Counting Down the First Dave Era Van Halen Tracks 20-11

I'm counting down the first Dave era Van Halen tracks.

Part one 60-51 is here. 

Part two 50-41. 

Part three 40-31.

Part four 30-21.

Now that you're all caught up lets look at the next ten tracks on my best of the first Dave era list. 

20. "Secrets" from Diver Down. I know some of you are scratching your head and wondering how a little known song from Diver Down made it all the way up to 20 or perhaps, like me, you also really like this mellow romantic one. News Flash: This song was originally proposed to go on Fair Warning by Eddie. Which just blows my mind as I've always felt Fair Warning was just one more song away from being the best album in their catalog. I might have to make a playlist with the song added to Fair Warning. 

19. "Everybody Wants Some!" from Women and Children First. Tribal drums. Dave improvising lyrics. Eddie making dinosaur sounds. This is a song that would have probably been in my Top Ten when I was in high school, but I've grown a little bit tired of it over the years. Yet....even though I've heard it so many times, it still hits the Top Twenty since it is such a badass weird tune. 

18. "Panama" from 1984. This should have been the second single off of 1984 instead of "I'll Wait." Strategically placed right after "Jump" on 1984, this propulsive tune showed everyone that the old rocking Van Halen was alive and well with keyboards not taking the spotlight all the time. The music video is fantastic too. Eddie must really love the tune as he went on Letterman and played it as a straight instrumental. The Dave patter in the middle is perfect as was Eddie's miked up Lamborghini Miura S.

 17. "Romeo Delight" from Women and Children First. "I'm takin' whiskey to the part tonight and I'm lookin' for somebody to squeeze." This song has it all. Heartbeat bass from Michael Anthony. Slam bang guitar stun work. Dave working the jive talk while Alex works the hi-hat. This one is sheer adrenalized mirth. 

16. "Girl Gone Bad" from 1984. I have to admit. I didn't dig this song initially. Then I saw Van Halen on the 1984 Tour and my mind was opened. This song is just an instrumental marvel showcase of Eddie and his bag of virtuosity. Here's a live instrumental version for your pleasure. 

15. "And the Cradle Will Rock..." from Women and Children First. Actually the first time keyboards show up on a Van Halen song as the main riff is actually a Wurlitzer played through a MX flanger into a 100-watt Marshall. Michael Anthony would play this part when played live. Dave delivers some teen rebellion lyrics worthy of Shakespeare. This song has adolescent appeal that should last forever. 

14. "Outta Love Again" from Van Halen II. Drums and bass take center stage on this funky romp. Dave lets loose some of those patented high wire yells which were such a part of the first two records. Eddie almost does some chicken picking on the solo and I really dig his playing on the verses. 

13. "Jump" from 1984. Why not follow the first keyboard appearance up with the most notable (or perhaps notorious) one in Van Halen's history a few songs down. We were treated to stories about this song well before the 1984 album was released. We knew it had caused an uproar within the group. We were also very curious to hear it. It was neat, but I didn't pay as much attention to it as I did "Panama", "Top Jimmy", "Drop Dead Legs", and "House of Pain." Then the video came out and, even though I didn't have cable TV at this time, I saw it often somehow. The song began to grow on me with its succinct breezy vibe. It wouldn't be the Eighties without it. It is the highest charting single in the band's history whether with Dave, Sammy, or Gary. I also have to confess, this one was in my Top Ten when I originally started these posts, but the more I thought about it a Top Fifteen spot is fine. It is my highest spot for a 1984 track. 

12. "In a Simple Rhyme" from Women and Children First. It's my favorite song from Women and Children First! Eddie played a 12 string Rickenbacker electric on this song which dates back to their club days. I love Alex's percussive assault while Michael's bass percolates throughout. There is a very Led Zeppelin feel at times. 

