DLR gave VH a rough and tumble sound that was half fun and half menace. He was at home singing "Beautiful Girls" or "Dance The Night Away" as he was "Mean Streets" or "Atomic Punk." What he didn't have in vocal range he made up for in character and charisma. The reason Eddie split with Dave (aside from Dave's rampant ego) was Eddie's desire to be taken seriously as a respected musician. He wasn't going to get that from being the guitarist in the video for "Hot For Teacher," and DLR never really wanted to go terribly far out from the party boy stance he had been using since the first album.

Sammy was a much more middle of the road kind of guy, someone who sang more about the rock and roll lifestyle than he probably actually lived. He was a singer that paid more attention to melody than DLR ever did, but he never hit the kind of heights DLR did, either (one could argue that he never hit the lows DLR did as well). Sammy wasn't the kind of focal point Diamond Dave was, and since he didn't have the raging ego of Dave, Eddie could pretty much run the show. That doesn't mean Sammy had no creative input (I highly doubt Dave would ever have written "Cabo Wabo"), but his role was to take what Eddie gave him and stick to it. And while I think 5150 and OU812 are both very good albums, even to this day it feels like something is missing, and that something is the freewheeling fun and unpredictability Dave brought to the band.

And the idea that Eddie lost his "edge" really is missing the point. Sammy had nothing to do with the sound of Van Halen, he didn't convince Eddie that synths were the way to go. Eddie had already wanted to focus more on synths and Dave was standing in his way. And there are rockers on all the Sammy albums that are musically as vicious as the DLR-era stuff, they just sound less unique because Sammy is a much more straightforward kind of rocker than Dave was.

So, to sum it up, both had their good and their bad, but I personally much prefer the David Lee Roth era.

You need to watch the clip with the sound on if that's all you got from that video. I was just commenting on the opening of the song. That Dave at least puts a little in to it. I could give a rat's ass who is a "better singer" and has a better vocal range. Van Halen to me is the David Lee Roth era.

To be fair, a random Sammy clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lit8LbTQQZo

Post Dave is just bubblegum music to me. To paraphrase Neil Young, "It's all the same song."

No I think it was Daves ego and Eddies ego. It was and will always be Eddies band(in his mind).


Oh for me VH is david Lee Ego! sammy who!

my advice for Eddie, stay off the alcohol and remember it's only rock-n-roll!

dont take it so seriously.

There's no question DLR was, and to some degree still is, a showman. I'm just saying that VH has always made good music (hell, even 3 had some good songs, even if cherone didn't fit the band AT ALL), regardless of the singer, and that Sammy and Dave are equally as good and in spite of the vast differences in style and what they brought to the band.

I've never seen the band live with Dave, but I've seen DLR solo a few times. And I think I saw every tour from Ou812 on with Sammy...and even a few Waborita shows.

If that's true, it's ironic, because post-Dave Van Halen is pretty much the beginning of the end.

Eddie was a respected musician since the first Van Halen album, and it wasn't until 5150 that he started dicking around with synths and keyboards to the detriment of the band.

Most of the Van Hagar albums are filled with nothing but generic, disposable pop. Most of Eddie's best guitar work is found on the first six albums, and not the four Hagar albums.

(I've long said that "Eat'em and Smile" would have been a better seventh Van Halen album than 5150.)

Eat 'Em and Smile is a great album! It's MUCH closer to the classic Van Halen sound than 5150 or OU812 were.

I've always thought that Gary was put into a difficult situation at a bad time. I wouldn't have said he's wrong for Van Halen. If anything, I think he was a good combination of what Dave brought to VH in the early years and what Sammy brought in the latter years. They had the potential to make a really kick-butt VH album and instead put out some artsy-fartsy crap that people subsequently ignored. But that, again, shouldn't say that Gary was wrong for the band. I would have liked to see him stay longer to see (and hear) what they could do next.

ive always thought that too

Did the band ever finish that 2nd album with Gary before his depature? I saw Van Halen live with Gary in 1998 and I agree he was a good fit for the band. I just think that the fans were to hard on that album and singer. I read an article that Gary is possibly making a new Extreme album again with guitar wizard Nuno Bettencourt. That is awesome if true, they were a great band and should have no problem making another great album. III Sides To Every Story one of the best albums of the 1990's imo. http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/...l?200708150235
Extreme's myspace page: http://myspace.com/extreme

Also I bought the Van Halen digipack greatest hits CD a couple months ago with both Roth/Hagar material and was pissed as shit to see Without You and Fire In The Hole snubbed from 3. Those VH songs rock. I just think it's a shame...

