Van Halen Diver Down Song by Song Thread

Yes. Same mastering, but for collectability I have this one. Very cool.

 

Haha that's the same one I have! It even still has the smooth-sided case. I also have the Made in Japan Target for 1984.

 

The covers are the least of its problems, for me. Look at how it breaks down:

4 'proper' originals, only two of which are any good IMO
2 original but brief & inconsequential instrumentals - just intros, really
5 covers, all bar one of which are better than half of the 4 'proper' originals

If they wanted to do this many covers, they should've done an entire album of them; a career interlude, which could've been a lot of fun judging by these and their earlier covers. Instead, DD was a varied but ultimately unsatisfying Chinese finger buffet of an album, which at the time was widely attributed to burnout/lack of time/lack of material - the latter, with the power of hindsight, being completely untrue, now that we know what great stuff they'd stockpiled since the early days. Makes no sense at all!

 

Lack of time was the main thing in my belief

 

That's probably the people who are Team Eddie no matter what, cause that was his complaint

 

-where have all the good times gone-I actually think this is a boring cover by the band and not as good as the kinks original. we already had 1 kinks cover by them. no need for another

 

An awesome opener. Only VH could take a cover and do that. Talk about being confident in your art!

 

WHATGTG...
Sounds almost like a mono, narrow stereo, mix?
Love the original RD lyrics and DLR's lead vocal here. He nails it.
EVH's guitar 'laugh' fills after the verses and before the choruses are a lot of fun. Seem like a snide and apropos commentary about the lyrics.
There's really not much of a guitar solo in this tune, short and harmonious, it's a little more 'subtle' but effective.
Love the crunchy guitar and throbbing bass and the steady, driving beat in this song and the classic sounding backing vocals. No frills production, No nonsense, a perfect kind of 3 minute R&R 'single' imo.
Album off to a really good start!

 

Just put Diver Down LP on turn table original press

 

It’s a good sounding lp. Much better sounding than the original WB cd. I replaced the cd rip with a needledrop for my digital listening pleasure

 

Their cover of Where Have All the Good Times Gone is one of those VH tunes that I enjoy on the rare occasions that I listen to all of Diver Down (or most of it, since a few tunes here are very skip-worthy), but rarely do I randomly pick this song to listen to. It's a solid cover, and certainly catchy, but not really noteworthy at all.

 

I've been traveling and couldn't respond until now so I'll just add a few comments on my recollection of the album and the tour. I was a HUGE Van Halen fan when this one came out and it pretty much left me scratching my head. What the hell was this album? Was it a serious endeavor by the band? It seemed disjointed, overly jocular, and, frankly, it was pretty disappointing as a young rock fan who anxiously awaited every Van Halen released with bated breath.

I remember spinning it and thinking, "oh, another Kinks song, that figures" and, really, "Where Have All The Good Times Gone" is kind of a slower, more laconic version of several other early Kinks classics like "You Really Got Me" or even "All Day and All of the Night" (both of which, as we know, Van Halen covered in their early days and on record). That said, Van Halen covers it well and does a fine job with this one.

I find it interesting that Eddie has pretty much disowned this record over the years. The fact was Eddie wasn't that involved in this one and it was more of a Roth undertaking (hence the more jocular, eclectic nature of the album and why Eddie doesn't like it) probably says something truly revealing about the album, but whatever.

I remember reading a Martin Popoff review of Diver Down where he was pretty scathing of DD. He kind of called out the band for releasing what was, essentially, a lazy effort and it really is. For a band that was always less than prolific in terms of song craft, Diver Down is right up there in terms of a band 'mailing it in (only to be rivaled by, perhaps, 1984 and ADKOT). It certainly seems Eddie, by 1982, had lost all desire to collaborate with Roth in any real meaningful manner thus recycling older tunes and relying on joke material and whatever else came to mind. That said, there are still some really great songs on Diver Down and that's going to happen when you have a musical genius like Eddie throwing even half baked ideas against the wall with the clever ringmaster that was DLR.

