Van halen, hagar or roth?

[taha]

Bruce Dickinson took Maiden where D'ianno could not...Brian Johnson did a good job filling in for Bon Scott, but I will always like Bon more...David Lee added the Fun to Van Halen, and they were never as good without him.

Bruce said early on in an interveiw, "they need a guy like me to make that band complete", what a completion !!

 

[LG]

Bruce said early on in an interveiw, "they need a guy like me to make that band complete", what a completion !!

That is a massive understatement...he sure was what they needed beyond any shadow of doubt. Plus how many other talented singers fly the bands airplane to the next city?...an amazing guy.

 

[Dave78]

Then one day I walked into work & this younger kid tells me that he has the new Van Halen cassette w/ Sammy Hagar with him & he can't go on enough on how great it was. Oh my god when he put it on I could not believe what I was hearing. I thought it was awful & not what I expected at all.

That was my feeling exactly. After so much press about Sammy joining the band and the hype surrounding the new album, when I heard "Why Can't This Be Love" on the radio for the first time I was like, "WTF? C'mon, guys... you're Van Halen for fck's sake!"

The Hagar years had their moments, but Van Halen was on top of the rock & roll world during the Roth years. Well, ok... maybe just my world.

 

[tomcat]

DAVID LEE ROTH by a trillion miles!

 

[Tattoo'd Lady]

definitely Roth. i mean Hagar was pretty good, but Van Halen were pretty amazing with Roth and they just never could match up to that era when they had Hagar

 

[Rocker440]

Here we asking the question.. Hager or Roth..
Van Halen with Alex Eddie David and Micheal was the best formula during the years they were on top..
Trying to replace Dave is like trying to replace any other member in the band.. It changes everything..
DAVID ROTH.. was as much of Van Halen as was all the rest.. plain and simple..

I agree! Both the original band and the originality of Van Halen came from DLR, Eddie, Michael and Alex, imo. Many of their signature songs, music and fan base were mostly connected with the albums released in the mid to late 1970's and into the 1980's. Although Van Halen's creativeness may have dwindled at certain times, when the formula of those four, their songwriting and music did change their albums sales probably weren't as good as the earlier albums. Whether Van Hagar went on to greater heights, broke new ground or sold millions more albums, that may be another subject.

That third pic is pretty interesting, Thump! Was Eddie playing a Les Paul or perhaps a customized guitar? If it was a Les Paul was that pic from the earlier VH days?

Although I do like and enjoy Sammy Hagar, both has a solo artist and also within some bands, there weren't a lot of songs from the Van Hagar era that I thoroughly enjoyed, but there are some good ones as well.

Lord Grendel

Brian Johnson did a good job filling in for Bon Scott, but I will always like Bon more...David Lee added the Fun to Van Halen, and they were never as good without him.

I also agree with LG, and with both comments!

I do wonder if at the time when Sammy was hired if the band, or perhaps their management was more interested in the potential for large albums sales, more so than the 'fun' factor.

 

[Dave78]

That third pic is pretty interesting, MP! Was Eddie playing a Les Paul or perhaps a customized guitar? If it was a Les Paul was that pic from the earlier VH days?

Based on the long-sleeved poly/satin shirts, my educated guess tells me the pic is from around 1978 or 1979.

But I'd like to know more about the guitar, too, though. I've only seen Ed play with these:

 

[DaKillerWolf]

Easily Diamond Dave for me. So much so that I think that any Van Halen thread should be located in the 70's rock section.

 

[architect]

DLR, definitley.

Not only did the quality of their music suffer when Sammy joined, they lost that hard, swaggery edge they had with DLR and consequently became a "pop" band. 1984 was their last good album. The only song with Sammy I can say I truly enjoy is Amsterdam.

 

[invader]

ROTH!!! sammy is a brilliant singer though.