Van Halen---The debate to end it all.

Extreme hasn't broken up. Nuno is just making some cash. The world's most criminally underrated band will be back together at some point.

And Nuno would play Eddie under the table. Ditto for Gary and singing Roth or Hagar under the table. #DiehardExtremeFanboi

 

Laser of death and a disco ball!

Just sayin'

 

I guess I'll be another bad guy, because I agree with this, for the most part. I don't know if I'd call For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge great, but it's pretty close to excellent. And as for Balance, I never really listened to it until a year or two ago, and it turned out to be good, in my opinion -- better than I expected. It wasn't as good as For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, but it's got some nice tunes. I think it just had the misfortune of being released in 1995, when musical tastes had shifted away from bands like Van Halen.

 

In the 1970s, Hagar was the leadoff act on several big tours, and blew some big names (particularly Boston) off the stage with awesome songs like Red and Plain Jane. And Standing Hampton is one one of the best albums of the 1980s. Hagar pales in comparison to Roth in VH, tho, because Hagar was saddled with Synth Eddie

 

I was born around the time the switch from Dave to Sammy was made, so I'm hoping you (or anyone) might be able to answer this: Did Synth Eddie come about because of Sammy, or was Synth Eddie just going to happen anyway? I'd be willing to give Sammy some leeway if it were the latter but, even then, it's Diamond Dave and it's not even close.

 

Synth Eddie was in full effect on 1984, written and recorded with Big Dave on board.

See "Jump."

Pretty much everybody soaked everything in synths in the mid-80s, see "Born In The U.S.A."

 

Well, yeah, I noticed it on "Jump." But, off the top of my head, the rest of "1984" was pretty normal.

EDIT: OK, except for "I'll Wait."

 

Would Van Halen have gotten as much mainstream attention as it did had Eddie not snagged Valerie Bertinelli?

 

For me, a Diamond Dave-era VH fanboi from their debut, it's no contest. Van Hagar had the odd moment here or there but never came remotely close to producing anything as great as the first two albums, 1984, Women and Children First and the underrated Fair Warning.

And I had no idea Hagar was that old. Wow. And I will agree that Standing Hampton was a pretty good album.

 

Van Halen didn't draw 100,000-plus people to the 1983 US Festival just because Eddie was married to Valerie Bertinelli.

And while we're on the subject of Mr. Edward Van Halen:

 

Van Hagar wasn't necessarily bad, but it was nowhere in the same ballpark as with Dave.

 

Roth was the best at the time. He's a joke now.

Hagar was very good at the time. He can still bring it.