SofaKingWhat Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 They had the makings of a great band, and in many respects they are, but why oh why did the have to write so many lovey dovey songs.The potential to be a killer rock band with Eddies guitar work was right there, and indeed, they have some good rock songs but the majority of their back catalogue is cringe worthy. Why dammit? Why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian 1200 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 because they sucked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Rose Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 I've asked myself the same question over, and over, and over, and over.... and over again. They had the goods, but the goods got rot before they really got using them.Thank god for them existing tho, we wouldnt have some of the great bands today without them being as idols. Like Pantera wouldnt have existed without VH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Niveen Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 VH were very popular in the US, but not in Europe. Some US bands always had great difficulty in the European market : Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Stone Temple Pilots...GNR have luck because they can tour and make huge concerts in Europe and South America even if, in the US, the band isn't as popular anymore as back in the '90s. That's something other US bands can't do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ohdistortedsmile1789 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 Van Halen always had a very fun, sentimental kind of sound, I love their so-called "wussiness". In fact, it's the main reason I like them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artfromtex Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 They had the makings of a great band, and in many respects they are, but why oh why did the have to write so many lovey dovey songs.The potential to be a killer rock band with Eddies guitar work was right there, and indeed, they have some good rock songs but the majority of their back catalogue is cringe worthy. Why dammit? Why?now, are you talkin' about Van HALEN, or Van HAGAR? Van Hagar had alot of "wussy" songs. in the Roth-era, they didn't have any. could you be more specific? song titles for example. what makes you cringe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yamisonic Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 David Lee Roth era, above all.Other eras ... Well ... They completely damn sucked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabre Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 Van Halen always had a very fun, sentimental kind of sound, I love their so-called "wussiness". In fact, it's the main reason I like them.+1 I love the 'wussy songs'.Dave era was much better, and much better from a guitarists point of view. But I love the 'pop' era with hagar as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCGNR Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 Van Halen was a great band.The main problem, I think, is that they took Rock from the Seriousness of Zeppelin, and started the wholeBig Hair and Smiling thing. The were MTV's darlings at first, and were a little cheesy in their presentation.I definitely blame them for the whole Hair Band phase because it seemed all of them wanted to copy VH.It's a shame, you are right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moreblack Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 but with Roth all they did was covers anyway since Roth would write one song every 6 months or something.Not that Roth could sing anyway. All he did was "talk" thru the songs and make those stupid squeals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoubleTalkinJive Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 VH were very popular in the US, but not in Europe. Some US bands always had great difficulty in the European market : Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Stone Temple Pilots...I'm pretty sure Whitesnake was bigger in Europe than they were in the US.I have 3 Roth albums and there aren't any wussy songs on them. Sure, their sound got a lot softer with Hagar and the party attitude was kinda gone but they were still great, some nice ballads. Too bad Eddie isn't doing a fuckin thing right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JONEZY Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 The synth songs were more pop oriented, but still good. "Jump" is a great song, but I rarely listen to it. I want tohear Ed's guitar.By the way if you think Van Halen was wussy, listen to"Fair Warning" and tell me if you still feel the same way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moreblack Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 VH were very popular in the US, but not in Europe. Some US bands always had great difficulty in the European market : Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Stone Temple Pilots...I'm pretty sure Whitesnake was bigger in Europe than they were in the US.Plus, Whitesnake's not American. They're English. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoubleTalkinJive Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 The synth songs were more pop oriented, but still good. "Jump" is a great song, but I rarely listen to it. I want tohear Ed's guitar.Well, I think the Jump solo, though short, is one of Eddie's best solos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SofaKingWhat Posted April 11, 2006 Author Share Posted April 11, 2006 The synth songs were more pop oriented, but still good. "Jump" is a great song, but I rarely listen to it. I want tohear Ed's guitar.By the way if you think Van Halen was wussy, listen to"Fair Warning" and tell me if you still feel the same way.I never said they never did any decent songs, I mean mostly though, it's all cheesy love songs. It just seemed such a waste of Eddies guitar skills to be in a band with mostly shit songs. Man without eddies guitar work here and there they would have been a boy band... kind of Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slash's armpit Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 (edited) Van Halen were an amazing band during the David Lee Roth era. They're still one of one of my favourites. I think they performed to the best of their ability, but I have to admit that after "1984" it all went downhill. They started relying to heavely on the keyboards and supressed the true nature of the band. Edited April 11, 2006 by Slash's armpit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JONEZY Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 My feeling is, when Dave quit(yes he quit), Sammy joined. Sammy Hagar, like him or not, can sing. Dave could not. So Ed wrote songs that Sammy could pull off(ie: hit the high notes), unfortunately some of them were keyboard oriented songs. However, the strategy worked. Van Halen continued to sell out concerts and all their albums went platinum. Only the Cherone era was a dissapointment.If you want to hear VH rock like mother-fuckers, listen to all the Roth-ear LP's. They all kick ass.PEACE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Painkiller545 Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 Van Halen always had a very fun, sentimental kind of sound, I love their so-called "wussiness". In fact, it's the main reason I like them.i agree. although their songs were sounding like a pussy lover wrote it, the songs had feeling to it. You dont need some Heavy "lets break things" band for it to be popular. You need good songs. Thats the main reason why i play their music alot whrn im dating. TW@ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Top Jimmy Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 If you remember, they didn't write to many until 5150 and not as much after that. I think they wanted to show that they could have sucess w/out Dave and good love song = commercail sucsess, especially in the cheesy 80s's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirsty Rose Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 David Lee Roth was the best frontman for Van Halen. When he was with the band, that's when all their best songs were made in my opinion. I love a lot of his solo stuff too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genesis Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 Dreams is THE American anthem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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