Van Halen - Van Halen II (1979) - Song by Song

The cans in front of the pics are Orangeboom man. No doubt in my mind.

Oranjeboom Brewery - Wikipedia

 

I often hear this about II and it being a great “beach album”. I wonder if it’s primary because of “Beautiful Girls” and the lyrics in the song? (i.e “bum in the sun” “toes in the sand” etc)? Because beyond that song and, perhaps, “Bottoms Up” I don’t get the association in the least. I guess that’s just me.

 

I think as far as the rear album cover goes, you could make a case for all 3 pairs of pants.

 

One of my favorite albums of all time. The debut was groundbreaking, but this one just sounds better, and personally I like the songs a tad better.

Like others here, the opener had to grow on me, but now I love its slow burn.

 

Not real sure about that reference but I’ll check it oot (as they say in Canada). Should I be prepared to be wowed ?

 

I always liked their spin on You're No Good but agree that it is a weak opener the song should have been sequenced later in the album. As mentioned earlier I love the live feel of this album and have always considered it one of my favorite Van Halen albums.

Side note I saw Heart in Seattle on New Years Eve in 1978 just before the album was released and David Lee Roth was at the show and came out one stage in between acts with his foot in a cast and told the story of how he broke his foot. He told the audience that when we saw the picture on the album we would understand how he broke it, it was pretty funny and the crowd went nuts when he came out.

 

Your No Good

Opens with a somewhat chaotic ascending bassline from MA. At :24 a pulsing A note settles the song down and Eddie follows with volume swells on a descending chord line in A Minor. Brooding sounding just like the lyrics imply. The verse starts at :40 with some space giving R and B type licks from EVH using some open strings G chord as an approach chord. Moderate steady beat from Mike and Alex. The turnaround pre chorus starts at :59. Eddie plays some tension creating suspended chords along the way to the dominant E minor at 1:07. The chorus is basically the same chords as the verse in R and B style. The boys add some hotter dynamics to the chorus. I like the little bent note and Roth does a Gillan/Plant mimic at 1:20. I like the legato descending vocal line at the end at 1:23. The whole shebang repeats until at 2:07 Eddie starts his solo and its IMO another great one. I like the Clapton like bend at 2:08. The descending legato pulloffs at 2:15 are fast and furious. Then some amazingly smooth tapping follows. At 2:34 the descending intro chord swell line kicks in with Dave adding vocals. Great use of the sections. The chorus follows and then a heavy metallish coda ends the song.

Great cover with heavy additions but it still sounds brooding and somber. I said it before but you gotta be pretty confident to open an album with a cover. Confidence was one thing that was not missing in the Van Halen equation IMO.

 

IMO Your No Good is a perfect opener. Their songs can be real bashers. Why start it off with a fast hard rocker? The songs on side one build as they go along.
Plus it was a real California thing to do to open with a song that LR covered.

 

I agree. almost DLR gives a great performance on the song

 

VAN HALEN II

I love this album!

I still love to crank it on the beach cause IMO, this is a perfect "Beach" record.

In my rank of Diamond albums, this one comes in 4th but thats because the others ahead are so f***king awesome!

YOUR NO GOOD

Again when I first heard this, I had no idea this was a cover. Sounded like Halen to me and this one is down & dirty.

I think this song should have been somewhere in the middle instead of the opener

That being said, it's still flows well and makes the tunes that come after so much more better

 

DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY 1979 (E. Van Halen, A. Van Halen, M. Anthony, D. Roth) (3:10)

With a touch of latin flair, Van Halen’s “Dance the Night Away” is the second song on Van Halen II. The song was, reportedly, inspired by the band witnessing a woman having sex with her boyfriend in open view at a club parking lot and then dancing for the rest of the evening with her pants on backwards. Originally titled, “Dance Lolita Dance” by Roth, Eddie convinced him to change the title (which was probably a good call). For myself, I had always figured the title of the song was inspired by the Cream song of the same name from Disraeli Gears, and given Edward’s love of Eric Clapton as a young guitarist, I suppose that’s possible where the new title came from, but there’s no evidence to really support this. The song was written in the studio.

Edward was rumored to be inspired by Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way” in terms of the feel of the song and if you listen to the Fleetwood Mac tune there is a bit of similarity in terms of the structure of the two songs, but that’s as far as it goes. Van Halen’s “Dance the Night Away” is a bright, fun, good time rocker as opposed to Buckingham’s somewhat forlorn, bitter tune from Rumours. Never the less, inspiration comes from the oddest places sometimes.

Edward has claimed that he had no intention of creating an AM pop rocker, but just had the riff and the band decided to develop it and it became what it is.

Starting out with Alex’s cowbell, Eddie begins the iconic riff with Michael Anthony joining with Alex’s tom fills. Roth enters on vocals at 0:18 and the song is off. For the vocals, Roth is a bit more restrained (fewer yelps than in most VH tunes; but they are still definitely there). Once again, as pointed out by an earlier poster (@vamborules) Roth’s phrasing is perfect (I especially like how he does the “do do do do do do dance night the night away” during the choruses). As with most Van Halen songs, Edward and Michael are right there providing terrific, melodic background vocals that support the chorus brilliantly. As for the rhythm section, they’re totally on point throughout the tune. I like the bridge that runs into the middle section at 2:03 where it’s Edward just playing the melody (highlighting the melodic technique he’s using) along with some percussion from his brother and how Michael rumbles back in at 2:15.