11. "Hear About it Later" from Fair Warning. Melodic opening and then Dave yowls while Eddie serves up some sort of flanged confection of stinging metal notes throughout. And man, when the song hits around the 2:25 minute mark and Dave says you can try him at home the song just hits the stratosphere for me. The guitar drops out completely until coming back in with a berserk solo that melds right back into the you can try me at home part. 

Ten more tracks to go. Stay tuned. 

Random Memory Exercise in Futility part one

Catchy title. Reel in those 10 or so readers and then pull a swerve. The old bait and switch. The real title would be more like "Trying To Remember the Best Day You Ever Had in School" which seems sort of lame. Because that is what I'm going to do with this post. My schooldays keep getting farther and farther past and my memories are corroding like an old D Cell battery left in some forgotten toy. You open the hinge where the batteries go (if the toy still has the hinge) and you see this goopy looking mess that must have been oozing out for years. You want to touch it, but you think again...maybe I better not. What the hell. I'm here. You're here. Let's do this. Here's a spontaneously composed look through 6 years of school. When I find some time I'll cover the next 6. Yes, I do have a college degree, but I'm not about to try and remember those years. 

1st grade: I remember getting in trouble for talking. I'd have to sit right by my teacher's desk facing the rest of the class. So I would then make faces at them. And get in even more trouble. I missed almost 6 weeks of school due to chicken pox and mumps which I got just weeks apart. My teacher, Mrs. Wilson, drove a green AMC Gremlin. My best day ever was probably near the end of the school year when they brought in the movie projector to show a film. That was not unusual, but this film was very long. I'm almost certain it took up two spools. It was filmed in beautiful color and was contemporary. Yet, here's the thing: I recall it fleetingly in my mind and have no clue on the title. It was an educational film - I remember there was parts about danger signs, but it wasn't just about safety. I have searched for this movie ever since and may never find it, but if I do come across it and get to see it again, it will take me back to that day in 1st grade. 

2nd grade: Once again I was a troublemaker. I would get slapped on my hand with a yardstick which was no fun. Mrs. Dunston would also make me sit by the chalkboard away from the other kids. My best memory was easy. I created a poster of the Jack and the Beanstalk story which won 2nd prize in a reading/art contest. They had the awards/show at night so it was super neat to be in Mitchell-Neilson Primary after hours. I dressed up in a Native American costume for some reason. My prize was a book called Sylvester, The Mouse with the Musical Ear. I still have that book all these years later. 

3rd grade: There were so many great days in this year of school for me. I learned how to play chess. I learned how to play Dungeons & Dragons. I read The Hobbit. I made many friends. I dressed up as Ben Franklin for a class performance and ended up cracking up laughing in front of all the parents who came to our little program. I guess the best day was when I won the penmanship award for best cursive writing. My print writing had been atrocious. I would purposely make letters with squiggly lines and it drove my teacher Mrs. Jennings batty. So, she was astonished when I learned cursive perfectly. The award was a dollar bill and it has never been spent. My mother put it in one of the class photos of me and there it is still.

4th grade: Mrs. Vick reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH was really cool. We also studied Ancient Greek mythology which led to a classroom battle between Trojans and Greeks. I led the Trojans and anytime the teacher left the room we got out our rulers and sword fights ensued. One of the craziest memories is when a classmate who sat one seat over from me puked up whatever she had for lunch and it covered her desk and the two next to her. Whew! She almost got me. The most traumatic memory was losing the class spelling bee on the word shriek. The best one was our field trip to the Parthenon in Nashville as part of the Greek mythology studies. My best friend Jaime took photos that day and decades later I would find a photo she took of me that day on her Facebook page. 

4th grade at the Parthenon in Nashville

5th grade:I have written about 5th grade before. You can read that post if you like. It was called 5th Grade High Murks in honor of my wonderful teacher Ms. Murks. The highlight had to be our making a television news show. I wanted to do art as backdrops, but ended up being one of the news anchors. It was only broadcast to the school and to our parents one night, but it was a really interesting experience. 

