Van Halen 1 Transcript

https://bit.ly/VanHalen_1

Music Rewind welcomes Doug Brinkler to discuss Van Halen I.

A fascinating conversation on how this album’s emergence on the scene changed a young man’s view of music and the entire rock landscape.

Album: Van Halen I Artist: Van Halen Year: 1978

Transcript as follows.

Participant #1:

Hello, and welcome to Music Rewind, a podcast where we look to tell the stories behind our favorite albums. I'm your host, Steve Epley, and in each episode I will invite a guest to tell us about their favorite favorite music album, how they discovered it, and what makes it special to them. Joining me today is a new friend and hopefully a repeating guest on the show, Doug Brinkler. Doug is an extreme music enthusiast, a fan of hot rods and all things motorcycles, and also a reported encyclopedia of classic rock. Welcome, Doug, and thank you for being on the show. Thank you, Steve. It's a pleasure being here, or at least we'll see if it be a pleasure. Looking forward to this conversation. Al's been talking you up a lot about your music knowledge and your passion for classic rock. Yes. Where should we start? You want to see how I got into rock and roll. We'll jump right into this as our usual format. What is your favorite album and how did you discover it? I really liked where it began was the Van Halen one record album.

Participant #1:

I grew up in a household that had types of music, country and western.

Participant #1:

It's always a good line. Yeah. I have an appreciation of that music more now than I did. I think it's way better than a lot of the stuff that's out now. But how I got this problem was we had a neighbor just a couple of houses down, and his dad was a piano teacher, and he was a very good guitarist. And so he'd be playing music outside his window. I mean, you could just hear it. I'm like, wow, that's great. He was cool. Everybody in Puria knew him. He was very good guitar player, and everybody wanted them in their band. I went over there to talk to him, and he had this record album and he let me take it home. It came out in February of 1978. At that time, you had to remember that hopefully sleep Devoted to you by Livia Newton John and Macho Man from the Village People and Last Dance Summers. Those are probably dominating the charts at the time they were. Yeah, a Barry Manelow. So I get this album, I'm like, oh, this will be cool. I'll put it on and I got a small little record for Christmas one time, had little speakers connected to it, and, I mean, they were two by four inch speakers, nothing big at all. And I listen to my classical Star Wars album and things like that. I put Banh Halen album on, and the first song on that is Running with the Devil. The very first thing you hear is blaring car horn or driving by. Then you hear this bass line. Just boom.

Participant #1:

It's like want force trauma. After that, the drums guitars kick in. I'm just like, what is this? So how old were you when you first listened to this? Well, I'd be like, eleven years old, okay? And it was just something that was completely different. And I had been out for a little bit. I just never heard that song in the Bible belt. They didn't want a song running with the devil thing on the airwaves, which the lyrics has nothing to do with the devil being out on the road, things like that. I can only imagine hearing this as an eleven year old with what? 70s were great with rock. They were. But towards the end, like you said, you had Donna Summer and other things kind of dominating the airwaves. And I can just imagine getting this album and hearing it for the first time and hearing all of these brand new tracks. It would probably blow my mind, because the album itself is almost like a mini greatest hits album. Yes. And so when I heard this album recently, I just listened to it all the way through when you were bringing it to the table. I had heard most of the songs through just classic rock radio over the years. Yes, that's correct. There were a couple in there that I had never heard, which was great. Right. But I can only imagine hearing these as an impressionable little eleven year old. That would have been amazing. I'll tell you what, next song after listening to that, the next song was like, you need to put Billy Maze in there saying, but wait, there's more. And that's ruption. It's essentially guitars 142 seconds that absolutely changed rock guitarist after hearing that. And that was the song that really formatted my love of Ban Halen for the rest of my life.

