alternate universe: Sammy Hagar never joined Van Halen

This is so freakish that I almost believe it. ;-)

Picked some no-name, I guess. Or in an example of bizarro alliances, they'd take Steve Perry.

--J

p.s. This is true. Seriously.

Or in an example of bizarro alliances, they'd take Steve Perry.

This could've ruled.

WWII WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED

didn't need van halen to turn in this historically epic performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a6f2b4zfgM

guitar handoff >> pick slide

what if Mike Reno had taken over

Ted Templeman's book is full of interesting revelations about the VH lineup change. You'd think, given that he'd produced VH, Montrose, and Hagar solo, that it was his idea, but he was fairly against it and goes on about how smart DLH is and Hagar didn't have the same wit or intellect despite being a better vocalist. He was trying to get Hagar to do more soulful stuff when the VH singer change went down.

Sammy brought ernest vibes. Just try to imagine Dave singing “you want it straight from the heart / tell me why can’t this be love” … it would have come out tongue in cheek

Sammy's def a sap but his early solo stuff was a bit more in the bawdy VH mold, i mean the guy wrote a song called "Dick In The Dirt." i suspect that Eddie was as eager as Sammy, if not more, to make some earnest "poignant" songs after Dave left the band.

Patty Smyth said she doesn't regret turning down the offer to be the lead singer of VH, because then she never would have written Baby Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough

yeah a lot of that direction is where EVH was heading, he already was in love with synths, even if he hadn't written something as Coca-Cola commercial as "Dreams" before.

I was too young to experience it but I feel like the blow re: Hagar was the live experience, like dude can obviously sing like a motherfucker, but given how he generally refused to do Dave-era stuff (which he sounded bad on anyway), I can't even fathom going to the 5150 tour and only getting a few classic era songs ("You Really Got Me", "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love", and "Jump" where he often let the audience sing most of it), while also having to sit through Montrose and solo Sammy shit. who wants to go see VH and hear "I Can't Drive 55"?

xpost

oh they did "Panama" too. ok...so 4 of them. has to be a bizarre experience when you're like 5 albums deep into your career and then the setlist is like the shit bands going on their first tour go together to pad the setlist

I am going to see Sammy and Mike do the Van hagar legacy show with Satriani and Young Bonham! Can any other ILxor say the same?

To me, even though he's often dopey (a musician being dopey is not disqualifying for me), he and Mikey come out of the VH experience smelling like a rose… unlike the other three… I now look back fondly on the Sammy material, being that as an active listener, everything before 1984 was before my time, and being around for and processing the good and truly misbegotten of the hagar era…I just can't deny it. And yeah that SH seems like a such a good hearted person ("an amiable bro in jorts," as I think an Ilxor once wrote) as opposed to the bitter and mistrustful VH Bros and Roth, who truly has never recovered from the times of him being not only the best singer/frontperson in hard rock/metal but also the most intellectually curious person in HR/HM passing him by. Sammy and Mikey are emotionally healthy and more than likely able to do justice to the material; I probably unambiguously love like 10 Van Hagar songs. Whereas, I attended the notorious Kimmel appearance involving Roth in front of the two brothers and the son, which not only involved Roth smacking himself on the nose with a katana, but was really fucking boring, the VH state fair set.

Holy moly that tour with Bonzo jr

No northeast dates : (

Satriani is in a Van Hagar tribute, Vai is playing a King Crimson tribute...can Robert Fripp's AC/DC Experience be far behind?

Guy Mann-Dude's KISS

is Hagar a MAGA dude?

my friend worked his show last night and said she saw what she thought was a MAGA hat on his head, but couldn't tell if it was just that or a generic red hat.

Exhibit A, although what he's trying to get across here I'm not quite sure. Album was released in 1984, I remember he was a big Reagan fan.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71a1qNTnGxL._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg

my friend worked his show last night and said she saw what she thought was a MAGA hat on his head, but couldn't tell if it was just that or a generic red hat.

"Yeah, I love MAGA. MAGAritas!"

Well, yeah.

not that anyone else on ILX will be giving a solitary shit, but I did have a real good time…

Sammy Hagar is not most people's idea of a cineaste, but images from the 1957 Bergman film were displayed above the stage during "the Seventh Seal," (very obviously Scott Walker was a bergmanite, whereas it seems more likely that Sammy overheard someone say it and he thought it sounded cool/portentous)…

that's the only song from Balance they did; 5150 and FUCK were well represented, only "Dreams" and "Love Walks In" were the notable omissions from the former; OU812 was represented only by "When It's Love," which Sammy said with a uncharacteristic lack of humility on the Stern show is "the greatest love song since "Bridge over Troubled Water"; his solo shit did not include "Three Lock Box" but did include "There's Only One Way," "Heavy Metal" "I Can't Drive 55" and "Eagles Fly": the only Montrose tune was "Space Station," and not "Bad Motorscooter" or "Rock Candy"—jesus, young Bonham is there and you're not gonna have him play one of the best faux Bonzo beats ever put down?

And they did two Roth-era cuts, and I don't think they should have done any…if it was possible to say "this Roth era song is one where Micheal Anthony's contribution is strong, he co-wrote this," then ok, sure, but I don't think you can say any such thing.

And loverboy opened… I really like Loverboy, they are the Duran Duran of corporate rock, and is it not notable that they have now and have always had the original lineup, barring bassist Scott Smith, who was lost at sea in 2000… although one could be forgiven for assuming that Mike Reno ate Smith…

Sounds like a good show!

I think The Seventh Seal is my favourite Van Hagar track. Reminds me of In the Evening. And not just contextually.

I'm blasting it right now while the sky outside is gorgeous and blue. Sounds magnificent.