ALEX VAN HALEN WAS DOING TIME WHILE EDDIE VAN HALEN LIT UP A CIGARETTE

Writing about this shouldn't take too long because the tune doesn't even last two minutes and there's no singing, no guitars, just a drum kit and ALEX VAN HALEN thrown in. The more shy of the Van Halen brothers was renowned for having an unusually less impact style of drumming for someone in a hard rock outfit, a style well suited to the original David Lee Roth era of the band when the band's output was overwhelmingly improvised and rarely song based. Once Roth was gone and the band adopted a much more song based style with Sammy Hagar singing, Alex Van Halen's dry snare was found lacking a lot more often when Eddie's new found sense of workmanlike melody on albums like 5150 and OU812 could have done with some more intense drumming in place of Alex's typical style. AVH is a wonderful drummer with one of the biggest drum kits ever concieved, but he tended to be drowned out by his brother and the other bandmates because so often you couldn't hear his drums above all the other noise in the band. The tune DOIN' TIME provided a rare oppurtunity for AVH to have a bit of solo fun on his own. Very much like something off the album DIVER DOWN from the Roth era of the band, loose, improvised, freeform and uncharacteristically for a tune from the Hagar era - not over produced.