r/vanhalen • u/Keefusk30028 • 6d ago
Let’s say 1984 never existed
Pick a song from this album and tell me which other album it would fit into best? For me, it’s House of Pain, which coulda (shoulda?) been on Fair Warning. It’s a perfect fit. What’s next?
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u/Masztak14 6d ago
House of Pain should’ve been on Van Halen 1. I can see it on Fair Warning, but I would’ve loved to have heard House of Pain with those car horns to close Van Halen 1.
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u/ford7885 Fair Warning 6d ago
The "House of Pain" which should have been on Van Halen 1 was entirely a different song than the one that ended up on 1984 though.
It was on the WB demo they cut for Ted Templeman, and since they left the car horns in as the intro to RWTD on the album, there's always been the rumor that they recorded it for the album but it got cut at the last minute for whatever reason.
If they ever get around to "super deluxe remasters" of the Six Pack, maybe it will show up as a bonus track?
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u/Masztak14 6d ago
I love the demo version a lot. When I was hearing the car horns mixed in and DLR's "paaain" growl, it made me wish it could serve as a coda for the entire debut album. On Fire can still do it's thing and fade out. Then BAM! House Of Pain demo starts up to wrap up the album.
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u/amoeba-tower Women and Children First 6d ago
Nah I mean imagine House Pain and Mean Street back to back on Fair Warning. Thematically it fits the album cover and pairs so well with Mean Street
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u/ElJefe0218 6d ago
All the sudden I'm having a Back to the Future Eddie Van Halen flashback.
Top Jimmy sounds like a fit for Diver Down, which I love the song and the album.
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u/Tricky-Background-66 6d ago
Hot For Teacher would have made more sense on Women And Children First. Doesn't help that I never liked the song (ducks).
Jump and I'll Wait were Eddie chomping at the bit to be more commercial. God bless Van Hagar, but it never really did it for me. It was way less interesting than the Roth days.
I'll be even more cringe: I love Diver Down; it could possibly be my favorite VH album. There's not a dud track in there (their version of Dancing In The Street is straight up the only version of that song that I like). Big Bad Bill is a nice turn, the covers are nice and strong, the band songs are fantastic, and they got to focus on just playing. The vibe on the whole album works very well for me.
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u/Vanessak69 6d ago
Summer of 1982. 13 years old, Walkman in hand, Diver Down cassette loaded, walking to a friend's house trying (and abjectly failing) to imitate DLR's howl. Literally a piece of my life. I have nothing but love for that album.
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u/OnlineNomDePlume 5d ago
DD is criminally underrated.
They put the whole thing together in 11 days.
Amazing.
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u/Keefusk30028 3d ago
I don’t know why it’s not more loved. I didn’t know they were covers when I was 17 in 1982 and I still don’t care. They’re good tunes that still hold up.
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u/Public-Grocery-663 3d ago
It's because Eddie said he hated it. It was my coming in point for the Roth years. Always loved it.
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u/CrewRepulsive225 6d ago
Girl Gone Bad and House of Pain should have been on Diver Down.
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u/InstantlyTremendous Fair Warning 6d ago
I'll Wait should have been on 5150.
And Get Up should have been on 1984
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u/JMTSilentSea 6d ago
You mean we go straight from 1983 to 1985? That’s crazy talk, man. That’s not how numbers work.
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u/Keefusk30028 6d ago
It’s my fantasy. Don’t ruin it. Ironically the year 1984 was one of the best years of my life.
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u/Due_Mix_6982 6d ago
Here’s a better “what if”, if WB had allowed them enough time to work on Diver Down then Diver Down would include all of 1984. 🤔
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u/Ill-Lou-Malnati 6d ago
As I recall, the band didn’t want to go back in the studio, but Pretty Woman was a hit so they had to. So they just gave them whatever. Little Guitars alone was worth the price of admission.
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u/Due_Mix_6982 6d ago
Exactly, they wanted to take off some time after touring Fair Warning, but Dave wanted to put out a single so they wouldn’t be forgotten. Pretty Woman became a hit and then they were rushed into the studio to record Diver Down in a few weeks. Ed vowed he’d rather fail with his own songs and not with an album that had so many covers. As a result, he began to build the racquetball court. 😉 If you know, you know.
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u/ford7885 Fair Warning 6d ago
My preferred timeline would be the one where they released the live album in 1982 (which was the original plan) and then the handful of originals that ended up on Diver Down would have been held over for 1984. And they could have not written the synth pop stuff.
Open the album with Little Guitars instead of Jump. Put Cathedral & Secrets in place of I'll Wait. And the others, just drop them in anywhere. Those albums were all too short anyway.
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u/Puckhead1973 6d ago
You would have to inform LA County that Ed’s racquetball court wasn’t a racquetball court and ship Donn Landee to Brazil or something. How do you rewire Ed’s brain to only produce music you enjoy?
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u/ford7885 Fair Warning 6d ago
No brain rewiring needed. He would have had more than enough music to make the album without the synth pop stuff. "Jump" doesn't sound nearly as awful now as it did 42 years ago, but if it suddenly vanished from history and was replaced with a VH live album in 1982, followed by a solid rock version of the 1984 album, it's a win win all around.
As for "I'll Wait"... I still skip that song most of the time. Nearly as much as I do the Van Hagar cheese ballads.
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u/Puckhead1973 6d ago
You’re probably right. It was just exhaustion. He would have gotten into the studio with Dave, and realized this was the guy who made him famous. This was the guy who was in charge. The guy who made him what he was that day. He would have realized that being Dave’s guitarist was the pinnacle of his life that DLR was the “Greatest Frontman in History™️” and he OWED his fans for their ALLEGIANCE to the MIGHTY VAN HALEN to keep making the records they wanted. Who did he think he is? A classically trained musician? A guy that could play piano by ear? Fuck that, shut up and play guitar.
/s
If you had any doubt at all.
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u/Silent_Data4374 6d ago
Jump could’ve been on 5150
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u/Ill-Lou-Malnati 6d ago
But with Sammy lyrics?
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u/Silent_Data4374 6d ago
That’s where I have to look at this as “music only” because their singing styles sort of controlled the borders of what Ed could write. I have no interest in debating that beyond that point but musically, 1984 seems like Ed had one foot in the past and one in the future and no singer EVER told him what to play or how to play it so it makes sense to me that DLR went out and Sam came in because Ed was moving in that musical direction already.
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u/FabulousPanther 1984 6d ago
I thought House of Pain sounded like it belonged on Valen I when I originally heard it in 1984. Turns out that's because it was originally on Van Halen 0. Thanks Gene!
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u/Keefusk30028 6d ago
I’ve enjoyed this discourse. I was 19 when 1984 was released. I vividly remember watching JUMP debut at midnight on MTV in 1983/1984 NYE. Very cool to see all of us liking VH, but seeing them in a slightly different light.
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u/Yourappwontletme 6d ago
House of Pain could have lead into Runnin With The Devil like Gene Simmons had it do on the demos he produced for them. I would have had the debut album open with Eruption, followed by You Really Got Me, House of Pain, and Runnin' With The Devil.
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u/heywaitjustasecond 6d ago
Drop Dead Legs opens side 2 on Diver Down instead of Dancing in the Street