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

Which tour was that from? I saw them at the Centrum too for the OU812 tour. As much as I love VH the only thing memorable from that show was Mike Anthony's awful Jack Daniels bass solo.

 

That's the 2004 Sammy reunion tour. Eddie was wasted out of his mind the whole tour.

 

Gary sounds good in the video. They should have given him more time to gel with the band and find his voice.

 

I'm not ragging on you for posting that clip, but that was awful. It sounded like a bad Van Halen cover band. I say that as an Extreme fan, too. Cherone's voice does not fit with VH.

 

It was the 2004 tour.

 

I think Al needed the tour money to pay for his divorce. Wasn’t he the one who approached Sammy to get back together?

 

Yes. I believe Alex was already separated and living in Eddie's guest house when Hagar was contacted about rejoining the band.

 

The keys of the Sammy tunes were a little too high to suit Gary's voice. To me, it always sounded like he was straining to get to notes that should have sounded more natural. This was even the case on the original material on VHIII. VH has pretty tough music to sing to. Sammy solved it (to an extent) by having such a large range. I still think he sang too high on some of those tunes, and his voice rarely sounded as good in VH as it had on Standing Hampton or 3 Lock Box.

Dave solved the issue by talking, barking . . . whatever it took to get across his lyrical ideas. When he was forced into a melody the VH brothers liked (as on Me Wise Magic), it could only be done with many takes in a studio. No way he could ever do any justice to that live. Dave, of course, could always drop into his baritone where the keys of many VH tunes were more natural, and he often sounded better there.

 

Revisiting this thread because I decided to pop this on the player last night and spin it.

This one doesn't have an "identity" like the others do (except OU812...I still don't get what the hell that album is supposed to be...), but there just something about WACF I can't place my finger on. It wasn't pounded into the ground by radio (I don't hear anything from it anymore. DITS, PW, RWTTD, YRGM, Jump, I'll Wait...), but the album rocks. It just doesn't FEEL like a cohesive unit like the others. I like it on a track by track basis...not as an album I enjoy in one sitting. If that makes sense. It's my least favorite of the original six albums (but will always beat III, and most days beat OU812), it just seems like the odd duck of the classic six.

But EWS still jams like none other.

 

Their two best albums for me

 

Sorry for the thread resurrection, but I was reading through and had to comment on this. "In a Simple Rhyme" is one of the best VH songs EVER in my view. It reminds me of a Who or Led Zeppelin song circa 1972-73 and is the band firing on all cylinders.

 

They played that during the club days too,Great song!