Welcome And Setting The 80s Mood

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Welcome back to another Super Awesome Mix. My name is Matt Sid Home Alongside, my co-host and co-founder of Super Awesome Mix, Samur. Habisabi. Samur, how are we doing this week?

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Doing really well. Traveled back in time this week to mostly the 80s. And uh, you know, I always leave listening uh to 80s music with a sense of just like, wow, the 80s were weird. You know, that's always like my takeaway. It's just a it was a weird decade. I don't know. I mean, maybe that's just because I'm a kid of the 90s, and maybe that's what everyone always thinks. But I think maybe objectively the 80s were just a strange time. What do you what do you think, having grown up more in the 80s?

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah, I do love I I fully admit it was weird, right? Because even going back on this, when I look back, okay, so just to cut to it, we're doing an introduction mix today, and it's an introduction to Van Halen. Okay. Uh the band formed in the 70s, but obviously their heyday was squarely in the 80s. And uh so for me growing up, heard a lot of these songs over and over again, right? This was very much a part of my life, but I love introducing this stuff and getting your perspective because even when I look back on it, I'm like, that's a little odd. But then you're like, what the hell is happening here? And I'm like, okay, maybe it was more than a little odd. Yeah, that's fair.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Yeah, yeah. We'll we'll get to some of the tracks in particular where I just keep head scratching. But um, you know, it was a cool mix. Like, I so Matt is doing the introduction, so he picked all 12 songs here. I'll be introducing each song. Um, I won't be repeating the band name Van Halen over and over again. Um just remember that that's who wrote the song, who performed it. But um, yeah, no, it's interesting because I I had known the band, right? Obviously, like top, you know, huge, huge band, a lot of impact on music, but never really sat down to listen to it. So I think from the 12 songs, I really only knew like one or two. Oh, wow. So it was really cool. Yeah, it was really cool to kind of like sit through and then obviously, you know, get the transition uh that we'll talk about, I'm sure, at more length between David Lee Roth to Sammy Hagar and and kind of see what that did to the band. So it was it was a really good mix overall, and I thought you did a great job with introducing someone to um to the group.

Van Halen Origins And Band Lineup

The Brown M&Ms Rider Trick

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, so a little background Van Halen was formed in uh Pasadena, California. So this is I think our second Southern California band of the year that we've introduced because you did Red Hot Chili Peppers. Um and they were built around, so they're called Van Halen, but of course they're free, their their most famous lead singers are David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar. So Van Halen, the name is Eddie Van Halen, who is the lead guitarist and the big through line here, and his brother Alex Van Halen, uh, who was on the drums. Uh Michael Anthony was the fourth band member, and he was uh steadily through the band all the way till um, I don't know, early 2000s when Eddie's son Wolfgang replaced him in the band, which had to be an awkward conversation. But um yeah, Van Halen, I mean tons of hits. So I think most people listening to the song who are of a certain age are gonna be like, oh, I know that one, or I know this one. But another thing they are famous for, Samura, are you familiar with the writer, like Sam Van Halen's writer as it related to like their concerts?

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Uh no, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Okay, so they were famous for having uh a rider. So a writer is a contract that an artist will present to like a venue that they're coming to saying, you know, I want this type of water or I want this type of lighting or this type of microphone, whatever it is, right? Van Halen got famous. There was a famous story where in their rider there was a line where there should be a bowl of MMs, but no brown MMs should be there. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

