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Monday, June 4, 2012

The Mighty Van Halen: Part II

In Part II of my Van Halen exploration at The Nervous Breakdown, Roth forgets the words, the power of the heavy metal squat, and does Van Halen have soul?

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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4 comments:

Owllady said...

You know Art, I was thinking recently about a bunch of songs that when reduced to simply lyrics on a page really make no sense whatsoever and aren't interesting. But toss them into something like a Van Halen romp, and a lot of people don't care what the lyrics are.

I read Sammy Hagar's recent book, and I really think that one of his problems with VH the band was, when he joined them, that he expected their music to Mean Something. He doesn't seem to have ever realized that to their fans, their music did Mean Something, but it was a different Something than what he wanted.

I really like VH, but I don't put them on the same level as Rush or even Queen. VH is a party band. Fun, you're glad you came, but it's only meant for Friday and Saturday nights. The rest of the time it's more down to earth.

There's a place for party bands and there's a place for "thinking" bands. Fans got room for all of 'em.

Art Edwards said...

So true.

VH's music means nothing but the way it makes you feel, and they perform it with such authority, it's enough.

Owllady said...

Your observation that VH performs with authority reminds me of interview with George Clooney. He said when he first started getting auditions, he was thrilled and it probably showed. He wasn't getting many jobs. That changed when he came to auditions and told producers "I'm the answer to your problems."

Bands are the same way. I think that's what VH has, a belief that they're one frigging hot band. Not everybody agrees but plenty do.

Art Edwards said...

No doubt the cocaine helped.