Guitar playing wise, Edward takes no solo in the song, instead preferring to incorporate harmonics to replicate an almost piano/bell sound during the choruses. He’d use a similar effect on the album with his intro to “Women in Love …” at the beginning. It’s not exactly the same thing, but close in that what we have here is Edward taking his guitar and trying to coax different, unorthodox sounds out of it and he’s absolutely successful in doing so.

“Dance the Night Away” is certainly one of Van Halen’s more pop oriented tunes and it showed along with “Feel Your Love Tonight” and “Jamie’s Cryin’” from the first album that the band was definitely capable of creating great radio pop hooks as well as savage, overdriven rockers; definitely a band with a lot of weapons in their compositional arsenal.

The song has been used in multiple movies (most notably "Argo") as well as covered by Carlos Santana on his 2010 album Guitar Heaven. It’s certainly a well constructed tune with an absolutely infectious melody. I’ve always liked it even though it’s not 100% down my alley in terms of the kind of rock I really enjoy; still a good tune is a good tune.

 

The "official" video that was released for the song (1979).

 

And this train wreck version from The Ellen Show (2015). Oh brother!

 

A very insightful story about "Dance the Night Away": I was in line to see Echo and the Bunnymen in 1997 and these two clean-cut Yuppie types in front of me were having a friendly but weirdly heated conversation. I couldn't help overhearing and it turned out they were arguing over the Van Halen track "On Fire". Eventually they both sang lines from the song. One, accurately, approximated the "I'm on fiyahhhhh" line from the track on the first album. The other adamantly insisted he was wrong, and eventually sang, "She's on fiyaaahhhh," as Dave does in "Dance". Not having much of a poker face, one of them noticed my expression and said, "He knows! He knows!" They asked me and I said that the second song was not "On Fire" but "Dance the Night Away". The guy that was wrong got red in the face and yelled, "You just cost me $62!" I thought that was an odd amount for a bet but what do I know. The winner thanked me and I spent the entire night trying to avoid the guy that lost.

Hope this helps?

 

“Dance The Night Away” is certainly not among my favorite VH tracks. I suppose I enjoy it well enough while it’s on, but it leaves no lasting impression and I would never include it on a VH playlist.

 

Great album, time for another listen......

 

Dance the Night Away:
Oh, we come to Dance the Night Away.
Al kicks things off on the cowbell, with Eddie performing a bright guitar at :03, with Mike and Al locking into a stellar groove, but at :17, we get Diamond Dave, the star of the song, who gives such an awesome vocal recalling the R&B of yesterday, and he gives the song such an infectious melody and structure, this is a song where Dave really shows his musical influences, and this song is all the better off for it, and I just love the ooooh baby, baby, so awesome, and also, no guitar solo? Isn't this guy supposed to be soloing all over the place? Anyway, this song is a classic and among the band's greatest singles. The Mighty Van Halen strikes again

 

That would be awesome!

 

I feel that way too; I wonder if we will agree on which songs, but history says we probably won't.

 

That's about how it went when I saw them - seems like a poor choice for Dave.

 

YOU’RE NO GOOD (Clint Ballard Jr.)

People call the opener "commercial" or "poppy", but I actually think it's plenty dark. Quite darker than Linda's or Betty's versions for sure. I think it's dark enough to fit on Fair Warning, in fact. Dark in both vocals and guitars. Lots of yelps, though, too many in fact. The swells are definitely from Down in Flames, that also birthed Tattoo (see below). But I just don't see this as an opener. Good enough to make the record, sure, but I agree with @Rose River Bear when he called it brooding. Odd to open an album with descending bass and volume swells, but if it had led into a much more dynamic song, it would have worked better. I actually think the track order leads people to rate this album lower than they should. Anyway, despite some nice backing vocals, this one just gets a 6.0 out of me.

 

I don't find it that commercial either, but I'd still say it's an odd choice for an opener

 

DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY (E. Van Halen, A. Van Halen, M. Anthony, D. Roth)

Hard for me to really break this one down - good melody, I like the riff, it's very catchy. Vocals, including Ed and Mikey on backing vocals, are strong. And I like the song opening on cowbell, nice touch. I don't seek this song out, but I don't skip it either. 7.3 out of 10.

 

YOU’RE NO GOOD: (note that it's "YOU'RE no good", not "your" no good. It's short for "You are", not possessive; saying "Your no good" is an incomplete sentence. You're not saying what is no good.). Very odd song for an opener and I don't like it as an opener or as a cover. Too mellow, not enough bite. 4/10

DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY: this song is THE song that got me into Van Halen. And that's because it was the first song I ever remember hearing from them. It was all over the radio in Pennsylvania when I was visiting my grandparents when I was 13 and holds a special place in my heart. I didn't even know who or what a Van Halen was at the time. I just heard it on the radio over and over, not knowing who it was, and liked it. One of the greatest melodies ever in a song. 10/10