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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by GodShifter, Jan 4, 2018.

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  1. Charlie DJ

    Charlie DJ Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, Tx USA
    Dance the Night Away - one of my favorite VH records. But then again, I'm a sucker for a great pop song
     
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  2. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    I just did an A/B (in my head) of "Dance The Night Away" and "Go Your Own Way", and I can see it.
     
  3. vamborules

    vamborules Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT
    Dance The Night Away is a classic. One of the all time great VH songs. I think of it as one of their signature songs, and also one of their best. And maybe one of the most 'Van Halen' of Van Halen songs. A song that could really only be them. Can't think of much more to say about it really but I love this song.
     
  4. vamborules

    vamborules Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT
    Dance The Night Away guitar track.

     
  5. vamborules

    vamborules Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT
    Isolated vocals. This has all the vocals not just the lead.

     
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  6. Tree-bot

    Tree-bot Senior Member

    Location:
    Australia
    You're No Good: I remember when I heard this upon release. The guitar gave me goose bumps and the track has an almost dark/menacing feel to it. And the chorus with those backing vocals worked great. That was my first impression. I personally loved it on first listen and still do.
     
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  7. jhm

    jhm Forum Resident

    You're No Good...even though I love Betty Everett's (and VH's) version, this is actually the original version. Dee Dee Warwick is Dionne's sister.



    I will say this about the original...the guitar tone on the solo (all nine seconds of it @ 1:16) is nasty!
     
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  8. No Bull

    No Bull Forum Resident

    Location:
    Orlando Florida
    For a cover...and for an album opener...I always found "You're No Good" to be a real clunker...
     
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  9. No Bull

    No Bull Forum Resident

    Location:
    Orlando Florida
    I agree 100%
     
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  10. No Bull

    No Bull Forum Resident

    Location:
    Orlando Florida
    Now we are cooking with Gas... great VH track...
     
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  11. evillouie

    evillouie Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toledo
    Sammy Hagar, Gary Cherone & Wolfgang action figures sold separately. ;):D
     
  12. vamborules

    vamborules Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT
    About that ZZ Top thing. They did a bunch of ZZ Top covers and all of them sounded good, but that would be a weird thing to put on an album. ZZ Top were too current and like one of their peers at this point. It would be like covering Aersomith or something, or like covering the competition. It doesn't really make sense in 1979.
     
  13. Yes, I get that. And I realize that Dave was a bit of an evangelist for bringing Motown and blues to his metal audience (not at all a bad thing). I just wish he'd exercised a bit more taste in choosing the track to do. Even if they'd stuck with this one, just swapping it in the album running order with "Light Up the Sky" would have helped massively.

    Also interesting that two of the standout album tracks "Women In Love" and "Beautiful Girls" get relegated to back-of-the-album status. VHII is so good that pretty much the whole thing is at a high quality level. (More on that when we get to Outta Love and Somebody Get Me a Doctor).
     
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  14. Wow!. Superb guitar part, and not all flash. Great vocal melodies and background vocals. One of the sunniest, best singles of the entire decade (and yes, I consider this song more of an opening to the 1980s than a tail end of the 1990s). It's what allowed VH to position themselves as THE hot rock band going into the new decade.
     
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  15. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    Dance The Night Away

    Alex starts the fun with a Latin tinged rhythm and Eddie follows with a simple but yet another titanic riff starting on an open E note to give it bottom then a simple progression of E then a suspended note then B-A. Full of rhythmic nuances that would make Keith Richards smile. The transition to the B chord at :06 is so smooth well, a guy that wrote a song called Smooth covered the song. The riff is a testament to Eddie's brilliance on rhythm guitar. If you suck at rhythm guitar (like me) this riff sounds clunky compared to Eddie. The verse stays on the riff progression but Eddie adds little rhythmic changes to spice it up. Alex plays some neat cymbal stuff and MA keeps it simple. At :34 a pre chorus/turnaround enters based around B-C #Minor with some fantastic harmony vocals. At :47 a Stonesy B chord with sus notes brings in the chorus that is based on the verse riff.....R and B territory. Eddie adds in tap harmonics in an overdub....something we don't hear too often on the first two albums. The tapped harmonics remind me of a marimba type line. The verse returns at 1:03 with the band cranking. Everything repeats until at 1:47 off the chorus MA plays a great octave E bass line signaling a change. A bridge based around B and A enters and then at 2:01 an awesome turnaround sus chord riff leads the song to an interlude with Eddie playing the main riff in full tapped chord harmonic style. The chorus returns at 2:18 and sounds amazing with Alex really moving it along. The song gradually fades. I like Dave's final fading wail.

    A masterpiece of a song IMO. Not only the playing but the engineering on this is fabulous sounding. Fleetwood Mac was the spark but IMO is sounds somewhat like the Rascals Good Lovin' even more. They played it too fast live for my liking.
     
    Last edited: Jan 5, 2018
  16. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    Can anyone tell what concert t-shirt Al is wearing there? T—-S? I have no idea.
     
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  17. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    That’s a great write up. I can definitely hear the marimba type thing. I also think he might have been going for, perhaps, even a steel drum or conga type deal here?
     
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  18. curbach

    curbach Some guy on the internet

    Location:
    The ATX
    Could it be “Tygers” as in Tygers of Pan Tang?
     
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  19. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    The thing is it wasn’t Dave’s idea to do “YNG”. Well at least not ALL his idea. Templeman suggested it first, but maybe Dave was in support of the suggestion.

    Anyway, as I noted in my first post in this thread, the sequencing of the first track is puzzling to say the least. Seems almost everyone agrees.
     
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  20. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    Seems as good a guess as any at this point BUT this is 1979. ToPT wouldn’t have been a blip on the radar at this time.
     
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  21. BadJack

    BadJack doorman who always high-fives children of divorce

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    I was wondering if it was somehow Talas but in the other pic where Alex is drumming, it looks it begins with "TR". I've got nothing.
     
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  22. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    TRAVERS maybe? As in Pat?

    Hell, I don’t know :laugh:
     
  23. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    I never understood why some think Sky would have been a better opener. Why pound the listener on the head from the start? I realize the band probably did not want to use No Good as the opener but I think it was a great idea. Sky was too close to their formula on the first album. The opener made me realize to not expect safe and sure from the band. Light Up The Sky IMO encapsulates the band's signature sound in many ways and is one of their finest tracks. Using it for the opener would have made the remainder of the album somewhat anti climatic.
     
  24. Black Thumb

    Black Thumb Yah Mo B There

    Location:
    Reno, NV
    OK, so Dave's dancing queen has him feeling "love in the third degree".

    Now, as noted hard rockers Alabama knew, "Love in the first degree" is a lot heavier charge.

    On the other hand, third degree burns are a lot more severe than first degree burns.

    I think we got a mixed metaphor here.
     
  25. Murph

    Murph Enjoy every sandwich!

    Toes in the sand
    Somebody get me a shot
    Dance the night away
    It’s kinda got a little of that summery vibe
     
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