Participant #1:

The song that anybody that wants to play get part now tries to emulate. There's people that do a good job. It was never done before. Sure. It's like when Pete Townsend Clapton heard Emmy Hendrix for the first time, and this goes it would just blow their mind. And this is exactly what that it was just today. Well, like you said, it's only a minute and a half, but it feels much longer. He keeps going. It's just amazing how we can do that. Even the break in the middle has a little bit of silence and it kicks in again. You're thinking, Oh, man, I got a little bit of reprieve. I mean, I'm starting to sweat over this thing. And then you're like, Oh, good. Then he hits you with the second punch and it's like, whoa. Every guitar player after that. I'm sure the music stores showed an increase in guitar sales, because everybody's like, I want to do that. Even in the 90s, when I was a teenager, I've known several guys that are still in advance today. That was their turning point as well. Still eruption. Yeah. I mean, Engvey Milestone and some of these guys, classical Rocket Taurus are like, for a while, there a lot of people, let's say, like White Lion, and there's a lot of groups that even autograph turned up the radio. We're doing the double tap board, the front board, where Eddie was using both hands instead of using his pick. He was doing the tapping thing with the tapping thing. And so for a while, everybody was doing it for trying to I think when Eddie Van Halen did I've seen him live a bunch, and he did something different from what he did on the recording, it wasn't a mistake for him. He was just rewriting what he did. He would bend the sound. I can't even tell you if they're notes because he never read sheet music. You know what I mean? He would send it into the sound that he wanted. So I don't think he could make a mistake if it's like, Oh, I have a bad I think this might turn out to be a bad note. Now I can fix that and make it sound really good. And he's even been quoted as saying that he's made noises where he's like, Wow, it scared him. He was never able to do it again. That's awesome. He's like, I couldn't do that again if I tried. I mean, was Eruption even a song? Even Eddie Van Halen would play the same song. Could he play that exact song twice? Because every time would probably be a little bit different. I think he practiced a lot. He really started playing very young and would even play in clubs. His dad was a saxophone player. In fact, on the Fair Warning album, Sweet William, now, that song, you can hear his father playing the elbow and stuff through it. Oh, that's neat. You're talking about a group they said, these guys are the kings of heavy metal. When we go through this list, you're going to find out there's blues remakes. There's also the Inks remake. I think that I'm one of those guys that really likes the original song when they come out, even if it's old. I'm like I like that song. I don't like Redo's. A lot of times when Van Halen did it, I think they kind of took it over, did a better job than the original. It's very rare cases. Honey Cash remade one of the nine inch nail songs, hurt yeah. Sound golden songs. And I think Johnny Cash did a better job than that. Trent Rezer even said that song belongs to him now. Yes. And Lemme, he did Heroes. That was actually David Bowie. David Bowie. I like the David Bowie version. He's not a singer. He was more of a growler. Yeah. Tell you, I like that version. I do. But that's very rare. Was that a Motorhead song or is that solo? No, it was just on one of the albums. It was like a filler that they did. They did Heroes. They did such a good job on it. Yeah. Covers are usually hit or miss. I mean, they may knock you out of the park, but they may just be like a sad attempt. Another Van Hale one that comes to mind is Pretty Woman, which I've always enjoyed. Yes. Roy Orbison. Yes. And that's what I thought. I'd like the old Roy Orbison one, but I think Van Halen did it. But if they don't play it without the intro, what's that other instrumental before? Pretty Woman? I can't think of it now, but Inferno or something. I can't think of it, but I love that long instrumental. It leads into Pretty Woman. So wonderfully. That's a great track. The two tracks, Interceptor put me on the spot. I want to say it's Interceptor, but I can't think of it. Was it Intruder? Intruder. That's an Intruder cathedral 316. He has so many different solos or pre music for another song. I've even heard some of the Van Halen stuff in rap music where they've sampled some of their songs and big hits. A lot of people don't realize that. It's like, man, it's an old Van Halen song. And they're like, what? Yeah, man. I found out years later that he played guitar and beat it with Michael Jackson. Yes. And I know a lot of people a lot of people went and bought just so they could hear that guitar solo of Betty Van Halen. I remember we'd play basketball and guys would replay that song over and over again. Just so crazy now because we all had big boom boxes that took 16 size batteries. Basketball court and whatever we listen to is what everybody else is going to listen to. But yeah, it was great. Now, how many times did you get to see them live? I never got you. I'm jealous. That's great. Three times. And it was awesome seeing them in 84 and a couple of times with Sammy Hagar and that was good stuff. It was different than David Lee Roth. And Sammy Hager was my favorite solo artist before he was in Van Halen. I seen him, the Puree Civic Center and took my little sister that was her first rock concert, van Halen, you know, I talk a lot about it. Van Halen has his brother Alex on drums who is an awesome drummer. He was playing as drums and stuff in clubs. I mean, he was like 1213 years old, playing as drum. That makes sense. Tell me what their father did, too. So that makes sense. Exactly. The dad was a professional musician, so the kids started at young ages. And some of the songs that's influenced you can hear especially in later albums, you can hear jazz influence. You can hear some blues influence here. You mentioned like, the Chandels and stuff earlier. I mean, there's some duo harmonies on the shelves. Exactly. That was in I Am The One.