So it was originally seen as this how insane are celebrities and how insane are rock and rollers in particular, right? That there's something about these brown MMs that they couldn't stand, that they had to get rid of, right? But in fact, the band later explained that it was a little bit of a test because in the in their shows, in these arena shows, they would have a lot of light, sometimes fireworks, this, that, and the other going off. And everything had to be set up perfectly, or else somebody could have gotten hurt with all the you know things going on during the stage show. So they put this in their writer as a way to kind of test the attention to detail by the venue that they were going to. And they were really like they would double check things if they came across a situation where they were brown MMs, because it's like, all right, if they haven't read that and they're not doing that, what other details are they missing? So it's actually kind of a good, I mean, I don't recommend it to people to kind of make that part of their life, but in retrospect, I do kind of get it. And I thought it was important to point that out because I think a lot of people know that story.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Yeah, that's really cool. I had kind of heard like a version of that, but I didn't know it was attached to them. Um, but I feel like, you know, popular culture kind of made the sense, exactly what you said that artists are really finicky, or you know, like they have these crazy um demands. And you see that represented in films about musicians and actors all the time. So that's really interesting. Um, kudos to them for coming up with that, right? Like such an inane detail, but it does kind of speak to like, hey, I've actually read the contract or I've read what you want me to do, and I'm gonna call this out here, you know.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Actually, like in retrospect, seems actually pretty reasonable.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Right. Yeah. Yeah. I used to do that sometimes like way back in the day when you could organize like parties on Facebook, you know. This was before Facebook became what it is today, and it was actually a place to like meet and hang out with, you know, old friends. But I would put somewhere in the description of like, if you're at my house party, say the word like penguin to me to indicate that you actually read this far, right? And and I would get like, you know, 50% of people would be like penguin, and I'd be like, Oh, thank you. You actually read it. Wow. So same idea. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

I like that. I like that. Yeah. Your own are you a robot test, right?

Eruption And Eddie’s Guitar Genius

SPEAKER_00 7:00

That's what you're exactly, right, right. Yeah. Did you just pretend to read this or are you actually reading it? It's great. Uh with that though, let's get into the mix. So um, a little unorthodox. We went with 13 songs here. I will forgive you, Matt, for breaking the rules, but you've got an explanation for it. But top of the mix here is Eruption.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Yeah, Eruption, and I'm gonna go ahead and give you the the second second song as well, which is You Really Got Me. So these two kind of are sandwiched together on Van Halen's first album, which is just titled Van Halen. Uh, You Really Got Me is a remake of the Kinks song. Uh, You Really Got Me. Um, but you know, like I said, it's called Van Halen. Eddie Van Halen is the key member of this band, and he's an incredible guitarist, right? But possibly the greatest of all time. Um, I would probably say he's the greatest of all time, in my opinion. But so Eruption is purely him just playing the electric guitar, and it's incredible. And then on the album, it transitions seamlessly into this version of You really got me. So I feel like if you're gonna get to know this band, I think from the top, you've got to get to know Eddie Van Halen and the way he plays guitar. Um, the the technique he uses, and you'll see something distinctive about his sound the more you listen to them. But it's something called finger tapping. And um so he will so it's something where once you start to listen to Eddie Van Halen, you'll start to hear him and then you'll hear his influence on other artists, like as they as they um, you know, kind of come out with their own their own songs and and their own way of uh kind of working the guitar. So so I had to start with this one just because Eddie was such a a crucial member of the band. One thing to know, he does not know how to read music. He learned purely by ear. He started off he was a piano prodigy when he was like two or three, and he would just hear things and be able to sit down and just play. And that translated into the guitar as well. So um also just incredible to think about.

Party Cuts And Lyric Debates

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Yeah, that is amazing to not be like trained and then all of a sudden just be able to knock out like a song like this, which really I was just unbelievable. Like, if you just put this on a mix, I would have been like, okay, I'm sold. You know, like just put this, put this down 12 more times, and this is the greatest mix of all time because I love a good guitar solo. If you've been a long time listener, you know that. Um, and this really blew my mind. It was incredible. Um, and what made me laugh is obviously I usually go and read all the lyrics um of songs, and this isn't instrumental, there are no lyrics, but all the comments about this literally say that it's like heartbreaking lyrics, you know. I'm so moved here. Just really deep lyrics of the song, you know, just a bunch of smart asses because that's what the internet is. Um, so that made me laugh. But no, this was amazing. Um, and I mean, really just I agree with you. This might, he might be one, he is certainly one of the greatest guitar players of all time, if not, if not the number one spot, because the just the mechanics of what he's doing and how it sounds is just incredible. I really wish the song was like 12 minutes longer. I would have listened to every minute of it. All right, so since we've already covered tracks one and two, let's jump on to number three, which is Dance the Night Away.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Yeah, so now we're on their second album called Van Halen 2, uh, 1979. This might be my favorite Van Halen song, actually, just because the intro to this song gets me every time. And it's been used in various movies. Um, if you are at a party and you throw this on, like people are immediately into it, just from that beginning part. If you're making a mix and you want to start it off the right way, I think this song works. If you're just starting your day, just throw this song on. And I think from the beginning of this one, it's just awesome. And uh it's just about dancing and having a good time, and there's just nothing wrong with that. So I don't know. I I just love this song. I always have, and I feel like any Van Halen uh fan or newbie to the uh to the band needs to know this one.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Yeah, this one was a lot of fun. I agree. Um, the thing that caught my ear on this one is the line Love in the Third Degree, which I think is just really great imagery. Like, I'm gonna pick on them later for not having very deep lyrics, but um this one I think you could you could kind of spend some time with that line, right? Because like he's kind of mentioning like in the third degree is like a reference to burns, and obviously a third degree burn is one of the worst um burns that you can get. And so love in the third degree is just I think really clever imagery because it's like a love that is so intense, it's like a third-degree burn, and you wonder, like, is that a good thing? Because you know, it might not be. So I just really love that um kind of the whether it was intended or not, the deepness of that of that line uh is really interesting. I'm definitely pulling like an English teacher here, being like, ah yes, this is this is what they meant when it probably just rhymed really well, right? So um, but I just wanted to call that out.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

