Van Halen - OU812 released 30 years ago today.

OU812 - Wikipedia

Though 5150 was a good Van Hagar album I actually preferred OU812 to it. Alex was back on real drums and Eddie’s tone was better on here than 5150, although the brown sound wasn’t really there anymore. Some underrated rockers on here like AFU, Source Of Infection (which sounds like they were going for the Hot For Teacher vibe) and Black and Blue are some of my faves.

Thoughts and recollections are welcome. Probably get negative remarks also but that’s cool. It’s a debate but keep it civil please

 

I like it, a bit on the poppy side. Feels So Good is a favourite of mine

 

I thought the band was firing on all cylinders. I was a kid when it came out and I remember my mom playing the tape in the car

 

Love this song something different from the band

 

My favorite song from this fine album.

 

30 years. Jeez...

 

I think the sound captures a “time” I dont like to say dated. I’m ok with something sounding “dated” SOS AFU Black and Blue and When It’s love never get old to me

 

Good album. Even though I like it, I think I like the other three Hagar albums better.

 

Best Van Hagar album by a mile, IMO, though I haven't played it in years. I remember the band debuting "Black and Blue" on Rockline and acting all buddy-buddy. Maybe Ed and Sammy were still OK at that point and not faking it yet.

Anyway, like someone mentioned upthread, 30 years ago! I don't usually remember when and where I bought a CD, but I remember this one at the late, great Sound Warehouse.

 

Black and Blue is still a great lapdance tune, and Finish What You Started was an imaginative bit of fun.

The rest can all go pound sand. Like most of Van Hagar.

 

Was just thinking about this cpl days ago; had just purchased first home and recall listening to this a lot at the time. Love, love, love guitar riff at beginning of afu along with big Al’s stutter beat behind it
Ok, and here’s something kinda goofy too, but I was a young man starting to travel by plane occasionally for work and while not terrified of flying wasn’t too fond of it so as we would begin the acceleration down the runway for takeoff, i would have the beginning of Source of Infection going thru my mind to calm me. Weird yeah i know but worked for me

 

My sentiment exactly.

 

I was never a fan of 5150, so OU812 was a step up for me. I see this album as half great, half not so great.
Very Great: Finish What Ya Started, Black and Blue (many air guitar moments), Cabo Wabo
Pretty Great: Sucker in a 3-piece
OK: AFU
Not so Great: When it's Love (although it's grown a little on me), Mine All Mine, Source of Infection, Feels Go Good.

I guess the half I love rates well, and I don't dislike the "not so greats" as much as I used to. I feel like the Unlawful album that followed is more like 85% Very Great/Pretty Great, but OU812 progressed us toward that point.

 

This was the first VH tour was old enough to see. To me, it’s the last good VH album until ADKOT 2o something years later. Though, both For Unlawful and Balance have good to great individual tracks.

It seems like the cracks started to show the For Unlawful tour, with Ed doing his passive aggressive thing where he insults the singer and bass player in interviews but appears to still be having a blast onstage. Actually, I recall Ed’s interviews at the time of Balance as being outright hostile toward Sammy and his lyrics for the new songs.

Thankfully, he got a lot of socially conscious lyrics from a new singer on Ed’s Magnum Opus, VHIII

 

Me too. Saw them at the old Starwood Ampitheater in Nashville. I was 16 but my parents wouldn't allow me to drive the 1.5 hours to go.
A friends mom agreed to take us. I had several friends who were massive VH freaks like me.

 

There's a few good songs on this album but this was where I dropped off the Van Halen train for a few years. I had stuck with the band through the 5150 album despite absolutely loathing big parts of it mostly because the one 1987 show I saw was so good. But the mediocrity of the OU812 album just killed any remaining enthusiasm I had for the band by that point and that Monsters Of Rock stadium tour remains the only VH tour I skipped in their entire career as well.

 

The nadir of Sammy's smutty lyrical excesses. Some of the music was ok. Like just about all of Van Hagar's output, I haven't bothered with it in years.

 

I too welcomed the return to the acoustic drums on this album and liked it better than 5150. Saw them at their aborted Texas Jam concert at the Cotton Bowl that year when Sammy had vocal problems but I still remember how awesome they were live from a musical standpoint. They opened with Mine All Mine with the keyboards either on a sequencer or with someone playing off stage. Either way, they were fantastic and Al was perfection.

This was the last big concert I saw before I moved from Dallas to Fairbanks so the album holds special memories for me.

 

Al did have a cool drum riser on that tour that lifted up and spun around.

 

I had just started a part time job and one of the guys in the paint department came in that weekend talking about it. Didn't pick it up myself for another month or so. If Dave can cover Linda Ronstadt, Sammy can do Lowell George.

 

Sammy's vocal made VH much more appealing to me and elevated their popularity in Europe. I think it was spandeau Dave's vocals that held them back outside of the USA? It's when I became a fan .

 

Easily the worst VH album apart from 3. The only things I can remember about it, I wish I couldn't.

 

OU812 is my least favorite of the Van Hagar albums, but I still love it. I dunno, it just seem less focused and a tad inconsistent when compared to 5150 and Unlawful, but it has still some iconic moments. Mine All Mine, to me, is one of the best tracks of the Sammy era!

 

unabashed Sammy fan, so anything I say will be glowing. in my opinion, from 5150 to Balance there wasn't a better American rock band. it seems a lot of people agreed (4 number one albums, 4 sold out tours). that being said, OU812 ranks 4th in the Sammy era. but that's like saying this is the 4th best diamond in the world. when it came out, I was all over this record. it may be the quintessential summer record (and anything by The Outfield). I went to the Houston show on the Monsters Of Rock Tour. it was my first outdoor show, and man was it HOT!!! in an era where I didn't wear caps and had a inch crew cut was not a good combo. I had welps on my head for weeks. such an epic show, and I was mainly there for the top three bands (VH, Scorps, and Dokken). those Sammy records still get consistent spins from me, all of them. and to echo some other posters, woah, 30 years indeed.

chad

 

Loved it at the time. Rarely visit it now. Like all the other Hagar era records.