Rock School; Van Halen; Part 2

Oh! School's out for ever! I've got a fan, so paid, I'm out for teacher! It's time for school! Rock School! With your host, Dr. Joe Birds! Sammy sings? Why you not have Sammy? And Chad P! Thanks, Dr. Obvious. Yeah, I'll leave. I never would have stood. Class is in. Rock School, good afternoon. My name is Joe Burns, a

professor in the Communication Department. South Eastern Louisiana University, a former student sitting to my immediate right. Your name happens to be... Chad P! And I'm looking forward to today's show we continue on. It's a sequel. The continuation of the Van Halen show. You want passion? You got passion in this show. I'm not sure whether this is going to be like the Godfather too. I'm not sure whether this is going to be the better sequel because you start to get into that concept. Are you a Van Halen man? Or are you a Van Hagar man? Oh! That's the question, that's the question. We left last show here on Rock School with Van Halen beginning to fall apart. But David Lee Roth was still the lead singer, correct? At that point, it was 1984. Van Halen is the largest touring band ever and I mean literally the largest touring band ever. No matter what another band had, Van Halen had more. They made sure of it. They had people on staff whose only job was to make sure that no matter how much lighting equipment, amplification, number

of speakers, size of stage, no matter what a band had, Van Halen bought more. And furthermore, they had so much of it that they had to have two complete stage setups. Wow. Because this stage was so large that one had to be being set up while another stage was playing. It couldn't be set up in one night. Oh wow. So they had double everything. Huge. And at this point in time, and this is something the band kind of wanted to keep on the down low. Yeah. Their accountant came and said, look you guys are so rich. You really need to start giving some money away. So for about two years there, Van Halen was the largest contributor in the world to toys for tots. Really? Really. How much do you have to be to where they say you really need to start giving some money away? Just light a match and throw, you know, use firewood. Put it in a pile. Light cigars

off of it. The tour ends. The 1984 tour ends. And David Lee Ross says, we're hot. We're hot. We need to do a movie. Movie. We need to do a movie. We could call it crazy from the heat. And we could have women and bikinis and all this kind of stuff. And we could do old Louis Prima songs. And the rest of the band said, get lost. And they waltzed away. And Dave said, well, if you can play on Michael Jackson's album and all that. I can put out little EPs and such. And he puts out just a jiggle. And he puts out California girls. And the band, it just collapses under its own weight. And Van Halen says, I've had enough. And David's out of the band. And Dave says, no, I quit. And it's kind of like your best friend and his girlfriend break up. Depending on who you speak to, I left. No, we kicked him. No, he doesn't. Well, Van Halen's the band. So they're going to come out with the album first, right? Wrong. Uh -oh. David Lee Roth. Beat him to the punch.

Already been practicing with Greg Biss and that on drums. A Steve Vianne guitar. Billy Shean on bass. The album came out. Dave wanted to bury Van Halen. He named his 1986 album, Edom and Smile. Oh wow. This is shy boy. David Lee Roth band. He tried to bury Van Halen. This is what it sounded like. It's David Lee Roth. As we talk Van Halen on Rock School. Let's see. Still got his voice. He loses at later as career but he still got his voice. So Uh -oh. So if you're a van Halen fan... Yeah. Should you feel guilty for enjoying that? I don't. I certainly don't. I don't. That's not

even a song that David Lee Roth wrote. That was a talistune. The bassist, Billy Shean, is from Talis. That's a talist song that they redid that shy boy tune. But that original album, Eatum and Smile, it had two or three hits off it. It really had. Oh, yeah. Baby, I'm easy. Was a hit off it. Yankee Rose was a hit off it. Going crazy, which was supposed to be on the soundtrack of this movie. That he was putting out. So what's going on with Van Halen? Well, they stumbled around for a little bit. A lot of people believed that David Coverdale, the lead singer of White Snake, was supposed to be the new lead singer of Van Halen. Okay. Never was in the running. Never was contacted. It was an urban rumor that just went around. Believe it or not, the first person contacted to be the new lead singer of Van Halen. Who was Patty Smite? Really? As in, I am the warrior. Yeah. Really? Honestly, goodness. Did they have an all out open public? Hey, we are Van Halen. We're searching for a new lead singer. Did they just kind of keep it on the download? Completely. No, completely on the QT. Oh, awesome. There was also a discussion