I don't know how deep Van Halen lyrics are, just generally.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

I know we're gonna get to that.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

We're gonna get to that. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

But no, you're right. This is a great song and um certainly one of my favorites off of the mix. All right, so let's get to one of those songs that just has really, really meaningful lyrics. This is Beautiful Girls.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

So this one, I mean, the guitar playing on this one is just incredible. Okay. So again, you've got to put Eddie Van Halen up there, but I I'd be remiss not to talk about, you know, the first half of this mix is really covering the David Lee Roth era, where he is the lead singer. And David Lee Roth, like vocally at this time, was just incredible. Like, really, like not anything you'd hear anywhere else with with just what he would do, whether he'd it was almost like Steven Tyler, but I think better uh than what Steven Tyler does with Aerosmith, and and said just the energy that he brings to it. And here it's like, look, if Van Halen's about anything in the David Lee Roth era, it's just about having fun and they love women. Yes, that's what a lot of their songs are about. There's just nothing more to it than that.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

No, no, there is no there's no deeper analyzation of this song whatsoever. Um, I think there the lyrics are pretty clear here where he he just keeps singing, all I need is a beautiful girl. Oh yeah, beautiful girls come this way, baby. Like, got it. Okay, understood. It's no metaphor here. This isn't about some deeper meaning in life that you're seeking. Nope. He he just loves women. Nope.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

There's and there's no, you know, there's nothing romantic, there's no poetry going on here. Nothing like that. But but but I will say also, like, there's also nothing like uh maybe you could speak to this more, but even revisiting the song, this one, there's nothing offensive about it.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Yeah, I mean, on the surface, I don't think so. I'm sure someone out there can find some reason why it's offensive. But uh looking at it and reading through it, I'm like, okay, yeah, you know, he's he's you could say he's celebrating his love of women. Great.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Like I'm gonna well, here's the thing, and I'm not saying that's what all their songs are, right? Like I'm not saying we don't get to that point at times with them, but I do feel like in this case, it's just like it's just a song about loving beautiful women. And yeah, don't know if that's offensive in any way, but yeah, I'm not sure. Hey, at super awesome mix, let us know how we're wrong. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Exactly. Yeah. And I do want to definitely like plus one on the on the guitar in this track. It's it's amazing. Um, and you really start to get the sense again of that like iconic guitar sound of of Van Halen and um Eddie Van Halen playing. Like, you definitely start to get a sense of like, okay, yeah, that's his style, which is really cool. All right, here is another deep song. Um, and this is Everybody Wants Some double exclamation marks.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