We'll get to it, but I'm just going to add that Eddie's finger picking (tapping?) on "Little Guitars" from 3:03 to the end is better than anything Mark Knopfler ever came up with to date. It smokes.

As to the show for the tour, I remember little of it as it blends with the other times I had seen Van Halen previously, but it did seem the band was a little weary and maybe running on fumes a bit. The stage banter, the solos, etc were all something I had heard before. So, in a sense, it was much like the album: kind of going through the motions, but with Van Halen, even that is better than the majority of bands can do.

 

where is the next song?

 

Tomorrow morning or afternoon

 

Hang Em High:

We launch into our first original on the album, stemming from a 1977 demo called Last Night, and Dave changed the lyrics and vocal melody.
The song starts with some rapid guitar riffing, with Mike and Al coming in at :07, and they add a great pocket, a sort of groove that was largely absent in all the speed metal bands that followed (btw, I like my fair share of speed metal). And Dave is excellent as always, I love the opening line so much "somewhere, he lost his mind. Now Trouble seems to fit him like a glove", I don't know, it's just cool, don't question prime David Lee Roth's coolness. And I gotta say, pleased that we are still getting a little bit of Mike here, not that he was ever the flashiest bassist, but in a lot of the albums after this, you don't even hear bass half the time. And Eddie has such a tasty solo at 1:28, but with that Eddie Van Halen flavor, seriously, this guy wasn't Yngvie by any stretch, much more tasteful than people give him credit for.
A solid traditional Van Halen speed rocker, but a damn good one though.

 

Live At Fargo:

 

Boston 2012:

Dave doesn't sound that great, but the Van Halens bring it, and Wolfie is awesome on here

 

I agree Roth isn't great but I don't think he's terrible either. Alex and Wolfie bring it but I think Eddie is pretty sloppy and not locked into the groove.

 

Hang Em High: One of my favorite VH songs and easily one of the highlights on "Diver Down". I think the song would sound right at home on "Women and Children First". I love the main riff and Eddie is stellar throughout the song. Dave's vocal delivery is a bit different sounding during the verses which is a nice change up. I like how they slow down the chorus at the end, right before the memorable guitar climax. Great move in the sequencing of the album to slow it down next with "Cathedral". I'm not sure how you follow this blazing rocker any other way.

 

I really like the doubled/paired vocal. Very effective. The guitar tone sounds nasty good but still clean and the drums and bass are relentless. Fantastic Rocker. Very tuneful but not sing-songy and where the performance ends up is a helluva way for the song to finish. Exciting stuff.

 

Yes, this is a very solid track that sits comfortably among VH’s best. A lot of interesting things going on here as noted in the posts above. Exhibit A when making the case that DD haters are out of their minds.

 

I can't count the times I listened to this song as a kid. One of my VH favorites.

 

HANG 'EM HIGH

One of their very best, and the embarrassingly clear standout on this otherwise nondescript album. Blew my first amp cranking this to 11

It's a shame they didn't put more of those old demo/outtake songs on DD; they would've sounded so much better back then than they did on ADKOT.

 

Here is @GodShifter's VHII thread:
Van Halen II (1979) - Track by track

 

"Hang 'Em High" is a good, fast paced rocker, but not a favorite of mine. Something about the melody of it doesn't quite work for me. As mentioned, Dave's vocal approach during the verses is interesting. It's far more subdued and almost sounds kind of punk rock influenced in terms of the phrasing. It's definitely different (he almost sounds like he's hoarse a bit throughout the tune).

I think what stands out for me on this track is Alex just tearing it on the drums. His cymbal work is outstanding and I love his little interplay with his brother during the solo as he's doing really interesting things underneath. I like how he comes in with the double bass work at 1:51.

Was this tune inspired from the Clint Eastwood movie? Or at least the title? I've always kind of put the two together; rightly or wrongly.