between Edna's brother. You see, Edna's brother were Van Halen. Eddie and Alex. Yeah. Eddie and Alex were Van Halen. Michael Anthony literally was being pushed out of the way. And by the way, remember me talking to you about how they were going to replace him? Right. The guy who was playing bass on that song you just heard was the man they were attempting to replace. Just to add a little salt to the wound. David Lee Roth went out and got him, huh? Apparently. Apparently. The Van Halen brothers also thought about making the first album after Van Halen broke up. Sort of an all -star lineup. The little Collins was even contacted about coming in and singing a couple of the ballads. Was the goodness. Was there just absolutely zero vocal talent between these three men that they just couldn't go on as a three piece? Ed was a singer for a while. So why didn't they just... Got me. If you listen to Van Halen III, I mean, long farther where we are right now, there's a song called How Many Say I Were Ed Sings. And he's awful. Oh, it really is. It's just terrible. I was thinking to say he was pretty good. No. Eddie

Van Halen owns a Ferrari. Yeah. Sammy Hagar owns a Ferrari. All right. They happen to take just by pure darn chance their same automobiles to the same mechanic. And this mechanic who apparently can speak about 15 words of English says, Eddie. Sammy. Sammy Sings. Why you not have Sammy come? This guy apparently that's from some like Eastern block country. Why you not have Sammy come? It's apparently when you hear Eddie tell the story, it's that. It's Sammy Sings. Why you not have Sammy come? This guy's from like Romania or something like that. So Sammy comes over. Eddie Van Halen and his brother and Michael Anthony had been laying down track after track after track. So they take Sammy Hagar. They toss him into a studio with a microphone. And they say, okay, we're just going to roll this thing. You sing. He scats around. And almost word for word. They begin

laying down lyrics first try. It was one of those things where it just works. The clouds part single beam of light. Sammy Hagar without even being asked. There's a phrase that appears on all of the Van Hagar LPs. What is understood need not be discussed. And that's what they felt about the connection between the four of them. This is the first time you heard him. If you got the 1986 5150 LP, the first time Sammy Hagar was the lead singer, you put that thing on, took the needle, dropped it down. And this is what it sounded like. It's Van Halen with Sammy on rock school. Hello, baby. Oh.

Scream, Sammy. Wow. Yeah. It's pretty hard. I wonder if there any eyebrows raising when he came in and just started all that. I wonder if somebody looked at it, somebody else and just went, okay. Yeah. No, I got to tell you, I like the first album. I really did. I mean, this why can't they, this be love. That was the big hit off it. And Dreams was pretty good. You also know if this first album, no videos with the band. Oh. If you remember, the videos were conglomerations of other things. Like Dreams was the big hit off of the album. Yeah. And it was nothing more than shots of the Blue Angels. Okay. But the thing about it is I want to talk about the guitar work. Eddie had always had something called the Brown Sound. He played through a double humbucker pickups and the Marshall amplifiers. Well, now he was such an established guitarist that guitar makers started to come to him. And amplifier makers started to come to him. And he began using Kramer guitars and PV amplifiers. And inside these PV

amplifiers, and I know you don't like when they start to go crazy on names and adjectives. But PV amplifiers started to use what's known as a Saldano type circuit inside of it. Okay. And he started to use speakers that instead of like 30 or 35 watts, they were 70, 75 watts. Did you hear how the sound wasn't smooth anymore? It was kind of bitey. It was rough. Yeah, it was rough and rugged. And it wasn't, it didn't have a smoothness to it. And it wasn't, it wasn't so much loud anymore. But it was sort of, I don't know how else to put it bitey. It sort of chomped at the notes. Distortion? Distortion wasn't really it. Distortion is sort of the amplification of the harmonics. That's distortion. Okay. This bit at the note. Okay. It sort of amplified the envelope more than it should have been. And I wasn't a real big fan of it. When the next album came out, OU -812, which by the way was an answer to David Lee Roth 1986, Adam and Smile. Get it. Oh, it's Adam and Smile. OU -812. Get it. The letter O, the letter U and the numbers. Giggle,