All right, so this is from the 1980 album, Women and Children First. Uh, the other big song from this album is In the Cradle Will Rock, but I went with this one because uh just a little bit more in line with the other songs I picked, which is just kind of real straightforward, kind of fun song. Um, here I want to highlight the drums at the beginning because again, the other key member of this band is Alex Van Halen, Eddie's brother, who is the drummer, and uh I just think it's this one and the next track, you really get uh the drums highlighted uh a little bit more. And um, I don't know. I mean, he's incredible too. I mean, that's the thing. It's like they have this consistent sound. I think there might be a little bit of sameness to it, at least in the eras of different lead singers. But um, I don't know. I do think even again, revisiting these tracks, I'm like, God, this is incredible! Like, you're really gonna get into it. And this is a band that if you think about seeing these guys in like 1983, 1984, that was probably an incredible arena show.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Yeah, absolutely. No, I this one to me really spoke to kind of you could put this in a in a very solid through line of like kind of punk morphing into like heavy rock and metal, like you can you can hear that here very well through the vocals, through like the heavy rock sound, that incredible guitar opening again, just absolutely love it. Um, you know, just yeah, you can you can kind of see things morphing their way towards this like heavy metal sound through this track alone. And I really, really liked it. This is one of the ones that um is my favorite just because I love a good heavy rock slash metal uh sounding song. So super high energy, loved it. And again, very, very deep lyrics here um that you could spend hours kind of pouring over.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Everybody wants some. I want some too. Yeah, it's pretty deep. It's pretty deep.

1984 Era Hits And Panama

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Yeah, it's about the struggle of the working class, I think is what it is. Um that's right, that's right. It is. It is all right. Here's uh here's maybe the first metaphor um that we get to from the band, and this is Panama, track number six.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Yeah, so there were two other albums after Women and Children First, Fair Warning and Diver Down. But um, you know, considering we're we're five tracks in, I had to get to uh the album 1984, which is uh their biggest selling album. It went five times platinum. Uh ton of hits on here. I did not include Jump, which probably is their most famous song. Uh it's either Jump or Panama would be their most favorite song or famous song, and still gets a lot of radio airplay. Um I'm very tired of listening to the song Jump. I don't love it. Um, Panama um is not far behind as far as number of times I've heard it, but I think the drums and the music and and everything here kind of sucks me back in. And so um I I had to include this one. But yeah, I mean, I don't know, lyrically, I'm not sure what we're doing here, but it's still a fun song.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Right. Yeah, I think uh we've we've definitely talked about this song before somewhere in our episode mix um or list. And what really made me laugh is like he was criticized for only singing about, you know, women, basically. And so here he wrote like a song about a fast car, which is basically just a metaphor for a woman. Um that you know, that that's how he hid it and didn't hide it very well, obviously. But that's the depth that he can go. And I appreciate that. You know, I appreciate the effort. It's good.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

I mean, still a hit record, still a hit record, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Yeah, exactly, exactly. I mean, it comes back to like what we've talked about. Like a band can be just really good at this thing and people like that, like them for that reason. So just lean into it, you know, like have fun with it. Like you are there to entertain. A lot of bands are there to just entertain and kind of get people fired up. And I feel like that's exactly what they did, and they did a great job at it, clearly.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

I I agree, I agree. And this was, I mean, they were initially considered it a heavy metal band. And while there's a lot of guitar in it, and you know, it's definitely rock music. I don't know if I'd ever consider these guys heavy metal, just because when you get into the lyrics, there's just nothing. Not that heavy metal has to be this, but there's just nothing heavy about it. And I feel like heavy metal often encompasses that.

Hot For Teacher And 80s MTV

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Yeah, no, I agree. This is like light medium metal, I don't know. Aluminum, maybe? Yes, aluminium. Aluminium. All right. Let's go to track number seven, Hot for Teacher, which also included a bonus for me of watching the music video for the first time. So let's let's chat about it.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Yeah, let's chat about this one. Okay, all right. Here's here's the song, and here's the video. All right. It's about someone who thinks their teacher's hot. Okay, it's it's just right there in the title. So I'm not gonna try to sugarcoat this and tell you it's something different. The music video, and I encourage everyone to go out and watch it because I probably watched it a thousand times, and I must have been like eight years old when the song came out, right?

unknown 20:21

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

It's a group of children cheering on their teacher who was wearing a bikini and kind of dancing around the classroom as if she is a stripper.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

That is the music video that is presented here by Van Halen for the song Hot for Teacher. And uh I wanted to send it to you because I was like, okay, Samura's gonna find this grossly offensive. So, Samur, what were your thoughts on the video?

SPEAKER_00 20:49

I mean, this is the one that really, again, pushed me to like, wow, the 80s were just an interesting time, weren't they?

