Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The Mighty Van Halen Return

I, for one, have never liked the band Van Halen since David Lee Roth left in 1985. I never liked Van Hagar, and I never even heard the record VH did with Gary Cherone. Totally didn't care (especially since a few months before VH had released two new songs with Roth before they told him they didn't want him back in the band).

As the years wore on and VH went back to Hagar after Cherone, I assumed a full-blown reunion of the original line-up of the band was never going to happen. Until it did in 2007. Sort of. Roth came back for a tour, but bassist Michael Anthony was replaced by Edward Van Halen's son, Wolfgang. Despite the change, and the inclusion of a 17 year old in the band, I still loved the reunion tour. Van Halen was, and always will be, Edward Van Halen and David Lee Roth. They wrote all the classic songs together, and they created the sound and style that spawned a million imitators. Literally.

The band is now on the verge of releasing its first album with Roth since 1984's 1984 album. It has been a really long time. The first single and video has been released ("Tattoo") and the reaction has been mixed. When I posted it on my Facebook page, most of the comments were negative. My feeling is that it sounds like what a Van Halen in its 50s would sound like. It has been nearly 30 years since these guys were at their zenith. I, for one, did not expect the band to just zap back in time and become guys in their 20s again. No one can do that. Supposedly, much of the rest of the album is comprised of older songs the band wrote but never used back in the 70s and early 80s. I am curious to see if those sound "vintage" or more modern like "Tattoo."

The song itself is okay. The video is better. I can't help it. I just love Diamond Dave. That guy is infinitely entertaining. What do you think of the song and video?

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