Van Halen - 1984 - 1984

So, my fourth most favorite Hard Rock album of all time.  1984.  Fantastic.  I saw it in the window of Pickles Records in the mall when I was 12.  I remember the shock of seeing an ANGEL of all things SMOKING CIGARETTES.  How sacrilegious!  That is like playing with the devil and going to hell!  Bad people.

But, I watched the videos on MTV and enjoying them.  I remember not really knowing what Hot For Teacher really meant, and then when I found out, I again was shocked.  These guys were the baddest of the bad, from my limited perspective.

Now, I think that this is Van Halen's best album ever, and also an album they could never and will never ascend to again.  This is their ultimate high, and they never made it back again, IMHO.  As I said in my previous post, I love Sammy Hagar, but the magic that the original four had was something special, and Hagar just didn't really mesh as well as Dave did.  Yeah, VH was good, but not as good as 1984.  Having already written my DLR post, I have to return to it and say now that I feel DLR is the one who ruined VH.  Again with his gynormous ego.

But, as for 1984, I think it was a standard for all other Metal albums to follow. 

What's awesome, is that I was able to find two demos for this album - Ripley and Donut City.  They aren't bad, but they really don't fit with the rest of the album.  Regardless, I included them.  Hope you enjoy.

Only two days left, guys.  Good or bad, I'm almost done with Metal and we're back to normal....

Van Halen - 1984 - 1984

David Lee Roth - Eat Em & Smile - 1986

DLR's first real solo album, Eat Em And Smile, is better than his Crazy From the Heat EP and harder than his Skyscraper album.  Yankee Rose is a stadium rocker.  Shyboy, Goin' Crazy and Elephant Gun are powerful pieces, and the rest of the album is pretty...  cool.

Yes, he's nuckin' futs, but his voice is great and his stage performance is second to none (for his style of music).  I hate the fact that he couldn't work with the VH brothers any more, because I think that had they stayed together, they would've been much bigger than either of them were apart.  Don't get me wrong, I think Hagar is really freekin' cool, happy, good singer and songwriter.  I just don't think he had the magic to carry VH through to the heights they COULD'VE been.  And DLR SHOULD'VE kept his fucking huge-ass ego in check.  In the end, THAT is what destroyed him.  In fact, I think the reason why DLR's first two solo albums did so well is because of Steve Vai (see yesterday).  Notice that once Vai left, DLR suddenly sucked mega-dick.  His songwriting skills are for shit.

Regardless, this is a great album, but as I found with most of my "Metal & Hard Rock" artists, there really aren't any b-sides or remixes or even demos out there.  All I have is a few Spanish versions of his two hits from this one, and a single demo.

Play this one loud and relish in DLR's notorious howl.  It's going to be a great chilly Autumn evening, and I plan to enjoy every minute of it!

David Lee Roth - Eat Em & Smile - 1986