SPEAKER_01 20:54

You know, like by the way, this was totally cool. Like, this was not something where it's like, yeah, look, we really shouldn't be watching this. Like, I could come home from school, it's 3:30, I throw on MTV, and this video's on. So it's not like there were any limitations. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

See, that's what I was gonna, I was just about to ask. Like, was this like controversial? You know, like this is like the Reagan era where like everyone's supposed to be all like, you know, nice and conservative and whatever, right? And and to have music videos like this out, I just have to feel, you know, may have may have stirred some things up, but apparently not.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

I don't I don't think it was, yeah. It kind of makes me laugh thinking about like a decade later, or maybe 15 years later, like all these stories started popping up about you know, teachers sleeping with students and how awful it is. And I just think about somebody talking to David Lee Roth about it and trying to explain to him what happened and him not understanding the, you know. Like, you know, it's like, oh my god, this teacher, I mean, she took advantage of this student. Oh my god, well, what happened? She slept with it, slept with this 16-year-old uh boy. Uh-huh. Well, I mean, he's underage, David. Uh-huh. Was she not attractive? David, David, you're missing the point. Like, she is a fully grown adult, uh-huh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

And he's like, let me point you to my song Hot for Teacher.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Yeah, just not sinking in like the part of this that was offensive in some way. Yeah. Just kind of different era.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Different times, I guess.

The Shift To Sammy Hagar

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Different times. But yeah, had to had to kind of talk about Hot for Teacher, because wow, what What a ridiculous. I mean, even in retrospect, I could be like, man, this is not something I would have my eight-year-old watch, I think, if it were on. Yes. Yeah. Probably not. No. Probably not. Um, okay, so before you get to the next track, after the 1984 album, all right, David Lee Roth, who apparently was in conflict with Eddie Van Halen for years and years, right? Finally decides to leave the band. And so the second half of this mix will cover the era where Sammy Hagar is the lead singer.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Yes, and we kick that off with the first track, track number eight, Why Can't This Be Love?

unknown 23:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

So David Lee Roth leaves and uh Van Halen looking for a new lead singer. They reach out to Patty Smythe, which I thought was interesting, and they reach out to Daryl Hall of Hall of Oates, and both said no. And uh so they go to Sammy Hagar, who at that point uh was best known. His biggest hit was a song called I Can't Drive 55. So, Samura, are you familiar with the song I Can't Drive 55? I am not, no. Okay, so at one point in the 80s they decided there would be a national speed limit on our highways, and it would be 55 miles per hour. And Sammy Hagar would not let that go, okay. And he came out with a protest song, okay, stating that he cannot drive 55. Okay, and uh the music video was him driving really fast away from the police. He's uh he's in court. I mean, he's he's really sticking it to the man because he's not driving that slow. Uh so that was his biggest hit, and then he comes over to Van Halen, and um it's a dramatic, and I'll be interested to hear your take on this, but dramatic shift from Sammy Hagar, uh from the David Lee Roth era to the Sammy Hagar era, especially with even thematically a song like Why Can't This Be Love?

SPEAKER_00 24:33

All right, first I have to get through a couple of thoughts. I just have to uh address these. Number one, I'm really glad that he used his music um, you know, for good, right? Like I think that that's really important. We should call him out uh in terms of fighting the 55 speed limit.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

If he hadn't, where would we be today? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Right. Which brings me to my second point, which is like, have you ever driven on a Texas highway and tried to only go 55? I mean, it wouldn't you'd be there for weeks.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Well, and most classic rock stations in step in Texas are still playing I Can't Drive 55. So we're just reinforcing that message.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Yeah, there's a highway right uh I've driven on, I think the speed limit's 85, right? It's somewhere, yeah, and it's glorious. It's great. Because then it's I mean, it's just so fun. Um, anyway, anyway. So thank you to Sammy Hager. I didn't know that piece of uh trivia there. But yeah, this um this was such a vibe shift. I mean, it to the point where you wonder like, are you still listening to the same band? Because it goes from this like punkish, metal-ish, you know, sound to just like super synthie and and more classically, kind of like what you think of when you think of 80s music, like this really leaned into that. And so I don't know, it was really interesting to have a band do such a massive shift. Like, and I'd be curious to know how was it received? Because obviously, like Metallica, right, is a top of mind example of heavy metal in the 80s, and then in the 90s, they start to get like a little bit more like alt-rockish, you know, like we talked about on our intro to Metallica sound, and everyone hated it, right? They they revolted against the sound where they were like, Oh, you've gone soft, and blah, blah, blah. So be curious, like, what happened, you know, um, with this transition.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

