This is the album that introduced Eddie Van Halen, guitar phenomenon,
to the world. Since then, guitar playing has never been the same. We
could thank Eddie for the popularization of the dive-bombing
whammy-bar and fretboard hammer-on attacks today's guitarists take for
granted. The album begins with "Running with the Devil" and then hits
the listener between the eyes with the classic ripper "Eruption" and
just when you think it couldn't get any better, they do the best
possible cover of "You Really Got Me". All on the same album. But then
we also have "Aint Talkin' Bout Love", "Jamie's Cryin'" and "Ice Cream
Man", all of which are classic rock radio regulars.
Most Van Halen
Fans believe the David Lee Roth years to be their best years. Each
successive album still maintained the obnoxious, in-your-face attitude
and great musicianship but with the release of the 1984 album, they
threw their fans a serious curve-ball. Eddie Van Halen, guitar hero,
played many a keyboard track. Not just a song or two, the album was
saturated with some serious synthesizer work. It was a definite change
in their sound but yielded the hit song "Jump". Then came Sammy Hagar
with the release of the 5150 album. It was okay, I guess. But the best
album Sammy did with Van Halen was the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
album (1991). So to sum it up, I'd buy at least one album from each of
these periods. I would rate them as follows: 1. Van Halen (Early
mostly-guitar-driven years) 2. 1984 (beginning of Eddie's keyboard
work) 3. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (Hagar Years). All three albums
were very easily distinguished from each other. |