giggle, giggle. They went the opposite. Uh -huh. He tried, he, Eddie tried to go back to the brown sound and the mix is awful. The guitar is way back in it. It's very muddy. And why it's like this, I don't know. It's a good album. I like the music that is on it. But the guitar is almost mixed with too much, too much bass. It's lost its high end. What Ed used to do with his guitar, even though it was the brown sound, was take the, the presence. Or what would, what would actually amplify the very, very highest, um, frequencies on the guitar. Yeah. And turn it all the way up. No matter what the settings were, he would take that. And then he would take a phase shifter, which would sweep the high harmonics. And he'd step on it when he play his, play his leads. So the guitar had presence. It stood forward in the mix. Okay. And that's all lost on this album. Well, if it was mixed differently, it was probably just chalked up to, they went to a different studio guy. I, I guess, I guess I, I'm not a fan of the way it's mixed,

but boy, I like some of the songs that are on it. We're at 1982. I'm pardon me, 1988. Van Halen beat David Lee Roth to the punch this year. Oh, you 812 comes out. This is my favorite. Let's do it till we're black and blue on rock school. What do you, what do you think? Is that a little innuendo there? You make just a touch? Are the microphones still on? Oh, they are. Yeah, they are. What about that? Oh,

man. Doesn't guitar sound like it's at the other end of a tunnel. It's just kind of oddly. Wait for it. Wait. What's he playing on that drum? What is that? He's in. Think, think. Is that a cowbell? That might be a cowbell. For real, listen to it. There you go. There's the representation from oh, you 812 as we continue with part two of the Van Halen show. 1988 also show David Lee Roth coming out with a skyscraper LP. Welcome back and talk about it after you take a pause for the cause. Pay the like fill right here on rock school. Programming on KSLU is under written in part by home theater, etc. With football season in full swing, home theater, etc. offers a variety of big and flat screen televisions for you to enjoy watching your favorite team on. Brands such as Elite by Pioneer, Katachi, Sharp, Toshiba, JVC, Mitsubishi, and many others. They also come in different sizes such as 50 inch, 62, and even 72 inch screens. Home theater, etc. is located on the corner of Morrison, Muni across from Florida

Parish's bank. The telephone number is area code 985 -340 -7777. Oh! How did you make it through? Why can't you prove it for man has whipped lash? I missed the chance. After you were struck from behind, did your neck feel funny? Yeah. This man has whipped lash. 90 .9 KSLU Rock School, as we talk about Van Halen for the second hour, we're looking at the group. We're looking at the fact that they split. They have become Van Hagar. They have semi -hagar out front, but David Leroth isn't going away quietly. He has had a massive hit with Edemann Smile, and he's come out with a second album, Skyscraper. Massive hit coming off of his album, Just Like Living in Paradise, and he's on tour. And it is a huge tour. I got to see him. He has on tour with him. He can only

play certain arenas because he has numerous elements that he brings with him. He comes out on stage in a boxing ring that lowers from the ceiling. Like Apollo Creed. Like Apollo Creed. He comes out on stage. He now has numerous things that blow up on either side. Wow. Of the of the stage, a giant microphone. Women that sort of like balloons in the shape of women that inside of about 10 seconds go, and blow themselves up. And steel drums. He comes out with about 19 guys with steel drums. The accountant said, spend money. And apparently he did. The boxing ring. It finally finishes with him after he's played this two hour concert. And it was a whale of a concert. I saw him in Utica, New York. It was a whale of a concert. It finishes with apparently the boxing ring being taken away. I never saw them working on it. But a giant surfboard comes down. What? He crawls onto the surfboard and flames and smoke shot out of the back of the surfboard. He got into a Superman pose on the surfboard. And it whisked him away out over the crowd. And the concert

was over. It was two hours. Well, you know, that's very common. I did that for Halloween. Oh, did you? Wow. It was a massive hit. 1988, the skyscraper LP. Steve Vy is still with him. Billy Sheehan has took off Greg Bisonett's brother. Yeah, Greg Bisonett, the drummer. Yeah. His brother comes in, plays bass. A keyboardist is added. And they open up the album with, you can feel it right down to your knuckle bones. Van Halen on Rock School. It's the last real successful album he's going to have. His next one's