Honestly, I remember everybody loving this song.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

And everybody recognized it was very different. Now, some people have really strong feelings and are just like, no, I'm only David Lee Roth Van Halen. This actually brought a lot of fans to the band because instead of this sort of fun, like we're singing about teachers who might be strippers songs. It's like, here's a song where it's like, why can't this be love? Like, this is kind of a romantic song, right? Like, this is more relationship-based. Um, and I think it's so different. And this, it reminds me of, and I'm gonna mention Bruce Springsteen, right? He comes out with Born in the USA, and it was such a massive, massive hit that the E Street band breaks up after that. They tore for like two years, and then they break up the band, and he comes back, and his next album is Tunnel of Love, which is nothing like Born in the USA. And, you know, and it's still well received, but I think he decided I'm not going to be able to recreate that. So let me go create something completely different. And so I think they I think the same thing happened here. So instead of trying to recreate 1984, which again was such a massive album, they just go in a different direction. I mean, obviously a different lead singer, but you know, this album, 5150, was actually, I think, pretty well received from from my memory. It's like, I don't remember people being like, ugh, this is this is terrible. But you're right. I think, well, let me just say, they lost some fans in this because it is not the same. But it was not something where the band just tanked, they were still really successful.

Softer Rock And Fan Reactions

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Yeah, no, it's really interesting. And I think you're spot on, probably, about like the approach of like, look, like, we're not gonna have another David Lee Roth, you know, uh lead singer. So let's just try something that works better for the singer that we do get. Um, so that definitely makes a lot of sense. Cool. Well, off of that same album, I believe, um, is Dreams, and that's track number nine on this mix.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Yeah, again, you talk about a shift in in kind of theme, right? Um this is still kind of a kind of a fun song, but it's so synth-driven, right? Like, really, this whole album and this one especially, it's like you listen to this one, you know it's of a certain era, right? Like this is this is classic kind of late 80s music, but it's also just about like being positive and having dreams and you're gonna make it, and this, that, and the other. And again, kind of like Van Halen's never been a negative band, but I do think this one is like this is almost like something uh you know, Tony Robbins would come out to instead of like, you know, beautiful girls or something like that. So like it still sticks with the kind of positive vibes that I think Van Halen gives off, but just in a very different way.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

Yeah, like they start messaging more, and that's certainly true with with the next couple of tracks as well, which is really interesting. Um, and this is the one too that really made me feel like it could go on a montage like in an 80s film very easily or early 90s film. Uh, it just has that that feel to it, and that's exactly like what I thought listening to it. But you're right, like the lyrics definitely change, like you can absolutely see the impact of Hagar there. Because I I can't imagine David Lee Roth wanting to sing about any of this, you know.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

But it was also like more commercially received, right? Like you're gonna hear this over and over like on the radio.

SPEAKER_00 29:38

Yeah, no, I that makes a lot of sense. All right, well, track number 10, finish what you started.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Okay, so this is off the second album with Sammy Hagar called OU812, okay, which was supposed to be kind of a shorthand, OU812, which kind of had nothing. They do this on their albums with Sammy Hagar a little bit, and we'll get to the album title here in a moment, but it's like it almost has nothing to do with the album, but they're still being kind of like a little cheeky with some of the album titles. Um, interestingly enough, this album featured a song called Kabo Wabbo, which Sammy Hagar would later name his tequila brand, and then he sold that for like a zillion dollars or something like that. Nice, so yeah, yeah. Sammy Hagar's Sammy Hagar, I think, was the better businessman between him and David Lee Roth. And I think that's what you see too, is like David Lee Roth was a rock star, and and Sammy Hagar was the businessman, and I think you can see that with just sort of the music and the and the choices they make. Um, in this case, a very like toned-down song, finish what you started because now the the guitar playing is almost kind of bluesy a little bit, and it's a little bit more subdued. Um, it's still really good, and I feel like the song is really listenable, but it's kind of in that theme. Again, they the synthesizer is not as heavy here. If I think it's not even here in the song, but um, yeah, just another little shift in the sound of this band.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