6th grade: The most fun I had in 6th grade was making comics with my friends Kent and Wolfhardt. They were superhero stories which ran a page or two. I wonder what became of them. While we didn't record a television show we did a similar thing in Mrs. Pittenger's class. Once again, I was a new anchor. Three Mile Island was the hot topic if memory serves me right. 

Counting Down the First Dave Era Van Halen Tracks 30-21

I'm counting down my the first Dave era Van Halen tracks. Part one is here. Part two is here. Part three is located at this link. If you're all caught up let's not waste anymore time. 

30. "Feel Your Love Tonight" from Van Halen. Van Halen should not be considered a "hair metal" act as they pre-date this culmination of the Sunset Strip metal scene. Did they influence it? Hell yeah. Every guitar player wanted to incorporate some of Eddie's technique and style. Every frontman tried to cop some of Dave's style which was his own take on Jim Dandy. Whether a conscious nod to the metaphysical poetry of Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress"  or not, I dig the "use it up before it gets old" line. This particular song is a blueprint of it all right down to the isolated guitar and vocal bits near the end.

29. "Drop Dead Legs" from 1984. Lots of cool curlicue guitar lines on this AC/DC inspired languid paced stomper. Goofball lyrics from a leering Dave (love the mention of cartoon character Betty Boop) end about 2 and a half minutes in and a long squawking guitar interlude plays the song out with Alex sounding great on the drums too. 

28. "D.O.A." from Van Halen II. "I'm a spark on the horizon." Love that line, plus the idea of being a "dirty faced kid in a garbage can" definitely appealed to my teenage sense of alienation in the early 80's. The guitar tone is mega crunchy too with a great dive bombing solo. This tune was on their Warner's demo, with different lyrics. 

27. "Fools" from Women and Children First. This one dates back to their club days when it was titled "I Live With Fools" and is in the same vein as "D.O.A.". It's another dose of alienation set to a shuffling roar.  Echoes of The Who, Hendrix, and Zeppelin abound, but it's not really derivative nor is it in a shiny new package. There's a grunginess with this song and "D.O.A." that makes them stand out. 

26. "Dirty Movies" from Fair Warning. Dave's lyrics about a prom queen turned porn actress are a delight.  "Daddy's little sweetie after some damn rainbow" is just genius. Then there is the music behind the lyrics. It's mysterious at the beginning then becomes this funky masterpiece with the guitar punctuating with horn like stabs along with some deft scratching deep in the mix (I believe Tom Morello was taking notes). Drum and bass are badass too. This is a song that may work its way into my personal top 10 one day. It just continues to sound better and better over the years. 

25. "You Really Got Me" from Van Halen. Van Halen's first top 40 hit (making it to 36) was rushed out as the first single from their debut album because the band Angel was planning to put out their version of the Kinks classic. Eddie would have preferred to have Van Halen's first single to have been an original, but it wasn't to be. Still, the Van Halen version is kick ass with Eddie's tapping making a brief appearance and the weird interlude in the middle always reminded me of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." "You Really Got Me" was featured prominently in one of my favorite childhood films Over The Edge. 

24. "Hang 'Em High" from Diver Down. This is an old tune originally titled "Last Night" on the Warners demo. Dave reworked the lyrics and it became a Wild West epic. Instead of being just another boring relationship tune the song became a bit enigmatic which I dig. It's a rather demented boogie with Eddie firing on all cylinders. If you use the web version of this site you can check out the original version.

Last Night

23. "I'm the One" from Van Halen. This one swings with a galloping boogie beat. Then breaks down for some barbershop quartet vocals right in the middle. The Van Halen News Desk has a really great write up on the sheer thrill of this track. 

22. "So This is Love?" from Fair Warning. Hey, it's another swinging tune. This was the fourth single from Fair Warning, but it didn't chart. I love the sunny verses followed up by the questioning chorus. It's a fun tune and the band shot a video for it in a dinosaur park somewhere in Europe.

