Van Halen II is the greatest rock record ever made!

For me, it's no higher then the fourth best VH album.

 

Actually my second fave after Fair Warning.

 

I was a young pup in '79 and bought VHII from an older kid that hated it. Paid 50 cents for it on cassette, I played it non stop that summer. Very fond memories of this album.

 

I'd probably put it at best third (behind debut, Fair Warning, some days depending on my mood even behind Women and Children first).

 

I hear ya. I always play Side 2 first, then Side 1. This way it opens the album with a rockin' tune, then a wicked EV geetar workout, then a full-on rocker. Sort of like the debut album...just sayin'.

 

If you are 13 years old and writing to us from 1979 then I'll agree with you.

 

Dude, don't let us down now. You've ignited your own personal army.

 

Quite honestly, nobody. There's nothing wrong with a band breaking up.

 

I'll agree with you in regards to the reissue sounding great - it does! And it's a great follow-up to one of the greatest debut albums of all-time. Now, had you said Fair Warning is the greatest rock record ever made - it would be hard for me to disagree.

 

And great musicians no longer making music? There IS something wrong with that, as I see it.

 

The reality is that it was a very successful album and tour.
The album fits perfectly into the VH discography and continued the bands upward progression to super stardom.
The bit about greatest rock record ever made......I'm sorry but I can't go along with that hyperbole but I'm glad you enjoy the album it's a blast.

 

Well, that's different. Clapton didn't stop making music when Cream broke up.

 

Why not. Polling the cat and dog produced a dead heat between "Revolver" and "Let it Bleed". As the interspecies tie-break, I voted "Weird Scenes...", which drew vehement objections on technical grounds, but opposable thumbs prevailed. Regardless, the Cole household was unable to resolve the issue by democratic process, so from a statistical standpoint your contention remains equally valid in our precinct.

 

It's a solid record... A total feel good album with surprise moments.

Has one of my absolute favorite Van Halen songs: "Dance The Night Away".

 

He hated it?

 

No it's not.

 

It's not even the best record released that month.

(March 79)

 

Yep. I got a lot of cool stuff from the older guys in my neighborhood as a kid. When KISS became uncool, they all sold me their KISS stuff for dirt cheap.

At 12 I joined Columbia House and got the 12 albums for a penny deal. A high school kid wanted to get into vinyl and I traded my 12 albums even up for his 8-track player and 40-50 8-tracks. All rock, Sabbath catalog, KISS, Nuge, Styx, AC/DC and others. We both walked away from the deal saying "Sucker!" under our breath. It was a killer way for me to get a crash course in rock and roll. Once the other high-schoolers found out I was into 8-tracks, they sold 'em to me for a quarter a pop. Had over 150 of them by the time I was 15.

 

As a Van Halen fan (DLR era) I honestly value this album not to be the greates rock record for me, althoug it's my sun and beaches party album. In the DLR era it sticks at the number 4 spot.

Lately I listen to it more freqeuntly and I enjoy the ride. To follow up such a classic landmark (hard)rock album as it's debut, it's really good. When you look at the rock scene those days, it easily stands in my top 10 albums. It has a party vibe, energy and great/good songs. The ballad Women in Love I dislike the most, not bad, but also not as good as Little Dreamer on the debut. In general the songs are not as toop notch as on the debut, but nevertheless a great (party) rock record !

 

I bought this album the week it was released in April of '79 at the Callifornia World Music Festival at the LA Coliseum where Van Halen supported (aka: blew away) Aerosmith in the 2nd day. The concert was in the stadium but the promoters used the next door LA Sports Arena to host essentially a huge record and music swap meet along with lots of food vendors. The first day (Saturday) we wandered around the Sports Arena and bought a lot of brand new records and band shirts Including VHII and put them in our car and spent the rest of the day enjoying the bands in the stadium. We slept in the car overnight (it was a tiny VW Bug) so we wouldn't have to pay to park again for the 2nd day.

So many of the songs Van Halen played this show, I was hearing for the first time. The was my third time seeing them and it was pretty impressive how they'd grown right into being almost effortless, totally in command of a stadium crowd from the rowdy club band I'd seen just a couple years before. The new songs mostly sounded great, although I thought Michael Anthony's bass solo and intro to You're No Good sounded like a rip-off of what Geezer Butler had been doing for years. Listen to a lot of the bass interludes on '84's Born Again album - it's all there.

It's funny how VHII is mostly more of the pot o' demos they culled the debut album from, yet the album has an entirely different feel, a bit less polished, a bit shorter then the first one. It was also the album I relentlessly burned out that Summer of '79 at the beach via my big boom box hanging out in the sand chatting up the girls and surfing next to the Huntington Beach Pier.

I was always a bit bummed they didn't play Light Up The Sky (well, they did play it at a few shows on the 1980 tour, but not the show I caught) any subsequent tours through 1984. It was cool to finally hear it open the shows for the 2015 tour.

 

I like/love the first one the most then this one

 

http://www.vhnd.com/2014/04/08/35-years-ago-van-halen-plays-the-california-world-music-festival/

 

has grown to become my fave VH album. Ed's playing is intuitive, many of the songs go in unique directions, still sounds fresh to this day.

Alex's drum performance is a marked improvement from the debut, DLR sounds more confident vocally, Mikey lets it rip on bass (II through Fair Warning are his peak albums) and his vocal harmonies become solidified here.

And for the star of the show? what can I say - Ed's playing is beginning to show nuance and texture. II isn't the six string tour-de-force that Fair Warning is, but overall the songs are more consistently great (back to front) IMHO.

 

I agree with that

 

It doesn’t even rise to the level of Lovedrive.