Yeah, absolutely. This one I almost felt like it was like an easy listening, soft rock song, you know, like I could totally see it in that category. Um, and this is the one where I started to feel like, okay, I think I might be more of a David Lee Roth Van Halen fan than a Sammy Hagar Van Halen fan. Um, and which is when I started texting you and Jen about that to kind of get your reactions. But that makes sense for me, right? Like, as we as if you've, you know, if you're a longtime listener again, like you know that I just love heavy rock. And so they kind of lose me here from that point of view. And I think like if you had introduced me to just Sammy Hagar Van Halen, I think I would judge them differently than having listened to like the previous generation of it, right? Like it's it's different for me to have heard where they started and then where they ended up, versus like if you just told me like this is the band, I think I would have thought about them differently. So I think for me, like I probably would have been one of those people that was like lost in the transition because I just really prefer the the former sound, knowing that it existed, you know what I mean? Like, so it's it's interesting to kind of have that have had that experience in a single sit-down and listen of this band.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Yeah, for sure. And I think you know, Aerosmith's kind of like that, in that some of their more poppy hits from like the late 80s and 90s sound nothing like what their 70s music sounded like, right? And I think if you kind of listen to Aerosmith on the radio hits, and I was kind of more introduced to that band from that era, but then you go back and listen to their other stuff, it does sound like a different band, and they didn't even have the uh lead singer shift that Van Halen had.

Right Now Messaging And Montages

SPEAKER_00 32:42

Yeah. All right, so let's round out this mix here. Track number 11, right now.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

So I mentioned earlier Eddie Van Halen being a piano prodigy as a as a young child and then getting into guitar. Here and right now, they decide to just focus on uh the piano playing a little bit more. And so he's got this awesome just piano intro, and it kind of runs through the whole song. Um, this is a song that I think had a really cool music video too, not in a hot for teacher way, but uh this one kind of highlighted it just, you know, you talked about them messaging more, and this song in particular was a video where it would say like right now, and then just different either images on the screen or the words would come up about kind of what's going on right now. And and one of them was like, right now, our government is doing things you think only other countries do. And this is like 1991, and they're throwing out a message like that, which I think is a message that gets thrown around now a lot. Um, yeah, you know, there was one, you know, right now nothing is more uh I don't know, nothing is more hurtful than regret or something. And there was a picture of a condom on the screen, right? Because that was amidst the AIDS epidemic when it was like, you know, safe sex was a big thing, and there was a lot of news stories about condom usage and uh encouraging that. So it's like, I don't know, you talk about messaging and this one in particular, maybe not just with the song, but when you coupled it with the video, and to me, they're kind of you know always going to be linked in that way. I I think you really get this powerful message from this song.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

Yeah, I had seen like screen grabs of the video of all the different like title cards that they had left um showing like during it. It was really interesting, like to kind of see um again, like uh just a much more substantive, like or substantial um like element of the song in terms of like they're again what they're truly really trying to get across. And I thought even you know, not knowing about the video, you could just kind of look at listening to the lyrics, it's it's almost like motivational in a way, yeah. You know, seizing seizing the moment and and kind of being present, and again, like something that becomes huge thematically like 30 years later. Um, you know, and they were they were kind of doing this well well ahead of the curve in that regard. So it's really, really interesting. And and this is of the of the like Van Um Hagar, right? The Van Hagar is like what they start to kind of locally be known. Um of those songs, I think this is one of the ones that is is my favorite one, um, just for that reason. I just really enjoyed the lyrics and kind of the messaging here. All right, uh, track number 12, Top of the World.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

Yeah, interestingly, this song uh it's similar to Dreams in that it's just kind of, hey, it's about like victory and overcoming and all of this, right? In fact, uh the NBA on when it was on NBC a couple years when they had the finals on there, after the final game, they would kind of do a montage. Like you talked about montages with this band, they would have the team celebrating or or highlights from the NBA finals of the winning team with this song playing. So um you were spot on with that type of usage with this. Interestingly enough, the the beginning guitar of this one sounds really, really similar to a song called Winning It All by The Outfield. And I tried to look it up, and it sounds like neither band ever sued the other. So maybe that's just me, but go ahead and listen to this song and then throw on The Outfield's Winning It All. And um I mean the similarities, and even themat thematically, they're pretty similar too. So I'm I'm just kind of shocked there was no lawsuit amidst all this. But um, no, the song is, I mean, a pretty straightforward, but again, just very much uh kind of the messaging of like, you know, achieving and overcoming and all of this, and again, just very different from the David Lee Roth years.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

