VAN HALEN RETROSPECTIVE: SAMMY HAGAR WAS TOLD TO GET HIS ARSE BACK TO LA FROM HAWAII TO RECORD HUMANS BEING; WHAM BAM AMSTERDAM, SORRY HAGAR - MARIJUANA REALLY SUCKS DUDE; IS WOLFGANG VAN HALEN THE BEGINNING OF A NEW VAN HALEN DYNASTY?

Van Halen is a band which was as popular in the 80`s as Katy Perry and Pink are now. They were huge, and i have followed the band since i was a kid, and even though i still believe Eddie has something to offer the guitar playing world i really believe his best his behind him. His brother Alex, the drummer for Van Halen, is renowned for having the biggest drum kit of them all, it's huge actually, dont ask me what brand it is but man he almost looks like a midget sitting behind the drum kit even though he is the taller of the Van Halen brothers. I was thinking of writing something about Van Halen's first new studio album in 14 years, A DIFFRENT KIND OF TRUTH, but after looking at some of the new songs off the album, which by the way features David Lee Roth for the first time in 27 years, well full length album anyway, i just was not impressed enough to make the comparison between it and the Hagar era albums, in reference to Sammy Hagar. You get the feeling that the new album is very much a typical reunion recording by a bunch of ageing rockers who just haven't got the stamina or the songwriting touch that they did when they were boozy young rockers in the prime of their life. But instead of that, i thought i would showcase a song which really got Eddie Van Halen's hackles up back in 1995, a song off the Hagar era album BALANCE. The song is called AMSTERDAM and yes Eddie is right, the song has got to be one of the most dumb songs ever written. Like most Van Halen songs, Eddie and Alex wrote the music and Sammy Hagar come along after the event and did write the lyrics around the melody, and it really is nothing more than a paean to smoking marijuana on the part of Hagar. It was probaly where the chemistry between the Van Halen brothers and Hagar went from being strained to being downright volatile, ever since the cocksure Hagar come on board to replace David Lee Roth back in 1985 there has been rumblings about the lyrical direction of Hagar, in view of his more straight ahead ballad leanings towards lyrics. Like them or not, at least most of his lyrics on earlier albums made the listener think, and yes, there's heaps of Van Halen songs featuring Sammy Hagar i like, mostly off the albums 5150 and OU812. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, forget the sleezy title, has got to be one of the most overproduced and stilted albums in hard rock history, the only songs off it which are passable to me are two which no one even mentions, THE DREAM IS OVER and PLEASURE DOME. The rest are junk, Hagar earnt a a grammy for best hard rock vocal performance, which is fair enough, he truly did put in a great performance but it was like no one else in the band even wanted to be there. Totally flat from a heavy rock guitar perspective. BALANCE was much the same, perhaps a bit more in panache on display from the rest of the group but Sammy was still the only one trying hard. The only songs i like off BALANCE is BIG FAT MONEY, which was the best thing Eddie had come up with since 1988, and Alex's drum solo DOIN' TIME, an africana styled drum and percussion extravanganza which made you realise for the first time that Alex could really play drums. His drums always sounded so dry and lacked impact, even on the brilliant early Van Halen albums. Hey, i'm feeling game, what about the gos surrounding the recording of HUMANS BEING for the Twister soundtrack, it is in fact Eddie singing backing vocals to this song, apparently Hagar was in Hawaii to be with his pregnant wife when the Van Halen brothers were in the studio, and Hagar went off his rocker and told Eddie to jam it over the phone when he demanded Hagar get on a plane and get his butt back to LA. He did come back in a huff, and sung the lyrics which EVH had written in haste to meet a production deadline. It definitely is a better song than most of the crap on BALANCE, but it also signalled the moment when Hagar was told to get on his bike and mojo down to Baja. The new Roth album A DIFFRENT KIND OF TRUTH is probaly in the same league as BALANCE, probaly better and more confident, and also note Eddie's young whippersnapper son Wolfgang is now the new bassist in the band. Just wait, what's the bet he eventually switches to lead to create a new Van Halen dynasty which will continue in the coming decades even if Eddie and Alex decide to call it quits down the track. Has David Lee Roth got a son? He can take over on drums, Alex can be the lead singer and Dave can take over lead guitar from Eddie. I can just see Eddie becoming the new triangle player in Van Halen.