Criticising The Best: Van Halen

[mrbrownstone]

Sorry for the lateness but it is time for the third instalment in this series, this time featuring Van Halen.

Van Halen formed 1972 and released their eponymous debut album 1977, since then they have released 11 studio albums and are currently in the studio working on their 12th which is slated for release sometime this year. Van Halen have been through a few different line ups throughout the years, featuring three different vocalists (Sammy Hagar, David Lee Roth and Gary Cherone) and two different bassists (Michael Anthony and Wolfgang Van Halen) although Wolfgang hasn't actually done anything yet.

Anyway, as sad as it is to say about such an amazing band I do have a few criticisms.

First, the treatment of Michael Anthony. Seriously, they kicked out one of their founding members and their longtime bassist for Eddie Van Halen's son, that is a real dick move in my opinion. Whats more is they called the subsequent tour a reunion tour. They even replaced his face with Wolfgangs on the album cover pictures, that is not cool in my opinion.

Musically speaking I have fewer criticisms. Although, anything they released post 1990 and especially anything with Gary Cherone is not especially good in my opinion, in fact any thing post David Lee Roth with the odd exception is not all that good in my opinion. I was never a huge Hagar fan, he had his moments but he was nowhere near DLR.

That's it from me, what criticisms do you have of Van Halen?

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I do not have much to contribute to this thread sadly. Van Halen have never been a band who have particularly interested me, although I can certainly appreciate Eddie Van Halen's talent on the guitar- he is phenomenal.

I do not know enough of Van Halen's back catalogue to make an accurate statement regarding their strengths and weaknesses, but I have read about the issue you covered in your post Brownstone.

First, the treatment of Michael Anthony. Seriously, they kicked out one of their founding members and their longtime bassist for Eddie Van Halen's son, that is a real dick move in my opinion. Whats more is they called the subsequent tour a reunion tour. They even replaced his face with Wolfgangs on the album cover pictures, that is not cool in my opinion.

That is an absolutely shitty thing to do. I have always hated how a band tries to remove all memory of a former member, some even going as far as to re-record videos with the new member taking the place of the original, or rerecording albums to completely eliminate the old member from history. Bullshit imo.

How the hell can Van Halen call a tour a "reunion" tour when they have just kicked out Anthony? It is a complete lie, and replacing his face on previous album covers is appaling. Real long term fans are never going to appreciate something like this, as everyone will know Anthony was a major part of those tracks, not Wolfgang. If a band ends up replacing a member, then sometimes these things happen, but trying to pretend he never existed? Not cool. Michael Anthony was a key factor in those songs sounding the way they did, and should deservedly be remembered as such. He played his part and VH have no right to cut him out from the things he was involved in.

 

[El Rev sXe]

As always, I have to agree with Naitch here. I don't like Van Halen, I can listen for some of their stuff, but I don't agree that they are one the biggest bands on the planet, maybe in the US but not on the planet. With my brother we are always joking that Eddie Van Halen had the AGSB syndrome: Amazing Guitarist, Shitty Band. That's my main problem, I think that Eddie could do amazing music outside glam, but whatever.

I didn't knew about this Brownstone:

First, the treatment of Michael Anthony. Seriously, they kicked out one of their founding members and their longtime bassist for Eddie Van Halen's son, that is a real dick move in my opinion. Whats more is they called the subsequent tour a reunion tour. They even replaced his face with Wolfgangs on the album cover pictures, that is not cool in my opinion.

What a piece of shit! Seriously, kicking an original memebr and replace him with your OWN SON? Talking about being an asshole! Anyway those are my 2 cents...

 

[Post]

When I was a child, I absolutely loved Van Halen. Their music videos always seemed so cool, over the top, and ground-breaking. Looking back, I guess the spandex, headbands, & pelvic thrusting wasn't all that great.

Musically, I still love the band today. With David Lee Roth, Van Halen was just feel good music...nothing all that deep. They lived a party lifestyle as seen through songs like Dance the Night Away, Runnin’ with the Devil, Jump, Hot for Teacher, and Panama.

When Sammy Hagar joined the band they really started creating more meaningful music with deeper lyrics. I can't say I listened to anything after Sammy Hagar left the band. But Sammy’s contributions were great! Songs like Dreams, Why Can’t This Be Love, Can’t Stop Lovin’ You, Right Now, and Don’t Tell Me (What Love Can Do) are really worth a listen.



I do have Van Halen's Best of Volume 1 on my MP3 player and can listen to it all of the way through. It is great when I decide to take a long run, and it can get me through about 6 miles.

Since the thread is about criticizing, I will add this. Van Halen has always been their own biggest fans. They have always thought that they were bigger, more relevant, and more important than they actually ever were. The Van Halen’s are egomaniacs and Eddie is a gigantic asshole…a very talented gigantic asshole. The only way any of them are worth a shit is TOGETHER!

 

[Davi323]

I do have to point out that kicking Michael Anthony out of the band wasn't just to put in Wolfgang. There were other reasons, having to do with the ongoing feud between Eddie Van Halen and Sammy Hagar. While Sammy was in Van Halen, Michael Anthony and Sammy became good friends. When Sammy left, while Van Halen was on hiatus, Anthony began playing with Sammy. Eddie viewed that as a betrayal. Anthony says he never quit Van Halen, Eddie says he did. Michael Anthony's role had diminished, where he was almost a part time band member already by 2004, and Wolfgang didn't join the band until 2006. Based on that, its a hard sell to claim that they kicked him out specifically to replace him with Wolfgang.

Granted, knowing who is telling the truth between ANY member of Van Halen requires a lot of teeth pulling. The band has never been upfront about almost anything. A lot of it is he said/she said kind of stuff. I don't know the exact reasons why the decision was made, just pointing out that to blame it all on Wolfgang is simplistic, and probably not completely accurate. There were issues already.