Participant #1:

Yeah, that was great. I know only a band from California would come up with something like that and that's a rocking tune. Right. And then they could go right into doing that. Those guys were just having fun. That nails it right there. That's what this album is. These guys are having a lot of fun. Yes. The lyrics wise, you're talking partying sex and just in the lifestyle and in the music, it just comes out. They're having a blast, that's it. And they were young. We're definitely starving. I mean, they were making $150 a week eating cheeseburgers. And we're not eating much when they were on the road because they just didn't have the money. And after this album broke, this album sold 15,575,000 copies. It went double diamond so they could eat steak and lobster from then on out. He played hard, opened up for ends like Journey. Yeah, I saw that Gene Simmons was one of their big champions before they even recorded. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, he was a big influence and really wanted to get them signed and things like that and did some demos with them. What I think is Van Halen was such a good show that the other bands not want to follow them. So the record companies are like, look, Van Halen's going on last. Because once you got rocking with them, everybody else just suck. They'd get rude and everything else. And you're talking about the bands at the time, you know what I mean? They're the first band that got paid. There was a musical festival and they said, we really want you to play. How much it's going to cost? Or they're like, we want $1 million. And they're thinking like Doctor Evil putting their finger up by their mouth going, $1 million. And the event organizers are like, Okay, really? So they're like, Yeah. They're like, this is sweet. That was such a big draw. Some of these events would have Buddhist priests and all these other bands. But Haleyn was so big. They're like, we need to bring somebody else in. Black Sabbath was another one of the group. I mean, they're just, like, so much bigger than his group. Van Halen also had Michael Anthony, who was a very good base player. And since Van Halen, he still plays with Sammy Hagar bands called The Circle. And John Bonham's son Jason is in that group. And then he played with Chicken Foot. Yeah, I remember them. Kind of a super group there shortly. Super group. Yeah, all these guys from Red Hot Chili Peppers and all these other groups. And Tatrioni. It really was a really good group. He has very high singing voice and from what I heard and Halen, throughout their careers still use backtracks of his background vocals. Because without a concert, if you didn't have his just wouldn't sound like Van Halen. And that was after 1984 that he was no longer part of the band. David Lee Roth was gone. No, he was with Sammy Hagar for a while when Sammy Hagar left. He left with Sammy Hagar because I knew he was there with Hagar because I knew he was on the Carnal Knowledge album. Yes. And you can hear the high voice through these high singing voices throughout the Van Halen albums. David Lee Roth his voice is more of a voice. He really strange. Some kind of utter roar, almost like a lion or something. If you've ever listened to the isolated tracks, there's a lot of those on the Internet, and it's amazing. I would not say he's a good singer. There are songs that he sings. You can hear his actual singing voice that would be like Ice Cream Man and a few of those slower songs. Then when it comes time to sing some of the bigger songs, he is really bolting them beyond what he should. And he has just announced his retirement. He's been doing Las Vegas shows, and at the end of this year, he's done I think he's got five more concerts. Yeah, I saw that. Notice he's in the 70s. It's amazing. People go, his voice isn't what it was. Are you kidding me? This guy well, he did do that bluegrass side project for a while that wasn't all that great. No, they had some flops. I look at other bases. I like his solo career.

Participant #1:

She in on bass. He had Steve Bion guitar. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, he put a group together that could go toe to toe. Van Halen, he really this is my personal thing. I don't know if anybody beats Eddie guitar, but Steve Bay is definitely a good he's definitely one of the great options. So the band has four members. Their instruments are finely tuned. They're singing their bravado, the ability to go on stage and get the crowd and having fun. Van Halen used to run up and down the stage. I mean, they would put on a show even if it was like in Whiskey Gogo, where it was a small stage, still played it like it was a big arena. And then when they finally got to the big arenas, they already knew what to do because they had been doing it for so long. He was a lot like Jimi Hendrix, I think, walking up towards the get the feedback. Plus, he didn't want people know how he was doing some of the noises. He's famous on making, like a horse Winnie or elephant trunk boys. He can make animal noises with the car. And when he learned to double tap and so he was trying to keep a little bit of a secret, like how there was guys that went tried to learn how to do that because they wanted to learn how to do it so they could do it next night. That's how they're like, Wow, I've never seen that before. And they were just so excited about seeing that. It's like, try it. And they didn't even finish watching the concert. They went home to start practicing. That's what this album feels like, is a concert like a set because it's very short. It's only like half an hour. Yeah, that's right. For the whole CD. Eleven tracks. It feels like they didn't have a whole ton of material but they had a great rock and live show. Let's just take that and try and put it on tape. And they were lightning in a bottle. That's great. And really a lot of that stuff. The pictures on the album were taken at the Whiskey Go Go, Nothing Fancy. I mean, the photographer that took pictures and might have added I know, like he is standing there with the guitar in his hand and he's holding it straight up and down. And where the strings in the guitar are is this like red Cube to it like power surging through it or something. And David Lee Roth is screaming at a spotlight. It just didn't cost them much to make that album. It was nothing fancy. It goes to show you don't need 30 tracks and three disks and a year in the studio to make a great album. These guys and again, Lightning in a Bottle. A lot of great albums are take a year to make. Every musician is different. But it was phenomenal that they were able to do this and such probably I don't even know what the budget was, it was probably super low, but they were able to just knock it out, having fun. And what's so cool is this album in particular because later on you did not hear as profoundly as you do on some of these songs on this album. So you're like, wow, I can really hear the bass playing. It's like, man, I can really hear the drums. I can hear the ride symbols and the crash. I can hear the toms. And it's like now they throw in this guitar and just like, how do these speakers even produce this sound? The third song on this was You Really Got Me

Participant #1:

and that is Kink's song. So I really think did a good job. In fact, Ray Davies, singer of the Kinks, said after Kinks concert, fans would come up and say you did a great cover of that Van Healing song. And at first he would get upset, but he goes, you know what? He did a good job and I'm not mad at him. I did read that his brother Dave Davies was not happy with it overall. He called it very Middle America, which to me is a compliment. Yeah, that's what, if anything, was West Coast. I mean, a lot of people don't know that there was a group called angel and they had Greg Dufreya and a bunch of guys in it. But when Van Halen released that Van Halen and angel were the group, angel were playing the same clubs and stuff and they heard Van Halen practicing that song and they told their record company, we want to put this out. We want this song to come out. Before Van Halen does. Van Halen beat him to the punch and got it. So angel never released that. That was true. I mean, they had a little bit of infighting different groups, especially Los Angeles. You heard Motley Crue didn't like this person, they didn't like this group and it's like you guys are interchangeable. I mean, you all play the same stuff. Yeah, vanillain really stood out from the rest of the 80s. Hairbands. They don't really fall into that category to me. No. And that's oh, here they are, kings of heavy metal and stuff. And they did Will Rogers Happy Trails to you. I mean, Roy Rogers and Dell Evans song Happy Trails to you. These guys are just having fun and they rock that one. I don't think another group would allow or a record company would allow any other group say, hey, we want to do this song. And they'll be like, I don't know, I think they had enough star power. It's like, look, we just sold 15 and a half million albums. I think I could pretty much tell you and that's just this one album. They've got all the other albums. It sounds like the rockers of that generation from the eleven year olds on were dying for something good and new. You mentioned how fast it went multi platinum. Yes. They were hungry for it, the fans. We had groups like Kansas, Austin, Germany. If a band came from a state and named it after a state, they probably got a record deal. The music was okay. I dig that stuff too. It wasn't different. And break boundaries that I think this one did. The fourth song on this album is Talking about Love

Participant #1:

and Me. That basically is a hit it and get it song. I can't think of any inhaling song has hidden meanings to in their lyrics. I mean they pretty much just tell you how it is being whatever the things I would say no David Lee Roth era Van Halen songs do. Yeah. Sammy Hagar can get a little deep sometimes, but yeah, Dave was there's no subtext there.

Participant #1:

He ain't talking about love, he's just wanting it. So he's got towns and people to see that kind of stuff. Now the fifth song on that album is one of those songs that I think the played to perfection.

Participant #1:

They all work together. Then they did that capella stuff that we were talking. Yeah, it fits in there. It's almost like a whoop. I don't know of any other group at that time. Yeah, it shouldn't work, but it does. It does. Yeah. It's almost like if Sean On interrupted the song, rocket song, shaun Anaw came out there and did something. 6th song is Jamie's Crying and that's the one that I heard on the radio all the time and the only thing I could think on that was his guitar was more of made the guitar cry. It was almost like a talking guitar. Yeah, almost kind of mocking. Poor Jamie.