called A Little Ain't Enough. It'll have a couple of men's and men's and hits, but that's really the last you're going to see of David Lee Roth, really out in front and really competing with Van Halen because their next album, 1991, for unlawful carnal knowledge. Yeah. The album, you really can't say it on the radio. It just throws hit after hit after hit. And that's where they just put the death nail in the coffin. You know what I like about this little competition? What's that? It's almost like two well -bred horses in the Kentucky Derby going for that photo finish, man. Yeah, but one of them never grows. Oh. Yeah. Van Halen grows. They really become better musicians. They write greater, stronger, more in -depth songs. David Lee Roth never leaves the concept of, let's go to the beach and look at the girls in the bikinis. He never grows. So they mature as musicians. Oh, yeah. And Dave never grows. To this day. To this day, he never grew. He never does. You know, some people are satisfied with that talk. They really are. They really are. I mean, he has a song on there called Two Fools A Minute on this skyscraper LP. And

it's got a great line on it. Let's get in the car. Let's go up the road turn right next Thursday. And I want to retire. Look at my wife and say, let's go up the road turn right next Thursday. It's a half past plus a minute. So, let's talk about writing us an email. You want to say hi to us here at Rock School. We want to say hi back to you. Where do we write to if we want to speak to us? That would be KSLU Rock School at gmail .com. KSLU Rock School at gmail .com. Okay. It's time to attempt to stump the professor. Yeah. You were going to talk about a video of Van Halen speaking of becoming better musicians. Right. Right. I grew up watching a lot of MTV. And this video, I just, I remember it so well. It is right now. Right. Okay. Okay. Piano starts off really good piano solo. And you were talking off air that that's actually Eddie playing the piano. Oh, sure. Ed is a classically trained pianist. He actually when he was younger,

one, two years in a row, the Pasadena, I think was under 15 classical piano competition. Okay. Honest to goodness. He is a fan of Debussy and Chopin. Nice. Those are his two classical influences. He actually plays violin as well. Dude. He's an heck of a musician. Well, I know you're familiar with the video. For those of you who are not, the song's called Right Now. And the whole video shows different little video clips with the little caption underneath. And one of them is a shot of a bear feet backing up on a sand. And it says, Right Now, someone is walking on to a nude beach for the first time. So that's pretty much the whole apple. Yeah, they show another one's a dog. And it says, Right Now, God is killing mothers and dogs because He has to. There's another one that shows a breast implant. And it says, Right Now, nothing is worse than regret. There's another one that shows a woman putting holy water on her forehead. And it says, Right Now, guilt is turning someone inside out. I mean, really just a lot of random stuff, but it's cool because it kind of sticks

in your head and you remember it. Sure. This is the one that I remember and I'm going to see if you do. Okay. When Ed begins his guitar solo and they show a close -up of his left hand going into town on those strings. Yep. What's the caption? What does he say? Right. It's either. Right now. Give me that. Right now, Eddie's hands before or right now, Ed's got his hands before. That's exactly right. Right now, Ed's got his hands before. Right now, Ed's got his hands before. The thing is, I didn't bring that song. Oh, well, you said we weren't going to play the hit. That's right. We're going to play another one called Judgment Day. Okay. We'll tell you about the album when we get back. This is from 1991's for Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Finally, Van Halen gets back to the sound that made them the rock band that they are. And man, he got his hands full. Listen to this guitar piece. It's called Judgment Day on Rock School. It's called Judgment Day on Rock School. It's called

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School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Judgment Day on Rock School. Jud Judwno Day on Rock School. Oh, so we're sticking with Van Halen. No more David Lee. We're off. He's done. Oh, he is. He really is his next album was called His next album was called Oh, come up with it a little in enough barely went gold the one after that was called Your filthy little mouth didn't even go gold. It's he's he just fell away Yeah, he didn't change with the times and nothing happened. So, okay, let's go live. Let's go live I love live ladies and gentlemen. We are renaming this

town It's no longer new Haven, Connecticut. It is now new, ha -lan, Connecticut. You wanted the best. You got the best Yeah Another one That's from Van Halen live right here right now. That's only one way to rock. There you go That's Sammy Hague are out in front of Van Halen We got to take a one -minute pause for the caustic around we'll be right back and we're gonna continue with Van Halen I'm looking at the time. I'm not sure we're gonna be able to get all the way to Gary's your own But I'm sure his heck

