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.