Participant #1:

Poor Jamie. If she didn't give it up, the study wasn't going to take her out on another date. Then she missed out on the opportunity, so now she wants to get with them, but she knows whether it'll get her sad again. Good. Classic high school love story there. That's exactly it. And I think it would be years later on that I could feel that you're talking. I was still young and some of that stuff went over my head. When you listen to it, it's like guitar playing on that. There was nothing like Eruption or any of those standout massive guitar solos. It was just playing along. And there were groups that had, I call it talking guitar aerosmith, things like that. You can almost hear the guitar talking. Track seven, Atomic Punk. That was one that I had heard before, but I never really connected it to Van Healer evenly. Roth was the atomic monkey.

Participant #1:

He was the baddest thing. He was a martial arts guy. If you ever seen his bovado, his stage presence, massive split kicks and bumping off the high rise stands and a very athletic play with swords. He's a heavy duty martial artist and he would do his swords. He did have an incident on the Jimmy Kendall show where he almost chopped his nose off. Do you see that? You know what? You're like 70 years old. I don't know if I'd want to be doing it a little. Dave, you got to remember, nobody was going to mess with Atomic Punk. He was the baddest dude around. He walked the streets, you know, he wasn't afraid of nothing. That's what kind of get from that song on Fill Your Love Tonight, I think, is a song that they might play at a high school dance or whatever. It's memorable to me for the ending with those harmonies, which I would assume would be Michael Anthony kind of singing high on the harmony side. He sings high? Yes.

Participant #1:

Dave can't go that high. When he goes high, his voice, I can't say that it breaks, he stretches stuff. It's not supposed to be stretched. I mean, the guy really if you listen to his isolated tracks and if you try to sing those songs in the car, try to get where he does, definitely going to do vocal damage to your you're not going to be able to sing like him. You're going to a certain point. I'm going to track down some of those isolated tracks for him. I've heard ones from like, Freddie Mercury and David Bowie and others, which are great, but I've never even thought to think of David Lee Roth for that. Freddie Mercury was a singer. He was a singer. David Lee Roth, his true singing voice is more of a hear that in like Little Dreamer, Ice Cream Man. A lot of the songs, he just takes it to a level that most people would have blood coming out of their throat. Not that it's just a range that I don't think his voice should be able to reach and I think you can actually hear that he is willing to take it to that point. It's like Elliott from Leopard on the Paralyzing album. His voice, they would tell him, you got to get higher, you got to get higher, you got to get higher. And now his voice is shot for 30 years. I've seen them in early 80s, mid 80s. By the 90s, his voice was really shot sometimes in concert. Now he'll have the group Tesla on stage with them and the Tesla singer will finish his songs because his voice is just giving out. I got to see the Beach Boys a few years ago at Bonneroo and it was fantastic. Brian Wilson was on stage and all of them, all the ones that are remaining. But it was really a Beach Boys cover band in the back. Yes. And then you had the remaining members up in front, but the backup band was amazing and they did a lot of the harmony singing, a lot of the high notes. You can tell, but it didn't matter. I was seeing Brian. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it was a long time ago. They played in Fury at the Gleno Park, if you remember the Ample Theater at Gleno Park. Yeah, I mean, that was probably about 1979 and they were good. Let's see, what was the next one? Was a little Dreamer Night song. And I think when you listen to the words, I think it's about following your dreams. Even if other people don't like to you even if your dreams don't come true you just keep on crying I think that's what the song was about. Yeah, that's kind of what I get from you, kind of tales of big dreams they're going to get crushed by the world but you got to keep on trying. Yeah, keep trying. Dust yourself off. I like this track. You got those you got those ooze in the background. They really kind of move the song along and I really like that track. No one talks about the times you cry

Participant #1:

me that is really rough's. Real singing voice. No time does he sit there and go beyond what he needs to. It's more of a slower song. The 10th song was The Ice Cream Man, which was another cover by guitarist John Prim. This was a surprise for me because I had never heard this. I had never heard Ice Cream Man. Oh, my gosh. So after listing this whole album all the way through, all of a sudden this David Lee Roth with just himself, little blues guitar, Blue Grassy, and then I loved it. It was great. And it's now my favorite track on the album. But then I love it. There's that midpoint. Come on in, boys. And then it rocks out the rest. I love it. And if you let me call you one time you beat my regular style

