That’s right! Rhino Vinyl has just popped out 3 more classic Van Halen 180 gram vinyl remastered records available to you on the market right now (12/13/2010).
Three More Classic Van Halen Albums – All Remastered from the Original Analog Tapes by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering and Pressed at RTI.
OK, on a personal note, I’ll start with an April 1979 concert at The Cow Palace in San Francisco. This place is like a huge spaceship inside. Well, let me tell you, when Michael Anthony hit those first super-throbbing single bass notes from “Runnin’ With The Devil” (co-incidentally the opening track on their 1st album), the place shook like…oh… I just can’t explain it. It felt like The Cow Palace was lifting off the ground onto a journey to the stars. And that reflection is a testimony to how that 1st Van Halen album was the best thing they ever did. The “1984” album was great too, but anything after the powerful reception of the 1st 1978 LP was an afterthought.
What we have here are 3 albums re-issued featuring the vocals of David Lee Roth. The 1st album was re-issued last year. This year, Rhino continues with “Van Halen II” (1979), “Women And Children First” (1980), and “1984” (actually released at the end of 1983 I believe). The band decided to skip by 1981’s “Fair Warning” and 1982’s “Diver Down”.
I totally agree with the omission of “Diver Down”. It was nothing but a downer in my opinion. The Kinks cover song worked on the 1st album, but on this album it stiffed. By the way, this album has 4 cover songs and they all sounded like 1st run rehearsals to me.
It’s never a good sign when you put 4 cover songs on your new album and the record company releases all of them as the only singles. The covers were “Dancing In The Street”-an old Motown Vandellas hit. “(Oh) Pretty Woman”-the Orbison hit. “Where Have All The Good Times Gone”-a lesser known track by The Kinks, and “Happy Trails”-the old Roy Rogers & Dale Evans closer performed by Van Halen “drunkapella” style…it sounded more like The Coors Cowboys.
The “Fair Warning” album, to be fair (no pun intended), had some more groundbreaking guitar work by Eddie, even though the album really had no big hit single off of it. Even Jimmy Page and Les Paul were blown away by the killer fretboard tapping intro on the leadoff track “Mean Street”…just great work by Eddie. This LP had “Hear About It Later”, “Unchained” and “Mean Street” and I think it deserves a 180g re-issue.
Forget “Diver Down” and all the stuff with Sammy Hagar…Christ, Sammy’s solo recordings rocked harder and better than his Van Halen ones in my opinion.
Van Halen done? Maybe…but not forgotten.
These LP’s are worth every penny of the $24.99 list.
Go for it…you won’t be sorry, for these 4 records will forever ROCK!!!