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Artist:
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Album:
Van Halen Live: Right Here, Right Now
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Track:
...I've got to come clean, there's a couple of bands from the 80s that I still love that most people don't, among them: Van Halen...Back in the day, the word around the campfire was that Eddie V et al sold out and went for the synthesizer sound...even David Lee Roth thought so at one point... (I heard similar grouses about The Clash's Combat Rock LP when it came out but in my mind it is one of their best albums ever)...dude was just being innovative and his instincts proved to be on the mark because when this LP dropped in January of that year it blew up...I'll say it here, I think the group were at the top of their form when "Diamond" David Lee Roth was round-house kickin' it behind the microphone stand (no matter how crazy he's become since)...and all the misogyny aside (guys my age all recall the tig-ole-bitties that were always prevalent in VH videos)...every time I hear this album, it reminds me of a simpler time in the world of music for me...when it felt good, I listened to it...I started slipping away around the time 5150 dropped (I do like some of the Sammy Hagar stuff too, admittedly)...and my attention to their output has slacked off in the years since...some consider this to be "big-haired-cock-rock" but, plain and simple, I just like the album...since I've been recently gifted with it digitally, it's been bumpin' in my rotation for a week or so, now...
...1984 is not the greatest album ever written, to be sure; that's not a news flash but it sure came right on time-- I've heard influences from this album all over the place, an album that immeditately comes to mind is Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power LP (which is also a great album, by-the-by)...the songs I find myself skipping past all sound like cuts written for the tastes of strip club patrons which includes tracks like "Drop Dead Legs" and "House of Pain", although "Girl Gone Bad" has a few sunny moments... to be honest, I always cut to the tracks posted below...the other day while on my way to a train station, I was shooting through K-town on my bike, down Wilshire, avoiding those grave-sized pot holes, weaving in after-work rush hour traffic when I realized I was screaming the chorus to this cut at the top of my lungs (and shaking my ass while doing so)...a car load of peeps getting off work pulled up beside me at a red light and started yelling it with me...fuggin' California, yo...
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