I also love that movie, and think it should be better known. I saw it right after the Great Recession and the whole “depressed economy, unfinished subdivisions sitting empty” setting was very contemporary for a 30 (now 40!) year old movie.
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I can’t think of VH without thinking of “Beautiful Girls” being used in this commercial. Unfortunately they don’t have streaming rights, so you’ll have to use your imagination.
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yeah, there was one of those unfinished subdivisions near our house – me and my friends played in those empty foundations and unfinished houses a ton. good times, being a 70s kid, lol.
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5150 and has the probably best Eddie riffs of the Sammy Era.
Sammy’s vocals were far more polished and had greater range than Dave. But Dave’s voice just oozed testosterone and cheap beer.
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“It’s completely tragic that we have lost him,” he said. “He was not just an innovative and stylish player with great taste, he was also a laidback virtuoso showman who just blew us all away every time. Every shredder today has lost their Master Teacher and Guide.”
-Pete Townshend
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“It’s OK, he’s playing with Coltrane now.” – Miles Davis, at Jimi’s funeral.
So right about now Coltrane is relieved Jimi has finally found someone else to jam with.
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yup, Dave had the partier’s voice. You’d want to hang with him during the US Festival weekend!
RIP Eddie, your sounds were part of my high school soundtrack in a cassette tape walkman.
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I’ve been watching Sammy Hagar’s Rock and Roll Roadtrip as background noise while I work in the mornings. He seems like the congenial type.
I picture partying with Sammy would have involved shots and you would probably end up the night poured into a diner booth at 3AM.
I imagine partying with Dave involved cocaine and you would end the night in Mexico, missing your clothes.
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There’s a time and a place for everything.
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I love that movie, but I wondered what the Van Halen connection was because I mostly remember The Cars songs on the soundtrack. But then I remembered it had Van Halen’s cover of The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me”.
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it’s been ages since i’ve seen it, but i have a copy, and the soundtrack comes up on our server from time to time while shuffling. i mostly remember The Cars, too – and Cheap Trick.
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The more I think of 2020, the more it looks like Mayas calendar’ 2012 with a 8 years delay; it just sucks from every possible point of view.
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I don’t want to feel depressed. I want to celebrate the image of the band Eddie created. Like his music, something that may be a little bit dangerous but a heck of a lot of fun.
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I mean there’s a time and a place for sleeping in a diner booth at 3am and a time and a place for wandering around a beach town in Baja trying desperately to remember the Spanish word for “pants”.
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Randy Rhodes wasn’t good enough???
Sadly, not when compared to Eddie.
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Growing up in L.A. I think all of us thought of Van Halen as being like family, more so than the many other bands we were truly blessed to have performing regularly in town or to see in a chance encounter. I think the fact that you had the two brothers and that they had gigged for four years at all the local dive bars before becoming overnight sensations… well, anyone who grew up here either played those same clubs or had numerous friends in numerous bands playing them.
One of those friends, and I am totally crushed for him right now, put together a cover band that Eddie knew about, Nerd Halen (including songs like “Nerdy Woman”).
Musically I was hooked by Dance The Night Away because of the harmonics.
Yeah… that’s why I’m gonna stop here and DANCE!
And, why not, the recorded version:
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that one is always a surprise to many people, but listen to it - no mistake.
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Eddie Van Halen shreds, but I always loved the acoustic work on this song, which still shreds.
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Dude, I was up in Denver, Littleton, and Boulder in the summer of '79, on an extended vacation seeing family friends. Small world.
We lived out on the far west side of Wichita, Kansas, but exactly the same vibe. Empty subdivisions, bored kids, and lots of fireworks and beer.
Van Halen was okay for me, but I was the kid who was exploring Devo, The Butthole Surfers, and The Flying Lizards. Only one other kid at my high school had similar tastes.
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I am super bummed that he’s gone because VH was also the soundtrack to a large part of my youth - some of which I even remember - but even more bummed to find out it was after a long battle with cancer. Which the older I get, the more friends it takes, and often in a very unpretty way. FUCK CANCER my friends.
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