Van Halen at their absolute best

stratman3142

littlegreenman said:

rossyamaha said:

Don't get me wrong. I love DLR. Eat Em And Smile and Skyscraper are 2 of my all time favourite albums ever. 

The only 2 albums I still have on vinyl!...

Great live clip at the OP.

But another +1 for Eat Em And Smile, which is my favourite rock album.

Fortheloveofguitar

I think skyscraper is up there with Eat em and smile. I may be biased though as Vai is my favourite player

Was a great writing partnership though and great that Vai was aloud to put his stamp all over it

Once he joined Whitesnake is was very much run of the mill rock solos which was obviously more in keeping with what the band were about

vasselmeyer

The first Van Hagar album is really good. Some amazing songs but a little too syth-heavy in some places for me. However, stuff like "Summer Nights" is quintessential Eddie. The vocals are a major improvement over DLR's.

DLM

I equally love the best bits of DLR-era Van Halen, most of Van Hagar up to about half of Balance, and chunks of Eat 'Em and Smile.

Skyscraper was a poor follow up and I've made no time for the Cherone album beyond clips.

Danny1969

That early DLR stuff is great, it sounds what it is, a live band playing together, capturing the energy even if that did mean leaving some mistakes in. I like the Sammy period too, certainly he was a better singer than Dave but oddly enough I prefer Dave even if he is late and out of tune half the time live. 

Eat am & Smile and Skyscraper were great as well, I saw one gig of the tour 

Fortheloveofguitar

Danny1969;1107300" said:

Eat am & Smile and Skyscraper were great as well, I saw one gig of the tour 

Seriously jealous right now

fretmeister

I had the OP vid on VHS tape!

Such a massive guitar sound, but with surprisingly little distortion on it. Sounds amazing.

EVH was a massive twonk for firing Michael Anthony, even if they are now using his vocals on a backing tape!

chillidoggy

You're all wrong because the best VH era was in the 70's. That debut album is awesome, and they should have changed the name of the band when Sammy joined. It just sounded like Sammy Hagar with a backing band.

equalsql

For me, the best Van Halen moment was first album, first track

Absolutely outstanding.