Wow!!!! Good one jszfunk!! My Dad always was and is a music aficionado, when this first was released, he got this for me, I remember the tremendous amount of sound coming at You out of the speakers caught me off guard, it was so different from the bands I had been digging, Sabbath, AC/DC, Aerosmith etc, it took me a minute to warm up to it and fully get into it, saw them only once, on the Women and Children First tour.........Peace.........joe

I saw them twice with Roth. It was a powerful show with amazing precision. I got the impression they probably played it the same way every night. Eddie showed such confidence and well honed chops that took the Stratocaster style guitar beyond what Hendrix did. Eddie played a Strat well modified and some a Kramer and Hamer (sp?) guitars. They were similar to a Strat but supposedly with more powerful pick ups and more advanced whammy bars.

I hate to say this and many will disagree but I caught Gary Moore in the 80s also playing a Strat and some Les Paul but to me he was just as clean and surprisingly faster but no double hammer ons like Eddie has made such a part of his style.

But 9 times out of 10 I'm moved in the soul more by Dickey, Duane, Warren etc and Stevie Ray and the Kings. I know Eddie and Gary can run circles around our guys on the fret board but I get bored with it while Fillmore East, Eat a Peach etc never fail to move me in my spirit. It's not the number of notes for me but what notes are played...if you know what I mean. Same with Butch and Jaimoe. They ain't Buddy Rich or Keith Moon but they put me to smiling.

That album ,band and of course the guitar player was a game changer and revolutionary.

A classic album for sure. For me, I liked VHII better.

Yeah its hard to pick. VH 1 is not my go to one for them, probably since I have heard it so many times!

Diver Down is the one that got me into the band. I know its kinda of looked down on, but man oh man, that album does it for me still till this day.

If I was forced to pick my fav VH song it would be The Full Bug.

Van Halen Full Bug Live 82

This is a cover version of Full Bug from a band called Atomic Punks. I think the lead singer is Ralph Saenz, who now plays in Steel Panther. That guy is a pretty good singer and nails it.

That album ,band and of course the guitar player was a game changer and revolutionary.

for sure -- guitar-hero stuff, the acoustic blues of ICMan, tghe hard rock od SYLove -- four great musicians -- it, & the Cars debut was around this time too -- fantastic 'debut' albums, & Who Are You from around then I really loved too & was a big imprvment over By Numbers

Intrigued by A Different Kind of Truth, hadn't known about that album

Source of Infection -- love that one , w/Sam --

I can remember when Van Halen was an L.A. club band, they used to hang flyers for their shows on telephone poles just like everyone else back then. This was before the first record came out.

One of the free L.A. rock newspapers did an interview with Roth back then:

Reporter: What are your major influences?
Roth: Oh, you know, the usual rock 'n' roll influences: Fast cars........Schlitz Malt Liquor......my cock....

That album ,band and of course the guitar player was a game changer and revolutionary.

Intrigued by A Different Kind of Truth, hadn't known about that album

Source of Infection -- love that one , w/Sam --

A Different Kind of Truth is very good and stands well with the rest of VH catalog.

Beats Working

Source of Infection is probably my favorite song off of OU812.

There's Only One Way To Rock -Van Halen-

A couple of the "newly" written songs on ADKOT:

As Is:

HoneyBabySweetieDoll:

Of the new songs, I think Trouble With Never in many ways sounds most like classic VH, with DLR's lyrics, the poppy hook chorus, and the background vox. The intro riff is a bit weak though, and the overuse of the wah pedal. Still a good tune, IMO:

A couple of the "newly" written songs on ADKOT:

As Is:

HoneyBabySweetieDoll:

Of the new songs, I think Trouble With Never in many ways sounds most like classic VH, with DLR's lyrics, the poppy hook chorus, and the background vox. The intro riff is a bit weak though, and the overuse of the wah pedal. Still a good tune, IMO:

As is and HoneyBabySweetieDoll, great VH songs. Trouble with never is solid, not one of my preferred songs on there but still decent. The first thing that struck me about that songs was Ed's use of the wah pedal. really caught me off guard, because I don't think I ever heard him use it that extensively. Would rather it without out, kinda "unVH" sounding.

I really think Dave is underrated as a lyricists and how he delivers . Yeah I know it's nothing really profound or deep, but its not meant to be that way. I have come to appreciate his delivery, timing and phrasing more and more.We all know he was never a great singer, but when he did and wanted to he could . That's one of the reasons which made that band special.