So This is Love?

21. "Hot For Teacher" from 1984. It's another fourth single. This one did actually chart hitting 56. It was the last single released by the original band. The ending of the tune was from older song "Voodoo Queen." Note: "Voodoo Queen" became "Mean Street" except for the ending. This song is a drummer's delight with Alex's double kick introduction. It reminds me a lot of Billy Cobham's "Quadrant 4", and not just the drums, but the boogie fried guitar too. I would be the Van Halen brothers were familiar with it. I was a senior in high school by the time the video became popular and I can assure, the song was a hit with the younger teachers in my high school. 

That's it for now. Tracks 20-11 will be coming along at some point in the future. Until then, happy trails.

Counting Down the First Dave Era Van Halen Tracks 40-31

I'm counting down my the first Dave era Van Halen tracks. Part one is here. Part two is here. If you're all caught up let's not waste anymore time. 

40. "Dancing in the Street" from Diver Down. One of the many cracks in the camp of Van Halen. "Dancing in the Street" is a song that Dave wanted to cover, but Eddie won with "(Oh) Pretty Woman" instead. When "(Oh) Pretty Woman" became a hit and a whole album was needed "Dancing in the Street" reentered the picture. Which was fine, except that Ted Templeman took a Mini-Moog piece Eddie had been working on and it's this synth piece that percolates throughout the song which really makes it fresh and takes it to number 40 on my list. 

39. "Where Have All the Good Times Gone?" from Diver Down. It's the second time Van Halen plunders the Kinks back catalog (we'll get to "You Really Got Me" later) and I love it. It works well as a mid-tempo album opener and its placing at 39 is more a product of my own nostalgia for the song than musical quality. 

38. "House of Pain" from 1984. "House of Pain" was an older track that had never made it on to a proper Van Halen album. A version of it had been recorded with Gene Simmons before Van Halen got their deal with Warner Bros. That version had the car horns that would later be used on "Runnin' with the Devil." It's one of those galloping stompers of a song that fades out leaving you wanting more. 

37. "Bottoms Up!" from Van Halen II. This boogie, party anthem extolling the joy of alcohol is fun and the sort of track that showcased the humorous side of Van Halen which really set them apart from most hard rock and metal. 

36. "Take Your Whiskey Home" from Women and Children First. This song was a leftover from Van Halen's club days. Eddie wasn't too keen on doing it, but everyone else wanted to do it. The mid-tempo tune fits in well on Women and Children First. 

35. "Loss of Control" from Women and Children First. File this was in the bonkers section. The Van Halen News Desk says this one pokes fun at the punk rock scene. 

34. "Atomic Punk" from Van Halen. A rarity in the Van Halen catalogue; this song has no backing vocals. It's just sheer adrenaline veering on white noise as Dave relates how he rules the streets in what appears to be either a dystopian sci-fi future world or perhaps some darker fantasy land. Eddie's palm scratching of the strings was yet one of the many interesting sounds he was to share with us over the years. 

33. "Beautiful Girls" from Van Halen II. It was originally performed as "Bring on the Girls" during the band's club days as it made for a perfect accompaniment to the wet t-shirt contests that usually part of the night's festivities. The song's title was changed and toned down due to label pressure, but the gleeful decadence still shines through. 

32. "Women in Love..." from Van Halen II. The double tracked harmonics at the beginning by Edward are genius. Then comes the slow burn. I really like Alex's understated thuds in this one. Just perfect. Then Dave provides the twist that his woman is leaving him for another woman. Dave is generally all about the braggadocio, so it's neat when he's almost vulnerable.

31. "On Fire" from Van Halen. Dave hangs ten on our sonic wave. Even though it's the last song on Van Halen's debut, it does not come off as an afterthought. The heavy metal clanger with Dave screaming his head off leaves one wanting more. More of whatever it was we just heard. 

That's it for this post. I'll be come at some point counting down 30-21. Until then, happy trails.