Having seen the band with both Roth and Hagar, and each both solo, I will easily give the nod to Roth being the better show with Van Halen. The '81 Fair Warning tour show I saw them on is still one of my top three concerts of all-time! I cannot say nearly the same of any show I saw them with during the Hagar years.

Solo, however, I prefer Sammy's show - and that's always been my thing where his being in the band is concerned. While he made some decent music with Van Halen, I just prefer Sammy as a solo artist more, and I think he's much better off on his own. I dig Dave's solo stuff, too, but Roth with Van Halen is, and always will be my "definitive" version of the band.

I also agree that Cherone just ended up being not right for the band at all. Based on listening to the first Extreme album alone, you might not think so, and I have no issue with his singing in that band. But with VH, my biggest problem was that, to me at least, he spent the whole time aping Sammy Hagar's style rather than using his own. And that I was not down with.

If you guys havent seen David Lee Roth in concert recently then this is what you can expect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjUDXKgknJg

Who still wants to buy tickets?

How many think that VH is touring now to make quick cash, but in 2008 spring/summer they will join with Sammy & Micheal Anthony for a big outdoor arena tour.

Well, a year ago, Eddie looked more like Iron Maiden's mascot Eddie than the guitarist from Van Halen, and he seems to have pulled himself together quite a bit.

I'm sure Roth will not be as good as he was back in the old days, but if he puts more effort into it, he'll be okay.

I believe that it's Eddie's fault. It's not that Cherone wasn't right for the band, it's that VH kept going wimpier and wimpier. And that was all under Eddie's watch/control. VH started going in the keyboard direction during 1984. Sammy was a rocker, but once he joined VH, it was all ballads and really wimpy rock. Cherone just came on and did what Eddie told him.

I agree totally. Checkout Extreme songs "Decadence Dance", Its A Monster", "No Respect", "Get The Funk Out", "Hip Today", "Waiting For The Punchline", "Cupids Dead", "Rest In Peace". It's so obvious Gary was a solid fit for the band and is highly capable of rocking out. I enjoyed 3 but it felt like Eddie was just totally dominating the project and to bring Mike Post in, man that was not a good choice for the mix. They got some solid Van Halen songs out of Gary but Eddie just had to big of an ego to let it slide. Listen to Extreme's Waiting For The Punchline and how raw of a rock album Gary as a singer is capable of doing and than go listen to 3. Eddie should have went in a different direction with the album.

All part of Daves master plan!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX9qc...elated&search=

I agree...I miss Extreme. 3 sides to every story is an excellent album and cherone is a good frontman.

It looks like they may be reuniting and Gary and Nuno are writing new songs for an album to be released possibly in 2008. I found this on youtube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLfzn6pI5mU

I went into this not knowing what to expect, when Dave started singing Jump looking all happy and shit I just started laughing out loud.

What the hell happened at the end of that video? Did Gary decide he didn't want to be recorded? :lol:

I just saw Extreme this past Sunday night. They debuted a new song called 'Rock and Roll Man' in honor of the late Brad Delp; song was quite good, very Beatle-ish and featured Nuno on keyboards!

Have you seen the Aerosmith/Tyler one? The guy at the end is too funny and, earlier he does tell him to shut it off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3S3dOTww48

Not that this has anything to do with anything that's been talked about recently, but I was just thinking about how the show might start. As you know, all of your big groups have some kind of kick-ass start to their shows (like Rush, for example). I was thinking the lights would go down, a synthesizer would start playing a low, continuous A note, and after about a half minute of the crowd going nuts, you'd hear the opening chords of "Best of Both Worlds". Then, you hear a needle scratching across a record, and Dave exclaims, "What the hell was THAT?!?", and Eddie starts the opening chords of "You Really Got Me". The lights come up and the show begins.

Anyone else got any ideas?

I'd like for the lights to go down and then a single spotlight would shine down on Eddie as he hammered into the opening riff of "Mean Streets".

I like this, except I like the thought of EVH silencing critics right out of the gate by playing "Eruption".

I like the idea of Mean Street going first also. The intro to that song is awesome, and then the riff is about as good as it gets.