Participant #1:

a lot of people didn't know that. David Lee Roth is actually a good guitar player, too. You can't play with Eddie. So what he would do is he'd bring out an acoustic guitar, eddie Van Halen on the little guitars and stuff like that. He would play acoustics most of the time. David Lee Roth actually played guitar really well. So, yeah, it's really blues and I like it. It's like, Come on, boys. And it's like a kick to the gym rocket, you know what I mean? They rock it and they finish it out. I did YouTube this one. I wanted to see if there's a live version, and there is on YouTube where it shows Dave playing acoustics up front and just kind of talking with the crowd. It's kind of extended. Yeah, I like that. Pretty good. On their last album, got back with them for The Best of Both Worlds. No, Some Kind of Truth or A Different Kind of Truth was their last one and got a song called Stay Frosty. And it's very reminiscent of this song. Nice callback. It freaking Rocks. I mean, it rocks. A lot of people didn't care for that album, but, man, that's a good album. In fact, when Gary Cherone took over for Sammy Hagar oh, yeah, van Halen Three. Yes. It's not terrible, but it's not terrible. It's not terrible. People don't give a good enough chance there's actually some contracts on there. That's what I ballot. And there's also a great instrumental. Before that, I was actually going to ask you what you thought of Vanilla. I actually liked it. Gary Cherone, he's got a great voice. Yeah. And when he did with Extreme, I do like the Extreme stuff better. And Benton Corp was the guitar player on that nunu. Yeah, he praises everything. Eddie Van Halen, that's one of the guys that he influenced as a kid. He really does rock. And I really think Gary Sharon did a good job. I think Eddie had drinking and stuff, but because he had a problem with that, so it might have been a little sloppier, may not have heard as much. I think he had just had hip replacement surgery because of all the jumping around and running around he did on stage. And he was walking into two big shoes to fill two sets. Not to mention all the fans, because you had David Lero fans, you had San Diego fans, and now you had a lot of Die Hard guys that were like, you mean the guy from the more Than Words guy? What? Yes. I was in high school when that came out, and we did listen to that a lot in our little party garage, and we enjoyed it. But the best part about Van Halen Three was that also that coincided with the Greatest Hits album that came out from Van Halen. Yes. And that's where I really kind of learned more about Van Heel. Was that great? Yes, that album was great. And then they had the additional songs and soundtrack song from Twister. Respect the Wind. Yes. That's a beautiful song. I didn't even know it was Eddie and Alex. Alex, yeah. Until later on someone told me, oh, yeah, this is the Van Halen guy. Yes. There were numerous songs Eddie was doing well, they had Humans Being. I forgot about that. That was the humans being yeah. That was a hit. But the first one I think of is Respect the Wind brought David Lee Roth back for that. And Lee Roth played in that. And the famous music inductee to the Music Hall of Fame. It sounded like David Lee Roth was coming back and lasted about 24 hours before it's like, Oh, we're not getting back together. It's like we just did a couple of songs. Yeah, they had that awkward I think it was like MTV Awards or something where they're on stage. David Leroth joined the band and he kind of, like, stood in front of them and took his arms out. And Eddie was none too happy about that. Yeah, I'll tell you, I had Eddie Van Halen. He just died a little over a year ago. I had his email. I would just email them times a year, merry Christmas, things like that. I have an autistic grandson that was learning how to play guitar and all he wanted to do was listen to the 19th E Four album and repeat because he can do things by listening to it. If he wants to play Van Halen Jump, he'll get his little synthesizer and he'll listen to the song and he'll musically sound it out. And Eddie thought that was great because you had a pen pal relationship with Eddie Ven Hill. Yeah, with Eddie, yeah. That's great. Yeah, he was very nice. I never took advantage of the situation because he's like, how did you get my and I'm thinking, Ancient Change secret. I'm sitting there going, I guessed. I got it. I'm just a fan. I've done that in my life. I've done that a few other times. Really? Like, how do you do that? I'm not doing anything special. I just think like you do for a few minutes to try it out and it works. Then I had that on my phone and after he passed away, they deleted everything. Even on my side, my phone still has a picture of them there. All his things. When he would talk to me, all those disappeared. So now I can click on it and go, well, here's where I told them to have this and told them, I hope everything's going good. And I knew something was wrong when I didn't hear anything back for like six to eight months. I knew he had sick and things like that because I didn't want to upset him because all he has to do is block you. He was very generous just to take a couple of minutes out of his time. That's the way he had never put out any other music. He had already already put out so much good music. Everybody's like, they need to put out more albums. This is terrible. They owe it to the fans. And I'm thinking, Listen to what you've got already. You know what I mean? Just listen to what you got. You see that Van Halen One went back on the charts after he died. I didn't realize that. Yeah, it got up to four on the Hard Rock chart. Wow. Yeah. That's great. It's terrible when people have to find out about these guys after they pass away, people go, Wow, I don't know who this guy is. And they look it up and it's the same thing. A lot of people sell more albums after they pass away, and that's a shame. That last track to finish that out, I have my note here as Chaotic Rock. Yeah, I have get yourself a set of Old Headphones, old Big, Mickey Mouse, Earthing and break it up just like they did when they were mixing it in the booth and stuff.

