Bands not to Have Open for You:- Van Halen
My Son , Wayne ,lent me a DVD 2 days ago , I dropped Chris off at Her Best Friend Corrie's place today for a few days.
So as I am ( in theory) recuperating, and heard news about another good friend of mine passing on,
I put on this DVD of Van Halen , Sammy Hagar on Vocals , suddenly a whole flood of Memories comes Back!
Alex and Eddie van Halen both wanted to be Drummers , I believe that When Alex ( older ) got serious , at first basing his style on Ginger Baker ( ex Cream , Blind Faith and others ) Eddie got a Guitar and I believe kept it on all day regardless of what he was doing and just worked at acquiring all the Chops he could.
I remember the first Van Halen album , about the time of :-https://steemit.com/rockstar/@gavvet/chronicles-of-alan-so-you-want-to-be-a-rockstar-part-4
Unbelievable , The Guitar Solo , Eruption, put most Guitarists into an inadequate, inferior feeling daze!
I , being the fervent reader that I was studied up everything I could find on them, remember, before internet.
A walking Musical Encyclopaedia , would have been a good description of me.
These Guys knew over 700 Cover Songs and played a Minimum of 7 Gigs per week ,
building up a Large Fan Base .
When Black Sabbath came to do a Tour of The USA they made the Huge Mistake of getting this unknown Band ( in their Eyes ) to open for them.
This young , Hungry ,Ambitious Disciplined foursome with David Lee Roth on Vocals,
The Most Acrobatic, Dynamic Front Man ever seen
( I am Biased on this) before or since, Believe he was a Martial Arts Expert , never seen high kicks like that.
After them on comes Black Sabbath , also High but not in the same way. Staggering around on stage this was the death knell for them and not long after they went their separate ways.
Black Sabbath have been together again several times with different line ups but have never really achieved that initial Star Quality they had.
David Lee Roth eventually split from Van Halen and formed a Band with Steve Vai ( frightening on Guitar) and Billy Sheehan on Bass ( To me the only Bassist who could have successfully filled in for John Entwistle of the Who) They did some really Powerful Stuff Together The David Lee Roth Band.
After David , Van Halen recruited Sammy Hagar , not only a Great Vocalist , but also no slouch on Guitar himself , and an excellent songwriter. Also very successful as a Solo Performer.
Later Van Halen 3 had Gary Cherone from Extreme on Vocals ,
also an excellent Singer something did not Gel .
Funny thing , for their First Rehearsal Gary turned up with a T-Shirt slogan on the front said, " Who the F ....is Eddie van Halen?"
Excellent post! Thank you for sharing. ☆☆☆☆☆😎
Glad you enjoyed it, Thank you for the visit , My Friend.
Although Van Halen may have had more talented musicians in their band Black Sabbath wrote numerous classic songs with memorable riffs that have stood the test of time including War Pigs, Paranoid, Iron Man, Black Sabbath, Sweet Leaf, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Into the Void etc.
Agreed 100% Like Motorcycle Racing, Sales etc, you are judged by your last performance! When Bon Jovi was at the height of their fame, they toured SA . A friend of Mine's Daughters were crazy about him. The Sound and Balance was so Bad ( not Bon Jovi's fault) that they asked Gordon to take them home early. I love Black Sabbath , just on this particular Tour , they should have concentrated on their fans rather than their Drug Dealer.
This of course, is all my opinion. Just went to your page, give me a headsup when you start blogging.
I'll have to tell my son about your series - he loves this stuff :) I enjoyed your backstory about Van Halen & Black Sabbath
Thanks, for the appreciation, I must check out you Son's blog.
do, he follows the same trajectory as you
Awesome...longing to hear more...thank you @awgbibb
My Pleasure Thank You for reading , when you have the time the Video's are pretty good, Eddie really changed the way Guitar was played.
It's a magical thing, the guitar. It allows you to be the whole band in one, to play rhythm and melody, sing over the top. And as an instrument for solos, you can bend notes, draw emotional content out of tiny movements, vibratos and tonal things which even a piano can't do.
great
back in da days :) Could you ,please upvote my last article ,really pleased you :)
David Lee Roth had the idea that if you covered a successful song, you were half way home. C'mon - Van Halen doing 'Dancing in the Streets'? It was stupid. I started feeling like I would rather bomb playing my own songs than be successful playing someone else's music.
True but by the time Sammy came along they did a lot more originals! David however , was a Dynamite Front Man!
great