Revelations about "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love" by Van Halen

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Having relistened to the song for the first time in a while right now:

1. That's one hell of an opening line.

2. The 'hey hey hey' part makes me think of both the Art of Noise and the Prodigy reuse of same now.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 7 March 2005 20:45 (twenty years ago)

It ROCKS, of course.....though I still prefer "Unchained".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 7 March 2005 20:51 (twenty years ago)

The "hey hey hey" bit is great, especially with the guitar part that comes before it.

And there's one chorus where I really want to think Dave is singing "Dave love is rotten to the core."

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Monday, 7 March 2005 20:54 (twenty years ago)

"ain't talkin' bout love" >>>>> "unchained"

― jbr (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 7 March 2005 21:34 (twenty years ago)

one of the few cases where i actually prefer the sample-based track (ain't talkin bout dub) over the original. and i love Van Halen - grew up on them and everything (and don't have much time for @440 either). so who can really say why

― rentboy (rentboy), Monday, 7 March 2005 21:57 (twenty years ago)

roth is truly unchained on unchained

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 7 March 2005 21:59 (twenty years ago)

little guitars >>>>>>> all the above.

sinorita i'm in trouble again and i can't get free.
(sinoriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiita.)

― aa, Monday, 7 March 2005 22:22 (twenty years ago)

stirmonster played Zep's "Talkin Bout Love" last night and it brought the house down.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 7 March 2005 22:25 (twenty years ago)

The Minutemen's cover of "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love" >>> "Unchained" >>> Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love"

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 05:14 (twenty years ago)

During my senior year in high school, my next door neighbor in the dorms had a fancy guitar and amp setup and CONSTANTLY tried to learn the opening live to "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love" and biffed it every single time. This went on for hours and despite all of his determination to be Eddie Jr. he couldn't play it right to save his life. Of course he had to listen to me play along to Devo on my bass, but at least I played it right.

Bottom line: I can do without this song.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 05:20 (twenty years ago)

Unchained forever.

― Flash (cowboytrance), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

"Unchained" shits from a great, splattery height all over ever other Van Halen song, kiddie kids, sorry. As great as "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love" so irrefutably is, it is drenched and sullied in a great avalanche of brown courtesy of "Unchained".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 23:37 (twenty years ago)

FACT!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 23:37 (twenty years ago)

opinion

― boo, Tuesday, 8 March 2005 23:39 (twenty years ago)

No, FACT!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 23:41 (twenty years ago)

ooh, pwned by your incontrovertible empirical proofs

― boo, Tuesday, 8 March 2005 23:45 (twenty years ago)

I had a great dream once in which I lectured David Lee Roth about how his corny spoken word interludes almost ruined both "Unchained" and "Panama".

The "hey hey hey" in "Ain't Talkin Bout Love" makes me think of Gavin Friday's snarling "hey hey hey" in "Copped It" by the Fall.

― Jon Hope (jarge), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 21:59 (twenty years ago)

gottagottaBLEED, baby.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 22:15 (twenty years ago)

his corny spoken word interludes almost ruined both "Unchained"

Wha? I love the ridiculous spoken-word bit in "Unchained." You've obviously undergone a severe humorectomy.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 22:53 (twenty years ago)

I like it, maybe my favourite song from the debut. Kris said something once about how it's the only time in history someone got the flanger to sound tough. Is he playing distorted harmonics through there? EVH actually did a lot of interesting things with timbre ('texture').

Do any of you guys know Tim Hecker's "Introducing Carl Cocks", sort of a noise piece based entirely on samples of this? I think it's a brilliant use of the riff that made me appreciate the original even more.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 23:03 (twenty years ago)

ten years pass...

that tim hecker thing makes me mad for some reason, lol. it just seems unnecessary, for one thing, those early VH lps were avant garde enough as is.. the tim hecker thing is the equivalent of explaining a joke.. and it doesn't have the uncanny re-contextualized feel that certain john oswald or negativland tracks have. it's more like, "hey granular synthesis + evh guitar tone sounds pretty badass", which is a totally awesome purpose in and of itself... but the execution is just not focused, imo.

― brimstead, Wednesday, 18 November 2015 02:10 (nine years ago)

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