Participant #1:

And Michael Anthony, you can hear a lot of his high notes. Yes. I would assume that was Dave on Fire. I would assume that was dave told me it was Anthony doing the high stuff. Yeah, Anthony was doing the high stuff. And then that song, I think David Lee Roth was pushing the limits of his yelling or however you want to call it, his screaming abilities or whatever. So I really love that, too. I think when I got into high school, I still had a boom box and I can remember I had my Led Zeppelin four set tape and Van Halen One. So everybody was going to listen to Running With the Devil in Eruption at least two or three times before we got to the track meet. The other school. We're going to learn a lesson in Van Halen whether they liked it or not. So that's the album. That's the album that really started everything. I'm not even sure there's so many albums. Yeah. So Van Halen One was your top one. What's on your short list? Van Halen or Everything are into Everything, because if I had to pick a song that I could listen to over and over again I really like AC DC's Back in Black. Excellent. I like Guns and Roses, a type for Destruction. That song has so many killer things and you can just listen to it all the way through. For Van Halen, I really do like Lear stuff with David Lee Ross. I really like all of it. I can't pick one. They've got a large catalog, too. Oh, they do? Yeah. They really put out a lot of albums, both the DLR range and the Hagar era. He passed away. A Cirrus radio had a tribute station for a while. Listen to that song. Oh, my gosh. I was like, oh, my gosh, this is so great. This is so great. I said, you should just put a freakin fan hailing channel. I mean, you have so many songs that it would take a long time before you repeated yourself. Everybody wants some. They use that and that I'm trying to think that was better Off Dead, I think better off dead in the movie. And that's how a lot of people learned about the Van Halen. That's Van Halen. Really? Yeah. I knew Van Halen from the 1984 album. I was maybe five or six years old, but we had the album. It had a little baby angel on the cover. Very memorable. Jump was everywhere during that time frame. But I always loved Hot for Teacher. Yes. So I was that six, seven year old, not really understanding the lyrics, but mumbling along with the it was very inappropriate lyrics. Yeah. I brought my pencil. Great videos. And those guys are having fun. I see them in concert for that tour, and I want to say that his son was just in town. Wolfgang. Wolfgang has an album out, and the kid plays all the instruments. Not on stage, but when he tapes things, he plays all the instruments just like Prince did. And I really think the music isn't still Van Halen, but it's not the Van Halen that we're used to. Any of them had got to put out another album. It may have sounded nothing like because he was an invader, may not have sounded like anything that they had made before. So I really think that he's doing a good job to carry on that legacy of awesome musicians. That's cool. Yeah, that's very cool. Well, Doug, I'd like to thank you for sitting down with me today. It was a pleasure to talk with you about Van Halen one. Do you want to tell our listeners about anything you want to pitch or what you're working on or where they can find you? I got nothing. I watch my grandkids now and preach the Van Halen to them. They want to listen to it. We up the top. We drop the convertible top and I take them to car shows. They want to listen to Van Halen. They sure do like listening to it. That's amazing. Thank you for listening to music. Rewind a podcast from the Sidereal Media Group. As always, listen to the full album. Until next time,

Participant #1:

a podcast from the Sidereal Media Group. Back to you, anchors.

https://musicrewind.podbean.com/e/van-halen-i-with-doug-brinkler/