Yeah, super different. And you're right, like a lot of it is just kind of taking in the moment and and doing your best and all this kind of like positivity, which yeah, certainly different, uh, but not bad either, right? Like there's nothing wrong with it. So that's interesting. This one I didn't like as much as uh as right now, but um that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

Well, and the album here I mentioned album titles earlier. It's it's called For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, which they would always abbreviate to just F-U-C-K. I love that. Which is funny because like they would do things like that, and then you go to the album and it's like you've got right now and top of the world on it. So it's like, yeah, are you really sticking it to the man with these super commercial hits, right?

unknown 37:23

Right.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Yeah, it's very incongruous. That's interesting. It's like they just had the idea for the joke, and then they were gonna push it through.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

That's right, yeah. That's really all it was. Yeah.

Closing Track And Van Halen Legacy

SPEAKER_00 37:34

Yeah. All right. So the last track, kind of the bonus one, if you will, is Can't Stop Loving You.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Yeah. So this is from uh their last album with Sammy Hagar called Balance. Uh, I thought it was a good um bookend from Why Can't This Be Love to Can't Stop Loving You, right? Kind of you get Sammy Hagar comes on the scene, and it's kind of this romantic song, and he's kind of you know all this, and then this one kind of bookending it with Can't Stop Loving You. This was also, I think, probably their last big hit with Sammy Hagar. Um, but again, like just much more substantial than anything you saw, or most of what you saw in the David Lee Roth era. And um, again, almost more ballad-ish, um, which is interesting as the band evolves here because after Sammy Hagar leaves, they actually pick up Gary Sharone, um, who is from the band Extreme. I don't know if you remember Extreme, but they had a big hit with a song More Than Words, which I'm sure if you played it, you would recognize it just because it's a massive one-hit wonder. But he joins the band and um eventually leaves soon after. They eventually reunite with David Lee Roth and and come out um with an album in uh I think 2012, which was good, but you know, what made David Lee Roth great was just the vocals. And as you get older, keeping up that type of vocal range is is really hard and and the stuff he was doing then. So it's just not quite the same. Um, and then you know, coming to kind of present day, Eddie Van Halen later, you know, gets cancer and passes away in 2020, and then the band is kind of officially like done at this point in time. So um kind of that that was the sort of evolution after this song Can't Stop Loving You. And this was probably, I think, their last big sort of commercial hit.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

I yeah, no, it's really interesting to know. I didn't know all of that afterwards that they had another um person come in briefly. But I really liked this song and it actually made me think like, could we put together, are there enough love rock songs out there that we could put together a mix on that? Because it's kind of like unique, like you don't often think about like rock or heavy rock being a category for like writing a love song. Um, usually it's like something more like alt or indie or pop or whatever, right? Um, so I just thought, like, huh, I wonder, I wonder if this could create a mix of its own for like a future Valentine's Day. Uh because it was really nice. It's like very sweet song, like lyrically, um, you know, very kind of straightforward love song, which I really appreciated.

SPEAKER_01 40:09

I would agree. That is kind of a unique category. Yeah. I'm sure, I'm sure there is a pretty good mix by some pretty decent artists there because there was an era, I feel like probably about this time where you know, a lot of rock bands were coming out with sort of body songs.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

Yeah. Right. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:29

Well, there you have it. Another super awesome mix for your collection. This time, an introduction to the great Van Halen. Um, I've listened to these guys for like 40 years, and even after all the times I've heard these songs, revisiting it, I was still really into it. All the songs. I mean, I I love all of these, but certainly uh even if you're new to the band, I guarantee you're gonna find something amongst these songs that you'll enjoy. So, Samura, thank you for tolerating uh some more 80s music from me.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Yeah, anytime, but not really. Maybe that's the minute.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

Well, Samura and I will get to work on some more maybe non-80s mixes. And so for Samura, this is Matt, and we'll see you next time.