Van Halen: Women and Children First (1980) Song by Song

I never thought of it like that

 

Van Halen III was released in ‘98 before Eddie had cancer and had some of his tongue removed.

 

whats weird is he sang fine on the tour. check this out. eddie sings by himself around 1:20

 

Not to get off topic to much but I find all the vocals on Van Halen 3 were recorded very strangely. Even Gary who I think is a really good singer doesn’t sound like himself on that album. It just seems off for some reason.

 

I didn't either until I just listened again. It certainly sounds like AIC - 10 years early.

 

While I'm not an Alice In Chains fan, it reminds me of the riffs to Man In The Box.

 

Ed sounds a bit like Leslie West in this clip.

 

My comments aren't about Van Halen specifically, but just about big Bay Area shows of the 70's and 80's in general.

I'm not sure how much you know about rock promoter Bill Graham, but he was one of the bigger music promoters in the U.S., and lived and operated out of the San Francisco Bay Area. Graham often had arena shows of the 70's and 80's filmed. A lot of shows had large video screens on either side of the stage, for the benefit of those toward the back of the arena. But I think shows were often filmed even if there weren't screens present. A lot of great concerts were preserved thanks to Graham having the foresight to film them and save them.

Unfortunately, sometime in the 90's (I think it was early 90's, and could be researched easily enough), there was a fire that claimed a lot of irreplaceable material in the Bill Graham Presents archives. I don't know if a list of the contents that were there was ever written out. But tons of valuable memorabilia, and audio and video recordings of historic shows, was lost.

I only mention this because it is quite likely that a Van Halen show or two (or three) could have been archived and subsequently lost in that fire. Bill Graham Presents promoted shows all over Northern California (and into Central California), including San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Calaveras County, Sacramento, Marin County, and on and on. All of the Day On The Green shows, and plenty of well-known concert venues. From what I recall, not all of the contents of the BGP archives were in that one location, which is how some stuff survived. But apparently the entire contents of this one location were lost. Who knows how big of a loss it was to music history?!

 

Given Pantera’s album sales, the time in which they flourished and Dimebag’s huge contributions not only with his musical style and innovation but his signature guitar line, it can easily be successsfully argued he was the most influential metal musician from 1990-2000.

 

he was the EVH of the 90's

 

it sounds like a lot of songs were written for sammy, who sings in a slightly higher key than gary, and then they never changed the key of the songs and made gary sing out of his range and sound very thin

 

It happens all the time. Editors and/or directors will just use shots that they think look good, and will insert them without regard to whether the musician's actions have any bearing on what we're actually hearing at the moment.

It reminds me of Christopher Guest and Michael McKean on the commentary track for Spinal Tap. (The one they originally recorded as themselves, not the one they did in character). They commented on how it drove them crazy in countless concert films and music documentaries how the fingering for guitarists or bassists seldom seemed to match what it was you were hearing at the moment. They demanded that all footage used of them in concert actually match what it was they were playing; i.e., no substitutions of shots that Reiner or the editor liked better.

The ultimate irony of that is that the film about a joke band features a lot more authentic concert footage than those of "real" bands. Just one of many awesome things about that movie.

 

That was literally the first time I've ever heard a VH song not sung by Dave or Sammy!

It wasn't too bad. Visually, he just doesn't seem to fit with Eddie, Alex and Michael. Eventually, I'll have to listen to III. Hopefully at some point a Song-By-Song thread will be done of it, although not until the more important albums have been tackled...

 

Me as well. At first I thought it was Sammy Hagar and was like, “damn! His hair looks funny that short”. I quickly figured it out, though . Cherone is a good singer but his presence didn’t seem to work with the rest of group. So, in short, I totally agree with you.

 

... That is MY first time ever hearing MA or EVH singing full portions of a verse by themselves. I’m totally mind-fudged. I need to listen again and really process this.

 

I thought it was kinda cool!

 

I don’t know WHAT to think.
I don’t think I like it? Lol

 

I think Pantera is the only band from the 90s that can stand toe to toe with the likes of Van Halen and other classic hard rock bands.

 

Makes completely sense, especially when Ace and EVH were huge influences for Dime.

 

Wait til you get a load of this.....

 

I’m with ya bud. Not good.

 

That Jack Daniels bass should be smashed to bits, burned, and the ashes poured into a dumpster and it then lit on fire and dumped into a landfill and a bombed dropped on it.

 

... MINDFUDGED.

That being said, this proves EVH was correct when he said the VH backing vocal sound was equal parts him and MA.

 

What a trainwreck. I saw this tour at the Worcester Centrum in Mass. and me and my friends couldn't believe how awful Ed's playing was. I still can't believe Alex let Eddie go out on tour in this condition. And this was probably an "on" night for Ed!

 

What about the cockroaches that eat the ashes from the bombed-out landfill? What should we do with them?

(That was pretty funny, btw!)