van Halen ambulance chasers

Devil#20

axisus said:

It's no surprise at all. People who don't understand are maybe short of empathy.

Was that a dig at me?

SPECTRUM001

TeleMaster said:

LPManic said:

This is not surprising to me. And you wonder why certain artists like MJ and Prince appear to die before their time.

Because of drug addiction?

I used to think it quite shocking how many famous people die younger than they should, and then I came to the conclusion that loads of people do - just that we hear about the rock stars.

Btw, Lou Reed’s career has never been better (probably helped by him not being around to sabotage interviews etc).

darthed1981

SPECTRUM001 said:

Btw, Lou Reed’s career has never been better (probably helped by him not being around to sabotage interviews etc).

Morrissey's death is probably the only way to salvage his reputation at this point.

When just the music is there to speak for you, it can help.

Funkfingers

axisus said:

People who don't understand are maybe short of empathy.

People with some emotional investment will currently be registering a sense of loss. For everyone else on the planet, it matters very little. 

Blueingreen

Advertising exists for a reason: publicity increases sales.

Van Halen has just has a colossal tsunami of publicity. People don’t like to speak ill of the dead and it’s been overwhelmingly positive. Front page news everywhere. Lots of people with followers and influence talking about how much his music and/or playing mattered to them. It’s like a free billion dollar advertising campaign.

 I can’t understand why anyone would be surprised by a massive upsurge in sales. Seriously, what did you think was going to happen?

Kebabkid

Teyeplayer said:

Or there’s the other possibility: having only ever really heard the ‘hits’, person A has read enough obits in the last few days to convince them that EV might be worth checking out and buys several albums to investigate the back catalogue. 

Is that ambulance chasing? Is there an unwritten rule that states when someone dies we can nolonger engage with their music? 

I’d imagine a good chunk fit into that category, people simply don’t read about music in the same way as we did in the days of the mainstream music press. If it takes an obituary to discover an artists work, as sad as that is, at least they have now discovered that artists work.

This happened with Pink Floyd after Live 8 - their sales went up 300%

I'm a lifelong fan and have all their output, including the Starfleet EP with Brian May and they were theirs was the first concert I ever saw (Woman and Children First Tour, 1980 at The Rainbow, Finsbury Park). However, I, too, have been guilty of looking at the EVH guitars this week.

LPManic

TeleMaster said:

LPManic said:

This is not surprising to me. And you wonder why certain artists like MJ and Prince appear to die before their time.

Because of drug addiction?

They are more valuable dead than alive. But yes also drug addictions.

fretmeister

It's not ambulance chasing.

Sometimes it's in genuine tribute or finally getting round to doing something a person has intended to do for a long time.

But there will be plenty of younger generation guitarists who weren't really aware of him who now decide to see what the fuss was about. That happens a lot - the press coverage leads to people discovering an artist who hasn't been in the public eye for a long time.

Lets face it - the only time VH has been in the press for about the last decade is just through talk of reunions rather than anything actually happening.

It's quite nice that the discussions are about what a great band VH were.

And even nicer that CD sales have gone through the roof - there are surviving members with families that still have to eat.

Schnozz

I have all the VH album's, I've seen David Lee Roth live and I have a Hagar-esque Kramer, but I'd never buy a Striped Series. I don't know why. I tuned in to Chris Holmes' YouTube where they interviewed him about growing up with Van Halen and Banali.

BlueStrat

VH passed me by entirely, i’ve played a few tunes on spotify since the news of his passing. I’d heard of Jump but that was about it tbh

UnclePsychosis

BlueStrat said:

VH passed me by entirely, i’ve played a few tunes on spotify since the news of his passing. I’d heard of Jump but that was about it tbh

The ironic thing being that Jump has fuck all guitar in it other than a totally forgettable solo. 

EVH was a bloody guitar genius, such a shame that their biggest hit is a synth number. 

BlueStrat

UnclePsychosis said:

BlueStrat said:

VH passed me by entirely, i’ve played a few tunes on spotify since the news of his passing. I’d heard of Jump but that was about it tbh

The ironic thing being that Jump has fuck all guitar in it other than a totally forgettable solo. 

EVH was a bloody guitar genius, such a shame that their biggest hit is a synth number. 

What would you say were the best five VH songs to listen to as an introduction to them?
i really did know very little about VH, other than that one

DulcetJones

BlueStrat said:

What would you say were the best five VH songs to listen to as an introduction to them?
i really did know very little about VH, other than that one

I would suggest the first album. 

Devil#20

BlueStrat said:

What would you say were the best five VH songs to listen to as an introduction to them?
i really did know very little about VH, other than that one

I would say get the compilation CD Best of both Worlds. It's got a lot of good stuff on it. It's a mix of Dave Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar on it. I personally thought Sammy Hagar was a much better singer. I remember him from his days with Montrose. DLR was the ultimate show man though. I can understand how he used to piss the other band members off though.

darcym

perhaps there is an element of "I didn't really know much about $artist, if people are making this fuss I'll research, wow, I love this, I need to get and listen to it'  I know when I've stumbled across an artist (admittedly not by death) I've gone all in on an artist because it connected with me, if I didn't already know about Van Halen and found out about him due to the media coverage of his death, I'd probably buy his back catalogue, would I do it with inflated prices, no, as you say the media will be back in stock so there is no demand problem 

EricTheWeary

BlueStrat said:

UnclePsychosis said:

BlueStrat said:

VH passed me by entirely, i’ve played a few tunes on spotify since the news of his passing. I’d heard of Jump but that was about it tbh

The ironic thing being that Jump has fuck all guitar in it other than a totally forgettable solo. 

EVH was a bloody guitar genius, such a shame that their biggest hit is a synth number. 

What would you say were the best five VH songs to listen to as an introduction to them?
i really did know very little about VH, other than that one

You'll get every VH track suggested eventually! 

Other people will be more familiar than me but you could just put on the Fair Warning album which is about 32 minutes long in total.
Possibly their most coherent album as a band and had their first ( I'm fairly sure) forays into synths. Their poorest selling album at the time but often the most loved. Having listened to that if you want more guitar moments go to the earlier albums, if you want something more,err, fun then the later Roth era albums and if you want something that's more commercial rock with a clever guitarist then the Hagar period. 

axisus

Devil#20 said:

axisus said:

It's no surprise at all. People who don't understand are maybe short of empathy.

Was that a dig at me?

Honestly - No. Just a very generalised throw away comment. No offence intended.

Devil#20

axisus said:

Devil#20 said:

axisus said:

It's no surprise at all. People who don't understand are maybe short of empathy.

Was that a dig at me?

Honestly - No. Just a very generalised throw away comment. No offence intended.

None taken then.

It put me on a low ebb this week to be fair, as it does with any artist I've grown up with and listened to when they die. Van Halen as a band were pretty much done and dusted a few years ago now and Eddie has had cancer for at least 10 years and was in and out of hospital. Therefore, it wasn't entirely unexpected. He made amends later in life but unfortunately that train had left the station. Still too young though. Sometimes wonder how people like Keith Richards and Ozzy Osborne are still going.   

Pabcrane

DulcetJones said:

BlueStrat said:

What would you say were the best five VH songs to listen to as an introduction to them?
i really did know very little about VH, other than that one

I would suggest the first album. 

This is exactly what I was going to say!

Alex2678

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekbusjN8WNY&feature=share