gonna try. We'll be back in just one minute on rock school Programming on KSLU is under written in part by home theater, etc With football season and full swing home theater, etc Offers a variety of big and flat -screen televisions for you to enjoy watching your favorite team on Brands such as elite by pioneer Katochi sharp Toshiba JVC Mitsubishi and many others They also come in different sizes such as 50 inch 62 and even 72 inch screens home theater, etc Is located on the corner of Morris and Muni across from Florida parishes bank. The telephone number is area code 985 340 -777 -77 Yes, what I got a fever and the only prescription is more cabbage Hey, hey, I saw you Rock school as we continue on with Van Halen show number two of a two run show a two hours of Van Halen You know what it may not be enough? It's 1995 right now, and hey, if you're gonna break up with one lead singer

Thing on 1984 over to 1995 if you were watching MTV at midnight You saw Van Halen premiere their brand new song from the album Balance you also noticed that Eddie Van Halen didn't look like Eddie Van Halen He had cut off all of his hair. Oh, he did not Rona beard. He had a real high and tidy almost look like he went into the military and we found out later that he was once again Putting coke up his nose and putting in booze down his throat Sitting there what happened to add who's that lumberjack? Yeah, he didn't look like at it all he played like it I'll tell you the song was called don't tell me what love can do and It basically was one of these things where it seemed like he was becoming paranoid against his own success because Sammy's wife had had a baby. Okay, and Sammy left to spend two weeks with Eddie Van Halen and the story or I'm party Sammy left to spend two weeks with his wife Eddie Van Halen called Sam and said when you coming back

to start recording you know additional pieces of music for this You know for this stuff they were they were supposed to do Work for the twister sound track the movie twister. Yeah, and and Sammy said well. I'm with my wife Ed apparently I'm giving what I consider the correct side of the story if you listen to either side It changes a bit apparently Ed won crazy. You're a solo artist. You've always been a solo artist. Well you just Stay a solo artist you stink Curse word curse word curse word curse word you're being very nice and basically Sammy Heygarb tried to be a nice guy and tried to warm things over But Ed would not give up and there's only one problem when a man is successful on his own And you lay out an ultimatum in front of him and both sides of the ultimatum are equally as good He may very well decide to Stay in Mexico with his wife record albums on his own and make a mental by himself So this is the last album that the four of them were

together. This is 1995's balance Brilliant piece of music listen to the guitar playing it is just simply awe inspiring. This is called after shock It's Van Halen. I never thought she'd walk. I'm living with the after shock on rock school You I'm living with the after shock from the 1995 album balance Van Halen we've run out of time with there's there's four more albums There's four more albums. We're running out of time. Let me tell you what happened real quickly go for it Sammy's gone. Sammy splits. He gets back with the Wabaritas

and he starts putting out albums on his own He has a hit immediately following called little white lies That's all about what Van Halen did kicking him out of the band and he goes on tour with David Lee Roth They call it the best of both worlds tour and you would think well They'll he'll never get back with Van Halen He had to because in 1996 Warner Brothers says we're going to put out a Van Alan best of album and he decided to do it half David Lee Roth Half Sammy Hagar and Sammy Hagar says well, maybe I should get back together with Van Halen Well Van Halen said nah, you can jump off a cliff. Well, what do you mean? Well because we've already recorded two new songs with Dave Ah come on So they got together with Dave and they went on MTV remember when Dave came out with MTV I do Dave blew up at Ed backstage said man This is my comeback and Ned told him to go pound sand So they went out and they got a brand new guy the lead singer of Extreme Gary

Sharon and they put out in 1988 Van Halen three well since then Van Halen went dormant until 19 or until 2004 they put out another compilation called best of both worlds. They toured nothing happened They're back on tour right now Michael Anthony's gone wolf gang Eddie's son is on bass wow They claim when the tour is over they're going to put out an album. We'll see we'll see remember when I said very It's very beginning of the show that only one album didn't go platinum. Yeah, it's this one The one with Gary Sharon we're gonna end it next week back to trivia trivia trivia and lots and lots of different groups But gosh, I enjoyed the Van Halen show talking about it since we started this show ladies a gentleman My name is Joe Burns. What's yours happy here. We go. There's a fire in the hole. It's Gary Sharon of extreme This one you probably have heard before it's featured on the lethal weapon for soundtrack Thank you so much for listening. This is rock school classes dismissed You