

oh... ballot in JUST LIKE I POLLED YOU BEFORE BEFORE BEFORE

^^^ seconding that title

voted!

Voting's closed! Thanks everybody.

how many ballots in all?

26!

That's plenty for a 40 song rollout I think.

i better wear a cup

side poll: best beat it solo on youtube

Since I didn't get it in on time, I'll just follow along the results and then post what my top 5 were gonna be.

Results-Have you seen Junior's grades?! ILM Artist Poll #75 - VAN HALEN (Results thread)

Was at a fancy dinner party hosted at an air bnb that had a nice turntable and a dumb selection of vinyl that ranged from George Benson to Taylor Swift to Sublime. Most were clearly there for show (or maybe as a weak effort to offer something for everybody), and some were even still wrapped. But not a copy of "1984," which I put on and which made everyone as happy as could be.